Dear Young Songwriter Who Wrote Me on MySpace or Facebook and asked for advice:

I have so much to tell you but I should probably distill it down to the basics. This is what I would tell any young artist or student who stands in front of me wondering what to do in this massive and confusing world of art and commerce.

Basically, I can explain it in three chunks:

1. Read and listen to everything that came before now. Films too.

2. Leave home. Travel.

3. Bring something new to the tradition of your craft.

I would have to advise you to read and listen to anything you can get your hands and ears on.

Poetry: you should read it every day. Short stories, novels, all the classics. Get to it.

With music, you are going to have to step out of your comfort zone and visit the sounds and songs of those that came before the songwriters you are listening to now. Go back to the beginnings of your favorite genre. All of the greats studied the greats before them. If you are an American musician, you are doing yourself a dishonor by not listening to and studying the first American musicians who gave us jazz and the blues and the folk music that teaches you the chords and stories you need to know. There is a foundation there that is absolutely necessary if you wish you be a part of the constantly evolving family of musicians and artists, rather than the disposable, flavor of the month variety.

In North America, our “classical” music is jazz. Through serious suffering and eventual liberation came the blues. Finally, we were very fortunate to be the birthplace of rock and roll (disco, hip hop, etc.) and although we’ve had to have its message of ass shaking freedom re-explained to us time and time again by different generations from both sides of the pond, you won’t find any of the long term successful people in these musical genres that didn’t go back and study the greats that came before them.

You want to learn to write good songs? Then learn how to play the great songs of history. You like The Beatles? Learn Motown, Buddy Holly, and Cole Porter. Learn McCartney’s bass lines. You like M. Ward? Go listen to Roy Orbison or Louis Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael, or Elmore James.

If you listened to every Kinks album and then every Sonic Youth album in a row you will have accomplished a few days of well spent research.

Woody Guthrie, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Doc Watson, Blind Willie McTell…they all have stories to tell, more down and dirty than any Stones tune. Learning songs by them will enable you to tell your own stories.

Go to the library and get all this education for free. You can sign up for a card and cruise your library’s collection on your computer, ordering books, films, and CDs to be picked up at your local branch. World music, classical music, avant-garde or modern sonic explorations, Mongolian throat singing: it’s all there waiting for you. While you are at it learn the names of some constellations, trees, and plants.

To me, it’s painfully obvious when a band or writer hasn’t bothered to listen to any albums that came before, say, Nirvana. Rock and roll and popular music/culture in general is more or less a young man/woman’s game-as far as music business goes-but as a lifestyle it can be permanent if you wish. Great art, or the individual expression of those trailblazers that came before can truly charge your creative batteries and help you grow as a person to embrace doing things just a little different from the status quo. You can find temporary happiness with what is current or you can go back in time and stand on the shoulders of the giants of storytelling, and therefore continue on in the tradition of learning and then creating something new out of your own experiences.

This leads me to my second point which is that you simply have to hit the road. I don’t care if you live in NYC or Nashville or LA (which is where you will most likely end up if you actually want to do something about a “career” in entertainment), if you are a young man/woman then you need to see another world besides the one you are accustomed to. Sitting around a coffee shop and talking about all the different things you want to do isn’t going to accomplish anything. If all North Americans could visit other nations, then we would have a more enriched culture and a better understanding of the world, and therefore be an even better country ourselves.

Go to Europe. Take your guitar. Hitch hike. Play on the streets. Meet some other travelers. Share a bottle of wine beside a famous river. Get laid. Fall in love. Get your heart broken. You don’t have to live life the way you have been taught you should, unless you would like to end up working in a cubicle.

Returning to your home town art scene isn’t a crime either. Enliven or participate in your community’s art and music scene by providing couches for those traveling musicians and artists who are on their way through. Throw house concerts. Form a musicians co-op and record company for you and your friend’s bands. Start a ‘zine, or participate in one that is already on the move.

