This melody came to me in the closing minutes of Christmas. A little gift from the universe? Or is this somebody else’s song? It sounds too perfect. Like an old pentonic blues riff; how could only little ol’ me have been the first to do this with these notes?
Is it mine?
“This fire won’t go out, I got fire in my veins”
It sounds like old Country, like a chorus Patsy Cline would have sang before she hit that mountain, and Willie would have written before he was famous.
I had just spent an hour trying to finish a trio of songs I think have real promise, ‘Pax Europa’, ‘Time Will Tell’, and ‘I’m The One To Blame’. I had promised myself I’d focus on finishing songs, because starting a song every day is blessing but a logistical…well not nightmare. But I’ll never catch my own tail.
But then here it came. It’s a healthy issue I have with having this much music pouring out of me. It’s not unprecedented. Irving Berlin wrote thousands of songs only knowing how to play in one key on the piano. So he got a piano that with a crank that worked like a capo. He just banged out songs that others would exquisitely arrange like ‘White Christmas’.
He wasn’t even a good musician per say, but the music was in him and he delivered entire Broadway shows, anthems, theme songs, holiday hits, what we call jazz with ‘I Got Rhythm’, ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’, and ‘Puttin’ on The Ritz’.
Hell how many Jazz songs were written over the ‘Rhythm Changes’ he presented?
When the music is coming though…just roll with it I guess. Maybe I’ll just publish books full of little songs and stories you can strum along to.
This year I am trying to find hundreds of song ideas I have out there on old phones and microtapes. At the beginning of 2018, I rescued and polished a gem that had haunted me for years, called ‘We Used To Wander Through The Night’.
I need to figure out which ideas are great and need to be attended to, and which are just really good, and should revisited.
This melody feels pretty damn good for a 3 chord wonder.
I am starting to get LIVE show withdrawals. I want to play Orcas Island, and play some of those fun regional gigs that get so magical. People really come out in those towns and appreciate it. They dance their ass off.
Not booking anything yet, but if I get the right crew together, folks that really appreciate these type of shows, there is so much fun to be had.
Those nights you play two nights, play a couple of sets, really stretch out. Then you have a hike on Saturday and see the Orcas. Everyone around town was at the show the night before and they are so damn happy about it.
…I’m not booking anything like that yet, but it’s nice to know that I can, and that I have friends that will join me on such an adventure.
Because we can. We should. Live music can be so good.
…and I got 4 albums out and 3 more really good ones on the way. I am looking forward to playing the old classics and the new jams, and the excitement of trying out a new song LIVE in front of the ultimate critics – a live audience and dance floor.
Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. In the spring of 2018 he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
