Market Season Again!!!!

Live performance Nyack Farmer’s Market 

May 11, 2023

Post Mortem

Yesterday I did a “ambush performance”, which is to say, I showed up and got the market manager to let me play.  They schedule performers for each market, I’ve been on that schedule before, but I began playing there years ago, by playing before the scheduled act, early in the morning when most musicians are still in bed, or even just getting to their beds. ;)😴   In this way I don’t take anybody’s spot, and I also add some live music to the market when it doesn’t have any.  I think that some vendors play music over their smart phone or radios during this time to give the market some kind of energy.

It was looking to be the first real pleasant weather day of the season, the first warm Spring day.  It just seemed like a good idea to try and go out and play.  The market manager gave me the OK, I had til 11am to use how I wanted.  The market opens at 8am, I got there at half past so 2 hours plus to set up play, then get out of the way of the main act.  Pretty generous really.

Having played with the rig (guitar amp and mic) a couple of times in the last week or so, I think I was in a better informed place for playing out.  Playing with the rig is a very different thing than playing without it, completely acoustic.  It’s another thing altogether to do this in a performance situation.

So, on hind site, am I glad that I did it?  Was there a net gain?  Spoiler alert!!  Ya, I think it was worth it.  My metrics have to be understood to see how I get this sum out of the equation.

Finances, are not a part of my metrics.  I didn’t get paid for this performance, wasn’t looking for money from the market.  In fact, my intent was to give something to the market.  Hopefully I was adding some energy, a smile or two, and an interesting complexity to the event.  Even so, I did get a few people dropping money in my guitar case, and more importantly, more valuable to me, was that each of those people made smiling eye contact with me as they offered up their greenbacks.  Two of the vendors expressed their gratitude, one with money, and the other with delicious knish.  This expression from the vendors means quite a bit to me.  They have heard me before and they are still appreciative of my being there.  I know for a fact that some vendors don’t feel this way about all the people who play the market.

Being that I am playing only my original music, I am impressed when a vendor, or market patron, has some kind of reactive relationship with my music.  If a cover of a popular song is being played then at least some of the reaction from the audience was “paid for” by the original artist and the success of that song historically, in recordings or on the radio…. As an original artist, I don’t get that “perk”.  Playing in a Farmer’s market where there is no pressure on, or expectation of, any patron or vendor to react, or even listen to the music.  They don’t go to the market to hear music, generally.  I have noticed that there have been times when the music at the markets almost gets to the station of being, at least part of the reason people show up.  In the end, I would be happy to be a positive part of why people go to the market, along with the out of doors, the sunshine, the breeze, the community.  I want my music to be a sort of added value to shopping the market.

My performance yesterday was not great.  There were good moments, but over all my voice felt combative, my fingers felt a little clumsy, and the guitar foreign.  Thanks to the haunting lines of Bob Dylan, “I’m gonna know my songs well before I play them”, I have gotten more ownership of my songs, and my identity as a performer, so that got me thru the morning inspite of many missteps.

It was not a performance I wish I had recorded, except maybe for analysis, but for being the first time out in a very long time, and a spur of the moment kind of decision, it was not my worst showing.  I mean how bad could it have been if children and grown ups were actually dancing to the music?!  Really, grown women dancing, like they were at a festival.  I am not sure I remember that happening before.  I can’t feel bad about if I made people dance.

So the technical things to take away from yesterday are important and I think that they could have gone a long way to making the whole performance much better.  

First off is the way I set up the amp.  I couldn’t really hear myself.  I had practiced with it set up kind of like that but the market offers 0,zero, no reflection to work with, so I couldn’t hear myself.  On the good side the music travelled the length of the market and was intelligible, sounded good, according the a slightly biased opinion (my wife).  It’s not easy to get that coverage and not be to loud or to soft somewhere in the market.  The bad side of that was that I couldn’t hear what was coming out of the amp as it was in front of me pointing away.  Moving it back so that it is just even with me “upstage/downstage” might go a long way to allowing me to hear.  Because I couldn’t hear I was more effortful singing and I was spent pretty early on, so the rest of the time I had to rework melody lines in real time.  That just made me mentally exhausted.  It’s a cascade of affects.

