Many different tries and several empty files later: Four tracks of tenor uke sped up though I might some day be able to play like this in real time. I am oddly soothed by this one. Gives me the same feeling I experience when watching a wood working or cooking show…or a scalp massage. Hey: I said oddly soothing…
Sounds a bit better with headphones… good thing it’s only 1:06 (yes, I changed it) because I think it might drive my mother crazy.
Sometimes I feel like magical things happen very quickly and unexpectedly… other times magic happens after a while of hard work and dedicated thinking… however, this song is probably a great example of the former. Lady Lamb The Beekeeper and I have started a habit now (well, is two songs a habit?) of writing songs in short bursts (see DAY 15 Ghosts in My Teeth) . I had a show in Portland a few days ago where Lady Lamb lives. There was literally no time to get together that day to write something, so we stole some time after a show to write something in about 5-10 minutes.
Writing: Sitting outside in the gutter and tuning my tenor uke like a baritone, I just started playing these chords. We quickly found a melody and swirled out these words onto paper. Lady Lamb said she had been using “apple” in another song she’d been working on and used it for this. I think it’s perfect. In deciding that there would just be sung syllables and no words for the middle, there was really no plan or decision for placement or how many times we would do it. What you are hearing now is the first and only version we did of this song. This is why I see this as magic. There are a few really wonderful things that happen totally by accident. One of my favorite, totally unplanned, parts is the second time through the verse (yes, repetition is awesome), the last time we repeat “become” in the verse before we repeat it, Lady Lamb drops out and lets me sing “become” by myself and then she begins singing a descant part using the word “become”. It’s one of my favorite moments in the whole song.
Recording: We had to record in a hurry, so I opted for just the internal speakers of the computer. Not a great sound, but it works.
I would dare say that there are more lines to be written to this song, but as it is, it’s already very sweet. I hope you like it, too.
Apple
So suffice to say
If you walked away
I would be a lonely apple
In the core of me
There grows a seed
And it’s trying to become
La, La, La
So suffice to say
If you walked away
I would be a lonely apple
In the core of me
There grows a seed
And it’s trying to become
Become, become, become…
Okay, today, I am going into the studio with Franz Nicolay to record the song we wrote for the 365! What an adventure. (For reference: Day 23, Z for Zacharia). I have to leave in a few hours, and not getting home until 3:30 this morning has been an ad…ven…ture!
The Underneath Series. There are a lot of days in the 365. Some days are “good” and some days are “bad”. Some days are just days. All days are learning for me. This is a new series of songs written and recorded underneath things. The next underneath? The George Washington Bridge, maybe?
This is the Table Song.
Writing: Tenor Uke underneath my kitchen table. Sketch and improvised and based on real events. I don’t intend to improvise everything…my excuse? I feel very pre-occupied and busy recently. Busy sometimes means improvisation.
There are some weirdo experimental effects on it just to try it…(sped up tempo took out mids…)
See you soon! Go out on tour again on Monday! HOG FARM show this week in Biddeford, Maine! So excited!
Well, you can’t say I haven’t learned anything. I’ve realized something very significant from yesterday’s posting. All long, I have felt very strongly about being honest and forthcoming in how things are going and how I feel about a particular song. I still feel like there is validity in writing all of that stuff… however, it occurred to me that, though I might be unhappy with a certain portion of a song or feel negatively about a certain aspect of it, it doesn’t mean you have to know about it. In fact, as someone said in a comment, it gets annoying (this secretly hurt my feelings, but I understand it). I also realize that these statements aren’t helping you devise an opinion about the work itself without my own feelings about the work getting in the way. Someone said to me, “You create the art and, when it’s finished, you let it go and just put it out there and let people think what they’re going to think.”
I have been openly writing my feelings about the way a song has been going and making my frustrations apparent for the sake of my own learning and future use. That works privately on paper, but not in the world-wide web where everybody reads everything and remembers everything. So, from here on out, I will tell you what you need to know about the process, not my personal experience with the insecurity of it. In short, I am ridding myself of the need for validity. I simply appreciate that you come and listen. Simply posting what IS will be enough for me now.
