Judgment Day

Another year over. Hard to believe. We have so much to be grateful for this year. I enjoyed doing the project. I'm so glad to have had Bluesman Jay, Mama Kate, Uncle Anthony and the kids for helping me out. I said I wanted to keep going not because of my "streak", but because I wanted to keep music part of our life even as life became more demanding. The Calendar Project has kept music in our house for the last four years.
This months song is an old song of mine. Maybe one of the oldest songs I've written that I still play regularly. I love this tune. I think of this as a true folk song. It's been around so long I don't remember writing it. My wife however, does.
I knew that the basis of the song had to be a live performance. I tried recording a complete run through of the song what seemed like a hundred times. I exhausted myself and had to walk away from it. The next day I left work to come home for lunch. I gave a quick try at recording it and got this take. I'm finding you can't force this thing.
I have thought of using this song several times before for the Calendar Project but it never felt quite right. I'm glad it found it's home in December.
Thanks for listening this year. I have high hopes for next year and I'm looking forward to getting started. Happy New Year!

Judgment Day

I Don't Want To Change

I've been kicking this song around since the beginning of the month. I like playing it. I like singing it. I felt good about it so it became a November. My son told me I should write a song about how I do want to change. The funny thing is, I thought I had.
The subject matter was inspired by my brother. I've always said that he is my mothers best work. He is just the sweetest person but he's always been pretty guarded. I always felt like he was keeping us all at an arms length away. He has recently become more open with the family. He's sharing with us his thoughts and feelings. Watching the sweetest person become more open is like watching hot fudge get added to ice-creme. Your seeing a good thing get better.
As I watch my younger brother make these changes I wonder if I'm past the point of no return. I've become very set in my ways. I don't like leaving home. I don't like altering my routine. I don't like "new." This is a trait that has always bothered me in older people. I am 29 years old. It's a little early for that.
I've said before the November song is for thankfulness. My wife said, "I thought this month is supposed to be your God song?" I think it is. In a backhanded way I'm thanking God that I have the ability to change before I'm dead.
Seasons, faces, music, recipes, nature, underpants, styles, every thing changes. Whether we like it or not we do too.
My Uncle Anthony helped me record this song. He got to my house at about 4:30 and he didn't leave until almost 11:00. He was a real trooper. Take after take, he hung in there. He's half of everything you hear in this song. I'm thrilled to finally get him on the Calendar Project. It was a new experience recording with a musician I've long admired. It just goes to show you, change is good.
I Don't Want To Change

P.S. Special Thanks to Bluesman Jay who I woke out of bed so he could help me post this last minute despite technical problems. Your the man Jay. Thanks sooo much.

Angels and Demons

It's kind of a funny month "Calendar" wise. The atmosphere in our lives here at home is optimistic. I am ready to capitalize on the power of thought. I have been vigilant in my thinking. I want to be sure that my thoughts are advancing me and I feel they are.
I needed chairs for the barber shop. The waiting chairs I had where beyond ugly and they where hard on the seat. I put my thoughts to work on how great the new chairs where going to be. I was grateful in my thinking because I was positive they where in my future. Something small and trivial like chairs, but they were the focus of my thoughts. Driving home from the barber shop- four doors away from our house-exactly as I imagined them- was 6 FREE waiting chairs. My thoughts had been heard, and I was grateful.
Something small and trivial like chairs.
The universe doesn't care if our thoughts are big or small. We can wish for big things.
That's what makes it a funny month "Calendar" wise. The vibe of this song is very pessimistic. I don't feel like this song represents my mind right now at all. I don't feel torn between good and evil. It's just something I made up. So I decided to go trick or treating as a pessimist. I enjoyed half empty bottles of beer all night.
Angels and Demons

Lemonade (for Ginny)