I think it would also help to have the option to sit down to play some songs, of only for a break.  I was trying to stand for the entire time, but it’s a lot for me, at least right now.

I think I should really make an effort to talk to the market before and between playing.  I need to find a way to do that and not feel like a fool talking to imaginary listeners.  Maybe it’s one of those instances of “build it and they will come” only it’s “speak and they will listen”.

A set list is helpful and I didn’t use one yesterday and even so it felt good not to feel hemmed into a list.  I need to figure out a way to see all of my song options easily.  “To many choices”  is kind of a first world problem to have so many original songs to choose from.

I missed an opportunity to relate to a group of little kids that were there in a story time reading.  At the end of their story time I should have played “Moonflower Waltz” and directed it right to them.  I know in the past kids have reacted well to that song.  I was thrown off by the adults around me.  Never put adults before children, or dogs.

    I played "The Ultimate" for the first time in public and got positive feedback on it.  Ya!

So I may wait til June 1st to go back and try again.  Give the vendors ears a rest and give me a moment to get myself together.  My goal is to play sets there that, if I didn’t record them, I wish I had, or that somebody had.  That seems an achievable goal, but still high enough to require some real effort on my part.

 

Volume 1 & 2 ?

I was just listening to the iTunes playlists of the albums that I have so far.  It made me think that “Summer Sessions, 2018” really should have been a two volume project.

I think I remember hearing Joe Pug say in his podcast, “The Working Songwriter”, that when performing new music 45 minutes is about all people can really hear before being overwhelmed or zoning out.  After a certain point people seem to have a hard time taking in and enjoying the new material.

In light of the trends away from albums and more towards people making and selling individual tracks of music, I think this idea of a limited capacity to enjoy new music, at any one exposure, must be true.

If you were presented with a new piece of music that was two and a half minutes long you’d probably be much more inclined to listen to the entire piece, than if you were presented with and hours worth of new music on an album.

Given this probability, I think that 10 songs, or about 30 minutes of new music on an album, is about the most of what one might consider putting out, if an album format is going to be considered. Maybe albums have just become obsolete.

An interesting feature of the current state of tech and media is that I suppose I could easily reissue my first album as a 2 volume set, and with very little effort. It does seem to becoming more and more of an adventure in creative anachronisms.

So, what would the the changes in that album result in, as it is divided into 2 volumes.  Will all the original tracks make the cut?  Will the order of the tracks be the same, but just cut in half?

    The first edit I think I would like to make is taking out the 2 tracks that are now a part of the later album “Heart at Sea”.  That would take the set list down to 13 songs and remove about (4:57 + 3:20) = 8:17 in time, making the total time about 48:43. 

    Now, to cut it into two volumes.

It used to be that albums were the standard of publishing in the music industry.  Albums were curated, the play back order and length of play, the artwork and layout were all considered.  

    I think about a painter, or photographer having a gallery showing.  The pieces shown are specifically chosen. The arrangement of the gallery where they will be presented will be considered.  The curator of the show will decide which piece will be at the entrance to the show, and seen first, and then next.  An album is for the singer-songwriter, what a gallery showing is to the graphic artist.

At first glance I think these 13 tracks could just be cut after track 7 and then having the second volume just continues as it exists.  But I quickly decided to swap the track order just a little.

Summer Sessions, Volume 1

1. Sleepy Head

2. You and Me

3. Take, a climber's song

4. Missing Parts

5. Around Town

6. Dreaming of Yesterday

7.  Second hand heart

Summer Sessions, Volume 2

1. Going My Way

2. Sweet Retribution

3. MoonFlower Waltz

4. Another Season

5. The Moments

6. Casting Shadows, song for Gretel

    After looking into it it seems that with little effort I could actually do this, at least at Bandcamp.  I may just do it.  It is kind of a organizational itch that I may have to scratch.

