Category Archives: INSPIRATION

FILL THE WELL with BAILEY COOKE

January 22, 2013

in this series, i ask other songwriters about their quest for inspiration and how they tackle the day-to-day tasks of writing quality, engaging songs. behind every good song is a hard-worker. i want to know how songwriters work and how they fill their well so it never goes dry.

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Bailey Cooke is an folk-pop singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn. She is an ace banjo player (like could win a competition) and has written old time folk tunes that could have passed for field recordings. But in the last year she’s started writing music with an amazing new sound, reminiscent of Aimee Mann’s Lost in Space but with Bailey’s stunning soprano. Listen to her very catchy new single “When You’re Gone” below. Bailey shares a bit about her quest for inspiration. (I think I have found a kindred spirit.)… Continue Reading

Written by alvaadmin | Filed Under: FILL THE WELL, INSPIRATION

there is only the trying

January 17, 2013

 

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I’ve had one of those weeks where I’ve been staring at the piano. I am trying to clock my 40 hours each week, but I had to coax myself away from a performance review. I can become a person that has to tick all the boxes and get everything perfect. But the songs I create from that place are just shit, so I came away from the piano (even though it’s beautiful & new), looking for a reset and picked up Eliot’s Four Quartets again.

I was reminded that my sitting down every day is another attempt, a new beginning. But it has to be more than just staring at the piano, praying to the muses for a rhyme. I must wrangle my past, dust off some shabby words and begin the eternal task of saying the thing I’ll never really be able to say. Because every song, every hour clocked is “a different kind of failure” — it’s already been said. But, as Eliot says: “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”

Excerpt from “East Coker” by T. S. Eliot - read the whole poem here 

“Wild Grape” by American artist ELLSWORTH KELLY (image)/ fascinating interview with him here where I felt echoes of Eliot and my thoughts on work & accomplishment

What do you think? How do you keep working when you like it’s all been done before? How do you reset?

Written by alvaadmin | Filed Under: INSPIRATION, SONGWRITING, WORD ART

FILL THE WELL with ANDREW COMBS

January 15, 2013
in this series, i ask other songwriters about their quest for inspiration and how they tackle the day-to-day tasks of writing quality, engaging songs. behind every good song is a hard-worker. i want to know how songwriters work and how they fill their well so it never goes dry.
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This week’s FTW is with ANDREW COMBS, staff writer for Razor & Tie publishing in Nashville and an Americana singer-songwriter with a seriously fantastic new album out – Worried Man. Andrew’s music is a genius mix of Texas twang, close-knit folk, Mississippi blues and there’s Steelism. They make everything better. Most of all, Andrew is a great songwriter – he pays homage to his tradition with big, strong choruses and lush storytelling. He is opening for Shovels and Rope in February – check his site for dates. Thank you for sharing, Andrew!… Continue Reading
Written by alvaadmin | Filed Under: FILL THE WELL, INSPIRATION

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