North Carolina

The open road. A sticker-smothered guitar case. Sidewalks, strumming, and pocket change.

They just seem to go together, right?

I like a good road trip every now and then. I just retuned from another such trip to North Carolina, which in many ways is a second or third or fourth home to me.

The impetus for the trip involved a friend's wedding in Boone, which spun out into about a week of dancing and catching up and music. 

Here's a dulcimer shop in Blowing Rock, NC. This guy was so awesome. He let me try many of the dulcimers behind the counter.

Instrument shopping is something I take seriously and I go long-term when I'm making a decision. I need to play a variety of instruments and really feel out which instrument is the best fit for my need and personality. He had some cool ones, including some dulcimers in the shape of a banjo... I have mixed feelings about that.

I did purchase a dulcimer capo, though, in order to increase my current playing potential:

I managed to line up a gig at Tate Street Coffee while I was there. Coffeeshops, again, my favorite of venues. I had a small and extremely dedicated crowd, which are the best! And I played about 18 songs. All in all, a very awesome night.

I have to give a shoutout to all my friends who gave some of their time to catch up and talk to me. I felt really really super-encouraged after my trip was over. On my way home, I even listened to my own music and I was 200% less critical than I normally am. So thanks.

Finally, I stopped over at House of Musical Traditions near DC on my way back up the east coast. I used to live down the street from this store... I never appreciated it the way I should have.

Here we see the wall o ukes. They also had a whole wall of banjos, a dulcimer room (hammered and mountain), various percussion, tinwhistles, guitars (including some guitars upstairs that were too expensive to even breathe on), mandolins, some asian instruments I didn't even know the names of, and I'm probably leaving some stuff out.

Again, I bought nothing. But it caused me to dream again in ways I haven't dreamed in awhile. To imagine a fuller extent of what I could do. And, heck, one day I will buy a new instrument or two or seventeen.

I will leave you with a little happy, courtesy of my friend Jessie. I danced the last waltz in Winston-Salem on Tuesday with a gent by the name of Austin. As you may or may not know, usually that's it for the dance, but on this particular evening, the band (Pilot Mountain Bobcats) struck up this bouncy little number and we couldn't see not dancing to it... so here's a short clip of us doing just that, mostly improvising on swings, and me in my new skirt that my mom made. :)

EcoKeev: Teachings from the root

*** For those of you just joining me, I recently decided to merge my two blogs - EcoKeev and this one - since I don't update either of them enough to warrant having two separate blogs, and since part of being a crazy music lady is the nature aspect, anyhow. ***

These are my baby orange trees. I sprouted them from seed myself last October, and I've only lost one, which is some kind of a new record for me. (I learn 99% of what I do from trial and error, in most cases, and sometimes it's heavier on the error than the trial.)

 They recently outgrew their old "pots." If you can call sliced-up McCafe cups "pots." Their little roots were pressing on the sides and crawling out the drainage holes.

 Roots are utterly fascinating to me. They are so delicate. Yet they insinuate themselves into the soil, gently, patiently, persuasively. So much of a plant's health and appearance depends on its roots. You know the roots are there, because the plant's still alive and healthy. Yet most of the time, the roots are somewhat removed from the scene because you can't actually see them. When you look at a plant, you see leaves, stems, changes from the ground up.

 It may escape your mind completely that the lasting changes are made from the ground down. You can't always tell how a plant or a person is doing just from looking at them. I've had plants with root rot that appear fine for weeks before they even begin to wilt. Green-leafed and cheerful, and then all of a sudden they're beyond help.

 You won't always be able to see what's going on in the minds and hearts of people, even people that are close to you. You might not even be able to see what's going on at your own root level. Appearance can reflect truth, but is not always truth.

 There's a compelling need for people to be sensitive to the true nature of what's happening in their own lives and in the lives of others. To understand that the unseen root is the part that requires attention and care.

Mileage tracking, aLaska Pik tutorial video, fingernail politicks

As of yesterday, I began tracking my mileage. I was inspired by... my taxes. My lesson income did me in. Boooo. There were so many things I could have declared to keep more of my money, and I track my spending pretty thoroughly, but I haven't been separating out the music expenses. Plus I haven't been keen on what to declare or not. My buddy Alex gave me a ton of great tips back in the day... he's been making his living as a musician for years, so he knows all this stuff already. I'm not even going to pretend I understand it all, but I'm feeling pretty good about 2012 being the year where I make a hefty stab at it.

But mileage. I made up my own little spreadsheet and everything. There's some innately nerdy part of my being that LOVES designing spreadsheets. Are they any good? Who knows... they're good enough for me, that's all that matters. It probably helps that I am listening to this awesome remix of the Mario theme. It helps me to feel nerdy and awesome all at once.