 December 2022, an EP

In December I stumbled into a creative moment.

I was tuning a guitar that had been in it's case for a while, but I was to lazy to go find a tuner, so I tuned it by ear.  I don't have perfect pitch, that's a whole story unto itself.  It turns out that I tuned the whole guitar a half step down.  This led me to hearing the relationship of the strings in an entirely different way and that led me to a new musical idea.  That idea became the guitar part for "Ducks and Drakes", a new song.

    For 2 weeks in December, as I was marking the seasonal events, Solstice, Christmas, New Year's, and so on, I created four new songs.  I hope to publish them as an EP titled, "December 2022".  Quite a catchy title, I know, but sometimes you just got to go with the obvious and simplest.

    2 tracks were made public already but I will package them with the other 2 and put it out on Bandcamp and Soundcloud as part of the EP.  They all go together.

    There is a musical theme, thru all the pieces.  There is also a thematic connection.  I often make demo recordings of my songs and then arrange them in a playlist on iTunes so that I can listen to and evaluate them, and figure out where they should fall in an album order.  Now I realize that people don't buy albums anymore, but I grew up in an era when the creation of an album was a real considered process.  Artists choose which of their works they want to display when they have a showing and then they arrange the gallery, to curate what the viewer experiences and in what order.  In these days of commodities and consumption that has mostly been left behind.  Well screw that.  I have no delusions of any popular or financial facets of my work.  It's art, it's music, it's an offering, it's a smile for me, and maybe, just maybe, for some other soul.

    So far the EP seems to want to shape up like this,

track#                title

    1.         Letting Go of Dreaming

    2.         Return, D&D, a solstice song

    3.         Festivus Stroll

    4.         Ducks & Drakes (instrumental)

    

    This EP now goes on the list of albums, written, demo recorded, but not yet published.  This is now the third.  I have yet to do the final recordings and publishing of "Heart at Sea" and "Garden of Love", but like "December 2022" they are complete and I listen to them on my playlist.  Maybe I have a thing about completion, I don't know.

    

The new market banner!  Now who is that fella with the guitar?  I wonder? 

    I received my weekly email newsletter from the Nyack Farmer's Market this week and was pleasantly surprised to see the new banner, with a shot of 'yours truly' playing and singing at the market.  What a warm fuzzy feeling it was.

    It feels like ages since that last time I played at the market.  I guess it's been about 4 months.  I do miss it a bit.

    I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to play at that market.  I have heard of other artists having bars, or coffee houses or clubs, with open mic nights or some such regular event that they took part in early on.  These places often became where performing, was discovered, developed and informed.  These places were safe places as well, places one could be oneself or what ever version of themselves they wanted to present.  I suppose the Nyack market has been that kind of place for me.

    Farmers markets are kind of funny places to perform at in a way.  People don't come there to hear music, or very few people do.  The "audience" is there to do something else and the job of the performer is to add some ambience.  It is very different than an open mic at a bar or cafe, where people sit and face you and actively listen.  Most people playing at farmers markets are playing well established music, traditional tunes or covers, these both can established a desired mood, partly because they are familiar and partly because of the selection of music being generally upbeat.

    I took a chance and played only my own original material, and not all of it was sunshine and daisies.  I remember one day when a woman, maybe in her 60's came up and dropped a bill in the guitar case, smiled and then said, "that wasn't really a happy song was it?"  as if to say that she is listening.  I got the impression that like a sweet older woman, she'd appreciate happy songs more but that she would allow it.  She did after all give me a smile and a tip.

    I daydream about the coming Spring and Summer and the possibility of singing some of the new songs at the market, if they will have me back.

A Nano-career as a professional musician, singer-songwriter.

 Which is smaller micro or nano?
A nanometer (nm) is 1,000 times smaller than a micrometer. It is equal to 1/1,000,000,000th or one-billionth of a meter. When things are this small, you can't see them with your eyes, or a light microscope.

