New Song: Washington Streets

I have a couple of spiral notebooks, a table and computer monitor covered with loose, scribbled-on sticky notes and half a hard drive full of first verses, chorus', and song titles without the song. I am the epitome of a job unfinished. In an effort to beat the winter slump, which has started to creep its way over into spring, I'm going to make an attempt at posting a new song every couple of weeks or so. Now I use the definition of the word song loosely. I guess at best I'll have something completely written and recorded, you know, a few minutes long, fully produced, mixed and mastered. At worst it will be a shotgun-recorded lyrical idea, a short song, or just a melody that I'm trying out. I may even put up some older material that's yet to be finished or to be posted online or even add to the Under Covers project. Whatever it takes to consistently post to this blog I'm going to try to do. I'm sure that the majority of it will be rubbish but my mission in all of this is to sharpen my skills as a songwriter, as the old adage goes, practice makes perfect. I hoping that forcing myself to write this much will get me more into a groove that I can maintain.

I finally feel like I'm starting to get the creativity flowing again. I've been jotting down ideas, writing a bit and working on a few songs. I guess I just made a conscience decision to cut out a bunch of the clutter, like loafing in front of the television, that consumed loads of my free time. Not that I watched much t.v. to begin with, I can't really name a show that I watch on regular basis, it was just the loafing around and channel surfing that was killing me. Why create entertainment in your own head when you can stare drooling at a box and have it spoon fed to you? I lived in Memphis for a few years back in early 2000 and for the first two I didn't even own a television. I lived in an old beat up two bedroom off of Union Avenue in a neighborhood that was in a borderline historic district but hadn't quite made it over the ghetto hump. The good thing? I was within close proximity to Beale Street and it's wealth of blues bars. The bad? I had my house broken into. I think I was at my most creative during those two years. I was living in a city that was steeped in musical history, I was single, and my only other distraction was my job. I also happened to be reeling from a failed relationship which helped to provide some material for songs.

So with that said I finally have a new tune, Washington Streets. This song was born out of a trip I took with my fiance (UPDATE: EX-fiance) to D.C. to see, of course, Buffalo Tom. They played a show at the famous Black Cat and if I remember right Revival opened with Drew O'Doherty. It was the dead of winter, cold and grey, with wind, rain, and snow that could bite through the thickest of clothing. It's a pretty straightforward "this city can't beat me" tune, just me and the acoustic. Semi-autobiographical with a bit of artistic embellishment thrown in but I won't go into any more detail than that. I generally like to leave the listener to their own interpretations. I posted the song on my MySpace and Soundclick page too for anyone who is interested in the lyrics. Please have a listen and I'd love to hear back from anyone who has an opinion on it, good or bad.

WASHINGTON STREETS

©2009 Fish Egg Music