Songwriting and the Soul

Earlier this week I began writing this song that's very similar to another song of mine by the name of "England." At first, I was resistant to write a song on the same subject matter. I thought: it's been a year, shouldn't I be over this by now? We're good now, what more could I possibly have to say on the subject?

Turns out, I have a lot of things still circling around in my head on this particular subject. There's a lot of questions that are still unanswered. Then my next thought was something along the lines of: Maggie, there are so many other situations in your life that hold billions of unanswered questions that are still circling around in your head, why aren't you writing about those things? 

I don't have an answer to either of these questions. I don't want answers to these questions. Songwriting is a pretty magical experience, and I'm always fairly confident that what needs to come out in song will come out whether I want it to or not. I think it's appropriate that I'm feeling hesitant to write this song, because when I wrote "England", I was really hesitant to write and it and share it with anyone; and yet, "England" was written almost completely in about 10 minutes. This song is taking longer to write, but I actually think I might end up liking it better than "England."

I'm not sure what I'll be calling this one, that'll come to me later. Write now I'm still working on getting a full song and story out. An important life lesson that I'm still learning is that things that need to be said are often difficult to say, but you'll be a better person for finding the strength to say them. It's good for relationships, and more importantly, it's good for the soul. 

I'm not an overly religious person, but I am a spiritual one. I believe that nurturing and strengthening one's soul is vital for actual living and relationships (general or specific connections to other human beings) to take place. I'm kind of a Transcendentalist in that respect.  

I'd love to be working on the song right now, but I'm experiencing some wrist pain that's making guitar playing tricky. I'm planning on resting my wrist for a while and picking the song back up when I can. I'm kind of excited about it. 

Peace. 

-MB

Free Download from Augustana!

Hey All,

I wanted to share a link to download a free demo version of Augustana's new single "Alive." It's a beautiful, honest, and powerful song that can be yours for free!

Few musicians have consistently knocked me off my feet in the way that Augustana has over the years. I've been a fan since "Boston" came out. Dan Layus just keeps writing songs that inspire and amaze me. He really does write incredible songs, and his delivery is just perfect.

I'll write more blogs about this incredible music, but for now click on the link for your free download. It's so beyond worth it! :)

http://www.augustanamusic.com/

Update: Augustana has provided a new link, which actually makes it even easier to download. http://official.fm/tracks/oq5y

-MB

My Guitars!

Hi,

My name's Maggie and I'm kind of a musical gear junkie. :)

I thought I'd take a moment to talk about some of my gear, since I'm a total geek like that!

The first "real" guitar I owned was an Ovation Celebrity CC-24. This thing was terrible. I'm told that the Ovation design was inspired somehow by helicopters. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a helicopter and thought "boy, wouldn't that make an awesome guitar!" Probably because it really doesn't make an awesome guitar... If you know nothing about Ovation instruments (there's also an even cheaper version under the name Applause), instead of having a wood construction, they have a hard plastic bowl for the back and sides. They also sound like they're made of plastic... Some people dig the sound, but it sort of hurts my soul. The CC-24 also featured a laminate top, high action, a really uncomfortable neck, and a sound that could be rivaled by Walmart's famous First Act brand. I owned this guitar for a couple years, used it to learn how to play, and traded it in on my last day of high school.

You hear the Ovation in some of my really early recordings and Youtube videos..... I'm sorry.

When I just couldn't stand to play the Ovation anymore, my dad bought me a Blueridge BR-140. I love this guitar. It's a 2002 model, bought off one of the admins. on the Blueridge Guitar Forum. It's basically a Chinese-built copy of a D-18. Solid Sitka top over solid mahogany back and sides. Plays great, sounds great. It's kind of been hot-rodded out at this point. I added an LR-Baggs M1A pickup, changed the tuners out, plus there was quite a bit of work done to it before I got it. The guitar has some slight buzzing on the low E string, but other than that it's fabulous. I get a lot of compliments when I play out with it.