(you may have to use your heart)

From this moment in time, considering the larger realities of the world, I find myself inclined to think about my so called career in music and performance in the past tense.  It's not that I wouldn't like to continue on the path I began, but that path really doesn't seem visible to me.

"Geared up with hiking boots, a back pack, a walking stick I come to the edge of the land. I look out, look left, then right and see only sand and sea.  I left the forest a year ago now, or almost, and haven't seen a tree or any other thing that might be used as a boat or raft.  I can't continue on the heading I have chosen.  A way forward is invisible to me. Way out over the water are dark clouds and lightning that make even the ridiculous idea of trying to swim toward my goal, unthinkable."

 Maybe it was a small career in music, very small, micro, no even smaller, a nano career in music.  You might think that thinking of my "career" in music in the past tense would be painful, but I tell you it is definitely not, in fact, maybe it's better this way.

I a very short time, I feel that I have accomplished a lot, or at least that I have done what I set out to do and so much more than I dared imagine possible from me.

I set out to learn about music, not to master an instrument, but to become versed and skilled enough to enjoy expressing myself with it, and to create music, the music that I felt was inside of me.

That is a pretty vague requirement.  It could have been learning to play "Twinkle, Twinkle little Star".  It also could have been playing and creating something that would resonate around the globe and over time.  I did not require that my experiment with music be affirmed by anybody else other than myself.

I have enthusiastically appreciated music for as long as I can remember.  I have been in awe of those who created and performed it.  It has accompanied me even when I was alone and far from a radio or recording.  When I could not hear a human caused bit of music I listened to the music of the earth and universe as it spun, and hummed along, or let it lull me to sleep.

Why my Nano-career satisfies me.

First,

    For a few years I was payed to play for people, and during that time I have never publicly played a song that I hadn't created myself.  I was asked to play my songs for others.

Second,

I made an album and a few people bought it, but only a few.  I made that album because a couple of people asked me for it.

Third,

I have had the privilege of affecting people in a direct and positive way.  I have watched people who were in a hurry, slow down for a moment and listen to my song.  I have been told by people that I have changed them, with my song, from a dark mood to a happy one.  I have made children want to connect with me, but really, I believe, with live music.

    My career may have been very small, on a nano scale, and been short, a few years, and reached only a small number of ears, but it accomplished all it was suppose to and more.  I have gained so much from this short, small adventure.  I have gained things that I did not know were there to be sought.  What more can somebody ask for.

In truth, I will go on.  I have many songs that have not been released to the public, and I have ideas for songs that I have not yet created.  I have curiosity and enthusiasm for playing more, and often and taking music down avenues new to me.

I listen to my own music, not all the time, but often.  I eat the food I make and it makes me happy.  I sail the boats I built and enjoy them.  I live in the house that I have worked with my own hands and tools and it gives me great comfort.  Why should I not enjoy the music I make, not just in the making of it but also listening to it?

I have heard some actors say that they never watch themselves on screen.  If it's true, I find that sad.  If they can't find some joy in watching their own work then why should we?  Learning to accept my shortcomings, as well as my strengths, being happy with who I am is something that performing music has taught me, and that is a lesson I can use all my life.  I've learned, not to take it all so seriously, laugh at myself, not just with myself.  It' OK.

I want to thank all of those people who have taken a moment and listened, especially those who had a kind word or smile or a thumbs up, or even a coin tossed into my case.  You gave me something I never dreamed would be for me.  I hope that the songs were an equitable exchange for you.  I definitely think I got the better deal of it. 💗☮️🎵

Festival Season!!! NOT!

So, ya, back when I played with "Santana", at "Woodstock",.....NOT!!!

Lately I've been recording instrumentals because the noise in the world, all the things people say just seem to be a bit to much and I don't feel like adding to it.  It's been fun and kind of revelatory.  

