Songs for the Fall of Day

A Clearer Picture

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:08:35 GMT

I'll come right out with it. I'm looking for help.

It's rare for me to be obsessed or even more than fleetingly distracted by imagery, and even more rare for me to have a song very focused around an image. The Trying to Rise t-shirt is the only example of it I've had until now.

I'm looking for a picture, preferably one I can use. The picture would be of paper boats in water, with the boats being made of paper that's been written on. It can be a picture of someone putting a written-paper boat into the water, or just the boats on the water. Ideally, the water would be more stream and less lake, but that's minor. It can be any time of year, as long as the water is still liquid.

Left to my own devices I will, eventually, figure out a way to make this picture happen, but it's not the sort of thing I'm at all good at.

Why do I want this picture?
Two reasons.

First, I would like to be able to look at it. The song its attached to is still coming out, and having the picture might help me. Also, I really like the idea of the image and I'm curious to see whether it's as neat outside of my head.

Second, I would really like to use it, or some take on it for an album cover. If I did that, credit and great thanks and probably some compensation would definitely go to the photographer.

If anyone is interested in trying this, if there are any questions... comment here, or email me at tracie@tcallahanmusic.com. I'd love to hear from you!

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Dusty Words and Code-breaking

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 01:35:48 GMT

I've been toying with the idea for months now of tinkering with some "done" songs.

I'm used to a process in which, once a song is finished, I sing it over in practice for a few weeks or even months before I figure that the words are actually done. I call it Smoothing. I start with a set of finished lyrics, and without exception, some small changes happen over the first several weeks of just singing it. Clunky tongue twisters resolve themselves. The rhythm loosens up a bit, and the songs sound just a little more like Me. In fact sometimes it's surprising to me to go back to a song whose lyrics I haven't looked at since the Smoothing happened. The differences may seem small to someone else, but to me they're pretty intense, and revealing.

This is different. The songs I'm tackling are well beyond the smoothing process. In fact the first one has been done and whole for over two years. What I'm dealing with now, are words that bother me. I sing most of these songs four or five times a week at least in practice, and I'll find myself thinking "wow, that's a filler line" while I'm singing it. Not every word in every song has to be filled to the brim with intensity and Meaningful Art, but I shouldn't be singing something just because it rhymes and I couldn't think of anything better. As I've grown more comfortable with both writing, and playing songs, I find that I can do better, and that's what this round of revisions is about.

So, here I am sitting on the porch in NPR with the cranes and ducks and lamps. I'm working on this song, and I realize that the third verse probably sounds extremely creepy when heard with ears not attached to my mind.

"I tap my fingers hard against my thighs, reach toward the bones, a yearning sort of pressure. Let me in.
And my heartbeat keeps me outside, so I slow the beating down, down. Tomorrow's waiting underneath my skin."

Now, it was no less creepy sounding before I reworked it, but until I took a good look at the words, intently enough to remake them, I never really noticed.

The great thing about songs is that whoever's listening gets to put their own spin, their own story into them. Most of the songs that I really love have enough vagueness to their story and purpose that I can make up my own mind about them, about what they're for, who's singing them. I try to view mine the same way, so I'm not worried about whether the song is creepier outside of my head than in it. I'm more curious. I'm beginning to wonder how much of what I say is shorthand, made up of references and cues that I've carried with me from other people's songs, from stories and television and current events. Language is an evolving beast, but it doesn't evolve at the same rate for all of us, or in the same direction. Trends emerge, and the strong ones stick around, while others fade into obscurity.

I find, the more I write, the stronger these threads and cues are. They're my shorthand, an image I use to express something very long or complicated, an emotional cue that spares me from having to go into more detail than the space of a song really has room for. Sometimes, I'm very consciously trying to use images that are more universal, but I always come back to the ones which are Mine. It's easier for me to write in my own language.

So now I wonder... What images shape the art and words of the people around me?

Who has the keys to the code?

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Caramel

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:54:29 GMT

Sometimes songs come quickly, lightning into the brain. The candle song was like that, and the girl in the tower one. They just happened, and I got to be around when they did to catch them.

Sometimes, they're a struggle. I sift through words, and try to figure out what I'm trying to say. I wrestle with the guitar parts, trying to make them fit what I hear in my head, and the song takes months, maybe even a year or more to finish doing what they're doing.

