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Showing posts from 2014

Get back

You can just tell how much fun we had making this recording. The singer is Emily Roberts, who is barely sixteen years old and knocks it out of the park every time. Get Back On

That backyard of mine

The funny thing is, "This Backyard's Rockin'" was written after a completely tame, somewhat lame yet spontaneous get-together in my neighbor's backyard. The song is a total fabrication. But it just won again, this time the Dallas Songwriters' Association Lyric Contest , so that's plenty of reason to drink more wine. In the back yard.

It might be done

Another "teenager song." My favorite songs to write. I should be saying "age-appropriate pop" or "age-appropriate country / pop" but whatever. What's Her Name

Smoky Mountain Songwriters' Festival

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Day 1 was about this: This was a songwriter round that I sang with Don Gilbert and Mary Hartman. A round is many things: an informal songwriter performance where we each take a turn, play a song, maybe talk about it a little bit. Often it is also a songwriter blind date; I had never met either these two before. What does one call them? Roundies? Corounders? I love this picture more than I can say. For some funny reasons. 1) the stage, at Sugarlands Distilling Company in Gatlinburg, was in a beautiful roofed back porch. The "Be Authentic" is such a great thing to have on the wall behind my head. 2) The round was my first, and it was kind of a wild ride. My guitar playing slipped considerably because I was nervous, but I learned from it. 3) This picture is taken from the WLVT news story that I ended up in, because there was also  this This is hilarious for so many reasons. For no good reason the news crew was at the round where I was playing, and when they are talking

July

I've written about 12 songs since I last posted. My approach is all about volume - write it, get it at least sort of done, get it evaluated, play it out, revise it, throw it away or revise it some more or put it in a mental drawer until I decide to take it out again. Unfortunately I bob like a sad little balloon on the opinions of others, and if the evaluators hate a song I get all Stockholm syndrome and hate it too for a while. Bad song! Bad!  I had a minor crisis in April, when I had a chance to play a few songs out and realized I didn't have a single song I felt like singing. That was partly because my guitar playing was both sucky and unsatisfying. What's the difference, you ask? I don't know, except I guess it's like when you can finally ride a two-wheeler and you might be wobbly but you are moving forward and not falling over. My playing is less wobbly and I can grab most every chord I know, pretty much sorta when I need it, so I can have fun playing. Is th

Preparations

It's almost Saturday night! I want to be all ho-hum, it's-just-a-gig about it, but this time there will be several firsts. First time with guitar, first time playing about 10 new songs. First time with the new girl group. First time at Vienna Coffeehouse, and first time for almost all of my E. TN friends to see me doing my singer/songwriter thing. I'm so happy with my new collaborators; Vicki, my new friend who can play anything and sing anything and is giving me much-needed guitar support. And Margaret, who I have sung with for 20 years. New friends and old. Plus several Maryville Songwriters' Association friends sitting in, and the great Jim Horenburg coming out to play too. I'm trying out some new gear, too, and so far it works simply and if it doesn't work it's nonessential. Had to have a tech rehearsal today just to get it all up and running. I don't know how long it will be before I feel like an ordinary person who plays guitar in an ordinary way