Friday, June 15, 2012

Going Down (Hard)

Next new song in the queue: a rewrite of "When You Go Down". I took a rough version to Dave and he made several great suggestions, steering me especially through melody lines and making them more interesting and not so obvious. He is also responsible for the nifty broken-pause delivery of the end of each line in the verse. I think there needs to be a transition between verses, maybe the intro (which I am hearing with Juke-type horns), but otherwise I b'lieve we are on our way.

Oh, and one last detail: I am changing the title to "When You FALL Down". The chorus was "when you go down, you go down HARD", which is just beggin' for mockery. I'm probably gonna have enough problems....

When You Go (Fall) Down - June 2012

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Tuesday Night Live Redux

Returned once again tonight to JV's for the bi-weekly Songwriter Showcase hosted by Daryl Jr Cline (who writes and performs some exquisite songs, check him out why doncha). This time, Dave played electric atop my Takaminin', and once again we performed the usual first three tracks from the album. This time however I felt we were really getting somewhere. For one thing, we rehearsed -- always a good plan -- and for another, I am slowly feeling my way back to playing live. I have been away from performing for a good long time, and it shows, but tonight felt good, like a breakthrough had occurred. There's nothing particularly zingy about "South Street" or "One More Day to Rain" that merits their posting this time, but I really felt "Into the Night" soar into an entirely new form. I think it's the best version I've done in nearly thirty years of playing the song. Give it a listen and let me know what you  think.

Into the Night - JV's, June 12, 2012