Lastly, and this will most likely happen through experience, but you must bring something new to your craft. If it is songwriting, then add your own life experience to it. Whatever made you the unique individual you are today, put it inside your art.

There are some things I would like to point out that might assist you in achieving some of these goals, and though I didn’t say it before, you should indeed make some goals, and wake up every day and do something towards achieving them. Think it, believe it, do it.

— Tim

P.S. Did I mention that you should practice your instrument every day? Or write in your journal…or write down some of your dreams…or carry a pen and small pad with you at all times? I guess that is just too obvious.

P.S.S.How much time every day do you think Connor Oberst or Jack White or Jeff Tweedy or Chan Marshall or any songwriter/musician/artist you admire spends fucking around on MySpace or Facebook?

Exactly. Now start making plans to hit the road.

You know the drill. IN SHORT is our monthly hodgepodge selection of stuff we think’s worth mentioning… sometimes it’s about music, sometimes not. This month, three videos that have been forwarded our way multiple times — we got the hint . So here goes, one to make you laugh, one to make you ooo and ahh, one to perk your interest about the seedy inner insides of the music industry.

1. Bohemian Rhapsody, The Muppets

Come on, I had you at Muppets. 60 seconds or so in… wait for it. Mama? (Animal).

2. Don’t Stop Believing, Nick Pitera (five of him)

Apparently this is a Glee cover (the TV show which I’m proud to say I don’t watch — although I certainly do watch a lot of cheesy TV). This, for sure, is cheesy but dammit it’s also cool.

3. Golden Days, The Damnwells

Yes, I’ve given this band of ridiculous amount of airtime. But finally, the documentary movie that Chris Suchorsky put together is available. The film follows the story as the band lands their major label record deal and then gets completely hosed by the machine (Epic), as does happen. It’s been around the film festival circuit, even nabbing best documentary in Phoenix a couple of years back. Now, the DVD is available (naturally, Epic delayed the process). If you don’t want to drop the cash, add them to your queue on Netflix, they are officially listed although the release on Netflix, still TBD. It’s a damn (ehem) fine little film.

xo

By some strange collision of the cosmos, that’s the kind of radio I grew up learning thanks to a team of seasoned programming mentors at my first station in Vermont. The pay sucked but still, we had the bug. It was simple. Find great music. Play it. Be human. Create compelling radio. Those were the unquestionable standards and we worked our asses off to achieve them. Hell, even the commercials made for great listening. No joke. All because, first and foremost, we were fans; fans of each other and fans of the ideal… the ideal being to “create a product or service that makes the world a better place” (Guy Kawasaki 101). Corny? Definitely. But powerful.

These days, it’s rare for any of us to engage in true participatory listening (the kind vinyl forces you to do). We’re too busy multitasking. But programming live radio requires that… in order to have your finger on the mood of the moment, to create that dialogue with the listener, you’ve got to listen, you’ve got to pay attention, you’ve got to turn it up, you’ve got to jump around, you’ve got to feel it. Similar to a musician, as programmer, it’s your job to harness the energy and drive it and make the magic happen.

Last night, it was a fantastic surprise to be reminded of the contagious, irresistible high that live radio can do to a girl. Thanks Dave Leonard, for letting me cohost Unleashed.

Here’s the stream.
Here’s the playlist:

The Clash, This Is Radio Clash
Glasvegas, Daddy’s Gone
Pete Droge, Spacey and Shakn
Pete Droge, Electric Green
Roman Candle, A Heartbeat
The Bees (US), a.k.a. The Silver Seas, The Country Life
Steely Dan, Barrytown
Mike Gent, Paper Knives
Glenn Tilbrook, Neptune
Marshall Crenshaw, Take Me with You
Jim Boggia, Listening to NRBQ
NRBQ, Ridin in My Car
The Guggenheim Grotto, Her Beautiful Ideas
Jesus and Mary Chain, Sometimes Always
Michael Miller, Carolina Skyline
Cary Brothers, If You Were Here
Semisonic, This Will Be My Year
Tarmac Adam, Swim
Electronic, Can’t Find My Way Home
Robin Danar featuring Rachel Yamagata, 2000 Light Years From Home
The Candyskins, For What It’s Worth
Chris Velan, House Upon the Hill
The Blind Boys of Alabama, Spirit in the Sky
Stoney Clove Lane, Crawl
Thea Gilmore, Cover Me
The Jackson Hives, Need a Lie
Honeydogs, Sour Grapes

