The 50 Songs in 90 Days Challenge

At the start of July I had the good fortune to meet Deborah Linden, and other participating musicians, who turned me on to this challenge:

“Each summer, 50/90 forges a collaborative community where musicians of all walks and skill levels write a slew of new music material in only three months. That's roughly one tune every other day. Participants are a mix of music professionals, students, homemakers, and folks who work day-jobs but rock nightclubs.”

I’ve really been out of the musical loop for years, and this brought me back into composing, recording, and collaborating in a big way. It was easier to just create a song out of nowhere that didn’t have to belong to a CD project, or sound perfectly. I felt free to experiment with styles and instrumentation, and it was a wonderful experience.

I look forward to February Album Writing Month (FAWM) in 2010!

Written + composed July 13th 2009.

Ok, as there are only a couple of days left here, I'm posting this rather crappy recording of this song. I was never very happy with the piano and wanted to try recording it with another instrument or reworking it somehow, but the time for that has drawn to a close and this has been sitting neglected on the computer for more than two months now.

So here it is, a little song about my ancestry. You can certainly get the flavour of the song, as unpolished as it is. Please ignore the pops and fizzles!

There's a long line
There's a long, long line
No matter where I turn
There's a namesake
There's another namesake
Compelling me to learn

I've got the English soldiers in Quebec
And the Irish dispossessed
I've got the Swedish pioneering stock
And the Scottish farmers, neatly dressed
Travelled and transplanted
Wanderers and wives
Off to seek their fortunes
And a-filling up their lives

There's a longing for the homeland
And a fear of loneliness
And a stubborn constitution
With a distaste for the rest
There's a history of ambition
And a yearning to be free
A tradition of musicians
And they passed it on to me

I've got the English soldiers in Quebec
And the Irish dispossessed
I've got the Swedish pioneering stock
And the Scottish farmers, neatly dressed
Travelled and transplanted
Wanderers and wives
Off to seek their fortunes
And a-filling up their lives

There's a long line
There's a long, long line
No matter where I turn
There's a namesake
There's another namesake
Compelling me to learn

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Written + composed July 17th 2009.

Inspired by the 150+ year-old scarlet oak in my backyard, hit by lightning last Saturday. Its future is uncertain, damage is being assessed, and I've been on the phone with everyone from my city councilor to Royal Botanical Gardens to professional arborists about it.

Since we're only renting the property and the tree sits on the borderline between us and the condos behind us, the oak's fate doesn't rest with me, and Burlington has no by-law in place to protect privately owned trees from their 'owners'. I just want everyone involved to stop and consider the implications of destroying a tree that has stood on this land since before Canada became a nation.

The oak's still standing! There seems to be this truce going on where no one's talking about it much, mostly because no one wants to be responsible for having to pay for whatever needs to be done. But if this gives the tree more time to recover from shock and bounce back, I'll take it.

Scarlet Oak (Ethereal Mix)

I asked Deborah Linden if she could use her considerable talents and ethereal voice to record harmony vocals for Scarlet Oak. I could listen to them over and over again. Thank you, Debs!

Chorus:
Scarlet Oak
Bring the lightning down
Scarlet Oak
Sanctify this ground

You were here
When the fields were ploughed
And the grasses scythed
And the corn cut down
You were here
When the hunters gathered
And nomads wandered
And shamen came
To pray with you

Chorus

You were here
When the day was dawning
And still you stand
Another year gone
You were here
When the cattle grazed
And the wolf was watching
And children came
To play with you

Chorus

You were here
When I needed grounding
And solid silence
And to feel found
You were here
When the storm descended
And kissed your crown
And heaven came
To stay with you

Chorus

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Composed July 22nd 2009.

Born out of the key of D major. Played around a little with it yesterday, gave it a bit of structure today.

This reminded me that I like to play the piano for its own sake and not only as a backing to my voice.

Instrumental

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Written + composed July 22nd 2009.

When the piano melody first came to me this afternoon I thought I was hearing a really slow pirate tune. It was so mournful I could only see a lonely pirate on the deck of his ship singing to the Sea. I thought this might become a story with a farcically macabre tone.

However, I soon realized while writing the words that I was being given a glimpse through the eyes of a mariner facing his own death at sea. It took me off guard and swelled with overwhelming sadness, ending in a grim and brooding acceptance of fate.

Karl suggested I add harmony, and this is the result.

