"Radio's on windows rolled up, and my mind's rolled down." My friend Brian mentioned this John Prine line the other day, and I've been trying to wrap my head around it ever since. John Prine does this kind of stuff. He can create a phrase that bends a mind the way BB King bends a guitar … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: John Prine’s Long Monday

Some songs have a hell of a grip; they stick with me. I hear them once, and I can't forget them. The Ballad of Larry by Jonathan Bird is one. Short List, by Christopher Smith, that's another. I heard those songs, and they struck me dumb.  Then there's Goodbye, by Steve Earle. I heard Peter Mulvey … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: Steve Earle’s Goodbye

Two weeks ago, I talked about Clay Mills 9 minute Song Workout. It's a pretty great exercise to dive into a song or generate some song ideas. Clay suggests doing it daily, but if you do, what do you do with all those song workouts? How do you organize them? A week's worth of song workouts … Continue reading Songwriting and My Second Brain

Have you ever planned on doing something easy, only to complicate it? Of course you have, who hasn't? As Charles Mingus said, "Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." It's Thanksgiving week, and I aimed to keep this write-up simple for myself by recycling an old post about thankfulness. Then I complicated things and decided I needed … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

It's been a weird week songwriting-wise for me. This is one way to say the time I normally use to put together this blog was eaten by the couple of extra shifts I was scheduled for at the restaurant.  Did I mention I'm writing this on a bus?   That doesn't mean I got nothing done, but … Continue reading Saturday Songwriting: The 9-minute Songwriting Workout by Clay Mills