Music Friday!

A run down of some music I've come across, just for you. Yes, specifically for you.


Join me on a little musical journey after the break!

The Song Project: All of us are Strangers

Here's the song: All of us are Strangers


I've always been interested in the accident of birth. I don't believe in any guiding intelligence; it's always seemed to me at heart a cruel concept. If it was the choice of some being that I should be born into relative comfort, with loving parents, a (relatively) sharp mind, and all my advantages, then it was also that being that chose people to be born into the most horrendous, hellish lives; to be born broken. To be born into famine and disease. 

New Project Songs, and My Absence

Yeah, I know. It's been awhile. 


I had a bit of a stumble - I went to Virginia for a gig, then got a bit sick, and soon I was two weeks behind on my song project. I'm almost caught up, but now there's another impediment. The Friday before last, on my way to my usual busking spot (Main and Howard), I did something stupid. I was carrying my guitar case on my shoulder, as I do when I'm hauling my busking gear. I turned my head at precisely the wrong moment, and walked straight into a parking meter. Full speed. And of course, the impact came entirely on my left ring finger, smashing it between the metal meter and my hard guitar case.


I set up and tried to play through it, but couldn't get past two songs. My finger was swollen and purple. Damn it! Here it is, a week and a half later, and I still can't play my guitar. So frustrating.

Gig Weekend

It's arrived. Another gig with Baaba Seth - my worldbeat band on the East Coast, for anyone who doesn't know. Every year I fly back once or twice for a show. It's always a blast. I love playing solo acoustic, but there's nothing like the rush of playing with these awesome musicians and good friends.

The Song Project, Week Six

Oh man, if there was a way to monetize forgetfulness, I'd be a rich man. Once again, I forgot to put out a blog post on time. Ah well. For week six, I didn't record the song at all in my studio; I filmed myself playing it and posted in on Youtube here. I've also filmed the previous five songs, plus an intro. They can be seen in this playlist.

This song, called "The Wilds of the Day," was written very quickly - in about one and a half hours. I had several stops and starts on Thursday (my usual songwriting day). I went in about three different directions, and then hit on this particular motif.

The Song Project, Week Five

The song is here.

Butterfly is a story about a girl in Coeur D'Alene who has died from an OD. Needless to say, the story is fictional! This song is short and to the point. I had started writing a very different song, with a different style, but realized that the path I had chosen would have taken far too long.

The Song Project, Weeks Three and Four

I just realized that while I did record and post my song for Week Three (here it is), I never blogged about it. I spent the last week down in the Jackson Hole area without a computer, so I'm just now getting caught up. I wrote song Four while I was down there, but let's start with song Three:

The Song Project, Week 2

First of all, my apologies for getting this one out almost a week late. I did finish the song on time, but Blogger was acting very strange for me, and I wasn't able to post anything. Turned out I needed to dump my cookies (A phrase that would have been rather humorously nonsensical only a few years ago...).


So, here's the song. And now, the timeline of its creation:

The Song Project, Week One

So here's my first song. It's called Lose the War. I guess.

I'll admit, this was far tougher than I thought it might be. I had so much trouble letting go of my sense of perfection about the lyrics. I don't think they're terrible or anything, but I spent way too much time this week wrestling with them. I ended up running out of time before I had a chance to write and record a bridge.

Over all, I think it's a pretty decent song. For next week, I'm going to try and spend less time writing, to make it more challenging. Again, I'm going for a complete song, not necessarily a "great" song.

Songwriting Challenge

OK, this will be a quick one. I've decided to do a songwriting exercise. I'm going to write a new song every week, record it as well as I can, and post it online every Thursday evening. I really think that forcing myself to write like this will improve my songwriting; and putting it out there will help me get over my self-consciousness about my music, and it'll probably help me write better material while loosening up my sense of perfectionism. So, stay tuned. I've started on this week's tune, and I'll post it Thursday evening.

The idea is to write with fewer constraints as far as good/bad judgments go. Obviously I won't be trying to write badly, but the goal is more to write a complete song, not necessarily a "great" song, every week.

Wish me luck!

The Creative Spark

If you ask a room full of six-year-old kids how many of them can draw, almost all of them will raise their hands. Ask the same question to a room full of eighteen-year-olds, and very few will respond affirmatively. So what has changed in that time? Are the younger kids delusional, or have the teenagers succumbed to the common notion that creativity is the province of some inborn ability? Is the development of our creativity really any different than developing any other skill?

