May 15, 2021

Hi fellow women writers,

I'm currently in Phonix with my family. What was supposed to be the long awaited post-vax reunion turned into a family emergency when my Mom received a completely-out-of-the-blue cancer diagnosis the day before my flight out of JFK.

As I'm helping my family navigate this, I am filled with thoughts and zero ability to translate it into words. But, it is important that I stay tethered in anyway possible and continuing with this group is something I can make room for emotionally.

I recently took a 4 week songwriting workshop with singer songwriter, Jill Sobule. She is as good a teacher as she is an artist. Jill is a lovely positive human. Her class brings together all ranges of experience and ages. I enthusiastically recommend it as a creative jumpstart. I've never used those creative muscles before and it was such a low stakes, warm, and welcoming environment. Complete other end of the spectrum of the art group critiques I had to weather in design school where feedback was public bloodsport.

What I'm sharing is our last assignment. Write a song inspired by The Flintstones. The prior 3 weeks showed me that a rhyming structure provided a helpful framework, but, it also became a crutch. Jill asked us to look at the songs that we love and try to figure out what works about them. That's when I realized rhymes aren't critical to the songs I love. Often it's not even about the lyrics at all, but, an overall portrait -- a musical still life, short story, character portrait, etc.

So this song is from the POV of Pebbles as a Tom Waits-type world-weary adult who has wanderlust but never managed to get out of Bedrock. The melody is the one and only musical composition I've ever put together a couple years ago when I took jazz piano. Don't try to fit the lyrics to the melody -- that ability for this assignment was way far out of my zone. Instead, I tried to paint a portrait with words that fit the melancholy melody. That is all.

See you Sunday.

Melody (This is a yotube link that goes to a slide show I made for Fathers Day. Disregard the visuals. This is the only way I could figure out how to include a link to the music.)



Comments

  1. Sheila CallahanMay 16, 2021 at 6:55 AM

    Oh, Amy. None of us wants that call, the one with the out of the blue cancer diagnosis. I am so very sorry. I hope the prognosis is hopeful.

    Your Jill Sobule workshop sounds amazing, and your song is rocking my world. I can wait to discuss this today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RobinMay 16, 2021 at 1:58 PM

    Listening and reading and moved to tears. What a perfect song to read before joining you guys on line. Thank you Amy. This is a gift.

    ReplyDelete

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