Here's how it happened. I was sitting on the porch with my guitar and harmonica holster. I was strumming though Craigy's greatest hits when Virginia came on scene. She proceeded to talk my ear off as two year-old's do. She then became upset that I had stopped playing. She began demanding another song. "Hurry hurry, song, hurry play a song." I quickly began playing. I dropped my pick into the guitar because she always grabs my hands when I'm playing and that worked it's way into the lyrics. A minute and forty seconds later my little ditty must have satisfied her because she didn't require anymore music from me. She went off to wreak havoc elsewhere as I smuggly basked in having just finished my first ever song made to order.
The rest of the month I didn't work on the Calendar Project because I knew I had this little song in the bank and it would take no time to record. Of course with only one day left before the end of the month I realized I needed to get to work. When I recorded it I wasn't exactly satisfied. At a minute and forty seconds I felt like maybe I was phoning it in. Although I liked the song, and I've posted short songs before, I didn't want to fall in the trap of just coming up with song snippets and calling it a month. I decided to push myself and come up with another movement for September.
I was brainstorming ideas for a song but I wasn't coming up with anything. Ginny kept saying "juice, juice." I was getting frustrated. "Stop saying juice, I'm trying to think of a song." The little bell went off in my head. Juice, moose, goose, loose, obtuse this song writes itself. I wanted to use the word caboose because it's a funny word but I couldn't squeeze it in organicly. I chuckled as I was writing it so I knew I was on to something good. I said the word "fiddle" in the tune and Bluesman Jay wouln't allow me to say fiddle in a song without adding one. With only hours to go before the deadline I sent him the track and he added the spice the song needed. Virginia provided the inspiration for this song so this one is hers. I love you kiddo. Hope you like your song.
Lemonade (for Ginny)

Fantasy Football

This is my fifth year doing fantasy football. I've won before but believe it or not there is still skeptics. Two of my best friends have had disagreements about FANTASY football and now they no longer play together. As a result I am now in two leagues. I spent most of the off season saying I wasn't going to play but I settled on a better idea. I'm going to win both leagues' top prize this year. That's right. This isn't your usual calendar song. This is a declaration. I'm gonna kick ass in both arenas to teach you all a little lesson.

Lesson 1: I'm a fantasy football legend. Don't forget I went worst to first. The only person I'm competing with is myself. The only way to top myself is to take both leagues.

Lesson 2: It's more fun to win than to lose. I said I was coming back this year to have fun. FUN=WIN.

Lesson 3: You might not ask me back next year. When you see how effortlessly I spank your teams you might want to "scale it back next year to allow more even competition."

Class is now in session. Enjoy the football season and have my trophies ready. I want Rolling Rock as my victory drink. Go Patriots!

Fantasy Football

Seasons Of Love

It's been a long stretch since my last posting. I found it difficult to find inspiration. Life has given me plenty to draw from. With the new home came many big changes. I am so happy here but have found the process of getting here all consuming. I had to force myself to sit down and work on music. That is not how inspiration works. You can't just dial it up. So what happens when you have a dead line but your muse is on summer vacation? That's where the craft comes in. By sitting down and pulling music out of yourself your opening the door for when inspiration returns. Sort of like priming the cosmic pump.

Like last month I used this drought of creative juices as an oppurtinity to take an older song that never fully completed the writing stage and gave it the treatment it deserves. I was so content with the guitar when I wrote it I never bothered to write words. I sang it so many times making up words as I went that certain lines became permenent. I just filled in the gaps around those lines gave it a spit shine and I was on my way to posting in July.

The space to work on the Calendar Project here in the new house is very comfortable. A great place to make music. Now that I have the PC set up and all my guitars and wires and various recording junk easily excessable it's just a matter of time before another little folk song will be born in my cozy corner of the house. I'm eager to get to work on August and keep the creative energy flowing. The pump is primed. Insperation come on in.

Seasons Of Love

Junebug

Transition. That's where I'm coming from this month. Our apartment is in boxes. The pictures are off the wall. These are physical examples of what we as a family are going through. Change brings allot of feelings and responsibility with it. We are so excited to have a yard, so scared to have a mortgage, so stressed from moving, so proud of progress. Responsibility comes in the forms of taking care of the house, leaving the apartment in great shape, changing our address. The larger effects of transition reach far beyond where you hang your hat. It's the changes in your character that each transition brings that matter most. I know the house will bring character changes within me. I hope to feel more secure. More inviting. More driven. Children experience transition masterfully. My kids have been wholly committed to change since the notion of moving was first introduced. It's nice having them to teach me things throughout this experience. I keep my mind open for them because I know how hard it is to raise good parents.

"Junebug" is about transition. The transition into the after life, the journey into your own future. These are inevitable transitions. I wonder if I'd know myself if I was able to look ahead. Would that journey's effects on my character make me unrecognizable to myself now? I just hope Future Craig is anything close to what I'm aiming for. I'm aiming to be somebody who handles transition well.

I recorded the song in an empty apartment. The tracks I sent Bluesman Jay to work with sounded like an empty apartment. When he sent it back with his contributions it sounded like a house I'd like to call home.

Junebug