Most of us tend to think of creativity as something someone either has, or doesn't have. This belief is reinforced in many ways. Most of us knew someone in school who seemed to be able to draw, play an instrument, or write, at a level far beyond their peers. It seemed to come from nowhere, really. And throughout our school years, we are taught in an analytical fashion that suppresses creative thinking. There's only one right answer. There's one way of solving a problem. By the time we finish school, our thinking about creativity is entrenched.

Busking, Updates

Dear reader, my apologies for the lack of posting recently. Once I finished going over all the songs, finding material to blog about has been more of a challenge. So here's a general update.

I've been busking regularly for a couple months now. On July 4, I played for six hours in the park, with one half-hour break. My fingers are getting very tough. In fact, the callouses on my left hand are so thick, my iPod Touch often refuses to respond to my left hand, won't recognize it as skin I guess.

I'm not much for playing covers, but I did recently add one to my busking repertoire - Steve Earle's classic Ft. Worth Blues. It's a great song, and to my surprise it fits my voice better than I thought it might. Particularly if I let my inner Virginia drawl come through a little bit.

Evolution of a Song

When you go to see a band play live, what are you looking for? Do you want to hear the 'hits' reproduced note for note, but with a flashy stage show? Or do you prefer hearing musicians whose repertoire undergoes a distinct evolution from the recording? I've always been in the latter camp - and most of the musicians I know are the same way. If I want to listen to the album, I'll do it in the comfort of my own home. Why on earth would I want to risk my eardrums, have beer spilled on me, get jostled by young people too busy screaming for the hit to listen to the music, and have to stand up for hours on end, if all I'm getting out of it is something that would be far more satisfying delivered to my ears in the much more relaxing setting of my home?

Dirk's Rules of Busking

Ok, so maybe I haven't busked much yet. Maybe it's a bit premature to make a list of "rules." But I've also been performing my music for 30 years, and a lot of the guidelines are the same no matter what venue you are playing. I returned downtown on Saturday, this time from 1:30 til 3:45 in the afternoon. I wasn't nearly as successful as Friday evening in terms of tips, but still made a little cash. Next week I'll do it in the early evening and see if that works out better.

So, here's my tentative and surely far from complete list of busking rules:

Busking in Spokane

On Friday evening, I spent a few hours busking downtown here in Spokane. I've been writing and playing for 30 years, and yet tonight was the first time I have ever actually busked. I decided to do it because I thought it would be a great way to get in a lot of practice and hone my performing skills.

I was a little nervous about the process; I started by doing some online research. Both Busker Central and Buskers Advocates had some good tips. I also wanted to make sure I complied with any relevant laws. Apparently Spokane has gone through some busking battles in the last couple of years. Rick Bocook (known as Harpman Hatter) led the fight, and it seemed to be fairly successful. There's also a lot of Supreme Court precedent supporting busking as protected speech.

Making "Division Street," Part Eight: Don't Let Your Troubles Be Your Guide

The song.

A couple of years ago, my lovely wife Tracy started learning to play the fiddle. Since then we've been playing a lot of Old Time and Celtic music together. It prompted me to start learning the banjo and mandolin, both of which ended up playing a big role on Division Street. Of all the songs on the album, Don't Let Your Troubles Be Your Guide was the most influenced by the music we've been playing. The chord changes and the melody are both more in line with Old Time music than any song I've written before. It was a lot of fun to write and record, and I'll probably do more music in this vein in the future.

Remmy Ongala: We Lose the Greats Too Soon

Late last year the music world lost one of its great lights. On December 13th, Remmy Ongala passed away in his home in Dar Es Salaam. The Tanzanian guitarist and singer gave Congolese Soukous a distinctly Tanzanian flavor and was beloved by his countrymen. He was known for the intricate and soaring guitar lines that infused his songs.

Toumani Diabate and his Symmetric Orchestra

I've never been to Bamako, but this would be such a great place to see the master and his band!

If you missed it back when it came out, I highly recommend the album Boulevard de L'Independence. Toumani is amazing on the kora, and his band lives up to his high musical standards. Very satisfying release. I missed the chance to see them live in Seattle a few years ago, I've regretted it ever since.