Pieces and Parts (Uke Solo):
I thought I might give an insight into a song as it’s being worked on, not just at the end of it. Yesterday, I went to pick up a new tenor uke string. They didn’t have what I needed at the store, but they offered me a replacement alternative which was a .36 gauge guitar string. It is so tight! And I’m finding it makes an interesting sound for me to get ideas. So, this is a rough uke part I have been toying around with. I found several sections in this very simple tuning (E flat, A flat, E flat, A flat) that I put together. I have yet to decide on a melody or words, however, and I’m still working out the kinks in the uke part. Usually words and music come somewhat at the same time, but in this case, I had to teach myself the uke part as I am shifting around frets and playing thirds on two strings.
Pieces and Parts (Vocal Sketch Sample):
I’m also attaching a section of a sketch with vocals I did just as a trial to see if I could find a form. This was recorded well before the drafted uke part below, which has more form. If my mind is locked, I can sometimes free it with some improvisation like I did here. This is the first of about three I did. Any stylistic vocal choices (creative vibrato, unusual word pronunciation, etc.) usually come later unless I’m struck with something from the very beginning.
To be honest, usually, if a song doesn’t strike me with that specific “something” or its composition doesn’t come right away, I put it aside for a while until I give it away or it disappears. I would probably would have done it to do this song, but I’m finding it good to push an initially attractive and then suddenly unappealing song to some kind of finish point: a stick-to-it-ness, so to speak. Maybe this song has something to say, maybe it doesn’t, but trashing it too early on doesn’t help.
I may show this uke part to someone for a collaboration, actually. It’s very helpful to get another ear. I’m actually leaving to collaborate right now: driving to Baltimore to meet with a violinist friend named Emily Price (for real!). Then, off to DC to play with Anna Vogelzang and start the SPRING TOUR!
Julia Mecham is a dear friend and a great songwriter. She is a particularly amazing guitarist as well. I’ve known her for a long time, and, in fact, she has been part of the 365 already as an example of an ode. We did an interesting exercise last night for a new 365 song. Coming home from visiting with friends, I stopped by Julia’s apartment to write. She has roommates and it was already 11 pm. Waking roommates the day before an early class might not have been such a friendly idea, so I invited her into our borrowed tan 2002 Buick Royal to write a song. She sat in the back, I sat in the front, and Jonathan was in the driver’s seat (such a patient man). It became our little universe of non-judgmental song-writing.
The Exercise
The car is a totally different world from where we just came: it is a peaceful, perfect, ego and insecurity-free zone. School and work don’t exist in the car. There is only you, us, and me.
We each alternate in writing a line.
When singing the song, we sing the other person’s line.
Writing: We started writing this song at almost exactly 11 pm and finished at almost exactly 12 am. After alternating writing lines back and forth, passing the computer around each time, we found we had to do a bit of juggling with them, so they aren’t necessarily in written order, but it might make it a little interesting for you to guess who wrote what.
Julia played the uke in a guitar tuning (top 4 strings). We spoke casually about the meter, but I wanted Julia to come up with something organically and then I’d base the melody from what she created. (Yes, I consciously borrowed a piece of this song for the opening line melody. Subtle, yes. Admittedly, there’s a little bit of Mr. Mischievous, too. If you can’t steal from yourself, what good are you?) I woke up early this morning and put a quick bass line with cello on it, but lost the time to do anything more. I’m late in posting because I couldn’t find internet (what an excuse!). This is a draft, obviously, but I think this has potential to be an interesting song, at the very least a great memory in a tan Buick Sedan.
Recording: Yep. In the car. It was a little awkward, but it worked. I must also comment on the fact that writing and recording in a strange and unfamiliar space helps a lot in the creative process. It reminds me of the song I did with Lady Lamb in a cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire back in January. Such a memory as well!
All The Good (Or When You’re in a Buick)
The north wind’s on your breath again
I can taste the dirt on heels of hands
Spit it out with the tip of your tongue
Your spare tire I will be
Tens on tens of revolutions
Made all of glass and man-made parts
Please, oh please, I’ve lost all the good
Leave, oh leave, never thought you would.
A soul of cellophane taken in the wind
Will lose its way but find it again
Someday standing on the shoulders of gray.
Please, oh please, I’ve lost all the good
Leave, oh leave, never thought you would.
