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Seventeen songs done for the 50/90 online songwriting challenge, all written on banjo and recorded with just banjo and vocal (and my daughter sang on a couple, too). I’m about five ahead of schedule, which is good because next week I start back to my job as a high school writing teacher.
I’ve come up with some good ones, but I’m at a crossroads. I’m still committed to including banjo on as many of these new songs as I can, but I don’t know if I can write all 50 on banjo. Here’s why:
So I think I’m going to go back to writing and recording guitar/vocal songs and adding banjo later. I did that last 50/90, and I got a few good ones like this one. And I’m a better, more confident and more creative picker than I was last year.
I can crank out a pretty decent guitar/vocal song in about 10-15 minutes and record it in just a few takes. In fact, I think that if I spend much more time than that, often the result sounds forced. Banjo songs usually don’t come as easily, although there are exceptions like what happened Sunday.
My wife Anna went out of town for a few days and took the laptop with the recording software. So I didn’t do any writing and recording, and when I wasn’t watching our 9-year-old daughter Josie (which I admit I don’t do as well as my wife), I was studying Rob Bourassa’s excellent “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” lessons.
Anna got back late Saturday, and Sunday we had a relaxing poolside family day. Three songs just came to me, with little effort at all – here’s one I really like. Another was based on a title my daughter gave me (but it turned into an adult-themed cheating song), and the other was based on a text I sent my wife about a particularly awesome sunset.
Having the whole family around – all four of us, counting the dog – just feels right, and makes me more creative. And I love ‘em, too.
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