Melanie and Charlie. Cayucos 3-31-12
My dad and stepmom are on a pilgrimage to Texas to pick up a travel trailer, so we were the beneficiaries of an empty beach house this past weekend. And what a weekend it was. A storm moved in on Saturday and we got a front row seat. Then, on Sunday we awoke to offshore winds, sunny skies, and the biggest waves I have seen in a long time. In short, mother nature put on quite a show for us.
The good thing about going to the beach is that I focus on the essentials: Guitar, book, kite, beer. Nice and simple. So Saturday was a bit of all of those things, along with some basketball watching and some playing in the sand with the kids. I spent some time on Friday night working on a song that I have been messing around with for a couple weeks, but I was getting bored with it after so much tinkering. Then, on Saturday night, I sat down to free write some new ideas and voila, a new song came to me. I wrote in in about 5 minutes. I added a bit to it this morning and it is basically complete. Hallelujah! I have been struggling a lot lately with songwriting in that nothing has come easy and then when you least expect it it just happens and a song spills out of you like projectile vomit. It has been a good reminder. I was in the wilderness for awhile and was not dedicating myself to writing. But then I got back into it and have tried to be more consistent. And writing begets writing and writing songs begets writing more songs. And songs are my lifeblood. I have a new commitment and dedication to my craft.
I have to give a little bit of credit to Todd Snider. It was inspiring to see him this week and he is such a good writer. When I sat down to free write on Saturday he was on my mind and I used a couple of his songs for prompts. So thank you Todd Snider for doing your part. And thank you Cayucos beach house and mother nature for the inspiration you provided, and thank you beer.
My new song is called Thank You Insecurity. I’ll post a demo when I get around to it.
El Rey de lo-fi 