I made this beat last year for Christmas … happy holidays.
Peace (beyond this moment),
Kevin
I came back home the other day, after walking our dog in the woods after a snow storm, and noticed the different kinds of walking I had done — short choppy steps, long strides, happy walking, long breaths, etc. And then I decided to try to capture those rhythms of stepping into an instrumental beat song. This is it.
It’s best heard with earphones, I suggest, as the layers of sound are mixed in and experienced best with it close to your head. The tin cans of computer speakers won’t do it justice (in my opinion).
You can also listen here as a regular music file
Peace (listening in),
Kevin
A few years ago, my good friend, John, and I went into a local recording studio to put down tracks for a song we had written (years before that) as a holiday gift of song. Each year, I try to share it out and hope our Gift of Peace brightens your day. The video was shot and produced by my eldest son.
While it was written as a Christmas song, I hope its message of passing the peace to one another might resonate whatever your beliefs might be, religious or not.
The song is on all streaming sites, and I got a kick the other day of hearing it again on Pandora. If you search A Gift of Peace (for Christmas) by the Lullabyes, you should be able to find it.
Peace (in the world),
Kevin
Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy is always an interesting read, or listen. In his new book – How To Write One Song — Tweedy turns teacher and cheerleader, urging people to find ways to be creative. Or, as the title suggests, to try to write a song.
Tweedy is certainly a talented songwriter, as far as I am concerned, and I liked the folksy voice he inhabits here, in this book, as he tries to explain the magic of being creative — of losing yourself in the moment of making art out of ideas and inspiration — and then moves into his own routines and practices around writing songs.
I’ve read enough books about writing in general (and the teaching of writing, which is what I do with sixth graders) to know there is nothing revolutionary here in terms of his advice and suggestions, but I appreciated the way he pulls it together, and his explanations of how to stitch ideas to music (even if you only know an elementary level of any instrument) to recording demos (he advocates finding a simple record/play app) was helpful.
For me, a songwriter myself, the best parts of the book were when Tweedy tries to find a way to explain what happens when he loses himself in the making of a song, and how three hours or so can go by, and he comes up for air, invigorated and inspired by a few verses set to simple strumming of his guitar.
Tweedy reminds us that creating art is something unexplainable at times. But when it comes together, it can be something beautiful, in both its outward expression (how it looks, how it sounds, etc.) and the inwards satisfaction of the one who has created it.
I kept nodding my head at these parts, appreciative of his way of grappling with artistic expression in ways that just cannot be fully explained in words or writing. In that, is the magic, and why I (and maybe you) keep coming back to the guitar or piano or whatever to make music.
Nothing energizes me or enlightens me or gives me comfort like when I am writing a new song that has some kernel of truth and possible beauty to it (even if that beauty is only in the eyes and ears of the beholder).
Tweedy also put out a new album – Love is King — that he references in the book and Rolling Stone Magazine has a good interview with Tweedy.
Peace (strumming it),
Kevin
“Monarchs in motion” by farflungphotos is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
I was working with a collection of sounds and beats and loops yesterday called Monarch, and I wasn’t sure if it was in reference to the butterfly or something else, but the aspect of floating/flying came to mind as I built out this track entitled: Baby Ah (Some Beats Can Fly).
Peace (wings and prayers),
Kevin
I caught a listen to this song from a local musician – Jim Armenti — that was supported by our local arts organization. I love how Jim captures our small city’s collective efforts in the Pandemic to stay safe and support each other. I hope yours, does, too.
And then a local arts/dance group made this, too, in the park down the street as a way to help get out the vote.
Peace (singing it),
Kevin
I’ve long loved listening to the Song Exploder Podcast, and now the program — which breaks apart songs, piece by piece, deconstructing how a song was written and produced — is on Netflix, too, and I’m enjoying that experience, too. An episode on REM was fascinating as was the one on Ty Dolla $ign (which my teenage son, a music producer, sat down to watch with me).
There are only four episodes right now on the Netflix channel, but the two that I watched were excellent, and the other two — about Lin Manuel Miranda and Alicia Keys look like they could be fascinating, too. Host Hrishikesh Hirway does a great job of celebrating the music but also probing the creative spirits that helped forge a specific song.
Peace (sounding good),
Kevin
Last night, for the first time since early March, I made my way to my friend’s house to play rock and roll with my bandmates. The Pandemic had shut us down, and as one who will soon be in a building of many people (students and teachers), I am a little leery of being in someone else’s house.
But they all agreed and I was eager, and so we gathered to try to remember some songs we haven’t thought about for seven months, and I tried to get a singing voice in shape (I am a fill-in singer while we look for a lead singer and a bass player, a project also put on the back burner in March).
It felt good to run my fingers along the keys of my tenor saxophone and to get warm sounds into the air. (I had left it there but had an alto here at home). It felt even better just to connect with my friends through music, even if some parts were a little rough. There’s something magical about musical connections.
My voice is a little hoarse this morning, and I hope it holds out for my teaching today. I tried to not overdo it last night, keeping the singing to a minimum, but …. that’s rock and roll for you.
Peace (when music fills the air),
Kevin
I had been working on a music track with hope in my mind when I learned of the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, so I quickly pivoted the song to honoring her and her words, and her voice. The Hope image comes from my friend, Sheri Edwards, and the colorful spectrogram running behind Sheri’s art was created from the audio track itself. Some of us in CLMOOC are working to create pieces of art related to the theme of Hope.
Peace (and hope),
Kevin