In addition to being a custom songwriter, I’m also a big music fan! Each month I make a playlist of the best songs I’ve discovered during the past thirty days. In most cases these are songs that have been released fairly recently, but the list might also contain an occasional gem from the past!
Here’s the April 2017 Playlist
In addition to being a songwriter, I’m also a music fan and a teacher. Therefore, I was happy when a longtime client approached me with the possibility of creating video tutorials and tablature for some of his favorite songs. Incidentally, they are some of my favorite songs too! This tutorial is fairly thorough, moves pretty slowly, and doesn’t assume a lot about your guitar skills. I hope that you’ll find it a useful tool!
If you enjoy this free tutorial, please look around Custom Serenade and consider getting a custom song from us!
I go back a long way with The Magnetic Fields. The picture above is of an “indie rock” that one of their early guitar players threw into the crowd the first time I saw them. At that point in time, The Magnetic Fields were one of those bands whose records you couldn’t get. I would go to the record store weekly and ask for them, the person behind the counter would always say they didn’t have them but could order them but they never came. I remember one day I was sweeping the floor of the house that I shared with punk rock band Pipe when their lead singer walked through the door and casually mentioned that he’d been at Schoolkids Records and that they had a Magnetic Fields 7″. I literally dropped the broom right where it was (not like anyone but me cared about the mess) and ran to the record store to buy it.
Rumor had it that singer Susan Amway had left the band and they had broken up. But, lo and behold, when Merge Records turned five years old, The Magnetic Fields were on the bill for their anniversary show! Stephen Merritt was handling lead vocals. Once Merge was involved, the Magnetic Fields records were released and re-released to the delight of myself and other fans. Their next two albums (and the b-sides of their accompanying 7″ records) featured Merritt as the only vocalist. The second of these two, “Get Lost” is thought by some to be their best album. “Why I Cry” is one of many great songs on that album.
I could go on and on about The Magnetic Fields and Stephen Merritt’s other projects. He’s probably my favorite songwriter of all time. One thing I like about his work is that the songs are simple but powerful. They were some of the first songs I figured out on my own, and I’m very glad to be sharing these tutorials with anyone who is interested. I hope you have gleaned something from this tutorial. Please check out some of the other ones!
When I’m not writing and recording custom songs just for you, I’m usually listening to music and I love to share what I’ve been listening to! My Song of the Week may or may not be a recent release. It might be the new discovery of a missed jewel, or a past love that has resurfaced. Regardless, it will always be the song that I listen to the most during any given week.
The last few weeks have seen an avalanche of really good new material from some classic artists. Ray Davies has released the best work of his solo career, Blondie have a solid new pop song, and I also discovered that Cindy Wilson of the B-52s is releasing new material (and touring). But the grand slam of all the recent vintage delights is the latest from Robyn Hitchcock .
I occasionally encounter people who do not like the Beatles. One trait that all of them seem to have in common is that they’re itchin’ for a fight in regards to the Beatles being considered the greatest band in rock history. One can usually silence these naysayers by asking if they can name another musical acts that has;
This usually elicits a series of harrumphs and guffaws, but rarely does it elicit an actual answer. I always win these arguments—but that’s because no one has ever countered my query with Robyn Hitchcock. Whether it be with The Egyptians, The Venus Three, or by his lonesome, he has never put out a bad album, and he is possibly unmatched as far as quantity of great songs is concerned.
Whereas the Beatles became the model for pretty much every rock band that came after them and spawned a billion imitators in terms of song writing style, Robyn Hitchcock’s music and his songs are unique to the point that they’re nearly impossible to imitate. I speak with authority here because I’ve tried. He is truly one of a kind. Deceptively complex, brilliantly strange.
As rockers age, they can fall into a number of traps. Trying to re-create something they’ve lost or evolving into something that no one wants to hear are two common pitfalls. But Robyn Hitchcock has managed to remain consistent in style and quality throughout his long career. Proof in the pudding is his new song “Raymond and the Wires”. It sounds like it could have been on 1984’s I often Dream of Trains. It is a floating low key psychedelic affair. Lyrically he knocks it out of the park again, infusing the mundane with poetic surrealism— matching observations with words like no one else.
