In January 2023, I participated in a concept called Jamuary (sometimes also referred to by the more direct name “Song a Day for a Month”). The basic idea was to write one song every day, with midnight of that day being the targeted deadline. Due to my life schedule (I rarely got started working on a given day’s song until 7 p.m.), I allowed the flexibility to have the song written completely before midnight, but sometimes needed the midnight, 1 a.m., and on up to 5 a.m. hours to finish the actual recording.
Below is a table with embedded players for every song I wrote and recorded as part of this song-a-day challenge. You can click the song’s artwork to link to the blog entry I posted shortly after finishing recording, which has a description of the song’s inspiration, some recording details, and lyrics. I’ve also included my own subjective scoring of the “quality” of the demo, from 1–5. This is more about the quality of the recording instead of the song, as sometimes I could only record a live take with one mono track, and sometimes (often on weekends) I could spend the time to craft a decent recording with multitracking and overdubs.
I’ve marked songs with two different stars, a shiny star 🌟 for songs I really like and think have potential, and a ‘runner-up’ star ⭐️for songs I like but probably need some re-tooling. Something I learned fairly early in this process was that you can’t obsess over every line; at some point you have to commit and get things done.
You can download all the tracks in one ZIP file here: download.
Jamuary 2023
Every track written and recorded in a single day of January, 2023.2023-01-31
Date | Cover | Track | Length | Demo Quality | Download |
Sun, 1/1/23 | Ditching Dori |
1:01 | 1.5 | Link | |
Mon, 1/2/23 ⭐️ | Thanks For Trying To Go to Sleep |
2:30 | 1.5 | Link | |
Tue, 1/3/23 | Islands in the Week |
2:28 | 1.5 | Link | |
Wed, 1/4/23 | Half a Room |
3:37 | 1 | Link | |
Thu, 1/5/23 | Learning to Fall |
2:59 | 4 | Link | |
Fri, 1/6/23 🌟 | King of the Imposters |
3:12 | 3 | Link | |
Sat, 1/7/23 | Limited Time Offer |
2:53 | 3.5 | Link | |
Sun, 1/8/23 🌟 | Talk |
4:07 | 4.5 | Link | |
Mon, 1/9/23 | Cheer Up |
3:14 | 3 | Link | |
Tue, 1/10/23 | A Better World Is Possible |
4:09 | 3 | Link | |
Wed, 1/11/23 ⭐️ | My Sad Beard |
1:50 | 3 | Link | |
Thu, 1/12/23 ⭐️ | Saturday Morning, 1991 |
3:32 | 3 | Link | |
Fri, 1/13/23 ⭐️ | The Wrong Man |
3:48 | 3.5 | Link | |
Sat, 1/14/23 | Machine on the Dance Floor |
0:26 | 2 | Link | |
Sun, 1/15/23 | The Fame or the Fun |
3:48 | 4 | Link | |
Mon, 1/16/23 | Habits |
3:21 | 4 | Link | |
Tue, 1/17/23 🌟 | Millenium |
4:22 | 4 | Link | |
Wed, 1/18/23 | Seven Notes |
1:23 | 3 | Links | |
Thu, 1/19/23 | Unbroken Humans |
3:37 | 4 | Link | |
Fri, 1/20/23 | This Is My Fault |
3:44 | 4 | Link | |
Sat, 1/21/23 🌟 | Let's Play Music |
3:31 | 4.5 | Link | |
Sun, 1/22/23 | Rock the Uke |
4:07 | 3.25 | Link | |
Mon, 1/23/23 ⭐️ | I Am a Nebula |
3:44 | 3.5 | Link | |
Tue, 1/24/23 ⭐️ | Next Week |
2:52 | 3 | Link | |
Wed, 1/25/23 🌟 | Kid I Was |
3:24 | 3.5 | Link | |
Thu, 1/26/23 | My Baby's an Antifascist |
2:59 | 2.5 | Link | |
Fri, 1/27/23 🌟 | The Power and the Will |
3:39 | 4.5 | Link | |
Sat, 1/28/23 | Of Two Minds |
2:37 | 4.333 | Link | |
Sun, 1/29/23 🌟 | Pop Culture Nightmare |
3:39 | 4.333 | Link | |
Mon, 1/30/23 | Bitterroot Hardcore |
4:02 | 3 | Link | |
Tue, 1/31/23 🌟 | Reasons to Smile |
3:58 | 4.5 | Link |