I know there's software that does this stuff, but out of a compelling need to be exceedingly thrifty, I am gonna use my brains to use what I already have. Use it up, wear it out, make do, do without. Plus there's the notion that adding more things to your life doesn't necessarily always simplify your life.

Also, I made a video yesterday. I think I had more fun making the thing than anything else. I was thinking maybe I should just make videos that explain things. Because if nothing else, it was lots o fun.



Mostly I made this because there's little to no video demos explaining these things. I have no interest in drumming up sales, I just find that these things are a stroke of genius for someone like me who can't grow good nails (or just plain doesn't want to worry about them, because after all, there are rocks to be scrambled upon and fun romps on playgrounds and who wants to worry about breaking a nail?), More people might benefit from knowing about these picks. I can't believe it took me 13 years to find out about them.

The funny thing about nails is that no one can agree on what's proper. Generally it's accepted that the nails should be used, in modern day, but then again, not by all. None of the great guitar masters ever agreed. Segovia used nails and a lot of people have sort of accepted this, but, still. You see people with ridiculous long nails, you see shorter-nailed people (like me), etc. So really, there's no "normal" here (or anywhere!) and I don't see any harm in breaking some barriers and going after a solution that seems like it might actually fit what I need.

Extreme Pizza, and "Solace" on the youtubes

I gigged at Extreme Pizza in Wilmington the other night. Friday the thirteenth, to be exact. Extreme has been really snazzy - they've hosted a bunch of networking events for the inDEpendence musician network, and we had our FAWM meet and greet there. I enjoyed splitting the evening with friend and fellow songwriter Alyssa Regan. If her music is playing, it is never background music for me, because she's got the awesome intricate piano work which is coupled with some of the most awesome harmonic progressions.

I also posted a new video. I wrote "Solace" as part of 50-90 back in July or August. Most of what I wrote I didn't especially like, to be honest, but I got some keepers like "Sweet Life" and "Branded" and "Abandoned Bandana" and "Petal, Falling" (okay, maybe I liked more of them than I thought).

I'll be the first to admit that I like this song because it showcases a lot of fancy guitar things. I like it because of the tricky harmonic progressions that never quite go where you want them to. But that's not why I play it.

Bindering

Recently, I've been inspired to get my tunes all done up pretty in a binder.

Okay, maybe "pretty" is overkill. Regardless, I began collecting what printouts I have, three-hole-punching, labeling, indexing.

Observations:

• Of the roughly 86 documented songs I've written, 10 are instrumental, 5 are retired. I've got 51 sets of lyrics written down, and 20 still unaccounted for.


• 58 songs were written as a direct result of FAWM or 50/90, songwriting challenges.


• The list doesn't include any of my electronic compositions or compositions from college.


• My earliest songs from middle school and high school have almost all been completely lost. I had songs I'd written for friends as presents, etc. that I have forgotten. I may be able to find them in some of my old notebooks, but for the most part, it seems that I wasn't interested in preserving them at all. In fact, the interest in self-preservation only extends back maybe 3 to 4 years. And, y'know, let's be honest, probably they weren't that good anyhow. The only ones I really remember were the ones I continued to perform, which were instrumental ones like the Banana Peel Rag, because I didn't like to sing then.


• Songs apparently are retired on a basis of wanting to move away from whatever the song was about. Songs written specifically for then-boyfriends were all retired when the subjects became ex-boyfriends. Subsequently I moved away from writing specifically for people. (And let's be honest, I haven't had a beau in a hot minute, which makes it difficult to write for one.) There are also retired songs that were just an emotional blab of whatever, and I eventually made a conscious decision not to play them anymore. I can remember at least one case of finishing performing a song and thinking to myself, "Wow. I don't actually agree with what this song says anymore. I'm not going to play it for an audience ever again." I don't miss the songs I retire, though - they're not forced into retirement :) If I hadn't been compiling, I would hardly have remembered they existed.


• Collaborations have increased exponentially in the last three years. Mostly because of a conscious effort to learn to play nicely with others. It's been a wild and awesome ride.


• All these songs and yes, still, no album. And yes, it now seems more ridiculous than ever. But, y'know, the number of songs is not really the key here, the key is having songs that move. It's nice that I have such a wide pool to choose from.

Compliments versus Critiques

I spent my Sunday. I spent it completely. I zipped out of my house at 9:30 in the morning and crawled back in around 10:30 at night - and it was a day off. Cripes. I do have days that are slower - I do need to breathe - but for the most part, this is just the season of life I’m in.

