Just listen to what Drew Holcomb says about this music making thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pocyxlNOxdw
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Snow, Cold, and, Gray, S.C.a.G.
IT seems almost too cold for it to be snowing here, but, it is snowing. As the wood stove struggles to keep the house warm, the Boat Shop Music Studio is more just a cold boat shop than music studio. No work going on out there, though I'd love to be able to be working there now.
I have been thinking about doing a real conversion of the space into to a dedicated studio, and quit with this hedging. I'd insulate the walls then finish them inside and loose one of the big garage doors, changing into a solid wall, and making the other into glass opening doors, both for light and for getting larger things in and out.
The winter is such a good time for daydreaming and planning such things.
I am still listening to Joe Pugs podcast, The Working Songwriter
https://soundcloud.com/twspodcast
and still get very moved with each podcast I listen to as I hear the ideas and experiences of these songwriter/performers that have "made it" and understand completely what they are talking about, and have even had similar experiences myself, of course, on my small scale.
I highly recommend this podcast to any writers or artist especially those who are younger or new to there chosen form of expression.
I've been listening to the demo tracks I have of "Garden of Love", the album. I've been trying to determine the song order for the album. I have even been trying to confirm that these songs should all be on this album. I haven't felt up to sitting down to do more recording and trying to get tracks that seem good enough for release. The recording process can seem a bit daunting, and a bit lacking in fun. It seems that every time that red, record button gets pushed, the take I do has some kind of problem. All the really good ones come when I'm not recording. Some people thrive under pressure, and I have been one of those kinds of people but in other areas of my life.
As I listen to the demo tracks I have for the album, I sometimes feel like a few of the tracks are good enough. I try not to be precious about the recordings. Technically, I'd like them to sound good enough so that nobody questions the recording method. But as far as the songs go, and my performing of them, I kind of feel like "this is it, this is what you get, no frills, just a song". I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. This is probably why a producer is such a valuable entity in the process as an outside, or objective manager of the project. Oh well.
Played my first Winter Farmer's Market this past week. It was nice to get the first out of the way. I still get nervous about the new setting, silly really. I am glad to be back and playing out.
I have been thinking about doing a real conversion of the space into to a dedicated studio, and quit with this hedging. I'd insulate the walls then finish them inside and loose one of the big garage doors, changing into a solid wall, and making the other into glass opening doors, both for light and for getting larger things in and out.
The winter is such a good time for daydreaming and planning such things.
I am still listening to Joe Pugs podcast, The Working Songwriter
https://soundcloud.com/twspodcast
and still get very moved with each podcast I listen to as I hear the ideas and experiences of these songwriter/performers that have "made it" and understand completely what they are talking about, and have even had similar experiences myself, of course, on my small scale.
I highly recommend this podcast to any writers or artist especially those who are younger or new to there chosen form of expression.
 |
| Available at Soundcloud.com |
I've been listening to the demo tracks I have of "Garden of Love", the album. I've been trying to determine the song order for the album. I have even been trying to confirm that these songs should all be on this album. I haven't felt up to sitting down to do more recording and trying to get tracks that seem good enough for release. The recording process can seem a bit daunting, and a bit lacking in fun. It seems that every time that red, record button gets pushed, the take I do has some kind of problem. All the really good ones come when I'm not recording. Some people thrive under pressure, and I have been one of those kinds of people but in other areas of my life.
As I listen to the demo tracks I have for the album, I sometimes feel like a few of the tracks are good enough. I try not to be precious about the recordings. Technically, I'd like them to sound good enough so that nobody questions the recording method. But as far as the songs go, and my performing of them, I kind of feel like "this is it, this is what you get, no frills, just a song". I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. This is probably why a producer is such a valuable entity in the process as an outside, or objective manager of the project. Oh well.
Played my first Winter Farmer's Market this past week. It was nice to get the first out of the way. I still get nervous about the new setting, silly really. I am glad to be back and playing out.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Music in the clouds
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| Deer in the front yard as the snow falls. The site keeps me from wanting to spoil the scene by making any sound. |
Winter has set it's muffling blanket upon my world here. It is ooooh soooo easy to give into the comfort of a comforter and sit with a chai tea that I custom blend with each cup, stare out the window of the house, or into the window of the wood stove and let the sound of the clock on the wall tick by between sessions of playing.
Playing, that is all it seems to be these days. Not much impetus to write, or produce the new album. Fortunately for me, and that is how I see it, there is no pressure to do so, other than what I put upon myself.
In a funny coincidence I had though to make a post about song lyrics, posing the question "what lyrics have impressed you most, a line or two, or an entire song that just "resonated" with you?" The coincidence part of this is that right now a lyric that I think resonates most for me comes from a singer songwriter that I also just heard in a podcast I just subscribed to. The artist is Gregory Alan Isakov, the song is "The Stable Song" and the pod cast is "The Working Songwriter" hosted by Joe Pug, available on SoundCloud.
I've also just uploaded my first track on SoundCloud today!
So, the lyric. Maybe it's Gregory's voice, which can be haunting and soothing, but is always inviting. Maybe it is the self deprecating nature of the song. The lyric is,
"I've been crazy, couldn't you tell,
I threw stones at the stars,
but the whole sky fell"
I just can't think of a more beautiful, sad, simple, and human sentiment expressed any better in any other song. I am sure that there have been others that hit me this way, but I haven't been able to remember any.
I'm loving the hibernation of the winter, and feel inclined not to show my self til springtime, but life is not always so obliging to my hermit like ways.
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Well things have come a little ways from where they were. I am now using the studio for my daily sessions, but still doing construction wo...
