Square Dancing is Cool

Earlier this year, I worked with square dance producer Scott Bennett to produce a square dance track to the Lou Rawls song "Miss My Lovin' ".  It was a fantastic learning experience where I got to dip my toes in a completely different music scene.  I also had a great time trying to recreate the sound of 70's soul.

Scott and I were both very excited that the song was picked up and performed around by square dancing giant Tony Oxendine.  I've been told that this song has now been played in locations all of the world.  This is always fantastic news for any musician.

Here's a video of him performing it in South Carolina.  It was cool for me to see because even though I can arrange and play the instruments, it doesn't mean that I know how the dance is going to look out when its actually being called.  I thought you might like to see as well. :)

Song corner: "Oh Little Bird"

So I'm a part of a band called Waldon Rowe, and we've been fitting ourselves somewhere in the new folk/indie movement.  This has been a pretty cool shift in writing focus for me.  Stylistically new folk has a lot of focus on creative transitions, different sounds, and lyrics that can say just about anything.  Creatively its very satisfying.  You can write about anything you want mostly how you want with only a few minor genre constraints.

Here's a first song that I really feel I have that fits in that slot.  It's called "Oh Little Bird".



The inspiration for this song comes from the love story in "For whom the Bell Tolls".  The two always talked about the great future they had in front of them - the time after the war. My favorite example being of how she would talk about how beautiful she would be after her hair had grown back out (it had been cut after she had been captured).  All this emphasis on the future, despite both seeming to feel that both of them were not going to make it out alive.  Yet any spare moment, they still found themselves back there dreaming together.  Was it a waste of time?  It's this question that I'm exploring.

I hope you like it!  We're planning getting together a full band version of this in the near future, so I just recorded an acoustic guitar/vocal track.  Until next time!

New Website!

Welcome to the new website!  This one will be a lot easier to maintain (I always see bloggers say that, it's fun to say it for my first time).  This means more time to make content for you.  It's been a busy time, but fantastic musically.  So much stuff has happened - I'm having trouble trying to figure out where to start.

I've been hitting the open mic scene these past few weeks and have been really encouraged by the response.  I've met some really great writer's and am already working on getting together to start making some music.  I'll be keeping you updated.

Our band, Waldon Rowe, just recorded a couple more songs in studio.  One of them is definitely one of the most upbeat I've written.  It's always tremendous to see your stuff take life in a studio with great musicians - almost like it wasn't alive until that moment.  It's called "When a Beautiful Girl" and will be posted free for download for all of you.  The only thing that we ask is that you get your friend to download it for free, too.  We just want people to hear it!  Also, we'll be playing at The Rutledge coming up in a couple of weeks....quickly followed by another set at The Basement.  Both of these places are awesome, and I'm really excited just to get to set foot on stage there.

Well that's a broad, quick round up of what's going on.  You'll be seeing more in the days to come!