(from http://ginadesimone.com/presskit/index.htm)
". . . Moaners Party Recipe -Start with one woman, a bunch of guitars and a whole lot of blue smoke -Add unstoppable energy and chilling harmony -Set on a foundation on rock solid rhythm and quick wit -Top with the best amaretto whipped cream frosting guitar and trumpet work you can imagine
Blend musicians to achieve and eccentric, eclectic mix of music from all era's. The Moaners diverse backgrounds come together to offer a night of music delivered with fun loving humor and entertainment.
The Moaners are a danceable, upbeat band that plays blues and swing with 3 part harmony being central to their sound. . ."
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(From SAW Note, July 2012)
Doug Sedgwick is a widely-traveled poet, Army veteran, high-energy live performer and spiritual (Unitarian) musician based in Reston, Virginia. Doug is also a longtime Songwriters' Association of Washington (SAW) member and winner of 2 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest Honorable Mentions (Jazz/Blues/Instrumental 2005, World 2006). He hosts a monthly open mike at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Reston every second Friday of the month. According to music critic / blogger Wildy Haskell, Doug has “tremendous songwriting talent and the ability to project different personalities/voices into his songs, like soliloquies in a one-man Broadway show. This folk/rock singer-songwriter might be one of the best of the genre, and you’ve probably never heard of him.”
As part of promoting his 2008 CD “Committed,” Doug was asked by the California-based “On Songwriting” blogger Rick Jamison for an interview – but instead of a Q & A, session, Rick ended up publishing a set of twenty insights Doug had put together and labeled as his songwriting“principles.” Here they are – slightly updated for your perusal and enjoyment.
(Paraphrased and edited for space)
1. If it works as a piece of art and doesn’t adhere to the “principles” - go for it! Never let anyone tell you what rules you should be following. Develop your own set of principles.
2. The basis must be emotion and the subconscious goal is movement of the listener. Move yourself emotionally and the listener will be moved.
3. The idea to get across should be simple. It should fit into 3 or 4 minutes - maybe longer if it requires a solo or extended bridge to help emphasize the point.
4. Stolen from Andrew McKnight: Your most favorite song in the entire world is the one you’re singing at the time you’re singing it. Put every ounce of your feeling into the performance.
5. A new song should begin with the words. The cadence of a phrase brushed against the cockles of your heart ought to get a back and forth rhythm going. Seek out the chords after the basis of the melody springs up from the motion of the words themselves.
6. Go to the musical fourth for the chorus. Get as much melody worked up from the words as possible – then see if you don’t naturally go the fourth for the chorus anyway. If not – see # 1.
7. [From “This is Your Brain on Music.”] Studying the brain waves of jazz musicians in the act of improvising shows a close correlation with the brain activity of dreaming. Dreaming and writing music are intertwined. Find where your intersection of the two activities helps you produce.
8. Even though the best songs are the usually the ones that seem to flow from a higher power, you should still attempt to work through and finish any song you start. Determination to solve musical challenges in lesser songs will help develop your songwriting skills.
9. Seek inspiration wherever you find it. If listening to Dylan gets your juices flowing – don’t be afraid to take in chunks from YouTube or your old vinyl. There’s no infringement in stealing an IDEA for a song that came from listening to another song.
10. Learn to let go and not judge what starts to happen when moments of inspiration kick in. Follow your instincts. Ignore your reason. (Paraphrased from songwriter friend Philip DeStefano, I believe.)
11. Rhythm rules. The beat trumps the melody. Greater is the sin to play offbeat than to play off-key. Develop rhythm EVERYWHERE in everything.
12. Learn to believe completely in your own magic. If Spielberg doesn’t put his own faith on the line, the audience will sense it the same way a dog senses fear. Your FAITH in YOU is what carries.
13. Your unique view is valuable. Your experiences and views are no less important than the 'virtuosi' - your execution and expression is just different - but must be here to satisfy SOME need in the universe. Revel in your ability to express yourself in a manner unlike any other.
14. Pitch matters - but not the way you hear it. No two people hear the same. No single person hears the same their entire life.
15. Zoom out. A painter with his nose inches from the canvas sweating the texture of a cloud may have lost sight of the true focus of his own painting. As the song develops, keep trying to step back from the easel a few feet occasionally.
16. Take all criticisms with a grain of salt. What if Tom Waits (or Bob Dylan or Neil Young) - attending song circles had been told he really needed to learn a new way to sing? Part of that which makes them truly unique would have been lost. But be polite and not vengeful.
17. Keep the child inside alive. If your musical knowledge and depth of understanding have grown SO VAST that you have lost the sense of wonder and the willingness to be fooled into believing in magic (see #12) - you should give up the craft.
18. Never stop learning. There is something to be learned from everybody you encounter – both inside and outside the realm of songwriting.
19. Give of yourself by listening to people. Especially in these times when we’re bombarded by the media talking at us, there is a deep hunger in the population at large to just be heard anymore. Lend a sympathetic ear.
20. Practice self-discovery and self-improvement. Take a spiritual path, and let your own self-awakening surprise you with songs inside you never knew were there.
You can reach Doug (who enjoys both writing AND talking about himself in the third person) via email through bugsunplugged (at) comcast.net. . . "
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(photo and bio from Wikipedia.com)
Ian Anderson was born the youngest of three children. His father, James Anderson, ran the RSA Boiler Fluid Company in East Port, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. Anderson spent the first part of his childhood in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was influenced by his father's big band and jazz records and the emergence of rock music, though disenchanted with the "show biz" style of early American rock and roll stars like Elvis Presley.