The first project was an EP, sort of, I called "Projections and Reflections".  On hindsight I think I would have rather called it "The Riverglide Project", an eponymous title for the "band" identity for these instrumental projects.

I also put out a single "July Experience" and have a few more tracks ready to release.  May get them up today.

For a couple of weeks I've been listening to Pat Methany's new album "From this Place" while cooking dinner.  Really great work. The drumming (Antonio Sanchez) just kills me.

https://www.patmetheny.com/news/full_display.cfm?id=134

With the world the way it is right now, Festivals are not happening.  One of my new pieces "Ballers Last March", is something I imagine being played at a festival.  If you are into bands like Massive Attack, and have seen some of the footage from the MELT festival in Germany, you'd get what I am thinking about.  

I'd need a band that might consist of 1-lead guitar, 2-rhythm guitar, 3-bass, 4-synth, 5-drums, and maybe another percussionist.  It's a long way from playing and singing folk like songs with an acoustic guitar.  Gotta dream big, right?  It was fun to create anyway.

Let go and just enjoy the dream

It's funny how things work out, or don't, in life.  I believe it is a good idea that one's reach should exceed ones grasp with regards to dreams and goals.  I also think it is good to recognize that getting something other than exactly what you wished for means that life is going to be more interesting and mysterious.

When I was young I would often spend my recess in the music room experimenting on the piano.  How my music teacher endured it I don't know, selective deafness maybe, but not only would I fantasize about the music I was playing but about one day being a composer and scoring a film.  I never showed the focus to achieve any thing like that, but now, in a round about, thru the side door, kind of way, my music is being used in a film piece.

So, I take away the same thing that I have been led to believe many times before, dream, dream big, and enjoy the dream, then let go and just live.

I was very happy to be able to contribute on this project, and feel very honored to have been asked to be a part of it.

Bill Batson's short film project, "One Good Story"

Music in the clouds

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.

Still writing here beside the River.

The muse is still hovering
I finished another song last week and gotten to perform it twice so far.  Even had Ian Moore play along on his fiddle.  That was awesome, as it always is when Ian joins in.

I also have begun a new song, or song project.  It is very different to be in a project that I don't really feel has an end in sight.  This project feels like an unending song that will have verses, multiple chorus, maybe chapters.  Maybe I was very influenced by the large album pieces of the 1960's and 70's, "Quadrophenia", "Sgt. Peppers", "Tommy", "The Wall".  They each got completed of course but They were epic works.  Maybe they had some two minute fifty hits in them but I think that the composers may have gone at them as larger works.

I find it comforting to have an ongoing story/song to be able to come back to anytime.  This particular work seems outside of what the "muse" is particularly interested in throw at me these days, but that in itself is also a bit comforting too.  Sometimes it is good to have something to work on if I am not feeling particularly inspired, but that is also an available canvas should something drop down from the clouds into my brain.

So, the songwriter, me, got interviewed on a literary podcast and the session was just released today for Patreon subscribers.  River River Writers Circle has a pod cast called "Littoral".  I had a lovely time during the interview and am very grateful for their interest and the sensitive manner of the people who hosted me.  Check, check, check it out, and become a subscriber/supporter of the arts and artists.

The Poet and the Songwriter,
A. Anupama of River River and host of the Littoral Podcast
 with me at the Nyack Farmers Market
(Photo A. Anupama/Ian Moore)

WTF, Taylor Swift? Really?

