This is my first blog post that is not a song I have written. In December of 2009 I posted 139 song lyrics and one poem. More will be posted as I write them.
My favorite part of writing songs is the lyrics. I've had two prolific periods where I wrote the bulk of my songs - the 70's and the last few years . My first songs were written in 1973 (the year after I graduated college.) I'd played guitar since I was 13 but it never dawned on me to write songs until 10 years later.
Over the next few years I played in a New England band ( IW Harper ) with Kevin Trant and Peter Goebel and then did some solo performing. We were a 3 piece band playing what today would be called alternative country or Americana. We had no drummer but people generally got up and danced anyway. I did background vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, and 5-string banjo.
My second prolific period has been over the past few years. My children have grown and gone off to college (Kelly) and work (BJ). I replaced years of soccer coaching, managing, field maintenance, and house league reffing with apprearances at open mics at local coffee houses and bars. My favorite spots have been Greenleaf Coffee House, Stage Left Cafe, the Fat Bean, Keywester, Gallery Cabaret, River's Edge, the Mast House, and Stillwater. I've met some good friends who share a love for writing and/or performing music.
One thing I discovered when I went through my piles of notebooks was the 70's/80's songs generally were pretty bad. I found a list of 104 songs from back then. Only 12 of them were included here. I'm too embarassed to share the rest. If a song is included in my blog I at least thought it had some redeeming value. While many songwriters' songs are autobiographical, that description fits about 10% of my songs. I frankly don't often know where the inspiration comes from for most songs but I'm thankful when it comes quickly and easily, which is often the case.
I've discovered that this format doesn't provide a very easy way to organize my songs. They are basically listed in the order I entered them, so many of my earliest and worst songs come first and my best are scattered all over the place. I added alphabetical labels to make songs available by the first letter of the song title but even that's kind of cumbersome.
I've added some links to music videos, recordings, and articles that intrigued me for one reason or another. My tastes tend to be eclectic, with the bulk of them being performances you probably haven't seen or heard before.
Leave a comment or question if you'd like.
