Laryngitis

I wrote this guitar part last month. I was unable to put words to it before the end of the month. Luckily for me Mama Kate had a song and last month was saved. The writing I've done lately has been for Secret Sage. Most of my efforts however have been  in learning songs. Now that the band is rolling our main objective has been to fill time. The obvious answer to that is covers. When I do pick up the guitar to write I have a few ideas kicking around but I haven't been able to move past this song. It felt like an incomplete sentence. Words for it just weren't coming to me. Tom has a ton of lyrics to offer but nothing had felt right for this tune. It had become quite a puzzle.
I woke up the last few days with a sore throat. I've been talking a lot all day and I've exhausted my voice.  Today's the day I need to record something for the Calendar Project. It seems serendipitous that I have no voice at the end of the month and a song with no words ready to record. I added the limited vocals on the second take and loved it.
Songs are their own  entities. It still amazes me how they reveal themselves to us. I had no idea what this song was going to be. I thought I had  an uptempo rocker with an undiscovered poem lying in the mystic. What it became was virtually an instrumental that my spent voice (in my opinion) lends an old jazz quality to. I can picture the band doing a fun version of this with lots of solos and Tom sitting deep in the pocket. The "lyrics" are few but tell the whole story.
Here's a secret. I spent most of the month regretting that I continued the Calendar Project. It had a nice ending and this year has been dominated by Secret Sage. I was frustrated that I assigned  myself another writing project when the band is so much work. Gigs, rehearsals, recording, websites and homework take up enough time. There is a lot more to focus on now then just writing. Then I lost my voice. My life completed this song. That's why I couldn't finish it last month. I hadn't lived this song yet. Turns out the Calendar Project still has more to show me.

Laryngitis