talk about love
I want to include the Shirley Eikhard song Something To Talk About in the entrepreneurial course because she wrote it more than ten years before it became a hit for […]
Songwriting
knife
I saw a trailer for a new film about Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was tortured and hung by Hitler for not behaving like a Nazi. Trailer looks very Hollywood […]
morley
My cousin is 96 years old. If my father was alive he would have turned 100 this year. They were friends since childhood. I called him recently recalling how Gershwin […]
oh mercy
Bob Dylan’s sagacity is very present in his memoir Chronicles, Volume One. I particularly liked recounting the Oh Mercy sessions with Danny Lanois, who urged Dylan to delve into weightier […]
moose
Richard Sherman died two weeks ago. He and his brother Robert were composers for a bunch of Disney hits particularly Mary Poppins. I was in Los Angeles when that doc […]
writing process
It is very useful in writing to suspend judgement and pour out content even if you suspect it is horrible content and not up to scratch. It is just filling […]
the woke barrista
Considering the students I teach constantly privilege hip hop over everything else, I start thinking naturally about the structures and the creativity of these forms. One thing I especially enjoy […]
mensch
The greatest gift an artist could give another artist, taking them on the road and sharing their audience. Natalie Merchant did that for Tracy Chapman. Fast Car would not have […]
the improviser’s sub
John Coltrane’s cousin Mary’s sister-in-law’s friend’s dentist heard about a band teacher working in Boissevain, Manitoba who was a remarkable improviser that practiced the same objective in life as in […]
better to burn out than it is to rust
Student:I want to say something about someone in my song but I don’t want to get into trouble. Teacher: Then don’t be a songwriter. Student: But I like writing songs. […]