2 posts tagged “songwriting”
Just got an email notice from the NY Times and found a link to a new songwriting blog called Measure for Measure, featuring Andrew Bird, among others, and thought I should share it, if anyone else out there is interested. His fairly detailed description of his own creative process left me a little ashamed of my own feeble efforts, both at blogging and songwriting, but also inspired me to try a little harder next time.
Listened to NPR's "All Things Considered" on the way home the other night and caught an interview with Merle Haggard who is now 70 and just put out a bluegrass album, after all those years of playing the country badboy from Bakersfield. In my younger days I never had much time for his "Okie from Muskogee" kind of music, but lately I've come around a bit and can now appreciate the real life experiences he draws on in writing his own material. So I paid attention when he started talking about his approach to songwriting and when he said he is always aware and trying to pick up on whatever might be coming through at the moment, even in the bath tub when you (normally) don't have anything to write it down, or record it. No matter he says, the stuff worth keeping will generally stick in your head long enough to get it down later, which I have found to be true in my own meager efforts. The other point he made is that you can't really squeeze out a song, or it will sound like it was forced. He quotes one of his early idols, Bob Wills (king of "Texas Swing" with his band, the Texas Playboys) as saying he "never did sweat out a song" because the real stuff just comes unexpectedly. So you do need to be tuned in.
