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Mouse and Pin Cushion

July 5, 2010 in creativity, music, songs by George | 13 comments

A while back I made a promise to try and engage in more random acts of creativity; things get very dark around the Ponderosa when I don’t.

I’ve done OK with this, but I’m certainly not where I want to be in terms of frequency.

I was thinking about why my output hasn’t been what I’ve wanted, and some of it comes down to my damnable Virgo personality of needing to refine things rather than letting them be/go. While I’ve come to be largely OK with this, it does stand in contrast to much of what I preach with respect to getting stuff out there and refining.

What happens is, I’ll start with a sketch of a song or of a…er…sketch, and rather than keep it as just a sketch — a moment — I add layers.

The question is, do these layers really add anything? Isn’t the essence where it’s at?

I think the answer is that, yes, the essence is there…or it isn’t. Refining is not necessarily a bad thing, and, often, is absolutely necessary. But sometimes it’s more necessary to just create, and let the essence be what it is or isn’t.

I think if there’s something there, you’ll come back with a different eye, a different approach, and you’ll refine. If there isn’t something there, coming back to it a billion times won’t get you any closer to the truth.

To that end, I was taking a break from the jaberwocky a bit ago, and came upstairs from my office; the kids were running around in circles (not kidding), and I picked up my guitar. I’m fascinated and obsessed with staccato rhythms on guitar that imply melody, and am always on the hunt for these. A drop D and a capo later, I had the feel of something. I plopped my iPhone with the voice memo app running on my knee and banged it out.

My intention was to use this iPhone recording to just remember the idea of the tune. But then I started thinking of all the layers I would add to it, and it became less about doing something fun and cathartic and more about planning a time when the house would be quiet, the phone wouldn’t be ringing, etc.

Pretty soon I was tired just thinking about it.

So, screw it. Here’s the iPhone recording. Yes, that’s Henry running around in circles talking about monsters. Yes, that’s me breathing. Yes it goes out of time at one point.

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Mouse and Pin Cushion

Once again, I’m honored to use, with her kind permission, one of Kristin Hersh’s amazing photos as the title inspiration.

If you want to hear real songs, head on over to Kristin’s Site; lots of amazing things going on over there.

I hope those of you who read Ye Olde Bloggee don’t mind these little moments of internal contemplation and their collateral manifestations.

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The Jazz Soul of Oscar Peterson: Perfect Music and Cover Art

March 13, 2010 in design, music by George | 7 comments

I just love this record. I find myself staring at the cover while I listen; the visuals aligning with the sonics.

So many of the Verve and Blue Note covers from that era align so perfectly with the music.

My friend, the brilliant musician/composer, Mark Isham, talks frequently about how Miles Davis (particularly with Bitches Brew) unified his visuals and music. He’s right, of course.

I’m curious what cover art you feel resonates with the music. Leave me some thoughts in the comments if you get a moment.

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Sachuest Point

February 20, 2010 in music, songs by George | 13 comments

This is an older instrumental that’s been looking for a name for a long time. Since I’ve been inspired by Kristin Hersh’s, “Kristin With an Eye” images to connect my songs to her visuals (ala “Southern Waste”), I though it made sense to finally give it a name.

Here’s Kristin’s image that retroactively inspired the song:

And, here’s the song:

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Sachuest Point

It was written many moons ago upstairs in the little make-shift studio I put together above the Ryko offices in Gloucester. I’d disappear on occasion, when the business overtook the art, to try and remember what pulled me into this business in the first place.

The sort of drone-y under current in the song is a dulcimer. While sort of thought of as the autoharp’s less cool cousin, dulcimers are actually pretty happening. Have a listen, for instance, to this:

“Everybody hit the ground,” indeed.

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Sachuest Point by George Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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Song: “Southern Waste”

February 6, 2010 in music, songs by George | 1 comment

photo by Kristin Hersh

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Southern Waste

These are songs I write to quiet the madding crowd. I do them very quickly – like sketches – and present them warts and all (or all warts).

They’re licensed under CreativeCommons, so please feel free to use them.

A note about the title/image. One of the hardest parts of writing instrumental music is coming up with titles. Happily, Kristin Hersh, in her genius, posts a new photo to her blog every day. Not only do these images inspire me, but they also provide fantastic titles. With Kristin’s kind permission, I’m attaching my little songs to her images.

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Creative Commons License
Southern Waste by George Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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More on loving music: Can’t Hardly Wait

August 12, 2009 in music by George | 9 comments

Yesterday I twittered out a pretty unvarnished sentiment about my love for music:

I was delighted by all the “@” responses I got – I ain’t alone.

One of the reasons I shot that tweet out was because I was – after a long day of meetings and travel – so very excited to listen to some of the new jazz records I’ve recently been obsessed over.

What I like about them is that these records are endlessly fascinating to me. I don’t feel like I can sort of figure them out on first listen in the same way as I – rightly or wrongly – do with so much non-jazz stuff these days.

Well, thanks to Aquarium Drunkard, I had a recent reminder that it ain’t all (that) jazz that is so easily understood.

AD recently did an amazing piece on one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands: The Replacements’ “I Can’t Hardly Wait.

It’s a song I’ve loved forever, and thought I had pretty well figured out. In my mind, it was a song about coming home (“I’ll be home when I’m sleeping”/”I can’t hardly wait”) after being away from someone you (maybe) miss (“I’ll write you a letter tomorrow”/”Tonight I can’t hold my pen”/”Someone’s gotta stamp I can borrow”/”I promise not to blow the address again”).

However, after listening to the earlier versions, it’s pretty clear the song – at least in its earlier incarnations – is about suicide. In this sense, one of my favorite lyrics from the song (“Jesus rides beside me”/”He never buys any smokes”) sort of takes on a different meaning. Other elements – in particular, the reference to the “water tower” – in these earlier versions also push the song in that direction.

In any case, it’s a testament to the nuance of Westerberg’s writing. While not a jazz composition, the variations of this song have the same mystery and heft that all great songs – irrespective of genre – do.

Of course, another reason I love music is because of the internal references that it creates. I’ve read that the reason we so strongly associate smells with memories is because the olfactory gland is right next to the part of the brain that controls memory (I have no idea if that’s true). If so, the gland (or whatever) that deals with music must be right there beside these things.

To wit, I can’t even write the word “water tower” without thinking of another song that has the same, uh, heft as great jazz songs: REM’s “Time after Time.” This song, one of their best and most under-rated, is, I believe, about suicide:

Ask the girl of the hour by the water tower’s watch/
If your friends took a fall, are your obligated to follow?

Maybe not, but to me it always has been. So, upon hearing “Can’t Hardly Wait” with a reference to a water tower…well.

Lots of rambling here. What else, however has this power? I guess all art. I can see geeking out like this over the inter-connectedness of Faulkner, for instance. For now, though, it’s music.

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