I though I'd do a little writing about the songs on the upcoming album, so here's episode 1! This isn't the first song on the record, but it's the title song, so that's what I'm starting with.
I'm a member of a songwriting group that gets together online every other month or so. We do a challenge week in which we write a song a day for a week. There really aren't any rules, it's just a mechanism to get the work in motion. The trick is to write the song and post it to the group, and not worry too much. Sometimes the songs are good, sometimes not so much. But you wrote a song, and that's the point. If you're interested in things like that, check out Timmy's page- Fearless Songwriting.
The prompt that day was ‘one angel wing,’ so I was writing directly to the prompt, which is not required and doesn't always happen. But my first thought was- that won't get you very far. And the song took off from there. It's not the most serious thing I've ever written by far, but it was fun riffing on the idea of being ‘half good,’ which is sort of like ‘half pregnant.’ When I'm writing, I try to keep my focus very close to the ground- what's the next line? What rhymes? Where might this go next? I mostly don't think about big ideas or themes, or messages. If I'm doing it right, the song tells me what it needs to be.
This song was the first song we recorded in what has become an album. We started working on it in the pandemic, emailing sound files back and forth between Brian McRae's studio and John and Derek up in Loveland. By the time we were done we though it might be fun to make a video, which we shot up at the old Loveland Feed and Grain, across from where John and Derek were living. It's been completely gentrified since we made the video- so I'm glad the video stands as a record of this great old building.
When I started putting together the singles that I had released and some unreleased songs as an album, One Angel Wing stood out as a title for the collection, and it also fit as the first song we had recorded in the process. Plus I had this awesome photograph taken by my friend Courtney Nicholsen-Paine. So there ya go- title and cover art.
If you're into the theme of the song, I made a playlist of songs with Angel in the title. If you think of a 'must add' let me know.
Next week I'll try to write about an unreleased song- That's How It Seems. In the meantime, you can preorder the album on vinyl and CD, and get some exclusive merch. How's that for awesome? Tickets for the release show in July are here- you can also get the exclusive merch buying a ticket. Sweet.
Tonight we're at The Alley in Littleton. See ya there or down the road.
Be well- JS