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!!)

Contra Dancing!

(I'm double-posting. I don't care.)

I'm happy to say that I've joined up as a board member for the Arden contra dance, which is my "home" contra dance by virtue of the fact that it is the closest dance. 30 minutes is pretty close... by my own informal research, an hour seems like a typical drive, two hours or more is common for a special dance.

Anywho, so now I'm helping. I like helping. Since I'm pretty good at internet, I took over interneting. I had to think for a hot minute about a page versus a group for the contra dance facebook presence, and I went with a group.

It took me about a week of serious thought and research (e.g. poking around on the internet) to get to that point. It seemed counter to the social media training and intuition I've got. When I took over things for the park, it was... kind of a mess. By "mess," I mean that there were a few different groups and no fan page for the park. No one seemed to understand what the difference was between the two, and to be fair, it took awhile for the differences to emerge in actual user experience. Very basically, pages are what you use if you're a business. Groups are what you use if you're a community.

The park needed a page; contra dances need groups. Simply put. I'll be happy to explain in detail if you care to know why.

So it's over here! Yay!

I also will be doing some e-mail list stuff. And, obviously, I hope to get more folks involved. I'm not just talking about my friends - I go back and forth between feeling like I'm harassing folks versus doing them a disservice by not including them. All I'm trying to do is make more people aware that you can get three hours of live music, exercise, culture, dance instruction, awesome people, and fun for only ten bucks.

FAWM Blog #2: Full speed ahead

You can find my up-to-date FAWM page here:
http://fawm.org/fawmers/emkeev

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I've been tracking roughly a song a day.

Practical consequences:

• Eating has taken a hit. I now consume one giant meal per day, with little snackies all around. The problem is not the having of food. The problem is that I will write a song for several consecutive hours and during that time, I leave the mortal realm altogether. Exaggeration or not - except for extreme circumstances, I have no concept of hunger or physical needs during the time I'm writing songs.
  
• Sleep has taken a hit, but that's nothin' new.
  
• Eyelids have begun to twitch.
  
• "I can't, I have to write a song" has become a standard excuse for not doing something.
  
• The house is only marginally more dirty, as I have managed to keep pace with most of the mess.
  
• I'M SO HAPPY.
  

I wrote two instrumentals. Earth and Sky (mp3) is electronically composed. I was so tired and hungry when I uploaded it (extreme circumstance) that I dissolved into a fit of self-loathing, tore it down, and went to sleep. I felt better when I woke up, so I put it back up. All's well. I had fun writing it, though, honestly. I think my main damage was that I hadn't really decided what the song was about. Even if there's no lyric, a song (to me) needs a direction, a thought, something to tie it together. So I ended up with what I think of as a song with multiple personalities. But I do like it.

Then there was "Waltz for a Clementine." (youtube)



I opted to make a video because I wanted folks to experience this really cool instrument. My performance is a little heavy-handed because I was just flat-out enjoying myself. I do like the piece itself. It's honestly not at all what I was expecting to write - I originally picked up the guitar and the notebook and ended up with a dulcimer tune with no words. Go figure. The title's from something I heard yesterday at the dance... one of my friends was waltzing around with lemonade and then told the story of another friend who was waltzing with a clementine... I knew the title was "Waltz for a" something, and Clementine just seemed to fit.

I love my dancing friends. Have I said that recently? I'm thrilled they're a part of my life. I went yesterday to the Arden contra dance, alone, having neglected to try to coerce anyone into joining me due to the busy times of FAWMing. But when I got there, I was joined by some good people from New Jersey and then we met with another good person in Philly and life was just... really... good.

I also really enjoy musicking with Matthew Halley, who did a really awesome collab with me this evening. He's adding a little folk harp and throwing it together soon. It's gonna be sweet. We've jammed a handful of times over the last month and it's been great having another detail-oriented music person to bounce stuff off of.

Speaking of bouncing - I'mma bounce to bed.

New year, new website, new FAWM.

WEB
SITE
IS
UP
!!!!!!!!!


