...songwriting...

I have splattered the stories of my life across pages and pages of lined notebooks. Most of those stories were set to music – girl wielding guitar music.

Recently, while scouring online events pages for more adventures, I happened upon a post for a Singer/Songwriters In the Round in St. Louis. At an “in the round,” show, four songwriters sit onstage together and they go down the line, each having an opportunity to play one song. Once they've all finished that round, they do it again with a different song. They might do this 4 or 5 times in a performance. It's an amazing night of live music, new music, never before heard music, and, when I saw one in Nashville, I loved it.

So tonight, after typing the address given into my GPS, I hopped into my car and set off toward my destination. It wasn't until I was driving up and down that residential street for the second time that I thought something might be wrong. Had I done a bit more digging, I would have found that it was being held at a different site than the address given...and it was SOLD OUT!

Determined to not waste my night, I came home and pulled out some of those old lined notebooks and began to rustle through pages of lyrics. I found a jazz song that I had written in college for a contemporary theory class and sat down at the piano and played through it. I pulled out my old computer and listened to bits and pieces of verses and choruses and chord progressions and melodies that had been recorded ages ago. So many left unfinished because I never deemed them (or myself) good enough. They weren't as bad as I remembered...

It's interesting how differently we see ourselves when we look back.

I haven't returned to songwriting over the last few years. Maybe bits and pieces here and there, but nothing like I used to do. That dream has been tucked away with all the notebooks that have been piled into storage bins, only to be revisited every so often, like an old friend. One of the hazards of getting older, I suppose. Somedays, though, I can't help but wonder what my songs would sound like if I had stuck with it.

Maybe next year I should start the Song a Day blog? (wait...wait...I'm laughing too hard to continue...)

Phew! Well, okay, you can follow Songbird Cafe here on Facebook. The next Singer/Songwriters In the Round is scheduled for March 26. Would you like to join me?