Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
We enjoyed a wonderful holiday celebration at our good friends’, the Howards, home yesterday. Since many of us have migrated to "music city" from California (and other less prominent states), Thanksgiving has become, in our social circle, not so much a family event as a gathering of friends. Anyhow, it was a great one! We hope your holiday was equally blessed.
So…I woke up this morning and shook my girls awake from blissful slumber in their bunk beds, singing obnoxious rhyming jibberish, as I am prone to do. Only today, I tried a little harder to be clever, since I would soon meet Tim at Derri’s house to begin The Choir’s 10th studio effort. And like I said before, no new songs existed. So I sang (to an annoying melody) "Before Old Man Winter comes to chill your bones, I’m gonna build a fire to heat up some stones, put ‘em under your sheets so you can keep your cold feet warm. I don’t mean any harm. I don’t mean any harm. I don’t mean any harm to you."
It took us ‘til 3:00 or so to get going, but by that time I had three lyrical ideas. Tim had come prepared with some riffs and progressions (he always does), two of which we shaped into songs rather quickly. They’re called, "Shiny Floor" (I spilled beer on Tom Howard’s shiny floor last night, but the song is not about that. I’m not sure what it’s about exactly, but hopefully I’ll be able to explain it one day like it’s a multi-layered metaphor.) and "I Don’t Mean Any Harm" (jibberish is a fine way to start!). The music is that buzzy, whimsical sort of thing that Tim inclines toward -- reminiscent of "Leprechaun" from "Free Flying Soul". The drums, bass and percussion are a decidedly ragged, and…keeper I think. Derri will surely drag us out of the ditch, down the road, when he adds his melodic, dreamy guitar parts (he usually does). And I dare say I can almost imagine a sax solo on the last 8 bars of "Shiny Floor". I wonder how many months it’s been since Buckeye Dan Michaels, from Akron Ohio, has played that thing.
Later in the evening, Derald came up with a moody, reflective picking progression that we immediately liked. I manipulated an old lyric that I hadn’t found a musical home for, and was thrilled when it worked. It’s called, "Flap Your Wings". So Derri layed down his electric guitar part to a click track. It was too late to add bass or percussion… but there’ll be time enough to ruin that sweet tune tomorrow. For now, she rests.
Steve H. 11/26/1999
