This is a song about reading with my young daughter.
It’s in that “blues key” centered on D, where you use the flat III, flat VII, with all major chords and lots of flat sevenths, plus mixed major/minor thirds and flat 7s. The second chord in the verse has a bit of a Lydian feel due to the presence of the flat 5 on the second chord in the verse (spelled E – C# – F# – A# – B – E).
After yesterday’s extravagence, I went simple with this arrangement — this is just acoustic guitar and vocals, the former recorded with the Zoom Recorder’s X/Y pair and a Shure Sm-57, the latter recorded with just the Shure.
Kicking off Jamuary 2024, I think this song is a spiritual successor to the final one from 2023, “Reasons To Smile.” It’s a song about having a positive outlook, and not being so self-critical, and how it takes time to fundamentally change your world view. I have a lot of reasons to be excited and hopeful for the new year, and while I don’t want to claim that this song is a “mission statement” for the project as a whole, I think it’s at least fair to say that I want it to set the tone for what’s to come.
Musically, this is in 6/8 time. The chords are mostly garden-variety, with everything diatonic except for flat-VII and flat-III appearing in the bridge. I suppose you could make the argument that the bridge temporarily modulates to G or C (I hear it more as G, but the “F” kind of fools you into thinking it might be C). The rest of the song makes use of purely diatonic material (including a chord rooted on every scale degree but vii°), with the “fanciest” voicing being the Em7sus4 and A7sus4 chords used at the end and in the middle of the verses, respectively. Otherwise, nothing really fancy or notable here.
I recorded this one in my studio, with 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Kala U-Bass, and the instrumental part is played on a melodica. The drums are from Kontakt’s “60 Drums” package. There is a bit of noodling on the 12-strings during the verses (they are absent in the first half of the verses, play a low-key lead line on the second half, then strummed fully in the chorus) that I kept in because I like the movement it lends to the section.
This year, my annual Christmas album was an EP. Due to a number of circumstances in my personal life, I didn’t have time to record a full album. As a sort of trade-off, I decided to go with all original songs this year. The title song is about a Santa doll that my parents have had since I was very young (pictured on the cover above).
Here is a new version of a track I originally wrote and recorded in 2013. This version is from 2021, when I re-recorded every original Christmas song I had written since 2006, for my album 16 Christmases at Once.
It’s that time of year when you charge the cheer
And you see what the barkeep can muster
After all I’m told it helps with the cold
(I can’t say as much for the bluster)
So you grab a Santa glass and choose what you want to pour
That one is gone in a flash so you make yourself one more
Don’t be afraid of Christmas spirits
They’re here to help you along
Mixing alcohol and family
What could possibly go wrong?
Give a cheer for Christmas spirits
Pour yourself another glass
You’re the king of merriment this year
A reveler of taste and class
With two days to go and you aren’t going slow
So many drinks are sweet like candy
Festive Irish Cream, it’s a Christmas dream
Tom and Jerry’s with some extra brandy
The eggnog needs some spice, and now it’s tasting fine
And later if you’re nice some hot and boozy mulled wine
Have you lost track of how many you’ve had?
Singing along loud to every song
Your singing’s not that bad
It’s Christmas Eve and the days have been a blur
You take some Alleve, Uncle Ralph calls you amateur
The kids are already up, but it’s not late enough
Why can’t you sleep another hour?
You’ve gotta pounding brain and your joints are in pain
The Christmas cookies all taste sour
You find it hard to smile as you squint at the Yule log
Opening gifts sure takes a while and you need some hair of the dog
And Bloody Marys are festively red!
I’ve created a standalone page that has a table and player with every Jamuary 2023 song, including some information about some of my favorites.
For ease of choice, here is a selection of five of my favorite tunes from the challenge, across a broad range of genres, in no particular order:
Pop Culture Nightmare — a ska song about remembering silly stuff like quotes from movies or gum jingles, instead of important stuff like the phone numbers of your loved ones.
King of the Imposters — a folky power-pop song about faking it, even if you truly are making it.
Let’s Play Music — an uptempo number about the sheer joy of making music and/or noise with friends.
My Sad Beard — an old-timey, music-hall style number about hiding one’s feelings behind a beard. A great big, bushy beard!
Reasons to Smile — an indie-pop number about focusing on the positive, even if you’re not very good at it.
I’ve taken some time to recover and focus on some important work stuff, but I’d like to write one or more posts as a sort of post-mortem. Hopefully I can get around to that soon.
