Jazz: The New Classical Music

"Jazz musicians enjoy themselves far more than anyone who will listen to them. It's what you do when you can't get a gig. Two steps below Hollywood Squares." ~Tony Wilson

"Jam bands are the new jazz" ~ Justin Kerr

I wrote a "jazz" style song. I guess I always knew it would turn out that way because of how I sang it to myself over the last few months.

I have had some more free time, so I have picked up a few more songs that have been left by the wayside since June. June was a great month because not only was "Gold Rush" and "Dear Abbey" written and finalized pretty quickly, I also put down ideas for MANY songs. So many, that these will never see the light of day unless I end up using them for future projects. "Salem Witch" is one of those songs.

I had the first two lines written out, and a jazz beat from my keyboard. What sparked a revived interest was when Peach took a peak at my notebook this weekend while I was doing vocals. It had the rough scribble of the first verse in black marker. He asked me what it was and I read it to him aloud. He gave a look on his face that read "wow! thats depressing!" or "geez! thats dark!" I don't remember if he said anything but I do recall that he had a look on his face that screamed confusion. That means I was onto something! But the song was pretty close to being done back in June, so not much work has been put into it. I had to dig up the rest of the song because it was on another sheet of paper in a different stack of papers. It's more "inspired" by the Salem Witch Trials than about the events itself. Everyone likes witches!

It did not take long to complete this one. The demo is taking the longest because I'm doing it on Garage Band instead of the cassette 4 track. I need to hurry this one along and GarageBand will allow me to get the point across and let the others hear what i'm thinking rather than explaining it. Digital is good like that.

Will it be on the record? Maybe. Maybe not. Just getting it recorded will be enough to satisfy me.

But I know one song that WILL be on the album. Its called "I'm Going To Texas." This was another song before. (its a long story). This story is about Davy Crockett quitting the Senate and deciding to go to Texas. That simple. It's a Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers rip off all the way. No question. But the demo is pretty close to how it will be on the album. Very simple rock tune. This one will also allow me to mess around with the vocals a bit more. I used a really nice Phaser/Chorus effect to simulate the dreamy "Western sunrise." Yummy. I'm Aaron and Daniel have something in their arsenal to recreate the effect.

I need to buy a mini-megaphone.