Pete Droge

This week, LETTERS FROM THE ROAD features the legendary Pete Droge (OMG!)… we are MASSIVE fans here at Outlandos. Hopefully you will be, too.

Incidentally, for a refresher, LETTERS FROM THE ROAD is our guest post series where we invite musicians we are utterly nuts about to take over and write whatever they like. Three rules: it has to be in the form of a letter, it has to have something to do with music, and the weirder the better. Fun stuff!

What I love about this post from Pete (and I hope I don’t embarrass him too much) is that number one, he was a tad skittish, as a lot of folks are about publishing a blog, if blogging isn’t your usual thing, perfectly human reaction (and its nice to know our idols are human). It’s great though is that none of it has to be perfect, it just has to be genuine for me — and for you — to dig it. And Pete’s got genuine in spades, as you can read below. But what’s more is, this idea of his is quite smart… if you’re going to dive into an iconic catalog, chronologically doesn’t always make sense. This would make a good book actually, a guide to the best order in which to sift through iconic catalogs. You up for that Pete?

Thanks for letting me twist your arm to do this one!

Dear Music Fan Who Is Not up to Speed on JJ Cale, Leonard Cohen or Gram Parsons,

I find that where you enter an artist’s catalog can make a huge difference on how they connect with you. Case in point, my friend who thought, “I really should check out this Bob Dylan cat that so many hipsters are into… hmm where to begin? How about his first album?” Seeing as Bob is so adored for his writing and his first record consists of mostly covers this is probably not the best place to enter his body of work (If you have not heard his version of Man of Constant Sorrow go get it right now… George Clooney, eat your heart out). I digress. I have many times served as mid wife in the birthing of a newborn Dylan fan. I am always shocked, outraged and ultimately jealous of anyone who is naive to all things Bob. Generally speaking, with Bob, I would point the newbie towards Bringing It All Back Home. Side One is Bob 101. Opens with Subterranean Homesick Blues, need I say more? Side Two, Bob 201. Opens with Mr. Tambourine Man and closes with It’s All over Now, Baby Blue, and in between those two, Gates of Eden and It’s Alright Ma, (I’m Only Bleeding). After that, I would point them to more records from the 60s like Highway 61, Times They Are a Changin’, and Blonde on Blonde before sending them out to other eras (Oh Mercy, Time Out Of Mind, Infidel, Planet Waves, Blood on the Tracks, Basement Tapes and so on).

Enough on Bob. I’m sure you are all up to speed already. Let’s get to some folks that some of you may not be into.

JJ Cale. I remember the first time I heard JJ Cale… or John as his friends call him… yes, that’s right, the name John Cale was taken (ok musical hipsters, John Cale was a member of what seminal ban? Anyone… anyone? Yes, THE seminal band of all seminal bands, the Velvet Underground. Very good). I digress. Where was I? Oh yes, the first time I heard JJ Cale. In my Datsun 210, on the once great rock station KISW (Seattle’s Best Rock). I know this song, but holy shit — this is way swampier than Clapton’s version, I thought. It was of course the original version of Cocaine that Eric had the big hit with. This track stopped me in my tracks. So, I would recommend to anyone who wants to look into JJ Cale start with the album it comes from, Troubadour. It was his fourth record. Next stop… go back in time to his first record Naturally (which opens with another song Clapton had a hit with, After Midnight)… then jump ahead to Okie, then back to his second record, Really, then his fifth, Five. By this time, if you are not a total fan who is ready to devour every note he has ever laid down, then I would suspect that you are a cold blooded reptile from another planet. You will never get it and I am sorry for you (that sounds a tad harsh… sorry). Moving on.