So, if you see me out somewhere, you should immediately start bad-mouthing the Beatles. When I come up to you and begin my smug routine—asking you to name an artist that can match the Beatles, come at me with Robyn Hitchcock. I will yield and let ye pass.
When I’m not writing and recording custom songs just for you, I’m usually listening to music and I love to share what I’ve been listening to! My Song of the Week may or may not be a recent release. It might be the new discovery of a missed jewel, or a past love that has resurfaced. Regardless, it will always be the song that I listen to the most during any given week.
Lillie Mae Rische’s accomplishments as a musician are vast. Her abilities as a fiddle player, rock solid singer, and multi-instrumentalist have been enjoyed on A Prairie Home Companion, in Jack White’s touring band, and many places in between. Now the world is getting to experience her skills as a songwriter!
“Wash Me Clean” has everything that I need from a country song: a straightforward structure, rich acoustic sounds, and carefully constructed lyrics. I have come to rely on alt country as a comfort zone in which I can always find words that have been carved, shaved and shaped until they express something familiar in a slightly new way. “Wash Me Clean” works through themes of regret and past traumas—but I’m not nearly as interested in analyzing the words to this song as I am in singing it, especially the catchy as hell chorus!
I heard a lot of good new songs this week. The Shins, White Reaper, Karen Elson, and The New Pornographers all graced my playlist with tracks that were contenders for my song of the week, but I had to go with the one that got me singing along. So, warm up your pipes, give “Wash me Clean” a listen and hopefully you’ll find yourself singing along too!
Here’s a running playlist of all my Song of the Week picks.
When I’m not writing and recording custom songs just for you, I’m usually listening to music and I love to share what I’ve been listening to! My Song of the Week may or may not be a recent release. It might be the new discovery of a missed jewel, or a past love that has resurfaced. Regardless, it will always be the song that I listen to the most during any given week.
There’s a lot to like about “Tears on Fire,” the lead track from Myths 002, the new collaboration between Ariel Pink and Weyes Blood. It’s weird, it’s beautiful, it’s surprising, and at times it’s even funny.
This four-song EP was my introduction to Weyes Blood (pronounced Wise Blood), which is the pseudonym for musician Natalie Merring. A quick perusal of her substantial solo catalog reveals an accomplished folk artist with classical leanings and a stellar voice. I’m looking forward to becoming more familiar with her music, not only as a means of discovery, but also because it might give me some insight into how the songwriting duties on Myths 002 were split between these two ultra-talented individuals on the EPs two original tracks.
I’ve been a long time admirer of Ariel Pink, but this EP has turned me into a bona fide fan. He has an incredible ear for melody, an ability to resurrect forgotten pop culture tropes and give them a modern twist, a gift for writing quirky (or not) lyrics and a sense of humor! Maybe the thing that impresses me the most about him is his ability to use the studio as an instrument to create songs with structures that twist and turn in seemingly impossible ways.
Tears on Fire showcases all of these skills. The lyrics are surreal and wrapped in an alluring melody accompanied by a relaxed synth and acoustic guitar. They pleasantly float by and then WHAM!—you get Weyes Blood’s soaring, otherworldly vocals fronting an explosion of sound! Ennio Morricone! Opera! Distorted guitar! There and gone before you have time to process!
I’m glad I heard the song before seeing the video, which emphasizes humor—and it is funny. Even without the video, Ariel Pink aping the classic rock blues yowl (think Steve Miller’s “Take the Money and Run”) gets me every time. But Tears on Fire is much more than funny. It’s a genuinely gorgeous and intriguing piece of music.
I like every song on Myths 002. I could have picked any of them to be my song of the week. But sometimes your first love is the one that breaks your heart the hardest, and in this case, that would be Tears on Fire.
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