Then there's what's happening now. There's a commercial on tv that involves swimmers diving into a pool of caramel. When I was thinking about the way writing has been for the last few months, that's what it's like. Songs come slowly, and in pieces. I have guitar parts that I like and are mostly complete. I have ideas that gain a few words every week. There are several of them happening at once, like the slow flow of caramel being drizzled onto something. It's an unusual way for me to work.

Usually, I'm consumed with one song at a time. I may write a few words or ideas down to deal with later, but they only distract me from the Nowsong for a moment or two. Right now, there are at least five different things slowly building, along with redoing some old music and learning some new techniques. I like this. I like not being consumed. I like going from idea to idea, and I feel like building slowly might give me different results.

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From dystopia to sunrise. - Songwriting Work

Sun, 16 May 2010 16:01:47 GMT

"It's a long way up to morning, time to start my climb."

These are, as it stands, the last words on the new version of The Whispering Hour. After spending quite a while playing with and rearranging song order and ideas and story bits, I've come up with something I'm happy with, and something that's nearly complete. I need half of a song. Basically, I need to put the feeling and idea of a song into words, to go with a neat guitar part I rather like.

When I was done arranging, I had something close to, but not exactly like I was thinking when I wrote the last entry. In fact, I had something very autobiographical, which wasn't my original, or even my second plan. I've always thought of this story being about someone else, taking parts of the truths I've lived through, and turning them into fiction, and that may still happen, with other stories, but The Whispering Hour has become my story, in a way.

( A story, and song order )

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Whispering Hour Revisited - What there is, what there should be

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:51:22 GMT

Here's the list of songs originally in the story

*Going to Fade - Story song, calling people to gather, some good lines, but the message is basically saying "hide or they'll get us!"
*Candle - Love song, should stay, but may belong further in
*Whispering Hour - Song about the gathering, keep as is
*Answer Me - Resistance song - keep as is
*Fighting Shadows - song about being crazy, well veiled, rework?
*Alleluia - story song, sort of, pretty bleak but also lovely, rework?
*Harvest Time - protest song, rise up and fell the oppressors, never really liked it
*Glory - song about a weary soldier, work into story better
*Adversary Beloved - I like this song, but it belongs to a different story I think
*Grey December - bleak song, but could be reworked a bit and be ok
*Sharp and Thin - This needs to go. It belongs to the part of the story I dislike. Keep the "harried and tired, a feeling acquired so young, making castoffs of moments to hurry the days along"
*Trying to Rise - This is really it. Stay stay stay, move up sooner also.

So this takes me from twelve songs down to five definites, and three reworks.

Leaving
Going to Fade
Harvest Time
Adversary Beloved
Sharp and Thin

Keep as is
Candle
Whispering Hour
Answer Me
Glory
Trying to Rise

Try to rework
Fighting Shadows
Alleluia
Grey December

Songs to add?
Last Breath
Try
My Winter is Done
Tangle Me Up Dancing

I want to try writing one or two to flesh out the resistance a bit, and then I’ll have to look at some of the ones that are on the edge. I’d like to keep it between 10 and 12 songs.

I think that’s enough songwriting babble for now.

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Whispering Hour Revisited - Saving It

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:08:44 GMT

The kernel of an idea is in my head, something to do with the Whispering Hour. I was looking at the stories and lyrics I'd put up already, and trying to figure out why I felt both drawn to it all still, and repelled. It turns out to be a pretty simple thing.

I love the feel of the songs, as music. I love how different they sound, tugging on blues and jazz, but never quite leaving the land of folk and acoustic. I love the words in a few of them, and the message still, in those. Whispering Hour itself is still one of my favorite songs, and Trying to Rise is just made of strength and win.

It's the story that pushes me away, the bleak future, and the arc that ends in struggle and retreat. There's a sense that at any moment, this spark of hope that lives in the story of the gathering is going to be stamped out. "The gory truth is we're all proof the mouse lives longer than the lion" while being a line that I love, continues on to describe the ways in which the resistance hides, the way they blend and creep and keep safe, instead of standing up.

I never saw the bleakness when I was writing it before. I saw it in the romantic way people see lost causes, and the people who go down with them. It was noble, and melancholy. Now, looking at many of the songs, I just see how worn and frayed and near to ending the overall picture I've made of them is, and that's really not the message I'm looking for, or one I want to spent a lot of my time singing.

The Whispering Hour story, in my head, has always been intended as a story about people who stand, who've been knocked down by the world, but are pulling themselves up, and lifting others up with them.

