When I think of what the title The Spirit of The Times means to me I have to look inward at what this year has brought into my life.
Here we are in November.
Back in the early summer I released an EP – ‘it’s up to us…’
It had 7 songs on it – One of them was a version of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World
What a Wonderful World has always been a song I’ve held close to my heart. It’s a beautifully sentimental song, it’s a song my Mother sang and my Father played. It’s a song I’ve played over the years. When I was thinking of covering a song for the EP this song in particular seemed like a natural choice.
I had the chart for the song on my workstation for weeks and I would play it during practice sessions. I worked out different harmonic approaches and different rhythmic approaches but nothing really clicked enough to pursue it further.
Then one day I was working up this cool bed track, completely unrelated to Wonderful World, no lyrics attached to it yet – and there were the lyrics for What a Wonderful World sitting there. In a flurry of momentum (and a momentary lapse of reason) I started working on this idea to merge the two and the next thing I knew I had what became my favourite track on the EP. I applied for and was granted the mechanical right to cover the song and the EP was released in July.
It was not a week after I received the order of CDs here at Village Works that I heard from a publisher in the US denying my right to adapt the original work. No bargaining, just take it off the market. I couldn’t even give away the CDs. I spent some time trying to overcome the barrier to no avail. I was starting to experience how crushing it can be to be an independent in the world of international business.
My original plan for the year was to have the ‘it’s up to us…’ project on EP and begin the promoting of it whilst I worked on my first full length CD in over 10 years. With the change in direction on my EP I decided I would just continue to work on the project and release the CD later in the year including the remaining tracks from the EP.
I continued to work on the project – writing the new title track first – The Spirit of The Times, then – Water, then The Twisting and Turning and I am in the midst of recording one final track titled No Words ~ Only Love. In total there will be 12 tracks on the CD.
I am in the fall of this project now, and for all intents and purposes I am very happy with how the project turned out. I think initially I was going to have this concept EP and be focused on the topics of love and the earth and humanity, and then I would get back to the everyday writing of a singer songwriter. What I found is that I have become this singer songwriter that writes of love and earth and humanity – it was not just an EP, it is who I am now. Life teaches us well when we’re willing to listen.
I have rewritten my version of What a Wonderful World, it is 100% original now (always a safer approach!!). It is a 21st century version of What a Wonderful World ~ in my own words.
Because you know what? It is a wonderful world. Such a wonderful world.
So, in the spirit of the times, I am wishing you the clarity to see life’s lessons as gifts. May you ride them to the highest peak on earth so that you may see the splendor of this great planet we live on.
Here we are in November.
Back in the early summer I released an EP – ‘it’s up to us…’
It had 7 songs on it – One of them was a version of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World
What a Wonderful World has always been a song I’ve held close to my heart. It’s a beautifully sentimental song, it’s a song my Mother sang and my Father played. It’s a song I’ve played over the years. When I was thinking of covering a song for the EP this song in particular seemed like a natural choice.
I had the chart for the song on my workstation for weeks and I would play it during practice sessions. I worked out different harmonic approaches and different rhythmic approaches but nothing really clicked enough to pursue it further.
Then one day I was working up this cool bed track, completely unrelated to Wonderful World, no lyrics attached to it yet – and there were the lyrics for What a Wonderful World sitting there. In a flurry of momentum (and a momentary lapse of reason) I started working on this idea to merge the two and the next thing I knew I had what became my favourite track on the EP. I applied for and was granted the mechanical right to cover the song and the EP was released in July.
It was not a week after I received the order of CDs here at Village Works that I heard from a publisher in the US denying my right to adapt the original work. No bargaining, just take it off the market. I couldn’t even give away the CDs. I spent some time trying to overcome the barrier to no avail. I was starting to experience how crushing it can be to be an independent in the world of international business.
My original plan for the year was to have the ‘it’s up to us…’ project on EP and begin the promoting of it whilst I worked on my first full length CD in over 10 years. With the change in direction on my EP I decided I would just continue to work on the project and release the CD later in the year including the remaining tracks from the EP.
I continued to work on the project – writing the new title track first – The Spirit of The Times, then – Water, then The Twisting and Turning and I am in the midst of recording one final track titled No Words ~ Only Love. In total there will be 12 tracks on the CD.
I am in the fall of this project now, and for all intents and purposes I am very happy with how the project turned out. I think initially I was going to have this concept EP and be focused on the topics of love and the earth and humanity, and then I would get back to the everyday writing of a singer songwriter. What I found is that I have become this singer songwriter that writes of love and earth and humanity – it was not just an EP, it is who I am now. Life teaches us well when we’re willing to listen.
I have rewritten my version of What a Wonderful World, it is 100% original now (always a safer approach!!). It is a 21st century version of What a Wonderful World ~ in my own words.
Because you know what? It is a wonderful world. Such a wonderful world.
So, in the spirit of the times, I am wishing you the clarity to see life’s lessons as gifts. May you ride them to the highest peak on earth so that you may see the splendor of this great planet we live on.