Ah, my lover, the Sea
Is a-calling to me
If I reached out to thee
Then a-drowning I'd be

As a babe in your arms
You will rock me to sleeping
As a man in your bed
I will gasp for my breath

Ah, my lover, the Sea
Is a-calling to me
If I reach out to thee
Then a-drowning I'll be

As a mirror you shine
And reflect all my stories
As a serpent you writhe
And accept all my prayers

Ah, my lover, the Sea
Is a-calling to me
When I reach out for thee
Then a-drowning I'll be

As the starry night sky
As the mother of millions
Come and wash all my fears
Bring me in, pull me deep

Ah, my lover, the Sea
Ever calling for me
I have answered your plea
And I'm coming to thee

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Composed July 27th 2009.

Just something that came to me on a warm breezy summer evening. Took about 35 minutes to get a good take. How can a little thing so relaxed cause so much vexation?!

Instrumental

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Written + composed July 30th 2009.

This started with the challenge of writing a song using the standard chord grouping of {C Am G F} and making it sound original. Any songwriter worth their salt should be able to compose a song with these chords, as hundreds of songwriters have proven over the years. The trick is to make it a little unpredictable!

Anyway, it evolved into a sassy little commentary. Hopefully the lightness of the piano takes out the sting a bit. I have a very low tolerance for skin-deep beauty, shall we say, and the current trend in the recording industry encourages us all to pay more attention to our head shots than our music.

If you never tire of playin' the fool, now
If you never tire of idle chit-chat
If you never wanna be deeper than shallow
Baby, I can help you with that

Let's start off with your image, darlin'
I can get you to really unsheathe
Hold your head up, smile for me
And don't forget to breathe

Don't you start to tire of playin' the fool, now
Don't you start to tire of idle chit-chat
Don't you start to wanna be deeper than shallow
Baby, that'll make you fall flat

Let's continue with breathin', darlin'
You will sell if you hike that dress
Arch your back and growl for me
And channel your tigress

Don't tell me that you're tired of playin' the fool
Don't tell me that you're tired of idle chit-chat
Don't tell me that you wanna be deeper than shallow
Baby, I can promise you that
You will never wanna go back

Let's denouement with vision, darlin'
You are not what you wish to be
Hold a mirror right up close
And start with what you see

Don't you ever tire of playin' the fool, now
Don't you ever tire of idle chit-chat
Don't you ever wanna be deeper than shallow
Baby, I can help you with that
Baby, I can promise you that
You will never wanna go back, no, no
You will never wanna go back

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Poem written by Irish poet, Seumas O'Sullivan, 1905.
Music composed July 29th 2009.

I've never recorded my playing of a drum before. Apologies for its straightforwardness. Thought I'd try something different with this one.

It is a whisper among the hazel bushes;
It is a long, low, whispering voice that fills
With a sad music the bending and swaying rushes;
It is a heart-beat deep in the quiet hills.

Twilight people, why will you still be crying,
Crying and calling to me out of the trees?
For under the quiet grass the wise are lying,
And all the strong ones are gone over the seas.

And I am old, and in my heart at your calling
Only the old dead dreams a-fluttering go;
As the wind, the forest wind, in its falling
Sets the withered leaves fluttering to and fro.

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Composed August 6th 2009.

Inspired by the idea of composing a score. As I entered my own reverie on the subject, this was born.

My hat is off to 50/90 musician, Tim Fatchen, and other composers who seek to undertake the monumental task of composing a score. If you haven't yet listened to Tim's work I strongly recommend you go now and do so!

Instrumental

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Written by Paul Milne, July 17th 2009.
Composed August 2009.

I stumbled across these lyrics of Paul Milne's when looking for some 50/90 inspiration last week. I think we speak the same kind of language - they spoke to me immediately and I wanted to try to put them to music.

I couldn't even wait for approval - as Paul was away on vacation - I just composed it and recorded it, hoping he wouldn't mind. Lucky me, he likes it!

So here it is...

The leaves on the trees, they are budding
Oh the leaves on the trees, they are green
The leaves on the trees are the loveliest
That I have ever seen

Now the leaves on the trees, they are dying
Oh the leaves on the trees, they are brown
And the leaves on the trees, they are letting go
And drifting to the ground

Oh the leaves of the trees, they are crumbling
The leaves of the trees disappear
But the life of the leaves of yesterday
Will rise again next year

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Composed August 10th 2009.

Based on an idea from a couple of days ago, built around that low F octave. I played it and let it resonate and then played it again, and it painted me a picture of somewhere that could have been a savannah, prairie or steppe, undulating in the breeze. Everything was purpled because there was a storm rolling by in the distance.