Please, oh please, I’ve lost all the good
Leave, oh leave, never thought you would.
I am in Salt Lake City for a few shows. I arrived last night at 11 pm. I waited and waited and waited for my cello to come into “oversized baggage”. Nothing. Come to find out my cello is in New York. I spoke with an incredibly kind woman at the Salt Lake City airport who was so helpful. I am leaving for the airport right now to see if it came in on another flight today. Positive thinking…
Now, I have usually purchased seats for my cello, but I started flying more and more and just can’t afford it. The only way of guaranteeing a sense of peace about flying with your cello is to buy a seat. Even then they hassle you in security. It’s really a no win in the end… people will give you problems no matter what you do.
Writing: It started as a haiku, but it obviously isn’t (5-7-5), but whatever it takes to get you there, you know? Jonathan offers back-up vocals, and the rest is improvisation! Yay! Now, it’s just a little jingle. Delta- I’ll sell it to you for a price.
The “Delta, You’re Awesome” Song
I love you Delta
You left my cello in New York
You are great Delta
This is day three of the Wynn Price catalogue. I have been working on a song I’ve done with field recordings I took from Panguitch, Utah. I have come up with an arsenal of sounds and songs I’ll be posting for the 365. Admittedly, with all this traveling, I’ve been able to get a few days ahead because of all the fortuitous meetings I’ve had with people. I arranged another song with my dad while I was home.
This is one of the first songs to which I remember memorizing all the words. I even remember being taught it in music class in elementary school. I have a hard time remember words, but I remember these! I played the mandolin on this song (since my dad has one). Though the mandolin and the violin have the same tuning, and I feel I have no excuse, I don’t know how to play it that well. It’s a hard instrument for me to play.
Jonathan and I returned this morning at 2 am from Utah. The burial of Jon’s dad, Thomas Cecil Clark, took place yesterday morning in Panguitch, Utah. It was so hard and sad… but happy at the same time: remembering all he was and all he symbolizes. Because it was in Panguitch, as his dad requested, Jonathan was able to take me to Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon. So beautiful. I will post a few pictures later today. As Jonathan and I flew home, I realized we had become that couple on the plane you see who sit really close together and whisper quietly. I have seen couples like this before, sitting very close. There are times when I’ve, very rudely, mentally rolled my eyes and thought, “Get a room.” But maybe they were coming home from burying one of their parents, too. Maybe I shouldn’t have judged them so quickly and harshly. As a person who currently has both her parents still living, it’s hard for me to fully grasp the surreal nature of losing a parent who was close, who was so influential. All I can do is hold his hand and hug him all the time. So, on the plane, that’s what I did, not realizing at first that we had become the couple on the plane I had seen. I thought back to all the times I had flown. I wondered, “How many of those people had just returned from burying someone they loved?”
I do remember one time when I was flying home to Pittsburgh from Salt Lake City. A young woman got on the plane, sat down immediately across the aisle from me and immediately got on the phone before take-off. I could hear her talking about a grandfather and funeral arrangements. When the plane was up in the air I looked over after a while and, in the darkness, I could see her, head in her hands, crying. What an odd experience for me, though I might be construed as the eaves-dropper: interrupting her private moment, subtly, with my eyes and ears. I guess I never thought that girl across the aisle would be me, and, last night, it was.
Sending you lovely thoughts for a hopefully lovely day.
EHP
(woops! Initial post said I was on number 78…let’s fix that…)
My dad, Wynn, and our Alaskan Malamute, Rusty (RIP Rusty!)
Good morning, friend!
I am in Utah for Jonathan’s father’s funeral. I am posting this late (late as in that I’m posting it today instead of last night). I’m mainly late because I had no motivation to post it yesterday. It was rough. I flew in from Austin at about 9 am, was picked up by my parents, driven home get there just in time for the funeral service. It was a lovely tribute to a fantastic man. It was sad, funny, and happy all at once. The day was so long and at the end if it, I was just too tired to post. We are leaving for the graveside service in Panguitch, Utah today which will be held tomorrow morning.
