To hear and/or download this week's songs, I've conveniently embedded a player below so you don't have to leave to listen but if you just have to leave then follow this link: http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-10
If you need to classify them, both of this week's songs can be classified as "country". So many people write off the whole country music genre without even taking the time to listen and form their own opinion. I will admit to being one of those people at one time, that is until I was exposed to REAL country music...Hank Williams, The Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson...these are all true artists that wrote incredible songs. It's amazing to me how little in common what passes for country music today has with the old greats. "Modern" country is mostly embarrassing redneck pop trash, it's no wonder why so many people hate it...but so many love it. One more complaint (audience cheers), what the hell is with country (oh and general pop) "stars" NOT writing their own songs!? If I can do it, why can't they? All the people I listed before recorded plenty of other people's songs but they wrote too and are primarily remembered and celebrated for their original compositions. The whole Nashville songwriter system makes no sense to me. With that being said, any country or pop "stars" reading this, please record my songs and give me tons of money, I'd greatly appreciate it!
The A-side "Violet" is the story of a bird that escapes her cage and flies away...OR IS IT??? It also works as the story of a girl stuck in an oppressive relationship that she runs away from. She was so eager to leave home but of course she wasn't ready and the real world (or gravity if you still think it's about a bird) started to rapidly pull her down when a "valiant" man comes along and saves her from ruin at the cost of her freedom. Then as I've already said, she escapes! I really like this song. I don't know exactly what inspired it but I've liked the name Violet since reading the first handful of Series Of Unfortunate Events books in my second year of high school. I don't know why I never finished reading the series, those books are so good!The recording was pretty easy, guitar, vocals, bass and lap steel! Yes, I've finally found a use for my lap steel! I've had it since my 17th birthday but haven't really played with it in a few years which is a shame as it is a really cool instrument. For those of you that don't know, a lap steel is a small fretless electric guitar tuned to an open chord that is played laying down on your lap with a slide usually made out of solid steel, hence the name! I need to use it more and also get a real steel slide.
The B-side "Ghost Town" is an exercise in overt sentimentality. I'll admit it won't be my favorite song from this challenge because of it's sentimental overtness but I think it turned out pretty well for what it is. It's written from the POV of someone returning to their home town many years after leaving and being overcome with memories and emotion seeing how run down and deserted it has become. I kept the recording very simple and bare-bones, just acoustic guitar and my haunting voice (ha). I added one other element, wind! You might need to turn up your volume or use headphones to hear it but it begins and ends with the sound of wind blowing through the empty town which really enhances the loneliness and isolation of the song. I created the wind by lightly blowing into the mic and then turning the track reverb all the way up. It worked quite well.
I drew the cover in pencil then colored it with watercolor pencils. It was my first time using watercolor pencils, I played around with wetting the pencil itself and also coloring first then going over it with a wet brush. It's not perfect but it has its charm. Oh and I think the birdcage turned out pretty good. Ok, no more self back patting.
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| the complete untouched masterpiece |
That's all for now!
10 down, 42 to go!
MJM
http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-10
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