So when I came to record it I basically looked into that space, forgot about the keyboard, and played what came to me. I once read a book involving the Scythians living on the Sea of Grass, the Steppes, that captivated my imagination. Maybe this one came from there.

Instrumental

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Composed by Chip Withrow, banjo + organ, August 1st 2009.
Written, melody + harmony vocal, August 7th 2009.

I fell in love with Chip Withrow's music immediately and listened to it about 20 times in a row. I loved that he described the organ sound as 'horror movie' and it put me in mind of the setting of Jonathan Coulton's 'Skullcrusher Mountain.'

(If you've never heard it before, you can listen to it free here: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/store/downloads/
Just scroll down to Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow, and 'Skullcrusher Mountain')

So I wrote a dark comedy kind of story mostly from the point of view of the poor woman in his song, days or perhaps even hours before her captor serenades her in Coulton's hilarious, albeit twisted, scene.

If I didn't know better
I could swear it feels like
There's a storm rollin' in

When he said, I love you, babe
Will you marry me someday
I felt a shiver in my heart
When he said, 'til death do us part

Walkin' up to my front door
With a shadow on my soul
And a feelin' I can't shake

If I didn't know better
I could swear it feels like
There's a storm rollin' in

When I fall asleep tonight
Will I hear a voice inside
Whisper, darlin', you must know
I will never let you go

If I didn't know better
I could swear it feels like
There's a storm rollin' in

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Composed August 8th 2009.

This was impossibly hard. I wanted to try to write something in 5/4 time, as suggested by week 5's challenge, however I made it seriously more complicated than it needed to be and got carried away by how many different 5s I could pull into one song.

It is written in 5/4 time, so 5 beats in a bar
There are 5 bars in a phrase
There are 5 phrases in a stanza
The stanzas are repeated 3 times in this version (the 5x version sounded too long)
It took me 5 days to get a good take, and 5 weeks to get around to posting it

I did experiment with words to this, and I had five 5-letter words beginning with each of the 5 vowels that went with each of the 5 stanzas. I also wanted to use five different instruments and planned where they would come in and what they would play.

And then MY HEAD EXPLODED!

So here it is in its simplest form. I call it Anxiety because that's what I feel when I hear it, and that's what it caused me to create it.

Instrumental

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Composed August 4th 2009.

There is a vocal track to this song, but I haven't had time to record it. This version is therefore temporarily instrumental.

This is a type of song I sometimes write where the goal is to string together different melodies and structures to create a whole from the parts. There are 8 separate parts to this song and each 'verse' is repeated twice, except the seventh.

I was also playing around with assonance and alliteration, and the sounds of words more than their meanings. However, I don't seem to be able to write nonsense very well. Happily this alliterative challenge reared its head in week 9, and this song fits the bill.

I will eventually record the vocals and the new version will appear here.

Shadow me and make me look again
Shower me and make me clean again
Shatter me and make me whole again
Shoulder me and make me walk again

Breathe in, breathe out
Breathe in, breathe out

Let it in, this seeping light
Let it end this dreaded night
Let it in, this twist of fate
Let it end this guilty weight

Wash me in that waterfall of wilderness
Bathe me in that bitter bath of forgiveness

If you track a sunbeam to its source
It will blister and burn
If you track a river by its course
It will chuckle and churn

Simmer me and warm me up
Shiver me and shake me up
Shimmer me and light me up
Silver me and I will shine

I will shine
And be divine
I'll make it mine

If I find a diamond eye
In the cloudscape of my mind
In the moonlight I will fly
Not afraid of what I'll find

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Poem written by Arthur O'Shaughnessy (1844-1881), his 'Ode'
Composed August 13th 2009.

First came across this poem via its first two lines as quoted by Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was a child.

Haven't had the time to get this one recorded, and I feel like a bit of a cheat posting it here without a demo when I didn't even write the words myself, but it's the last week of 50/90 and it's the best choice I've got! When I do get it recorded I'll post it here.

We are the music-makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams
Wandering by lone sea-breakers
And sitting by desolate streams

World-losers and world-forsakers
On whom the pale moon gleams
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world forever, it seems

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory

One man with a dream, at pleasure
Shall go forth and conquer a crown
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth
Built Nineveh with our sighing
And Babel itself with our mirth
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth
For each age is a dream that is dying
Or one that is coming to birth

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Very stream-of-consciousness, with some form. I can hear bits and pieces of other songs floating around in the notes.
This is my 50/90 finale. It's been such a great experience, and I'll definitely be back next year.

Instrumental

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