How To Get Inspiration To Write Songs

Songwriters often suffer from writer's block, or just don't feel like writing, or think they have no reason to write anything at the moment! So how do you get past those barriers? Well, one smart songwriter has created a challenge known as FAWM which is intended to do just that.

FAWM stands for February Album Writing Month and if you accept the challenge, you will write 14 songs in February. You can post the songs to the website but there is no prize or pressure. You will just focus on your 14 songs - one every two days or several at a time. You can use notes you have made, hooks you have written down, or other ideas, but no old songs.

Most of us cannot write 14 songs and record them properly in 28 days, but a quickie recording is a good idea so you don't forget the chords and melody. You can go back later and develop and complete each song.

So who's in? Go to the website and sign up. Donations are voluntary and there is no penalty for failure, and maybe you will wind up with an album of new songs by March 1. I am going to try!

FAWM

Beaks Old Florida Report

Last night we played at Beaks Old Florida along with several other musicians. The hosts were Liz and Jay, known as the Singing Monkeyz. Both Liz and Jay are blessed with great singing voices as well as the talent required to use them. Liz is also a very good guitarist and Jay, who can play the drums, accompanies the duo with a cajon (which is Spanish for box) drum.

Also on the bill were Jerry Jakala, the JPF coordinator for our region, Steve Murr a local semi-professional guitarist/singer songwriter, and Regina Aamacha, a transplant to the area from Delaware. Regina is a new friend of ours discovered by us on MySpace. She is a very good songwriter and performer and keeps everyone entertained with her amusing viewpoints.

There were several other artists present and I will touch on them in a later blog.

The Blue Island Beer Club introduced my new original called Bluesman and played Bruce's original Sailed So Well. We also performed Someday the Sun Won't Shine For You (a Jethro Tull song), Here Comes the Sun, and Man of Constant Sorrow (by the Bluegrass Island Beer Club?).

The Blue Island Beer Club

Cold Weather Wimp.........

Last night's outdoor appearance was great, except it was the coldest day of the year here in Florida and the Eternal Florida Folk and Medicine Show is outdoors! Temperatures dropped close to freezing overnight and were well on the way down when we played from 8 - 9:30 or so. Fortunately, the musicians and the audience were all moved under a solid canopy out of the wind where there were several strategically placed propane heaters. Our set went well and we enjoyed hearing the other musicians. I walked out into the parking lot to tune up and it was Really Cold.

We have missed out on a couple of other gigs recently when it rained. Rain is worse than cold since it will ruin the equipment for sure and the audience is just not going to sit in the rain! (not the smart people who come to see us anyway).

A couple of years ago, I played in another group and we had a 6:30 am gig on a Saturday and Sunday morning to entertain the runners in a marathon race. A cold front passed through and the rain was blowing sideways at about 4 am. I was tempted to roll over and stay in bed, but we ended up going anyway. The rain stopped, but it was cold and windy. We were playing under a small canopy and we tied tarps around the "tent" to keep the wind off. A small propane heater kept our hands warm between songs. Roughly twelve thousand runners heard us each day although they only heard about one song each (except for the stragglers who were within earshot for a longer time).

Weather in Florida is warmer than much of the country but it still presents its challenges!

http://cdbaby.com/cd/blueislandbeerclub

Blue Island Beer Club featured at Jolli Mon's Wednesday!

Yes, The Blue Island Beer Club will be featured this Wednesday, Jan 21, at the very cool Jolli Mon's in Dunedin. Come and celebrate the first full day of George W. Bush's ex-presidency.

The event is the Eternal Florida Folk And Medicine Show hosted by Scotty Rexroat. The music starts at 7 pm and we will take the stage at about 8:30.

You can check the schedule of acts here: www. myspace. com/jollimons

The all important address and phone number are :

941 Huntley Ave.
Dunedin Florida, 34698

Tel: 727-735-0498

And remember that Dunedin rhymes with Done Eatin', not Tuned In.