So where does that leave me? I have a set of songs that take the story to a place I didn't mean for it to go. Some of those songs need to be trimmed away. Some of them need changing, and others are absolutely going to stay. I need to take them apart song by song, and make some choices, and then do some writing, in order to build the story I want, and intended.

I'm putting this all here in this blog, though I know it's not going to be the most interesting reading for everyone. I'll mark the entries pretty clearly, so that anyone who reads my journal in order to keep up with life things, but who doesn't want to read a bunch about songwriting and storycraft can skim over it all.

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Arms Open Wide

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:47:24 GMT

I had this plan, that involved not writing new songs for a while, in order to spend more time making the ones I already have into better songs, with practice and polish and new ideas...

and that lasted for about 5 days.

I was playing around yesterday, and just started playing this really simple set of chords in a rocking, basic rhythm, and... words came out. So, I present to you this week's song. Arms Open Wide.

( Lyricy goodness - Arms Open Wide )
As usual, this can be found on Facebook, on www.traciecallahan.com, or at www.reverbnation.com/#/traciecallahan. Have a listen if you like, and enjoy!

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Getting Over It

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:21:59 GMT

I've been doing a lot of the practical types of things that go with making music my living this week.

*I set up a store on reverbnation and facebook, designed my first t-shirt, and put it up for sale.
*I made myself a facebook band page, and told my regular facebook friends about it.
*I recorded a song that was missing in my puzzle of "let's put together the album in my head".
*I got a new web domain name, because at some point the old one is going to expire, and I don't really feel like dealing with transferring the account from him to me. A new one was quite cheap, and easy. Hosting will have to wait a bit, but that's ok.
*I've linked some things together to make posting updates easier.

There are hurdles in there. I've always been pretty shy about telling friends about music things... never being quite sure where that line is between keeping people informed the way they want to be, and pushing. This week, I've moved that line in my head some, which was a little uncomfortable, but pretty needful.

There's one more hurdle today though...

I made a video, and am posting it to YouTube. It's a video of Try. I wasn't really happy with the pace and feel of the recorded version, so I sat down with my movie making software, which I've never used before, and did a few takes, and came up with something that I liked. It has a few flaws, but in general it's what I wanted. Here's the thing though... It's me, in the middle of the screen, singing and playing. I watched it through, and I see the problems I still haven't gotten to fix with my teeth (less than a month until I start!) and all of weight I'm still in the middle of losing.

"What if some of my online friends see me and suddenly, they don't like me anymore because I look like an overweight woman who maybe gets into fights or something and so has a broken front tooth?"

It may sound silly, and in fact it Looks pretty silly when I type it out like that, but... it's a hurdle for me, and one that, in order to do what I love, I need to get the hell over. Yes, I'm still fixing up my appearance, and it's going to take a while. If I keep waiting to put myself out there until I'm perfect though... I'm going to be playing in my living room forever.

So, now that it exists, I'm going to put links to it in places, so as to completely not chicken out, and then maybe I'll do another one. :)

Hurdle jumping takes practice.

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Hours Go Fast

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:00:28 GMT

I can only assume that during the Song of the Day project, I wasn't capable of playing the guitar part? I don't know. All I know is that I'm sitting here with a playlist full of songs trying to put together the skeleton of an album, and.. there's a song missing. Really, a song that I Know needs to be there, and that I was certain I'd done during SOTD. I'd written it a year before the project, and then and now, really liked it.

It wasn't in my itunes, where all of the other recordings were. It wasn't up in any of the places I've been posting music, and finally, when I looked back through all of the SOTD posts, it wasn't there Either. Finally, I admitted the obvious. Whatever the reason then might have been, last spring, I neglected this song. It's never been up on my site. It's never been written about.

The song is "Hours Go Fast".

Until recently, it's been pretty rare for me to take a very strong emotion that I'm experiencing and write about it while still in the middle of it. This one, was basically a promise I made to myself during a time when I needed a lot of "You can get through this" in my head. It's also really fun to play, with a strong bass thing happening on the guitar during the verses, often rhythmically very different than the singing. Technically challenging, and full of hope... what more does a girl in a dark place need from a song?

As usual, listening can be done if you like, but there's a new choice in location!

www.traciecallahan.com, or on either my personal facebook page, or my band page "Tracie Callahan - performing songwriter" in the My Band tab. The song will be the bottom one until something new goes up!