As it was the first Sunday of the month, there was, of course, a contra dance involved. Generally, there’s time to catch a word or two here and there with your partner as you dance together up and down the line. A swing, or maybe an allemande, where you’re face to face for about eight beats, maybe more.

It was a little unusual when we struck up a conversation that lasted the entire dance, but I couldn’t let this guy off the hook. I’ve known him long enough to know some of his stories. He’s got some background with shows, folk music, and singer-songwriters. Apparently he has known some pretty famous folks from before they were famous. Ordinarily, this would not impress me in and of itself, but the conversation was enthralling, as you will find out:

We ended up getting into a discussion about FAWM and some of the finer points of being an effective singer-songwriter. I’ve had a lot of discussions about this. Here’s where it got interesting for me: this guy generally doesn’t like singer-songwriters.

And yet, he knows them well. He knows what works and what doesn’t, mostly through seeing a ton of what he doesn’t like.

At the end of the dance, I asked him if I could send him a few tracks here and there to critique however he saw fit. To my utter delight, I now have his business card.


Let's get something straight here: I will accept any comment anyone wants to make regarding my music. Gladly and gratefully.

But I will only actively seek comments from folks who A) know what they’re talking about and B) have the guts to be completely honest. And I think any serious singer-songwriter ought to consider who those people are in their lives, ferret them out, and actively pursue their feedback.

Obviously, I’m thrilled that folks feel so moved to compliment my music. That they take the time to encourage me. But I’m looking for the comments that tear everything apart - praise the good, but understand the why of it, and also point out the bad without fear.

It's a kind of mentorship - you go into it with the understanding that the intent is not to tear down, but to build up. Sometimes building up requires tearing out a rotten board or two. You don't have to be embarrassed about it.

The bottom line: If you don’t have a good song to begin with, no amount of production can improve it. If you want a good song, you have to become a student of songwriting. The world is tired of the same cliches and the same stories and the same beaten-to-death harmonic progressions.

(Or at least, I am!! Shoot!!)

FAWM Blog #9: Showcase Showdown

For me, the FAWM season is now done. The songs have all been written, and the showcases have all been SMASHING.

The first, at the Newark Arts Alliance, was recorded entirely by Michael. You can watch the whole playlist on YouTube. (I had to scoot in after a contra dance, which is why I’m wearing my skirt and being barefoot.) The audience was very attentive and eager to interact. Which worked out awesomely on “Sea Song” - I had them humming along... it created a perfect ambiance. It was a great opportunity to play my uke and dulcimer stuff, which I felt would be too troublesome to bust out at other showcases.



The second, held at Extreme Pizza in Wilmington, was kickin’. This was a later showcase put together by our friend and fellow musician Jacopo de Nicola. Many thanks for his thoughtfulness and hard work. It was nice to have an evening showcase - and a Friday night, at that! Jacopo let me borrow his bass so I could play “Your Star.” It was well-received. (Especially by one of the waitstaff who I’m pretty sure was the one hollerin’ at me “I know that’s right” as soon as the bass licks started rollin’)

The third, at the World Cafe Live at the Queen. The staff treated us so well. The sound was great. The food was great. Our audience, attentive and sizable! Bam! And the “Stinkbug Song” finally made its stage debut.

Here’s a photo of us at the end, courtesy of James Simpson Photography:




And also a photo of Matt and myself playing “Let There Be Snow,” courtesy of Michael:



I gave out plenty of CD’s of my FAWM output and I’m thinking I will release the tracks to bandcamp. Just trying to decide whether to post just the 14 that are purely mine, or if I want to ask my collaborators if they’re cool with me putting their work up on my bandcamp. For free. Hmmmm.

Mostly I am proud. Of myself? Yeah, sure. I am. But I am primarily proud of our awesome little community. Three showcases. Many folks showed up at all three. Ten acts at least at each. Incredible talent. (As I frankly told one audience member, “the only difference between us and what’s on the radio is that we’re not on the radio.”)

But... incredible people, too. People whose talent wells up out of a naturalness of self. And the thing is that the selves involved are just beautiful and wonderful.

There was one FAWMer who approached me at a showcase, expressing gratitude towards Michael and me for all of our work promoting and organizing. There was a note of underlying worry. A kind of worry that says “it must have been such a burden for you.”

If you’d ask me, “Were there hard times?” I’d say yes, definitely. But I was blessed to be working alongside of some awesome people who shared them with me. “Did it stress you out?” At times. Life is busy, and enthusiasm is a poor guard against time constraints.

“Was it a burden?” A resounding and emphatic no. Because every step, good or bad, is part of the journey toward this end. I already know the outcome is good. I am already wholly convinced of that. If a difficult thing happens in the process, I can deal with it in its own moment without losing sight of the big vision.

It’s good, people!