A couple years of the Ovation gathering dust while I played the Blueridge went by, and finally I was done with high school, so I decided to give myself the gift of getting rid of the Ovation to acquire a 1972 Yamaha FG-75. This guitar is currently for sale, so talk to me if you're interested! It's a great guitar with an old sound. I just don't play it very much. I have experimented with several different strings on this instrument, which has been fun. The action is quite high, so it would make a good project guitar. It's still playable; just takes a little bit more work. I honestly don't mind it.

My most recent guitar purchase happened around Christmas. It's a Recording King RAJ-126SN. It's pretty much a copy of a Gibson Advanced Jumbo: slope shoulder dreadnought with solid sitka spruce over solid mahogany back and sides. I'm pretty sure this thing is my guitar soul-mate. At least for now. I also bought it just over $300 on Amazon. It's usually in the $700+ range! Woot Woot!

Any Questions?

-MB

Passenger on the Acoustic Train!

Why did no one tell me about this group? I'm blown away! At first, I really didn't think I was going to be--Mike Rosenberg's voice was too perfect, which annoyed me. After listening to a few songs and some videos of Mike busking on his own, I'm hooked.

From what I gather, Passenger is a folk-rock group from the UK, and their popularity has grown significantly in recent years. This brings me back to my original question...why didn't anyone tell me about them?!?!?!

"Let Her Go" was the first song I stumbled upon (youtube suggested I watch the official video). Since I'm easily drawn in by a pretty acoustic music, bearded men, and twinkling lights, I decided to check it out. I wasn't immediately taken by the video or the song. The musicians seemed "real" enough, but the song seemed over produced to me--even as simply as it was done. I did feel like the song and the band had the potential to be incredible-- if only I could find an acoustic version! I almost always (except for the acoustic version of superman by Five for Fighting) enjoy acoustic versions of songs better, so I've become adept at finding alternative versions of songs.

I ended up here:

I immediately loved it. This version was MUCH better. Over-production really does kill a lot of songs for me. Listening to the acoustic versions (I listened to several) is a completely different experience than listening to the "official" album version. I feel the song now. It's raw. It's cutting. It's brilliant! 

From there, I ended up clicking on this video: 

I pretty immediately loved this song, too. Although, on some level, I do feel like there's a hint of over-production here too. Still, I felt like their harmonies and the scenery made up for some of that. I do believe I enjoy this version (click the link) better, though. It's more bare, but again, I feel it more. It's beautiful, and agonizing. That's what music should be. It's songs like this that make me want to pick up the guitar and write.

Another thing I really enjoy about this group is their lyrics. In case it's gone unnoticed, I'm a BIG fan of lyrics. I've been really impressed at what I've heard so far from this band. They're witty, but dark. This is a combination I adore.

Finally, I have to mention the Simon and Garfunkel covers I found! If you've known me for any amount of time, you know that I have a thing for any and everything related to Paul Simon.

His cover of "The Boxer" is pretty cool. I also have a thing for interesting covers! :)

The cover of "The Sound of Silence" made me want to cry, and then go out and do some busking. There's not a lot of places to busk in Lexington, KY, but the dream lives on. I'm pretty sure I did cry the first time I listened to this version. 

Passenger gives me hope that my chosen folky-rock genre is not an irrelevant, outdated one. People are still willing to listen. I think that's kind of a big deal. 

Check 'em out! Buy some CDs; go to a show. I'm sure it'd be more than worth it! 

http://passengermusic.com/

Peace. 

-MB

Feminist Rallies

Hello Readers,

Yesterday in my explanation of some Youtube videos, I mentioned the song "Stranger to the World." I gave a brief summary of the inspiration, and I touched on how the song has allowed me to get involved with some local feminist groups. I wanted to write a blog post to expand on this song-- the meaning behind the lyrics, and other tidbits.