(we will have our CD, Lone Palm Tree, available for music lovers and souvenir hunters)

Rising Stars

I attended a jam this week and was pleasantly surprised when Lorna Bracewell appeared. She is one of the most heralded young singer/songwriters in the Tampa Bay area and is thought by many to be on her way to national prominence. Lorna has the number one song of 2008 on Music Tampa Bay and has been on stage at the best venues around including Ruth Eckerd Hall and Skippers Smokehouse, performing along with artists like Amy Grant, Sarah McLachlan, and Dar Williams.

The jam is usually made up of electric instruments and drums. The acoustic musicians who have attended in the past usually were lost in the barroom din, so I was worried that Lorna would be too. But she played and sang just a few notes and the place quieted down and everybody listened.

Lorna plays her acoustic guitar in a way that emphasizes a bass line and a drum rhythm in addition to the usual guitar chords. Her vocal delivery of covers and originals is unique and very appealing. Her voice is huskier than you might guess from meeting her.

It did not take long for her to captivate the audience and make a great impression. If you get a chance, I recommend checking out her CDs or live performances.

Lorna

Colin

Now on iTunes and Amazon.com

My solo CD for sailors, The ICW Blues, has recently joined the Blue Island Beer Club CD, Lone Palm Tree, on iTunes and Amazon.com. So you can download the entire CD or choose the songs you really love and download them for very modest fees. The best deal is on Amazon where you can download the entire album for under $9.

Thanks go to CD Baby which is a web based company that distributes music for independent artists, meaning those who do not have a contract with a record company (most of us these days). CD Baby stocks and sells physical CDs and also distributes the songs for download through a variety of vendors, the biggest of whom are Amazon and iTunes.

You can listen to song samples on any of these sites and download the ones you like. Or you can order a CD which will be delivered quickly through the US mail. I am happy to see the downloads available and i hope you will all check 'em out!

Amazon

Colin

Just Plain Folks Showcase

The Blue Island Beer Club is off to the JPF Showcase on Sunday afternoon. We will be playing at the Whistlestop in Safety Harbor with a number of other songwriters who participate in the Just Plain Folks songwriter's forum on the internet (Google for the site).

The host, Jerry, is setting up his brand new PA system and I know of several good musicians who will be attending.

Be there!

Recording Technology

The ability to produce professional quality recordings in a small or home studio is being continually improved. Amazing microphones are available at reasonable prices and the software that turns the computer into a recording studio continues to be improved, although digital recording came of age several years ago.

Finished recordings are actually better than CD quality and are converted to WAV files near the end of the process. WAV files are the same as CD quality. If you listen to mp3s on your computer or iPod, the files been compressed to some degree and the fidelity is worse than CD quality, but they still sound pretty darn good. mp3 compression can be done to varying degrees - the smaller the file, the less the fidelity.

I have just upgraded the analog to digital converter in my system. This improves the conversion of analog signals coming from a microphone or instrument into digital bits and bytes. I went from 16 bit 48 Khz (still better than CD quality) conversion to 24 bit 96 Khz. This means my digital recording is more faithful to the analog signal. After the recording is completed and mixed, it is lowered to CD quality, but should be better overall since the mixing was performed with super high quality tracks.

I am anxious to record a song using this equipment and see if the end result is noticeably better. I have been pleased with the sound quality of my prior recordings, but better is better!

Small Successes!

Independent musicians have to brag about their small successes since the odds against them having big ones are tremendous unless they are young and beautiful. Alas, Bruce and I do not fit in the latter category so we are bragging about the small ones.

Our Blue Island Beer Club CD, Lone Palm Tree, has received lots of airplay on the internet radio station of Latitudes and Attitudes magazine. Lats and Atts is a national magazine targeted at sailors and cruisers everywhere and is sold in bookstores like Barnes and Noble and Borders as well as marinas and ship stores nationwide. We received a purchase order from Lats and Atts just before Christmas for a box of our CDs to sell in addition to the digital downloads which have been available for a while. Now sailors everywhere can order our CD from the magazine or on line.

Ship Store

Latitudes and Attitudes

The Blue Island Beer Club has also been featured on another internet radio station called Music Tampa Bay for some months. We recently learned that one of our songs, written by Bruce, has been included in the MTB Top 100 of 2008......And The Women.

Music Tampa Bay

Small successes, but we love 'em.