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In The Mirror

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:57:36 GMT

This actually Isn't the song I was talking about in yesterday's post. It's one I've been working on for about four weeks on and off. I spent a little more time playing around in garageband on this one, and got a sound I like, but until I find and buy some actual recording equipment, I'm stuck with the terrible hum, which is too bad. Still, these recordings are to give you and me an idea of the song, not for an album or something. :)

If you're interested in listening, it's up at www.traciecallahan.com. I've rearranged the songs so the most recent is at the top now, instead of the bottom!

( Lyricy Goodness - In the Mirror )

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Going to Fade?

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:14:25 GMT

I had a very strange moment today...

I was playing, had in fact been playing for about an hour, running through the songs I'm currently in the mood for. I decided on a bit of a whim to play Going to Fade, a Whispering Hour song, most of which I haven't been interested in for about a year. I was playing it, and really, really enjoying the guitar part, even though the song itself left me cold, so I started just humming different things over the guitar, and changing the rhythm just a bit.

The feeling I came away with is, really, the guitar part is too fun to let get as dusty as it has, so maybe I should write something else to go over it! I have some seriously mixed feelings about this. There are reasons, and they're decent ones, that I haven't been into that set of songs lately. The story, while it's neat, is very bleak, and I don't want to keep my head in the mood those songs bring. I'm starting a lot of things over, and figuring out all over again what I want my music to be like, and I think the impulse that's saying "That's a nice guitar part, you should use it for something you're going to want to play" is a true one.

On the other hand, I haven't decided yet to turn my back on the Whispering Hour. I've thought about it. A lot of the songs in it also fit into other places just as well, or better. Going to Fade, Harvest Time, and Sharp and Thin are really the only songs that fit very purely in that set, but I haven't made up my mind, and I feel like reusing that guitar part, would be the thing I do when I'm actually breaking away.

So... It's in my head. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but something I'm very struck by right now is that if I'm going to shift toward having this be my career, and my focus... I need to spend some time figuring out who I want to be.

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First finished song of the year!

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:34:55 GMT

Which, actually happened completely by accident. Friday I fingerpicked my way into a neat little guitar part, and was all happy, thinking I'd found the guitar part to live underneath the "gods in the applesauce" song. I let it sit in my head for the evening, figuring I'd come back to it Saturday morning.

Well, Saturday rolls around and the absolute perfect first verse and chorus to go with the guitar part happens. Guess what, not the song I was planning to put there. Well, crap! (said with a grin, because it's always nice to have More ideas than you thought you wanted). Again I let it sit, because it didn't feel like I needed to jump on it, and I like to. About half an hour with my winter/spring notebook this morning, followed by another half hour or so playing it through to get it past the initial "are the verses in the right order and are these little filler words what I'm going to actually sing?" test, and I have a song.

It still needs to be played a hundred or so times to smooth out the words, but... it's the first Finished new song of 2010 for me, and also the first new song in rather a while, so I'm pretty happy.

( Try (Lyricy goodness) )

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Well, what the heck do I do with this?

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:00:58 GMT

I'm going to need to figure out how to set things like this to music. I have rather a lot of them, and they deserve voice, and they're odd for me. Anyway, this was gleaned from my spring/summer writing notebook. When I'm less asleep I'll write something about the very strange process of seasonal notebooks.

Drumming

Waiting for the 2P bus
The city rushing by
I can feel it like a heartbeat
I can smell it like exhaust
I know the patterns of the sidewalk
But nothing of the sky
Can't raise my eyes up
Or I'll be lost.

Oh the city keeps on drumming
And the people keep on hurrying along.

And everywhere I look
people hug their jackets closed
like they're clinging to their tiny
ration of human warmth
They might nod to the feet
of someone passing by
But they know the bricks as well
as I, or better.

And the city keeps on drumming
And the people keep on hurrying along

Oh who will sit beside
this tangle-headed woman
who sings to the street without a sound,
and taps her heels and fingers
against the bricks and glass
in time to the city?
Oh who will lift their eyes
and claps their hands along?

In time to the city's drumming
And the footsteps that keep hurrying along.

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Music Update - An apple a day... and a new recording!

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:59:25 GMT

I think it's been about eight weeks now, give or take a few days, since I broke down and ventured into the world of apple computers. I have a happy new macbook, all white and small and friendly. The initial learning curve was only about three or four days, but it took me until tonight to feel like I could / wanted to tackle garage band. I've been wanting to give it a try, just to see if I could coax better sound quality out of it than I could with Audiacity. After a couple of hours of learning, and experimentation...

