Words and Music Are Everywhere

Now that the CD is out, I've returned to one of the things I love best: songwriting. And I'm here to tell you that songs can come from some pretty odd places.

In November I took a train trip to Cornwall, and between Via's attendants handing out Remembrance Day poppies, the music I was listening to on the way (Miles Davis Quintet, Live in Europe 1967), a piano sitting in a downtown square with jammed keys and a bit of research on the Lost Villages, I came up with a tune called "Lost Villages Wail." (It's not really about the Lost Villages—they provided me with good metaphorical meat, though.)

I generally write chords first, then melody, then words. If nothing comes spontaneously I go back to my "bits," those fragments I've recorded that on their own are little more than promising parts lasting no more than 10 seconds. If I'm lucky, I can string two or three together in the same song, but more often than not I create the music from scratch around one strong bit. And again, if I'm lucky, sometimes I get a melody so evocative that the words practically write themselves. That's what happened with December's new song, "The Lord's Glue."

This month's new song, "Let Love Strum You," springs from a truly bizarre source: a lumber outlet jingle I heard on a baseball broadcast. I pilfered the chords and melody verbatim, made it my chorus, and wrote the rest of the music around it. For the lyrics, I drew inspiration from this poem by John O'Donohue that I saw in a church bulletin. Nothing was used verbatim; I simply borrowed a few of his words, then filled in the rest. In fact, the tone of my lyrics differs considerably from that of the poem.

Words and music—they really are everywhere if you look. And all this is coming reasonably soon, I hope, on my second album, Days of Secret Seeing.

Dear Lou

Tonight at church I lit a candle for you
Or I guess I should say I'd intended to
But most were taken, the rest extinguished
"Hey, everyone lit a candle for Lou"
I said with a smirk that I borrowed from you
Holding the flame till it almost burned through
Petitioning softly for mercy for you

Tonight at home I played "Coney Island Baby"
Your paean to the glory of love
"Sorry it took a while, thank you"
Not at all, my dear Lou
It is I who thank you
Friend, it took no time at all

For Lou Reed, 1942-2013.

Linden Tree near the Water

Linden tree near the water
Rise up in holy satori
Love's verdant blooming is near
Rooted in you in your glory

Cultivate joy for joy we shall know
Thus spoke the angel on high my dear one
Celebrate love for love we shall share
Thus spoke the Lord in a sign my dear one

She of the sea rings a church bell
Congratulations resound in my dreams
You hear the clarion call
Come the big day we'll find out what it means

Linden tree near the water
I'll be your soil if you'll be my shade
Blossom my sweet one in time
O blessed child of God be not afraid

Who's the fair maiden who'll offer her hand
To strengthen this woebegone heart
Shadows may lengthen but sunrise draws near
Songbirds sing linden tree near the water