Entirely designed and coded by myself, and YES, I am proud of that. A co-worker and I set a deadline of December 31st, since we each had a website that we wanted to finish. Here's hers! (She runs a quilting business out of New Castle County in DE.)

The site itself a pretty basic affair, and that's how I like it. Not too much stuff. Just enough stuff, and then links out to social media for anyone who cares to follow. It is amazing how social media and other such stuff has changed the way we use the internet. All I had to do was come up with a very basic template for my website, and then copy and paste code from ReverbNation and YouTube. All of a sudden, my website streams audio and video and upcoming events. Magic.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Michael, who cared enough to give me feedback here and there and helped me find a good hosting service. ^^ Thanks!

I want to get an e-mail list set up because I think I have people who'd prefer to get their news that way... but for now, I will revel in the completion of this step.

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And HAPPY NEW YEAR! I had meant to write some sort of thing about how 2011 is over and blah blah blah, but honestly I was too busy contra dancin'! ^^ The Cosmic Otters played at Glenside on Friday for a New Year's Eve Eve dance (complete with toast at midnight!). Then, I danced yesterday at Arden to the playin' 'n pickin' of the Contra Rebels. Good, good times, and what a way to end one year and begin another. ^^

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Speaking of a new year, FAWM... is just around the corner... ^^ Now that Christmas is out of the way, it's time to go go go with the FAWMinatin', organizing, the awesome chaos of it all.

Head for the Hills, Open Mic Adventuring, etc.

Welp.



Watch the video. Then, if you care to read on...!


Thursday: Open mic at Steel City in Phoenixville. Driving up 202/other PA routes in the rain at night was the most awful idea I've had in awhile. I really actually don't do well driving at night, which I made fun of in a (mostly) improvised thank-you song for Cara. Steel City is real snazzy. Unfortunately, we got mixed up on the sign-up time. Lesson learned: websites lie/get outdated. Call a human being. If you can. We still got to do one song each right at the very end, which is better than nothing for the 1.5 hour drive we made.

Michael said it first, and I agree: the place was full of talent. There was not a single "meh" performer up there. I'd definitely be interested in going again if I can get a good handle on when sign-up starts and get on the road sooner. I really love coffeehouse open mics. Bars are fine, but I feel more pressured to cater to the raucous bar audience with covers when I really want to be doing quieter originals.


Head for the Hills was really fantastic. I'm not wanting to post a play-by-play, as it was really a jam-packed weekend. My favorite bits:

• Learning hambo! Hambo's a Swedish dance that's very tricky and can't be picked up like some dances. The workshop was well-done and it's not easy to teach, so it really speaks to the level of expertise of the instructors.
  
• Joining the pickup band in the middle of the dance floor, and onstage for three sets. It's incredible to be seated with 20-30 other talented musicians on one stage and just play dance music. I left my iPod in the cabin for most of Saturday, which I really regretted when I was playing in the pickup band. I would have liked to show a little of that.
  
• Campfires, impromptu communal singing, and late-night shenanigans. I regarded them as equal to any other workshop I participated in. :) 3 AM on Sunday found us 20-30somethings sitting on the floor in our dorm eating from a small cornucopia of variously contributed foods. By the end of the weekend, my sleep total was seven hours but my happiness percentage was seven thousand percent.
  

I think if I had to sum it up in one word, it'd be camaraderie. Sometime Saturday, people began to realize that I came by myself. They all assumed I had come up with this group or that group, and I think that just speaks to the true nature of it all. Just as you ask someone to dance, or as you would accept that invitation, you step into the community and take hands four and smile. This is a bunch of people who come together to dance, play music, eat food, try new things, teach old things. The give and take of the dance itself is echoed tenfold in everyone's collective heart. Give and take songs, new dance flourishes, encouragement, joy.

November madness

The madness never really stops!

So. What's going on.

• Playing the Gathering Place at Klondike Kate's tonight
  
• Adventuring out with Michael tomorrow for to see and play at an open mic at the Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, PA (and seeing superfan Cara!)
  