A Quick Side Note

In addition to my music and drawing, I love talking about politics and related issues. And since 2002, I've been doing just that at a great forum called America's Debate, where I am a moderator. The site is run by Mike and Jaime, a couple from Savannah, Georgia, and I think the site is unique among the many political debate sites out there. It's different because it is tightly moderated. Not in a way that stifles opinion, though. The moderation is geared at keeping debates on topic, and for keeping debates from devolving into flame wars. The discussions get heated, but because of our rules about sourcing our opinions, being civil, and keeping on topic, it's just a great place to find mostly intelligent debates about current issues.

If you like to discuss politics, and value intelligent and thoughtful debate, come check us out!

Femi Kuti: Africa For Africa

I don't remember exactly when I first discovered the music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti; but there was a powerful mojo about his music that pulled me in right away. I had come to African music through the same door as so many other Americans - Paul Simon's Graceland - but unlike many of them, I took up residence. I couldn't hear enough. Still, it took me a while to get to Kuti. I went through Mbaqanga, Soukous, Shona, Mbalax, Makossa/Makassi... but eventually I got to Nigerian Juju music, and through that, found Fela. 

Fela was, in my opinion, one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. He combined the electric charisma of Bob Marley, the endless funk and soul of James Brown, and the political urgency of a revolutionary. He was certainly a musical genius. His band was often huge, often 15 to 20 musicians or more. And at its base was an interconnected groove that belied the ego stroking approach of much American music. Listen to a 20 minute Fela song, and you might notice a subtle guitar line that repeats for the entire time. A percussionist might hit the cowbell every measure for the whole song. Sounds repetitive when I write it here, but it wasn't. It was beautiful. The musicians contributed piece by piece to a massive, unstoppable groove. It wasn't unusual for a song to play for 10 or 12 minutes before the vocals even came in.

Making "Division Street," Part Seven: Division Street

Listen to the song HERE 

 

 In Which We Transplant and Explore

We moved to Spokane in the middle of June last summer. I came across Division Street the first time I drove around to get my bearings. It's hard to miss, really. It's the big North-South line running down the middle of the city. On the East side of Division is Gonzaga University. On the West side, our little neighborhood is nick-named "Felony Flats." We found this out the day we were moving in. But it really isn't bad. It's just got character! There's all sorts of entertainment. Once, we saw a whole mess of police cars scream up to the apartments opposite our house. Police were spreading out, running around, obviously trying to find someone. [I haven't lived here long enough yet see much for myself, but I've heard reports of problems with police brutality here] Another time we woke early one weekend morning to find an inebriated man in our back yard. He was standing, leaning in a corner beneath a tree, apparently dozing. I went out back to send him on his way. He was quite confused and wandered off. Needless to say we installed a lock on the gate posthaste! But we've never been bothered or felt threatened. Our neighbors are nice.

Interlude: Brett Dennen's "Loverboy" (Review)

Today I downloaded Brett Dennen's new album, Loverboy. It's probably one of the first times I've ever bought an album so soon after it came out. I'll admit, I don't tend to keep very current with music news. There's a number of artists, Dennen included, who I keep an eye out for, but it's often a month or more before I'll see a new release is out. But this time around, Brett did something that got me engaged in the process leading up to the release. I follow his page on Facebook, and a while back, he posted a link to a video clip, which I clicked on out of curiosity. It was a short snippet from the recording sessions for Loverboy. Ever since I started putting my home studio together, I've been especially fascinated by film clips from studio sessions. Then he posted another one. As easy as that, I was hooked into the process. So here we go. This will be my third listening of the album, so these will be fairly fresh impressions of the songs, not studied critiques!

Making "Division Street," Part Six: Alibi

First, here's the song: Alibi

I've always admired writers like Steve Earle and Randy Newman. They are both masters at "story" songs, something I've never been good at. I tend to write what I call "concept" songs, where the meat of the song is an idea or a "feel." My lyrics are often abstract; my natural voice just doesn't lend itself easily to story lines and characters.

Making "Division Street," Part Five: Stone

It All Started...

About two years ago, I sat down in my studio, plugged in my guitar, and started noodling. In my recording software, I have a practically unlimited number of sounds I can get with my guitar. And sometimes, one of those sounds will be the impetus for a new song. On this particular day, I was feeling mellow, so I started dialing through some sounds that would fit my mood. I liked the sound of the heavy tremolo, so I started messing around with it. Pretty soon, I had the verse and chorus that would become Stone. Once I had the chord changes working to my satisfaction, I added in piano. It sounded nice, now I just needed some lyrics.

Why do we write songs?