His family moved to Blackpool, Lancashire in 1959, where he gained a traditional education at Blackpool Grammar School,. In a recent interview, Anderson stated that he was asked to leave Grammar School for refusing to submit to corporal punishment (still permitted at that time) for some serious infraction. He went on to study fine art at Blackpool College of Art from 1964 to 1966.
While a teenager, Anderson took a job as a sales assistant at Lewis' department store in Blackpool, then as a vendor on a newsstand. He later said it was reading copies of Melody Maker and the New Musical Express during his lunch breaks that gave him the inspiration to play in a band.
In 1963, he formed The Blades from among school friends: Barriemore Barlow (drums), John Evan (keyboards), Jeffrey Hammond (bass) and Michael Stephens (guitar). This was a soul and blues band, with Anderson on vocals and harmonica – he had yet to take up the flute.
At this time Anderson abandoned his ambition to play electric guitar, allegedly because he felt he would never be "as good as Eric Clapton". As he himself tells it in the introduction to the video "Live at the Isle of Wight", he traded his electric guitar in for a flute which, after some weeks of practice, he found he could play fairly well in a rock and blues style. According to the sleeve notes for the first Tull album, "This Was", he had been playing the flute only a few months when the album was recorded. His guitar practice was not wasted either, as he continued to play acoustic guitar, using it as a melodic as well as rhythmic instrument. As his career progressed, he added soprano saxophone, mandolin, keyboards and other instruments to his arsenal.
As a flautist, Anderson is self-taught; his style, which often includes a good deal of flutter tonguing and occasionally singing or humming (or even snorting) while playing, was influenced by Roland Kirk. In 2003 he recorded a composition called Griminelli's Lament in honour of his friend, the Italian flautist Andrea Griminelli. In the 1990s he began working with simple bamboo flutes. He uses techniques such as over-blowing and hole-shading to produce note-slurring and other expressive techniques on this otherwise simple instrument.
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"Surrealistic cowboy poetry. Springsteen on
mescaline. Steve Earle on a literary jag. Wilco with grit.
. . expansive, exotic Americana, urgent,
whiskey-fed melodies topped with lyrics that often seem to consist of a
string of vivid images and striking non sequiturs . . . " -Jason Warburg, The Daily Vault
". . . punchy roots rock fit for prime time. In their
incarnation on Hotel, some of these tracks displayed a raw beauty that
tended toward sprawl. . . " -Nick Zaino III, Paste magazine
". . . Combining many traditional American styles,
including rock, bluegrass, country, and even a smidge of blues, Mark
McKay, continues his style of mellow and melancholy acoustic (or
acoustic-type) rock with heavy country influence . . . " -Sarah Kantor, Emmie Magazine
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ANOTHER SHOT
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(Quotes from Miles Davis. . . )
"I've changed music four or five times. What have you done of any importance other than be white?"
Davis attended a reception in honor of Ray Charles at Ronald Reagan's White House in 1987. This was his reply to a Washington society lady seated next to him who had asked him what he had done to be invited.
"If somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I'd spend it choking a white man. I'd do it nice and slow." During an interview, after growing aggravated about questions on the subject of race.
"A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I'm still doing it." On being called a legend.
"Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin"
"Who's that motherfucker? He can't play shit!"
on Cecil Taylor
"You a motherfucker." a compliment to Chick Corea, who thought he was about to be fired.
"He plays like somebody is standing on his foot." on Eric Dolphy
"He could very well be the Duke Ellington of Rock 'n' Roll." on Prince
"Why'd you put that white bitch on there?"
To George Avakian after seeing the cover chosen by Columbia for Miles Ahead.
"You can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't played." and "I love Pops" (Louis' nickname)
on Louis Armstrong in a Playboy magazine interview.
"I’ll play it and tell you what it is later." During a recording session for Prestige, on the album "Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet" (1956).
"Listen baby, when I say later, I mean it! Later!" After being approached by a relentless interviewer.
"There are no wrong notes." My ego only needs a good rhythm section.
On being asked what he looked for in musicians. "When you are creating your own shit, man, even the sky ain't the limit."
"Try taking the fucking horn out of your mouth." Davis was questioning the increasing length of John Coltrane solos, and Trane answered "I don't know how to stop."
"Don't play what's there, play what's not there.
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ANOTHER SHOT
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That's what the father of another accordion student said to me at the conclusion of accordion practice on the night I chose as my solo, a song that I made up. . . I mean. . . an original composition. In fact, it was my very first original composition, to the best of my knowledge.
The piece was entitled THE NEW YORK STRANGERS. It was essentially, half blues and half folk song. Literally. It was not verse- chorus-verse-chorus, or verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus. It was first-part-second-part (repeat). It had lyrics. Very simple lyrics which I, unfortunately (and embarrassingly) do remember so will not repeat here. It was inspired by. . . nothing in particular but the need to write an original composition. Well, isn't that ENOUGH?
And the comment from the other student's parent seems quite ruthless in print. It was, in fact, delivered quite humorously (and kiddingly) by a man who had quite a fine sense of humor with no offense intended and none, indeed, taken.
In retrospect, quite possibly (make that DEFINITELY) the best part of the entire experience, and the finest nuance of the memory, is the look of pride on my very own father's face as I received congratulations from several listeners that evening.
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