But, this morning, I had the idea to sit down with my dad, who has collected hundreds of instruments in the last few years. My dad is learning the banjo (hammer claw), mandolin, and ukulele. He is mainly teaching himself, though I know he has taken some private banjo lessons. He plays the old classic tunes like I’ll See You Again, Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue, etc. So, I sat down with my dad, and we arranged several songs he and I knew. He has so many instruments I got to pick whatever I wanted. Sadly, I’m not proficient at all on fretted instruments, and find them horribly difficult to play (ironic, I know) I’d understand them better if they didn’t have frets: it would make so much more sense to me…
My dad video taped himself playing this on his uke and sent it to me. I think he is secretly excited that I live in New York, though he often makes fun of me and says I’ll come running back to Utah soon… (hardly! New York is awesome!)
This is kind of bittersweet for me. With Jonathan here with me, I’m relieved, but so sad that his father is no longer here… but it makes me so grateful I can have these kinds of opportunities to share with my awesome dad. He’s funny, sarcastic and hardworking. He loves music. He loves music probably more than I do and that makes me want to love it more, too.
I love you, Dad.
Sidewalks of New York
Written by C. Lawlor and J. Blake
East side, West side; All around the town,
the tots sang “Ring a Rosie,”
“London Bridge is falling down.”
Boys and girls together,
Me and Mamie O’Rourke,
Tripped the light fantastic,
on the Sidewalks of New York
Pearl and the Beard had our first show of the Rebus McEntour 2010 in Philadelphia tonight. It was awesome and sweaty. Now, Jeremy has gone out with the guys (which Jocelyn and I encouraged because he will be spending two weeks with two girls in a cramped SUV- he needs to get guy time whenever he can get it.)
Jocelyn and I stayed in after the show, met some really great people and wrote a song for the 365.
Writing: Things happen when it’s late at night and you’re exhausted. Jocelyn and I alternated writing each line. Jocelyn had a sparkle on her face, so I wrote that as the first line. Joc did the second, I did the third, etc. The “santa on my blue, blue pants” links Jocelyn’s pajamas to this song: she has Santa lobsters on her blue pajamas; and “fragrant roses on your sheets” is the print that’s on the sheets on the bed where we’re sleeping. “Egypt calling to my heart” is about the shirt Jocelyn was wearing to bed: it had Egypt on it. All you need is some stuff and a way of singing about it, no? I’ve talked about Jocelyn’s uncanny ability to write lyrics very randomly and quickly, and this is a good example of her influence in this song. We wrote this in maybe 5-10 minutes or less.
Recording: We ran through it three times and recorded it once. It peaks on the loud parts, but it’s okay. This is a good exercise in just doing it… just do it! Sometimes really interesting things come out, even if it won’t win awards, I now have a good memory with Jocelyn about tender, tender meats!
I hope your tender meats are so tender right now! Stay warm and relaxed, and have some meats! – EHP
Tender, Tender
Sparkle on your face
Sparkle in your eye
I don’t want to talk about it
I want to know why
It’s just a confusing mess
It’s a paradox of life
Candy colored rainbows
Make a unicorn my wife
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, owStab me in the chest you rugged beastHow, how, how, how, how, how, howTender, tender are your meats
Santa on my blue, blue pants
fragrant roses on your sheets
Egypt calling to my heart
Tender, tender are your meats
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, owStab me in the chest you rugged beastHow, how, how, how, how, how, howTender, tender are your meats
Sparkle on your face
Sparkle in your eye
I don’t want to talk about it
Pearl and the Beard At Hog Farm! With Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Santiago and Dilly Dilly. Love is everywhere.
Original posting:
“I am going to quickly post a commercial song until I find my lost charger!”
A few days later, after my charger was found, I am posting something more detailed:
Give me More Color
This song is part of the RPM Project with Guy Capecelatro. Guy, Mike Wolstat and I each wrote 4 songs and traded them, each person adding only two tracks to each song. This final version is missing Mike’s piano track, but I might add it later if I find the right one that belongs with it. With so many files going back and forth, I’m not surprised the right one was was lost in the shuffle. For this song, I tuned my uke up unconventionally and just started playing and improvising. I recorded it and then recorded one take of improvised lyrics on top of the uke. It was weird enough to keep, I guess. The term “Kick back, Holly Jolly” means as much to me as it does to you, so have a good time figuring out what that might be.