• Adventuring further on my own this weekend for dancing, dancing, musicking at Head for the Hills; I don't count my ducks before they hatch but I'm hoping to have some cool video to show you afterwards so that you can all be jealous that I had so much fun and got to make so many new friends. But I am really terrible at taking videos/photos of anything I do because I would rather be enjoying myself in the moment.
  
• Announced today: our supergroup dealiebobber (myself, Paper Janes, Battleshy Youths, ???) will be playing at the Queen, downstairs (!) on Thursday, December 1. Tickets are ON SALE! :) Come out and see us.
  

I reckon we'll probably have to practice or something ridiculous like that...!

I think we'll be featuring some of our Christmas tunes from the album, which has been all mastered up and is totally awesome-sounding. Really, seriously. A great product from a great time which was started by a great vision.

For now, I run, for I actually did not have time to blog this evening but oh well. :3

Jammin' at the dance

Of the past 24 hours, I have spent 6 dancing. That's a quarter of my whole day. My body's pleasantly tired and my heart's full of joy. There are probably better feelings than this, but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you where to find them.

The memory of my first contra dance is pretty hazy. It ought to have occurred somewhere in Greensboro, North Carolina, about 5 or 6 years ago, but it seems like it's always been a part of me. When asked to describe contra dance, I usually say, "it's a little like square dancing -- the moves, anyway, but it's done a lot like English country dancing -- like in Pride and Prejudice," which I reference though I don't think I've managed to sit through it yet.

However, this simplified description doesn't capture the essence of the dance; it tells you only about the dance itself. When I go to a contra dance... I go because I want to be surrounded by people who are full of joy, who are smiling at you and having a good time and are ever so pleased that you are dancing with them. It is a celebration of joy and other really simple, basic pleasures.

And it is a community, with lots of different roles filled by lots of different people by lots of different places. Organizers. Musicians. Dancers. Callers. Workshop leaders. The folks with the audio equipment who do the soundboard. They come from miles around... for most regular contra dancers, an hour or less of travel time is relatively close.

Contra dancing has never been anything other than an interest or a hobby for me, but I still consider it to be an area where I'm active musically -- even if it's just a jam session, like this one, after the Arden contra dance this evening. These folks are from the Baltimore Open Band and SPUDS from Philadelphia (collectively known as the Mason-Dixon Contra Dance Orchestra), as well as a few musically-inclined dancers (like myself).



Many contra tunes are known throughout the community of musicians -- certain tunes, standards, anyway. This makes it pretty easy to jam. Essentially we were just going around the circle and naming tunes we knew. The folks that knew them played along, the few folks that didn't would just listen, or try to play as best they could.

It's sort of funny because... I love it so much, but I haven't really actively tried to learn the music. Why not? Well, here's the notion... and it's completely stupid, but I know you will understand because you, too, have thought stupid things like this...

I think that it would be easy, so I've never tried.

I have to laugh at the audacity of that statement. How would I know it's easy if I've never tried it? That's pride, and I know it, and God knows it. He's like, "well, if it's so dang easy, why don't you do it? Go pick up the banjo, guitar, recorder, whatever, and go play the darn stuff. The sheet music's up on the Lancaster contra dance page, and you know it."

And I'm all, "WELL, MAYBE I WILL." And I haven't, yet... but I love finding out where I have pride and then trying to break it down. Learning the stuff would be a great way of doing just that. I have no intention of being a pretentious jerk, so while it's disappointing to uncover a piece of pretentious jerk in me, it's awesomely fun to destroy it.

There's no life where there's pride. There's life in the humble and the simple things, and that's where I'm tryin' to go.

Goin' to Carolina... in real life.

I'm in North Carolina right now, couchsurfing at my friends' houses, catching up, seeking advice, and generally enjoying the snot out of myself. Liz and I went contra dancing last night to the tuneful playin' of the McKenzies:



I even have a gig tonight at Tate Street Coffee House :) Just 'cause I wanted an opportunity to share with my friends all that I've been writing and doing these days. It'll be fun to see how it all turns out. Also, I'm completely stoked about it.

More later! I'm running late for lunch with a friend!