Betsy, Ryan and I all headed home this past Tuesday afternoon. Some people are under the illusion that musician-types just sort of loaf around when they’re not touring and performing, but that’s certainly not true for the three of us! If you know what it’s like to come home and do laundry (for days) after two festival weeks in a row, you know what I’m talking about. 🙂
Aside from laundry, I’ve been composing and submitting new tracks for the video game soundtrack I’m working on. Have you seen Dragon the game? It’s early access, which means you can play as the game develops! Be a dragon and fly around doing stuff? Yes please! This week I wrote a new piece of “flying around and exploring” music, which our game director told me he wants to put in to the game itself “as soon as possible.” I guess this means all those times as a kid (and not as a kid) pretending to be a dragon and wishing I could fly have actually paid off in my professional life! HaHA! Take that!
I also have some vocal tracks to record for Sharon Knight and Winter, to be added to a couple of songs on their upcoming Portals project. Both of the songs Sharon has asked me to contribute to are pieces we’ve done on stage together before. I’m honored that Sharon and Winter liked my seat-of-pants harmony choices enough to ask me to make them part of the “official” versions of these songs!
My songwriting prompt for my song-a-week group this week is “right or wrong”. Up to this point, I’ve gotten an idea for my weekly new song pretty quickly after learning the prompt. Not so this week. I think I have the glimmer of a beginning today, though, inspired by how wild the weather and seismic activity has been on the planet of late. Did I mention that the Arkansas River, about five miles from my house, is well past its thirty-foot flood stage right now? It’s snuggled up to its levees like I snuggle up with my sweetheart on movie night. So: The river doesn’t hold with right or wrong… That’s where my new song has begun. We’ll see where it goes.
The online PR campaign for Stolen Season continues apace, as well. I’m still soliciting new reviews and interviews, and I’m still largely pleased with the reception the album has had so far. Thank you all for listening and enjoying it! I have not yet posted my planned CD release concert vids for YouTube, but I have not forgotten about them. The trouble is convincing myself that the video performances I have for each song are good enough for y’all. Remember my post about holding onto what your loved ones say when they tell you that you’re awesome? Why is that so hard? 🙂
I hope everyone who reads this is faring well, worldwide, with all of the recent natural disasters. Earthquakes in Nepal, flooding from Houston to Oklahoma, drought in California; I am doing my best to keep aware of it all and to keep all of you in my thoughts. Please stay safe. The beauty doesn’t always balance the rough stuff, but I offer it anyway. In song, in image, in heart.