Before today, I had never listened to a Taylor Swift song.  Well that's not exactly true because I have listened to Ryan Adams covering "Bad Blood", and I loved it, learned it and played it.  But, I had never heard Taylor's version, at least not all the way thru.  I started to listen to it, to learn where what Ryan had done had come from, but didn't bother to listen the her version of it all the way thru.  The style just didn't work for me, and the bad part of that is that it kept me from being able to hear that Taylor can write a song.
Today I listened to an NPR Tiny Desk concert that featured Taylor Swift.  It was good, she was good. In 25 minutes I came to know quite a bit more about her, and to gain some real respect for her.
https://www.npr.org

NPR Tiny Desk concerts, produced by Bob Bollen

I am not going to become a fan of the music she puts out, it's just not to my tastes.  But that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate her songwriting, her craftsmanship, her tenacity and commitment.  Her songs could be presented in different formats, or genre, the first that comes to mind is country music, but that may be because country and pop have been coming closer together for a while now and in some instances are hardly different at all.  She seems as though she is really a singer-songwriter slathered with lights, dancers, and over production.
During her set she mentioned a TED talk given by author Elizabeth Gilbert, that inspired her.  So, I listened to it.  Also really great.
https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_success_failure_and_the_drive_to_keep_creating#t-1784

TED talks, author Elizabeth Gilbert

I post all this because it is all about songwriting, being an artist, creativity, where it comes from and where it goes, what it does for us as creators.

CHEERS!

Muse

muse¹

/myo͞oz/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. 1. 

   (in Greek and Roman mythology) each of nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences.

   
   

   2. 

   a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.

   
   

   Is it a real thing?  I suppose that if you think it is, then it is.  Many artists truly believe in the idea.  Some believe that the art they make doesn't come from them as much as it comes thru them.  If you've ever had a creative moment when things "flow", you might recognize this idea.  

   
   

   It happens in other endeavors as well, I've known "flow" in many aspects of my life.  But a muse is a bit different.

   
   

   When one thing, or person, or setting, drives creativity, brings inspiration like a current, or undertow, a sensed, purposeful motivation drives creativity, this could be called, a muse.

   
   

   Some times the muse is a very temporary inspiration.  Like a surfer on a wave, it can be ridden and enjoyed while it lasts, and then the work of paddling back to wait, ready for the next set.  Some times the water is flat calm.

   
   

   This is what song writing has been like for me so far.  Sometimes the inspiration is self generated, but it is more often from outside myself.

   
   

   Like the surfer, I just enjoy the ride. Creativity becomes a way of living, a philosophy, a path.🏄🎶

Morning Sessions, Vol. #1

I'm thinking that I will try and start posting some recordings of songs here, one at a time.  I will include lyrics and a few thoughts about the song.  I hope you enjoy them.
These will keep in the philosophy of BSMS, and be low fidelity, friendly and accessible recordings.



"Sleepy Head", is a song I wrote about my son, as well as my dog, and my wife.  It is a reflection of those moments when I would catch one of them, still in bed, deeply sleeping, dreaming, deeply breathing.  They seemed so comfortable and secure and I felt so glad to watch over them.  So, I guess you could say it is a love song.

"Sleepy Head"

SLEEPY HEAD

Get up in the Morning Before sunrise

I like to watch the light as it brightens up the sky

Maple syrup in my coffee but I don't take cream

like to drink it slowly as I watch the morning scene

I sit and listen for that first bird to sing

waiting on the squirrels to do their morning squirrel thing

everybody's eager to start the new day

finding food, f-i-nd-ing lo-ve finding their own way

(chorus)

Your still sleeping warm inside your bed

your still dreaming pillow on your head

hiding from the light hiding from the day

you'd never leave your bed if you could have your way

My little sleepy head,  My little sleepy head

I stand by your bed long after sunrise

just to watch you breathing before you open up your eyes

I wonder if your dreams they take you far away

maybe in your dreams it's the middle of your day

What will you remember after you rise

if I told you what I'm thinking, whispered that I loved you

would you open up your eyes

Your still sleeping warm inside your bed

your still dreaming pillow on your head

hiding from the light hiding from the day

you'd never leave your bed if you could have your way

My little sleepy head,  My little sleepy head

Fiddle About!

I had a wonderful experience this week while playing my weekly gig at the Nyack Farmer's Market.  Just about the end of my time playing the market manager came up to make a request.  She wanted to "You and Me" a song of mine that she especially likes.  being that Ian Moore was there onstage getting ready to take over and play his set, he suggested that we do the song together.