I often wonder why I write songs. After all, I don't make much money from it, and I have a fairly small audience. I'm often less than satisfied with the results; there's so many amazing songwriters out there whose output leaves me feeling inadequate. So why do I persist? I wish I knew. But it's an incredibly strong drive - strong enough that I classify my need to make music right up there with the need to eat, drink, or breathe.

Writing songs isn't about coming up with new ideas. In fact the songs that work best speak to the feelings and concepts which all of us share and can identify with. What makes a song great is that it speaks to these universal feelings in a novel or poetic way. It might provide some imagery that makes us say "that's exactly how I feel, but I haven't been able to put it into words so well."

Making "Division Street," Part Four: Lovers Left Behind

Here's a link to stream the song: Lovers Left Behind

Of all the songs on this album, "Lovers Left Behind" went through the most stylistic changes during its evolution. For a long time I was sure it would be a very acoustic song - just acoustic guitar and ukulele with vocals. At some point during the recording sessions, I experimented in a new direction: I added electric guitar, drums, bass, banjo, and was writing horn parts. It went from an acoustic first verse to a pretty rocking, kind of worldbeat groove. I still like it - and it's what I'd want to do if I were to play the song with Baaba Seth. But it was going to add a huge amount of time to the recording process, and I was really trying to get all the recording done by March 1st. So I scaled it back a bit. I might still go for the full-on version for another project, but bringing it back down a few levels was the appropriate choice for the context of Division Street.

Making "Division Street," Part Three: Delilah

"Delilah" is the sparest song on the album: acoustic guitar, ukulele, bass, and vocals. I added the ukulele at the very end of the recording process. I was actually in the mixing phase, and when I was working on this song, I felt like it could just use a little something. I tuned the ukulele slightly differently than usual, to get an interesting sound; I can't even recall where I tuned the strings, which reminds me of a story I once read about Joni Mitchell. Apparently she did a lot of "random" guitar tunings in her earlier songs. Some time more recently, she was going to re-record some of those old songs, and as she couldn't recall what the tunings were, she had to enlist the help of a musicologist or something to help her analyze the songs to determine how the guitars were tuned!

Musings on the Creative Process

Writing songs is a strange thing. With twelve notes, it's amazing we can continue to come up with novel melodies. And where do they come from? I don't think any composer can really answer that. Many of the songs I am proudest of having written really just dropped out of the ether, often almost fully formed. I wrote the lyrics to "Heart of the Lion" in the middle of the night. I woke up and wrote down the entire song. Weird. Of course, I did some re-writing and editing after that, but the basic idea was fully formed in a process I am incapable of really describing, because it is a process the mechanism of which I do not know or understand.

Making "Division Street," Part Two: The Winter Line

Before I got down to the business of recording "Division Street," I decided it was time to up my studio game. I spent hours and hours reading everything I could about recording and mixing. And I decided to upgrade some of my gear, along with doing some "on the cheap" acoustic work on my studio room.

A few years ago, after I switched from ProTools to Logic, I replaced my Digidesign 002 with an Apogee Ensemble. I've been very happy with it - it has very clean, very decent pre-amps, and it integrates wonderfully with my Mac. So I knew I was OK in that department. I still had the 002 sitting around, however, so I pulled it out, cleaned it up, and sold it on Craigslist. With the money from that, I first purchased a pair of small diaphragm condenser microphones. I went with the MXL603s Stereo Matched Pair, which was well reviewed for the price range. I was considering getting a new large diaphragm condenser to replace mine - a Studio Projects C1 LDC Microphone - but thankfully, I tested the waters by asking around over at Gearslutz.  It turns out, there's a company called JJ Audio that does microphone mods. For $150, I could get my C1 modded, instead of buying a new mic. After listening to the mic shoot-outs posted on his site, I opted for the mod, and I've been very happy with the results.

The Making of a New Album, Part One

Having a home studio has definitely changed my approach to writing songs. In many ways it’s been made easier, but you have to get past the distractions of infinite sound manipulation. When I first got my studio set up, I found myself doing an awful lot of creating, but I had a lot of trouble completing songs. It was just so easy to get sidetracked by all the options available. I’d come up with a great chord sequence, but then instead of buckling down and focusing on the task of hammering out a full song, I’d get distracted by the studio. Instead of working on the changes and the arrangement, I’d listen to the chord sequence, and hear a bass line in my head. Out comes the bass, and I’d record a bass line for that set of chords. Ooh, maybe some piano would sound good in there! Oh, and how about a banjo line?