The answer seems to be yes.

I'm not actually sure how much I can do with it. Obviously I haven't had the time to learn all the tweaks and secrets and things yet, but even with just playing with a few things, I was able to produce a clearer, and more present recording, that stands up a lot better along side the other songs on my playlist.

For the curious, I used Trying to Rise as my test song, and the new version (only the new version, though for the very curious I'm willing to put both up if you ask, or send them) is up on my website www.traciecallahan.com. It's the first song on the playlist. The performance could be a little better. I've been taking a break from playing and singing to deal with some life things, so I'm a bit rust-covered, but mostly I was concerned with recording, rather than singing and playing anyway. I think it worked out!

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"When I grow up, I want to be a Journal!"

Sun, 31 May 2009 19:23:25 GMT

Twitter and Facebook have changed the way I keep up with people to some extent. Most days, a few short snippets spaced over the hours work pretty well, but I feel like talking about things that don't fit into a sentence or two right now.

I want to talk about motivation.

I hadn't really thought about it, during the SOTD project, but I've rediscovered some of my missing drive to Do things. Yes, it slipped my mind that a couple of hours a day recording songs IS doing things, until today. It's been a few days now since I recorded, and I'm feeling quite restless. There's a list of things I need to do, and another that I want to do, before Great Northeastern. (Need in this case is just a stronger and more practical version of want)

Need
1. Order the metal bit to fit the center pole of our pavilion together.
2. Danish oil the heck out of poles and boxes and things.
3. Sort through camping things and figure out packing.

Want
1. Pattern breeches and shirt for frothgar and help him make them
2. Finish red coat for me
3. Make a skirt for me
4. Work on meat pie recipe
5. Pattern out a carving
6. Embroider a Haus badge
7. Line the travelling sewing box.

and then there are all of the non crafty wants, and the ones that are longer term than GNeW. It's nice to have things pulling me away from the computer more. It's Very nice to want to do things. I'm content, and not in a great hurry to do most of it.

Back to!

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Song of the Day - A finale

Fri, 29 May 2009 00:44:07 GMT

I am officially closing up the Song of the Day project. While I still have songs that are unrecorded, I think I've reached the sane limit of trying to start each day recording one (as is evidenced by the fact that it hasn't been happening). I'll keep recording and posting from time to time, but I think it'll be a bit before you see anything more.

The songs will all stay up until the end of June at www.traciecallahan.com. At that point, I'm going to take most of them down and start trying to put together some finalized things.

Thank you all very much for listening. Keep doing so as much as you like, and as always, feedback and suggestions are appreciated.

www.traciecallahan.com

And now, a bit of a wrap-up.

I've learned some about recording, though not as much as I'd like. I know that there are limits to what the program I'm using can do, but that there are some basic things I can do to any song to polish it up a bit.

I've learned I can play with the EQ to cut out some of the background hiss, and that the noise removal tool makes me sound like an alien fish in a fountain.

I've learned that reverb is an interesting tool, and a tiny bit of it is almost necessary, to make a song sound alive.

I've learned that too much bass is in fact a bad thing.

I've learned that each take of a track is twice as hard as the one before to get through cleanly, but eventually it will happen.

I've learned to be ok with editing myself a bit.

I've learned to close the door against cats before I begin, long enough before that they're done loudly complaining before I hit record.

I've learned to play around, and swear on the track, and be silly, even if it's just me in the room.

I've learned that the process, daily, is a lot. The actual album tracks will be recorded much more slowly.

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Song of the Day (Answer Me)

Wed, 27 May 2009 16:39:53 GMT

Today's song, Answer Me, was the first song I wrote for the Whispering Hour, and the first time I had the spark of the idea to write the group of songs. I started writing it on the way home from watching V for Vendetta at the cinema. For some reason the combination of female jazz singers and revolution struck me pretty deeply at the time. The song started out feeling pretty general to me, but the more time goes on, the more I realize that it's actually about something, outside of the Whispering Hour, and outside of my usual story songs.

I hate how we divide ourselves up. Us and Them, Democrat and Republican, black and white, gay and straight. We're people. We pretty much all just want to be happy, and get on with our lives, but it feels like politicians and media and just, small groups of people get off somehow on making us forget that we're all people, and drawing these silly boxes around everything. We're defined by our disagreements, rather than anything that makes us similar.

