Minstrel's song

one autumn's eve
but a chill on the breeze
swells through valley
blowing and blowing
the ring of the pipes
how it cuts through the night
sounding the call o'er the brae
and it's calling the young men away

one by one they rise
rub the sleep from their eyes
guided by candlelight
glowing and glowing
she bids him good-bye
with her bright dewy eyes
wishing her lover to stay
but the poor soldier marches away

mountains rise
and mountains fall
yield to the river's
flowing and flowing
it carries them down
both great and small
washing the sorrows away
washing the memories away

wildflowers sing
with the rapture of spring
they burst from the morning frost
growing and growing
and speckle and dot
now and overgrown plot
in the field where the children would play
now the blossoms look down where they lay

mountains rise
and mountains fall
yield to the river's
flowing and flowing
it carries them down
both great and small
over and under
come tumbling down
washing the memories away

On "devil drumming on my bones"

My goal this week was to start using some vocal harmony, which happens to be one of my favorite things in the world.  It added a little time to the music portion, but the lyrics still ended up being the biggest hurdle by far.

The subject matter was definitely an exercise in stepping outside of what I know.  I had been listening to Brown Bird and wanted to emulate their style, but the lyrics I tend to write just sound awkward paired with gritty bluesy folk.  So as part of the lyric generation phase, I listened to their album, Devil Dancing, with their lyrics in front of me to keep me focused.  Anytime I heard a word or phrase I liked, or if the lyrics made me think of another word or phrase, I'd add it to the brain dump.  I think my lack of fluency in this style of lyrics resulted in them being a bit more random and disconnected.  Listening to it now, a bunch of it just sounds like random lines stuck together.  Oh well!

Here's the big lesson I'm taking away this week:

"Murder your darlings"

This is a bit of writing advice that I hear from time to time.  You'll inevitably become attached to certain aspects of the thing you're writing, be it a plot point, a musical phrase, the way a pair of words sound together...  But it's important to avoid warping the story (or song) to accommodate your darlings, and to heartlessly murder them if they don't work in the big picture.

I had a pair of competing darlings, a neat rhythmic musical line and the line "wading in the waters of the river Styx".  I struggled for a long time looking for lyrics that worked with the rhythm.  That maybe should have been my red flag, but it wasn't until I had the darling lyric line that I realized how troublesome the rhythm was.  To be honest, I liked the rhythm more that I liked the lyrics, but I was confident I'd have an easier time writing music to match lyrics than I would writing lyrics to match that rhythm.  So I killed it.  But I console my grief by reassuring myself the rhythm may find a place in another song... someday... (sniff)

Devil drumming on my bones

mama rest easy on a Saturday night
from the toil and trial of the day
the silver lady climbing up the ebony sky
gonna chase my troubles away
but when the clocks strikes three
oh lord have mercy me
shaking in my body like a falling tree
thump a thump of the
devil drumming on my bones

I got to howl at the moon
fevered in a frenzy of living and sin
oh what a hullabaloo
resonate the state that I'm in
don't need saving
I can get my fix
wading in the waters of the river Styx
thump a thump of the
devil drumming on my bones

hungry for trouble, feel like starting a fight
sharpen the teeth that I bare
kick a door open with blood in my eyes
and the taste of gin in the air
any fool around
I'm gonna cut them down
pound for pound, hear them hit the ground
thump a thump of the
devil drumming on my bones

I got to howl at the moon
fevered in a frenzy of living and sin
oh what a hullabaloo
resonate the state that I'm in
don't need saving
I can get my fix
wading in the waters of the river Styx
thump a thump of the
devil drumming on my bones
devil drumming on my bones

oh the devil he's a calling me home

On "alone"

I know, I know... just another boat meets atoll story...  I had "Dust to Dust" by the Civil Wars stuck in my head this week, so naturally I decided to rip it off.  Add a heaping helping of metaphor, and voila!

Here's what I think went well this week:  I started with lyrics this time, though not by writing a poem and then setting it to music.  Instead, with the imagery of an island and a boat in mind, I brain dumped a pile of words and phrases.  Then, I grabbed from this list both while I was working out the melody and while assembling the final lyrics.  I will do this again in the future.

And an observation, though I haven't decided whether it's good or bad: the music portion of the writing seems to depend heavily on what instrument I'm using.  I originally started generating ideas this week by tapping away at the piano app on my phone.  I had something going, but I was unable to keep working on it without a real piano.  Trying to move to the guitar or mandolin was prohibitively frustrating, because I don't know as many chords on those.  I've noticed that I get very different sounding music depending on the instrument, I think because I don't have a strong intuition of what notes will come out when my fingers do different things.  I guess that makes instruments pretty useful as random sound-idea generators, each with a different probability distribution function.  So maybe it's good.  Either way, I think I need to get a piano.

Alone

isle on the sea
you're so serene
how you stand there
steadfast through the tide
with no one around
you make not a sound
as you watch
another sun set into night

and the years wash away
through the blue and the grey
we've almost forgotten
what it means to belong
to be welcome and warm
in somebody's arms
through the fog and the fray
we will find what we've known
we're not meant to be
alone

a boat on the waves
feel the wind on my face
how it moves me
as I tumble through the storm
cold and alone
with no place to call home
worn and weary
I fall upon your shore

how the years washed away
through the blue and the grey
we'd almost forgotten
what it means to belong
to be welcome and warm
in somebody's arms
through the fog and the fray
we have found what we've known
we're not meant to be
we're not meant to be
we don't need to be
alone

On "good morning sun"

Ugh...

I wrote a bad song.  This is what I set to do, but I feel like I need to excuse myself nonetheless.  The lyrics are exhausting and ham-fisted.  The music is boring and repetitive.  The recording sucks.  The chorus is too high for me...

Now that I've got that out of the way, this week was actually pretty successful by some measures.  I spent much less time working on it, just 3-4 sessions of my primary focus.  I followed my own advice with writing down a pile of lyrics first, and moving them around later.  Also, I was much more diligent about writing down whatever lyrics came to mind.  Granted, they suck, but at least it was a lot easier to finish.

I'd also like to address the subject matter.  Songwriting can be extremely personal.  It's very easy to filter the songs you share because you are embarrassed to expose yourself.  But if you avoid the sensitive material, there's not much left for songs to be about.  So I'm actively forcing myself to share something that feels embarrassing.  That said, (and I'm totally covering my ass here) I do sometimes invoke poetic license.  A song might start from a real emotion or situation, but I will often exaggerate, flip roles, completely change the direction, and otherwise distort the genuine article.  And that's assuming I didn't just make up the whole thing.  I think what I mean is, please don't think too hard about the meaning of my songs as they apply to me, as a person you might know - it makes me bashful.

Good morning sun

well good morning sun
how are you today
oh I'm all right, thanks for asking
catch your golden rays
pouring down my face
brightens up this empty room

tossing, turning
I am learning
wishing's not enough
get me though
with half a heart
just get me through

thank you morning sun
for the shadow play
wading though this sea of faces
with my eyes on you
keeps me from searching though
looking for what I won't find

tossing, turning
I am learning
wishing's not enough
yet like a beating drum
what dreams may come
but wishing's not enough
get me through, me through, get me though

well good morning sun