pale beneath the blue

Road stories and more from singer/songwriter, pale beneath the blue.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

New Year, New You

I couldn't decide where to put my New Years blog post, so I'm cross posting it here. Check out my thoughts on making the best of 2007 at http://politicsisthenewreligion.blogspot.com/

peace,
Rhonda

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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

A year in Review

I still can't believe it's the end of another year. I would have to say, that even with the album not coming out, it's been a very productive year. Even taking most of May, Sept, Oct, and November off, I played 64 shows this year. I was in NY and DC twice and finally made my way to Boston and Wisconsin. Fun stuff. I don't know what 2007 will hold as far as travels, but I'm thrilled that I've had the pleasure of meeting so many interesting folks this year.

In the songwriting arena, I've written and co-written several new pieces. Some maybe you've heard, and some maybe not, but here's the list that I've come up with:

1. Ricochet
2. Don't Understand (co-write with Scott Murray, Australia)
3. Private Milton (co-write with Scott Murray, Australia)
4. Today's the Day
5. Phrases
6. Bob Pollard (co-write with Jim Danehy at Improv Night)
7. Future of Things
8. Hymnal
9. Break Down the Walls
10. Untitled spoken word piece (July Improv Night)
11. On the Case
12. Forgive Me
13. Better Off
14. Say You'll Be Mine (co-write with Chris Yurchuck, NYC)
15. Perfect Fit (co-write with Chris Yurchuck, NYC)
16. It's My Heart I Can't Trust
17. I Want to Know

I think there are others that I am not currently thinking of as well. I know I've started like a million songs this year and it's been a difficult year to actually finish things. But I'm thankful for the amount of songs I have worked on--creativity feeds me. Though I've been working on writing songs that are maybe a little more commercial, I'm feeling the urge to go off in a new direction and just see where it leads. It's so difficult to make music without commercial influence, but I think it's time to get back to it.

Wishing everyone a creative 2007,
rhonda

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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

I got it, I got it!

IT's finally here. The one we've been waiting for. Yes, it is the master for She Dangled it...

Can you believe it? My goodness, I've written an entire album's worth of songs while I was waiting for it to get here. Those, hopefully you will hear sooner rather than later. Heading to the replication house this week.

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Thursday, December 07, 2006

It must be winter, I've been spending all my time indoors

It's amazing to me that last week it was 65-70 degrees and today I wore a long sleeve t-shirt with a wool turtleneck sweater and coat and gloves and at times I was still cold. They are expecting tonite to be the coldest night of the year so far. Thank God for cable.

At any rate, even with all the time in the house, I haven't been spending a lot of time on music. Yes, of course, I did write a song a couple of weeks ago, but that happened in like a second and I haven't felt like doing anything hard. However, I've been trying to co-write with a guy in Manhatten. There are online songwriting communities where you can hook-up with other folks for co-writes. Our co-write has taken forever to get off the ground. We have completely different ways of wording things and we're both kinda dark--our assignment was to write an upbeat wedding song. Oh, sure, I'll get right on that. So, I've been spending the past 3 weeks or more making lists of things that remind me of weddings--words, scents, saying/phrases, symbols--everything. I've started 3 different songs but they all begin with the same 2 lines:

How do you know when it's time to stop looking?
How do you know when you've found the one?

I have literally written 3 different, completely different ideas based on those starting phrases. I haven't completely finished the songs, but I've been pretty close. My co-writer felt that the first was too dark and he was having trouble connecting with the second so I didn't even send him the third.

Finally, I broke down and just started writing, writing anything that would come to mind based on a verse that he wrote. I felt like I was really having trouble connecting with it, but I sent him what I wrote anyway to see if we could make something happen. He made a few minor changes and said he liked some of the lines and that we should both keep working. Well, I finally spent some time at the keyboard (you never know sometimes if it's going to be a keyboard song or a guitar song, and yes, it does make a difference) tonite and sorta finished it. It still needs a bridge and some polishing but I think it has some promise. I'm a little concerned to hear what he says about the music and melody since he's more of a country guy, but we'll see.

I'll keep you posted,
Rhonda

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