It bothers me on a level so deep that sometimes I don't even notice it, but it's there, this lurking tension when I read the news or talk to people about anything beyond the weather. I'm not an activist. I keep vaguely current with the world, but I don't tend to talk about my views much, but it turns out that this song... really... says it decently well.

Recording wise I was a bit lazy today. There was no song yesterday due to sickness, and I'm still not feeling quite in it today. Layering, slightly different filters, and some vocal playing while I was singing is about the extent of it.

Listen at

www.traciecallahan.com

or

www.myspace.com/songward

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No North Star Cafe tonight...

Thu, 21 May 2009 20:19:29 GMT

My brain just turned on, and said to me "Listen you, it's f'ing hot, you're stressed and exhausted and have nine thousand things left to do before you sleep. People will understand if you can't make it to play tonight." Unlike usual, I'm listening to that voice. There's cooking and packing to do, and it's been a way stressy few days. So...

No Tracie at North Star tonight.

I think my next time out will be the open mic at Henry VIII's on June 1. That should be fun!

Now, headed out to see if I can find an inexpensive yet in-tune-with-itself soprano recorder, and more guitar picks... I think I'm down to 2.

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Song of the Day (When Summer Comes Around)

Thu, 21 May 2009 18:17:53 GMT

Today's song is "When Summer Comes Around". I've been saving it. It's one of the SCA songs, a song about the event I'm going to tomorrow, to be exact. My first Panteria was 9 years ago. I went with my now husband and his mother to the North of Vermont, played music, enjoyed the peace, and learned to throw an axe with surprising accuracy. Since that year, my experiences there have been very varied, from two years spent selling knives and musical instruments, to last year, camped with my Haus, and really only leaving camp once or so. It's been called by many of us "the great relax" the most peaceful event of the season.

There comes a point every winter, just before spring hits, when my thoughts turn toward getting ready to be there. We've only missed one year of the last nine, because it was raining so hard we thought the camping would be miserable. I wrote this song three or four years ago during that moment.

Recording wise, this one was back to very simple. Two takes of guitar, two of voice. A bit of layering and blending... With the SCA songs especially I find I don't want to do much with them. They're meant to sound pretty much the way they sound around the fire.

Speaking of going camping, there won't be another song of the day until Tuesday. No internet where I'm going, and no room to bring recording equipment. The guitar is going with me, so hopefully there'll be some writing. Have a great weekend everyone!

Listen at

www.traciecallahan.com

or

www.myspace.com/songward

comments

Song of the Day (Sharp and Thin)

Wed, 20 May 2009 15:41:49 GMT

There was no song yesterday. I couldn't do it in the morning and intended to catch up when I got home, but... things kept happening!

So, you get the song I planned for yesterday today instead, Sharp and Thin. I've wanted to do this one for a little while, and gryphonwing's comment before about psychotic waltzes reminded me. So here's the second of threeish psychotic waltzes, again with the addition of hand drum and PENS!

This song is a character piece for the Whispering Hour songs. It's one of the songs meant to be sung by the enemy, and frothgar tells me as such it should really be sung by some velvet-voiced baritone. The enemy in this case actually IS a man, but as I don't have a man's vocal chords available to switch out, you get me. It's a lot of fun to sing.

Recording wise, as with the other piece involving drums and pens I kept it very simple. More layers means more space, and the places I host the songs have space limits. I did do a bit of layering on voice and guitar, just to get back some of the depth on those two tracks, but otherwise I left things alone.

Listen at www.traciecallahan.com

or

www.myspace.com/songward

comments

Song of the Day (He Will Be Forgot)

Mon, 18 May 2009 17:25:13 GMT

He Will Be Forgot is the first song I ever recorded on my own. In the summer of 04, frothgar and I rented a mixer of some kind and a couple of microphones, and went to a place now fondly called Poolside Studios, the poolhouse at a friend's house. It was August, and I had a week's worth of vacation. Thunderstorms, crickets, and the learning curves we were both facing made it, quite frankly, a pretty miserable experience. I learned a lot though, about the process, and about the way I work.

This was my very first non SCA song, written one night when I was very angry at someone. I don't tend to write a lot of break-up songs, as I haven't done much breaking up and writing about experiences I haven't had feels way artificial, but here's one.

In other news, I spent last night learning how to do basic content updates for my website. Thank you gryphonwing! It's coming along. I have more to do, and more to learn before I dare do more than just adding and deleting content, but... it's a great start. That being said...

Listen at

www.traciecallahan.com (The player's on the left)

or www.myspace.com/songward

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