Wintertime in Arkansas can be downright strange. It’s a wild night outside as I write, safe indoors, listening to my wind chimes rock a wild ballet. In spite of the impending winter solstice, I was outside in a t-shirt for part of the afternoon. Weird.
Wild and windy nights fire creativity and magic. I’ve had two very productive work shifts in my little recording studio over the past two evenings. (Yes, the cold is on its way out at last. Thanks for the well-wishes!) I’m closing in on completion of the new record, bit by bit. It feels good, especially now that I’m down to working on the two songs which have intimidated me the most throughout this process. It’s not that I worry I can’t do them justice, I just really really REALLY want to make them sound epic.
After tonight, I can honestly say I feel like I’m getting close. Possibly even leveling up.
When you write a song that warrants a recording that’ll really sound like what it feels to lose true love, the recording cannot be half ass. It’s got to be 100%, and it’s got to hurt. Art and integrity have to be in the room. You have to sing your heart out and get it all over the floor, and then you have to craft a world at the mixing board for that song to dance in. I intend the title track of Stolen Season to be this record’s equivalent of “Neptune“, but to make it even more fierce than that.
Those of you who do any sort of creative, autobiographical work will understand just what I’m telling you when I say that tonight I got the mix to the point where tears rolled down my cheeks and chills ran all over my skin. This one’s gonna have a life of its own.
I don’t do a whole lot of love-and-loss songs. I’m a folklore girl. I tell stories, but most of them aren’t pop song material. This time, I’m doing love-and-loss quite a bit, but my way.
For those who weep every time over “Neptune“, “Wonders“, or “Valkyrie Daughter“, here’s a heads-up. You’re gonna want to hold onto something. 🙂
Our internet speed out in the woods is rather pitiful, so I may not be able to live stream a solo unplugged release concert from home once this monster is ready for digital release. Even so, I want to do something. Bekah Kelso’s upcoming Concert Window show (to which you should absolutely RSVP) got me thinking, and now I’m inspired to figure something out. So here’s my question: if I record and then upload (to YouTube or someplace similar) a live, intimate solo concert of the whole album, song by song, start to finish, would that be something you’d watch and enjoy? Write me and let me know, or leave me a comment on Facebook.
“If I’m to steer without your star,
I’ll have plenty of time for dancing in the dark.
But first I have to learn the trick of holding up my head again
and flying blind.”
-“Stolen Season”