As I mentioned yesterday, the song was written for my African American Women Writers class that I took my freshman year at Berea College. That semester, and that class, really opened up my world quite a bit. I realized that while I was basically born a feminist, I now had the tools and knowledge to speak and write about issues with a certain level of scholarship that was previously missing.

We read all kind of fabulous stuff during this class. As an English major, I ate this stuff up! I adored everything we read, from Danielle Evans' Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self to Assata Shakur's autobiography, and Toni Morrison's The Color Purple. Some day I will generate a list of everything I read during that class because it is all worth checking out! Going back to the song, many of lyrics were deeply inspired by the things that we discussed in class or from the readings.

I'll include some excerpts from the paper I turned in with the song:

In The Color Purple, I was really interested in the idea that pants were this symbol of independence and freedom. Traditionally, women are supposed to wears skirts; they’re supposed to like wearing skirts and dresses.

Of course if you've read The Color Purple, you'll have a better understanding of just how significant it is to have oppressed women wearing pants and claiming their power to deny easy access to their womanhood.

I love the line, “They say I could love a woman, but they’d prefer I’d love a man.” I feel like Audre Lorde would appreciate that line. Society tries to be politically correct on certain issues and sometimes they just cannot sustain it. For instance the United States right now is on this kick where people are basically saying, “it’s okay to be gay, but you can’t get married.”

I should have also stated that this line would have fit well with The Color Purple as well. Still, Audre Lorde is one of my favorite feminists. At some point in my life I'd like to get her famous line: "Your silence will not protect you" tattooed on my body.

The last verse, which could perhaps be considered some sort of bridge, contains what is perhaps my favorite phrase of the entire song, “We can be brave, only if it means we’re prepared to fight.” I just love this. Every time I hear it or sing it I think of Assata Shakur and her spirit and attitude. She comes off as being someone who is incredibly brave and always prepared to fight. I admire that a great deal. 

If you don't know who Assata Shakur is, please her biography.

Going back to the beginning of that section, “We can black or we can be white,” to me, this line talks about racial identity. I’m not sure what you think of when you read it, but when I wrote it I was thinking about the idea of bi-racial people who either “pass” for being black or being white, depending on the shade of their skin.

Nella Larsen wrote a novella called Passing and it is a very quick read. I'd highly recommend it! It really is wonderful.

Then the line about wealth and how that changes the way society looks at people I was sort of thinking about the last text in the Danielle Evans reading with the high school girls. You either have money and status otherwise you’re pretty much invisible, unless you find some way around that. The situation in “Snakes” where you have the wealthy grandmother and the main character who is bi-racial and from parents who reject the grandmother’s wealth and go off to spend their time in jungles and places like that. This girl is pretty much invisible in her grandmother’s world.

"Snakes," by Danielle Evans, is perhaps my favorite short story of all time.  Go read it.

I think that people get caught up in wondering what the world is going to think of them and they eventually lose who they actually are; or worse, they allow the world to tell them who they are instead of making the effort to find out for themselves.

And finally:

Then, the entire chorus is really about that central idea: that the last thing society really wants from the people living in it is for everyone to be like everyone else. We talk so much about the importance of the individual and the importance of being different but then society shuns those people who take that idea to heart and we call them freaks. The other thing that the chorus is doing is pointing out how society contracts itself by giving people contradictory expectations. Women are supposed to be strong but they’re also supposed to be weak. We claim to be free people who are not held in chains by anyone but at the same time, we wear the chains that society puts on us by telling us who we’re supposed to be.

The professor that taught this class is heavily involved in feminist movements and introduced me to some great folks who organize events and have invited me to play at several rallies. So far I have not turned down the opportunity to stand for equality!

Again, this song will be available on the Two Cents From A Crowded Mind demo. As you can see, I really do have a crowded mind!

