tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:38:04 +0000What's the story behind a song? Some people love it when a songwriter introduces each song with what inspired it or what they were thinking, for some it ruins the flow of the performance and others like to make their own meaning. For those interested in the creative process, this blog presents the stories outside the flow of the music.http://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (songer)Blogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482.post-1601671185604423897Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:20:00 +00002009-09-27T16:38:04.863-07:00I had mentioned that I was hoping to expand the series of podcasts to include people other than myself. So here's the first: Portland popsmith Sam Anderson of Lighthead and the Sam Anderson Band talks about the genesis of his song. "Your Connection." Find out more about Sam and his band by visiting the Sam Anderson Page on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/sam.anderson3 http://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/2009/09/podcast-with-sam-anderson.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (songer)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482.post-8229757593199165183Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:24:00 +00002009-02-24T08:36:48.702-08:00Hey folks,I have been rethinking this blog and started to feel like it really needed to be more of an audio blog than a text blog. So here's the first installment of the audio version. I am hoping also to expand this to include other songwriters as well as me. This post is about the song This Garden, which I blogged about a while ago. I've now put the full-length recording and the lyrics on myhttp://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-audio-blog-entry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (songer)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482.post-6676234577253922272Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:39:00 +00002008-12-10T17:58:27.648-08:00Old HousesSongwritingShut-insTeen PregnancyGorkaThe song "Thread" -- rough recording can be heard at my myspace pageThis is one of those speculative story songs. Where something I've observed gets stuck in my brain and starts to accumulate possible storylines, kind of like coral. In this case it was one of the numerous run-down old houses in our New England mill town and the semi-shut-in man who lives there. I guess what struck me was the http://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/2008/12/thread.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (songer)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482.post-6673854711054607284Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:06:00 +00002008-11-18T18:28:18.195-08:00MusicSongwritingfamilygrandparentsgardeningSorry to have been away for so long, lots of life happening including a job loss unfortunately...there will be a song about that don't you worry! The posts also got a little sidetracked into coverage of festivals etc. and got away from the original purpose of telling what's behind some of my songwriting and hopefully helping to unlock the process for some of you...Although I haven't recorded http://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/2008/11/back-to-it-this-garden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (songer)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482.post-8112358853370403788Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:39:00 +00002007-07-30T18:10:15.260-07:00FolkBluegrassSongwriting ContestsFestivalsYesterday I played in the finals of the New England Songwriting contest, held as part of the Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival. There were 20 finalists selected from about 100 submissions. The finalists came from a pretty wide area including Maine, New Hampshire and a couple from Nantucket MA. The variety of genres represented was pretty wide from contemporary singer songwriter to pop to real http://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-england-songwriting-contest-3rd.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (songer)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482.post-7034419843231822484Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:33:00 +00002007-07-23T18:55:21.132-07:00songlinesfriendsmemoryI mean as people, not songwriters. What purpose to they serve? My friend Ken from NY was visiting. Before I moved to Maine, he and I played in a band called Dogs Gone Fishing.So while he was up visiting we played a reunion gig at the Gorham Grind . He always played this great obscure cover tune called "Spider John" by Willis Alan Ramsey, the Texas songwriter who wrote Muskrat Love (a hit for http://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-do-songs-do-for-us.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (songer)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482.post-4336261854095199361Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:10:00 +00002007-07-08T08:35:33.787-07:00SongwritingindustrializationcultureindianaThis song idea came from a short business trip I had to Indianapolis. I'm sure it's not a fair portrait but I found it to be a pretty ugly city, and was distressed that the main feature of downtown seemed to be a huge sports stadium and a comparably huge mall. On the weekends, crowds seemed to stream in from all the outlying towns to go to the mall. This made me think about how our http://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/2007/07/indiana-blue-song-for-red-state.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (songer)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6057434042529576482.post-2044227750709809548Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:58:00 +00002007-07-06T18:20:57.441-07:00MusicStoriesSongwritingCreative ProcessLyricsFirst post: so I guess I should tell you what this is all about. This is a place to tell stories behind the songs. It's something that songwriters are often discouraged from doing in concert because really, 80% of the audience doesn't care. And sometimes it can be detrimental: interfering with the listener mapping their own experiences to the song and relating to it. So in concert I don't http://storiesaboutsongs.blogspot.com/2007/07/songs-stories-whats-this-about.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (songer)2