     Ian is an amazing performer, a singer of songs and a story teller, who mixes in wonderful dancing with his fiddle playing.  He is also a fine composer.

     I was very happy to have him accompany me on the song, but also a bit nervous.  I get worried of being able to play and sing at his caliber, well not worried really, I flat out know I'm not in the same league.  But I was so excited for the idea too.

     I showed him the chord progression and gave him a quick idea of what the song is, that took about 15 seconds, and then we went at it.  That was quite enough time to let Ian know where to go with his part.  That's the kind of player he is.

     It was work for me to keep my mind in the attitude of he performer because I so wanted to be the observer and get the full affect of Ian's playing on one of my songs.

     He played a beautiful line, quite sensitive and appropriate, but creative.  I was very moved.  It seemed as though others listening were too.

     Sometimes 1+1 don't make 2, they make so much more, or Moore, Ian Moore.  I love that guy.

The great Ian Moore.( photo from https://www.reverbnation.com/ianmooreplaysfiddle )

     

Song writing, for me is like

Song writing for me is like looking out in the woods and seeing a shape in the bushes.  I can tell something, someone, is there, maybe a fox, or a dog, or a coyote, or a deer, but I have to look harder, be patient, in order to discover what, who it is.
If I see the flick of a tail I might realize it's a deer, or a dog.  I look a bit more and determine the color of it's coat, and then the general size.  And so it goes until I have a confident idea of who it is I am discovering.
Then, I need to spend some more time finding out the particulars of this particular being.  If I say I know it's a dog, or even a dog with a black and brown and white coat, about 50 pounds, with a long tail, I still don't know the disposition of this particular dog.  That take time and more observation, listening for a growl, or whine, or wiper, or friendly bark.
And so it goes.  This is how songs get written for me.  So far.  It can take a little time to become well acquainted with a new song.  Patience is always a virtue, as well as a willingness to listen, and look, and discover.

https://richardamaldonado.bandcamp.com

Gone Til Spring

"Gone Til Spring" the title of a song I wrote last Fall about the end of the sailing season.  I had just gotten a new sailing rig on a small boat and was struggling with getting comfortable with sailing a small light boat, after years of really preferring a heavier full keeled boat. I like the song because it can easily be perceived as the end of some time with a person and missing them.

I've sent this song out as part of a set of "Seasonal-Musical greeting cards."  It's number 3 of 4 songs that folks will receive.  They are all Demos, which is to say, rough cuts, but in the spirit of fun and celebration, I've sent them out this way, blemishes and all, just like a family would sound singing Christmas carols.

The other significance of the song is that the Boat shop studio is closed up til Spring.  It being a music studio converted from a boat shop, converted from a garage, it can get a bit cold out there, even with the wood stove, which is not tight and singing and breathing smokey air is another challenge my singing does not really need.

The Winter sun will now only get stronger as the days grow longer.

I have released the single of "Return, A Solstice Song" on Bandcamp.  It's a demo version, but I thought with it being the Winter Solstice,  why not.  I want to develop the song a little more, but I'm glad to have celebrated the Solstice with the song as it is.

I haven't been keeping at the blog because I wanted to take a break, have a bit of a cloister as the Winter set in.  I will probably be back at it in the new year.

Seasons Greetings

https://richardamaldonado.bandcamp.com

Winter 2018 songs can be heard at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w0KX3g8q6E

"Summer Sessions 2018, Liner Notes, part two"

"Summer Sessions 2018, Liner Notes, part two"

The songs in this collection were all written in the last 3 or 4 years, but most of them were written this last year.  I think that after they were first written they evolved with a bit of influence from performing them weekly at local farmer's markets.

track #

4. The Last Reef
     In the old days of sail the crew would climb up the mast of the tall ships, via the rigging, and adjust the size of a sail using "reefs".  The work was hard, and dangerous.  When the wind got so strong that any sail up was too much you'd sail under "bare poles" but that usually meant a loss of maneuverability, and being at the mercy of the sea. 

