If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. ~ Charlie Parker
I was home from a long hike in the wood with my dog yesterday when the phrase “three miles from nowhere” began to dance around in my head. I grabbed a guitar, hit a D chord, sang that line and within 15 minutes most of this song came into being. It’s a pretty simple song — just three chords — but I like how it is turning out, and that sudden burst of creative energy is something to always cherish.
Peace (singing it),
Kevin
I’m getting back to song:
swimming the rhythm
of words again, replacing
runs and phrases like kayaks
loose on the current, playing
each verse in reverse to
rediscover the chorus, ideas
are the trees in this forest
in which something near true
arises, anew
This poem is from a prompt over at Open Write about “getting back” to something. This is about a song that I started, stopped writing and then returned to again.
Peace (in the Muse),
Kevin
This is the third original song we played at a recent open mic.
Peace (and song),
Kevin
This is an original song, from an open mic night.
Peace (and song),
Kevin
I played a few original songs with bandmates Greg and Marc at a local open mic night. This one is called Sweet Sounds.
Peace (and music),
Kevin
This filtered image of a song lyric sheet accompanied a post for the Daily Create about rituals for creative endeavors. I filtered the image for effect. This is a new song I was writing yesterday.
Peace (in notebooks),
Kevin
The other week, I put out an album of original music, so I figure I will slowly share the individual songs here, too. The first song is called Wander With Grace. It’s on Bandcamp, which means you are welcome to listen for free.
Peace (and song and stories),
Kevin
For the third year in a row, in May, I am publishing an album of original songs. All but one were written in the last eight months or so, and some were previously published as singles on Bandcamp. But I have gathered those and the others now under one roof, entitled Wander.
Peace (and sound),
Kevin
I wrote this song – Another AI Surprise — the other day and decided I would just hit the “record” button and get it down and out.
Another AI Surprise
Met a ‘bot on the flat screen – well, it wrote real nice
Told me how I was oh so smart – then it offered me advice
But every bit of its answer – not a word rang true
I don’t know where it stole the words, but it sure sounded like you
Every bit of the Internet, even what you wrote
Every picture you ever took, every musical note
It’s gobbled it all up and spun it upside down
Spit it right back out at you like an agent on the ground
Open Ai, Grok, Anthropopic, Google and all the rest
They opened up Pandora’s Box and now it’s an utter mess
You can’t trust what you’re reading – can’t trust your own eyes
Every question or query brings another AI surprise
You can use it as a soundboard and it’ll write all night
You can have it make some crazy art that it stole from someone’s site
You can have it make music, make movies and recipes
Then you have to ask yourself, is this gonna replace me?
Now where this is going, we can’t hardly tell
Getting pitched, it’s a path to profit but it might be a road to hell
Gotta find some guard rails – keep the system in line
When the men in the room share their P-Doom – it’s a world on fire
Chorus
Peace (and worry),
Kevin
A few weeks back, a group of friends and I invited friends and family to my living room for a concert of mostly original songs. I took some of the audio tracks and put them into an EP on Bandcamp.
Take a listen to the Sunday Morning Stompers (our name, for now anyway).
Peace (and music),
Kevin