-MB

 

 

 

 

Some of My Youtube Videos

Hi all,

As a general rule, I tend to think that the quality of my youtube performances do not reflect my actual abilities as a musician. That being said, I've been posting videos on youtube since I began playing guitar and singing. There has been pretty miraculous improvement over the years!

In this post I'd like to share a few of my favorites. I tend to watch some of my older videos and cringe because they're just awful, and occasionally I just can't take it anymore and just delete them. Still, I've kept some of the videos that didn't make me want to crawl under a rock and die. :)

Please note that many of my very early videos were just too awful to keep, so I'll start with ones that are just a few years old: \

This is probably the earliest song that I currently have on Youtube. This is a song called "Letter"; I believe I wrote it when I was 16 or 17. "Crying's not so easy; at least not anymore. I've grown accustomed to the sadness..." This line is pretty spot on with my childhood. I think the pictures I chose are pretty amusing. Teenage me. Always just a step away from a breakdown that I never really allowed myself to have.

I collaborated on this recording with a guy named Scott Powell, who was a member of a guitar forum I used to frequent called Jam Session. Great guy, and great place to discuss life and guitars.

Here's a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road." I originally heard this song from a cover that Matt Nathanson sent out through his newsletters. I believe he played it on a 12 string and it sounded fabulous. I knew I had to cover it. I play and sing it better now than I did in this video (I had probably JUST learned the song when I posted the video-- a bad habit of mine). I love the guitar line in this song. The lyrics, too, are haunting. One of my all-time favorite songs! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXZe-R6mLrg

"Haunted." I don't remember writing this song, but apparently I did. I remember what the song's about, though! I was pretty damaged after I watched my grandfather die (literally) after a long battle with lung cancer. After that moment, I was no longer afraid of death, but I knew that it wouldn't really fix things. All death would have done at that point would be leave an even bigger mess for everyone else to deal with. This song was sort of my way of reminding myself "I know you're not afraid to die, but death won't bring you comfort..." 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Q6MG1BR7w

This song will be on my demo that's coming out soon. The title has now changed to one that fits the song better. "Where I Begin." This song is about unhealthy parental relationships and attempting to overcome my genetics and a reminder to myself that I don't have to maintain damaging relationships simply because I'm related to someone. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOp78HNbZAQ

This is my cover of John Prine's "The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness". I have loved this song since a dear friend of mine taught it to me in a guitar lesson many moons ago. It sounds excellent on my 1972 Yamaha FG-75 (which is for sale if anyone's interested!). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_f3KGEvFTw

This is a song called "Far Away" and I wrote it while babysitting... Near not, the child was asleep! :) This recording was done pretty soon after I survived bilateral pulmonary embolisms. I'm planning on putting this one of my next release: "Brushes With Death, Or Something Quite Like It." This song also inspired the bridge on "England." 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv93yJhqTNU

This song is now called "Waking Up Blind." It'll be on the upcoming release. I wrote it after being pissed off at the world and crying on the phone with a friend of mine and she said, "Maggie, go write a song!" I took her advice! :) This song was written the week I got out of the hospital from my life-threatening PEs. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsKIb1D8R4A

Simon and Garfunkel cover! "59th Street Bridge." I'm a HUGE S & G fan! I love me some Paul Simon! Need I say more?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEAJ9ffdwRE

"Stranger To The World"--The songs I wrote in about 15 minutes in my dorm room that's changing everything! I wouldn't be making the demo if it weren't for this song! This song was originally written as my final project for my African American Women Writer's Class, and you can hear the reference from The Color Purple. This song has allowed me to play at several feminist and equality rallies! I'm very proud of this one! :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL6eEvo9w7Y

This is latest song. "The Things I Never Tried" is probably my favorite song I've written. It was written pretty easily. I just decided to find out what would have if I wrote a song with an A in it and this song happened. How cool is that? It's also a pretty honest song. Funny how that works! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04bTWFyxSFU

More blog posts coming soon! :) 

Peace!

-MB