5. Missing Parts
     It's hard for us to know the stories of those people who are out in the world sleeping rough, or homeless, and how they got were they are.

6. Around Town
      Some of us are broken by love, and instead of trying to dull our experience of heart ache, accept and actively face it.

available at BANDCAMP.COM

"Summer Sessions 2018, Liner Notes, part Three" coming soon.

I've joined the 21st century

Now Available on Bandcamp!

 

https://richardamaldonado.bandcamp.com/releases

All 15 songs available, as the album, or as individual tracks!

Video clip!

For no real reason, here is a clip from inside the studio on this rainy morning

The song is the first track on "Summer Sessions 2018",  "You & Me"

Summer Sessions 2018, Liner Notes, part one

The songs in this collection were all written in the last 3 or 4 years, but most of them were written this last year.  I think that after they were first written they evolved with a bit of influence from performing them weekly at local farmer's markets.

track #
1. You and Me
    This was really the first song I ever wrote, or at least the first song I began to write.  I remember that when I started it, and even when it was basically finished, I had it in mind that it should be song and played by somebody else, because at the time, I had not yet learned to play or sing in any way that was acceptable to me.  There was a local singer/player who really impressed me, John Moroski, and I had always imagined that he and a girl he had performed with a few times would sing the song. That's not happened and in the mean time, I just started playing it.  The song is a reflection of my life with my wife.

2.  Sleepy Head
     This song happened, as a few of them have, in a moment of realization one morning standing outside and greeting the day.  I often think about my son, when he was just a little guy, and of my dog/friend as she lay on her dog bed, and of my wife, and how I have gotten such joy from just watching them sleep.

3.  Take, a climbers song
     I rock climbed, the mother of my son climbed, and my son started climbing a bit because the woman he was seeing climbed.  When I was climbing, the lead climber, if he started to loose his grip on things, would shout down to the guy on the other end of the rope "Take".  It was a quick way to say take up all the slack in the rope and stop me from falling.  It seemed a good metaphor for a relationship and since my son now had both a climbing partner and a lover, well there you are.  I wrote this song for him, for them.  They married in 2018.



Well this is a start.  I'll get back to this with "Summer Sessions 2018, Liner Notes, part two"

Music style

I just heard back from a family member who took a listen to "Summer Session 2018".  "Folksy" was the descriptive used about the music.  I can agree with that.  The funny thing is that I would not have forecast that this is the music I might someday make.

reclaimed chairs and drum kit

For me, the creative process is really an structured kind of improvisation.  The entire genre of music called jazz embraces this kind of work.  But I didn't create jazz.

What has been coming to the page, thru my fingers, and thru my voice is a bit, "other" for me.  By that I mean that what I end up with isn't what I might set out to do, if I worked that way.  In truth, I don't work that way.  I have a compass point, a direction, but like any path thru the woods, or over the sea, a look back at the course reveals many moments traveling in any direction but the one I might have set out upon.  Because of this I don't always reach any final destination, but I always end up somewhere I want to be, but had no knowledge of before I set out.  I wouldn't change that method of travel, or method of discovery, or creation because it allows for something much greater than I my mind can imagine and allows me to be enriched by the experience, real time.  A bit deep for such simple music, I know.

The art that comes out is deeper than my conscious mind can fathom.  That is what makes making art such an adventure.  It is also what makes life an adventure too if one can allow oneself to be live a bit of a free form jazz version of life.  Really great jazz has some common elements, most of which I aspire to posses in my creation someday, and they are always, virtuosity thru practice and discipline, coupled with sensitivity and openness to feel and be in the present moment, and fearless freedom and acceptance of ones identity.  I think this is true, and the more I look into the artists that inspire me, the more this belief is affirmed.

Yes the music on this album is "Folksy", sure, why not, it's just a word to describe something that is best left unlabeled, and instead just experienced.  Call it what ever you want.

PEACE