Leonard Cohen. Again, I was in transit when Leonard Cohen’s music really got to me. We were on a cross-Canadian tour, early winter 1996, supporting Neil Young. Something about curling up in my bunk with Leonard’s voice on the headphones soothed my paranoia about the bus careening off the road (I was also reading Kafka on that tour and suffering from codeine-induced stomach aches. Good times, indeed. And my fans wonder why I don’t tour anymore). I digress. With Leonard, I would make a case for taking things chronologically. By the time he made his first record in 1967, he was already a successful poet, so he had the word thing together (listen to me — “he had the word thing together” — now I am beginning to feel very self-conscious about my writing here… don’t give in… push on… it’s only a blog after all… it is supposed to read like a first draft). Songs of Leonard Cohen, Side One, song one: Suzanne. Great place to start. But wait, some of the songs on this album, though incredible, might not quite their hooks into the uninitiated. Bearing this in mind, I started to compile a list of cuts you could grab on iTunes… I got to his second record and realized almost all of my picks are on a compilation album The Essential Leonard Cohen. Now let me be clear, I do not condone you buying this collection and calling it good. But, it’s a good place to start. Props to Leanne Ungar & Bruce Dickinson for putting together a great intro to LC. (Bruce Dickinson was the lead singer of what heavy metal band? Anyone… anyone? Yes, that’s right… Iron Maiden. Something tells me it’s a different guy, what do you think?) I digress. This is a good place to start. The one spot I think they miss is an album produced by Phil Spector called Death of a Ladies Man. It does stand out within LC’s catalog as a bit of an odd bird. And I would say it’s a record you should buy — if for no other reason than because you can brag about owning it at dinner parties. Try it and watch your hipness quotient go thru the roof (you could also collect some stories about Phil actually brandishing a pistol during the sessions and this will surely impress your dinner guests). I digress. Leonard’s work is always so thorough and complete, I can’t imagine not owning all of the records. If there are songs that don’t get you right away, keep listening. And really go to the words. Be with the words. Lyrics don’t get better.

Gram Parsons. With Gram, I would take the opposite approach as we did with LC. Start at the end and work your way back. He was interested in what he called “cosmic American music.” Others would later make it sound way less interesting and call it country-rock. And many would give the late great Gram credit for inventing it (as much as I love Gram and his legacy I always felt like this was not very accurate. To me, that is like saying someone invented soup. Maybe Monsanto will genetically modify country-rock and claim a patent for it. If you don’t get this joke, rent Food Inc.) I digress. Gram did have a vision though. Sadly, his career was cut short by a heroin OD in 1973. I would start with both of his solo records at once. GP and Grevious Angel. At first, if you are having trouble with the frailty of his vocals and you are thinking, “it sounds like he just smoked a huge doobie,” keep in mind, he probably did. Many of you will recognize the voice of a young Emmy Lou Harris singing harmony. Next step is to move back in time to the group he formed with Chris Hillman, The Flying Burrito Brothers. 1969′s Gilded Palace of Sin. Then check out the record he made when he was a member of the Byrds, Sweetheart of the Rodeo (This is a total classic record that makes lots of all time best album lists). From this classic, we are entering into terrain more suited to the already established super fan, so if by this point, you feel you qualify, get Burrito Deluxe, the International Submarine Band’s Safe at Home (his first official record). And then you can start digging into the live stuff (he had an amazing road band and some of the live stuff is among my all time favorite live recordings).

I will sleep like a baby tonight, knowing that in my small way I may have helped you to find your way into a wealth of music that these three artists have given us.

Happy listening,

Pete Droge