don't you just love a good day?

Today I:

1)Got a job with the number one builder in the area
2)Spent time hanging with Mike Taylor and Shiv at WOXY studios
3)Heard a great secret that I can't tell, but it's so exciting!!!!
4)Had a great workout
5)Bought a great new book
6)Stuck to my diet
7)Found .11 while doing the laundry
8)From out of nowhere, actually by accident, someone listened to a new song of mine and actually gave me
the name of someone to contact about it. How strange is that? Plus, this is from someone who hasn't liked
anything I had written previously. Kind of a 2-for-1.

I love having good days! Let's have another one tomorrow.
Rhonda

My Brush with Fame

A few days ago, I went to my favorite club to see one of my all-time favorite artists, Mr. Chris Trapper from the Push Stars. Fortunately, Mike Craft was there with his digital camera to prove that, well, I guess it can't prove that Chris knows me by name, or that we "partied" together in Virginia Beach one year for my birthday, but it does prove that he was at least willing to have his picture taken with me. I honestly haven't been out to see live music for quite some time. I had forgotten how much I enjoy watching folks who are really amazing. How do I decide who is amazing? Well, if I want to write a song in the car on the way home, something amazing happened. Or, on this occassion, while Chris was getting some help from his friends, The Princes of Hollywood, I realized that I wish I could hook-up with someone who is a fabulous writer and musician who would force me to work harder at what I do. If only we could get Emily Strand to come out of hiding to write songs with me...or someone else that is just as good. Know anybody?

An ode to my crutches

Well, it's just about that time. Time to say goodbye to the crutches. I can't just yet, I need to see what the doctor says in a couple of weeks, but I certainly need them less and less. It's quite refreshing to be able to walk into the gym without them. Or get in the car and not have them get caught on things, be in the way, or smack me when i go around a corner. Yeah, Me! I feel so grown up, though I still walk like I'm about 18 months.

Today, I was trying to write a song about graduation or something not specific, but where you help someone until they can do things on their own. What was funny (well, it amused me) was that I was really struggling to find the words so I thought, "just write a song to your crutches. They've always been there for you and now it's time to seperate from them and go it alone." So, I wrote a couple verses of that and then turned on some music that I put together two days ago and then the words I wanted came out nearly perfect. I still need one line, but I'll find it. It will come to me when I least expect it. I think it's really funny sometimes where inspiration finds us...

Cold air and a writing binge

It's no surprise that after weeks and weeks of mild weather, it's now freezing cold in the Midwest. Sunny and 8 degrees. Though it gets to a point when you can no longer feel how cold it is. It's just cold and there's no determining what the current temp or wind chill is as I found this morning having to take the dog out. It was just cold.

Things got off to a slow start this morning. My only plans were to re-record a piano and vocal track for a wedding-themed song I wrote with a guy in NY. I was attempting to record to a click track (like a metronome), a droning constant that never wanders. Let's just say, I need to spend more time practicing to a click, but that's not really any fun, which is why I never do it. At any rate, I was struggling with a couple sections of the song so I decided to record an old song "Unrelenting" and then come back to the piano track. Well, during Unrelenting, I was looking for a synth pad and found this cool pulsating noise that spurred on a whole new idea. So I recorded that and tried to write lyrics for it, but they were really lame. So, then I read my email and got something from another co-writer in Austin. She had some great ideas for a chorus of a song I've been trying to re-work into a country tune. But in trying to help her with the back story for the song, I came up with another idea. I remembered that I had this little piano piece that I recorded back in September...an hour later it was mostly done. And it was fun.

I've been pulling my hair out over songs that I'm trying to make sound commercial and not for my use (yet no one else seems to really get what i'm trying to say, so it's probably all for naught) and then God totally drops this one in my lap. I'm thrilled to be able to add it to my collection of songs that I get to sing for all of you. I won't tell you the name, but it's a story about a girl. Yep, that's all I can tell you right now. I'm a little uncertain about 2 lines, but other than that, I think it's finished. I'll see how I feel in the morning though. More cold and snow is expected. I don't know for certain if all the creativity today was because I didn't really want to have to go outside or not. But I'm guessing that it didn't hurt.

So, did you watch 24? Why would they ever allow Jack's father to be alone in the room with someone who is essentially a prisoner? I don't care if it is his son. grrrr.

Writing again

Yesterday I was trying to rewrite a song I had lyrics for but had only played through it enough to realize that my chorus wasn't really working. I rewrote the chorus at work. When I got home I was playing guitar to the new chorus and heard in my "you had the top down, and the windows rolled up". Not my usual fare, but I went with it and totally rewrote the entire song while James was on hold with TimeWarner cable. I still think it needs some work, but I recorded a rough outline last night. When I listened this morning, I realized it was waaaaayyyyy too slow, but had some promise. I'm looking forward to getting this thing nailed down--maybe in the morning while my windshield is being replaced...

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

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