THE LATEST SONG...

Another song to talk about... It's been roughly one a week for the past month. I know it can't last, but it is satisfying as long as it does last.

Most of my songs are actually inspired by someone else. This one was in response to another one of these online challenges–this time, asking for songs about the Internet. I've gotten a song out of each of the four challenges I've seen over then past couple of months–not necessarily following the rules, of course, but a song nonetheless. There have been country music songs written about the Internet before, of course; mine is deliberately different because it has dead animals in it–a return to my roots, as it were.

It's a blues, because I've had nothing but blues running through my head for a while–but it's a deliberately distorted blues, because I was trying to get back to country music. So this blues has 5 lines in the verses instead of 3, and the second line is twice as long as the first, and the third and fourth lines (which are shorter) don't rhyme with the other three, but do rhyme with each other. No chorus–blues songs don't usually have a chorus–but the last lines of the verses are almost identical, and that's the hook, too.

It's been vetted by the other writers at Just Plain Folks, and played in public with the Friday Night Group, and nobody's had any nits to speak of, so it may be okay. It'll probably be played again next Friday, because people will tell Wayne, one of the FNG lead guitarists, that the verse about getting ripped off by online dating girls was inspired by him, so he'll (reluctantly) want to hear it.

Recording it's been more difficult, because I wanted a harmonica lead, and neighbor Dick Ackerman, who plays harmonica, is back now from snowbirding. I recorded the song on the Tascam, leaving a track open for him to record–but it's not going to work. Like the FNG folks who performed on the "Turn Your Radio On" recording, "performing" to a microphone instead of an audience is a new and strange thing, and the reaction is to be tentative in one's playing.

What we'll do is try to record it live instead, using the Tascam and that 6-channel mixer I bought over a year ago (and haven't used yet). We'll run 3 mikes off the mixer (vocal, my guitar, and Dick's harmonica) and record it live to 2 channels of the Tascam. Then I can add a lead guitar (or banjo–I've thought about a lead banjo for this song) on a third track later. New stuff–but it's good to learn new things.

UPDATES: "Rotten Candy" did not make the Top Twenty in American Idol's song contest (I was not surprised one bit). The music publisher is still looking at "Turn Your Radio On"; there's a question about copyright–the song might actually be public domain which would make it useable. If she can use it, we will need to re-record it so that it's "radio-ready."

And the next Soundclick blues collaboration I wrote the lyrics for–words are my strong suit, after all, and I'd rather do that than try to play lead guitar–and will try to sing. Should be fun.