Virginia Evans: News/Journal

Today I wandered and played at the Lockeland Design Elementary School’s Folktale Fiesta. This was my first wandering minstrel gig. Children ran up to me yelling, "Hey, it's a guitar lady!" And there was the oddity of people talking to me while I played. And an stranger incident where I stopped playing to pick up items that had flown from a booth.

I met interesting people, speaking to someone I had seen at church services but whom I had never officially met. A couple from Maine asked me to stop by their creative arts center with my guitar sometime and visit. So the wandering minstrel gig is far more interactive than the performances I’m used to.

I’d like to do that sort of thing again. I particularly like the situation where I stop singing, keep playing while I’m talking to someone, and then hop back into the song again. I wasn’t always so smooth about it, and I can see how developing this skill would make me a stronger player. I’d recommend the wandering minstrel lesson to anyone interested in developing a stronger connection to their lyrics and music.

So Danny Ray at the East Nashville School of Music has been throwing some Blues at me...and I like it ;) It all started with me saying I had been going through my old cd's and most of them weren't worth what I'd paid for them. They had maybe 2 good songs and the rest was filler. And the exception was a Mary Chapin Carpenter cd: Come On Come On. So Danny Ray went over I Feel Lucky with me using some power chords and Blues Shuffle and it was instant addiction.

We were playing around with some other Blues Tools today and I started singing about jelly beans...I think there's a song in there...and probably one that you'll never want to hear - LOL.

Today for my song a week requirement (I'm supposed to write 1 song a week and play it for DR) I played "Dont' Wanna Write No Stinkin' Song." Which made DR laugh quite a bit. And he enjoyed playing the fancy bits behind my 12 bar blues pattern.

Last but not least, in the New News category, I had started preliminary plans to travel to Germany and Austria and before I'd even made reservations and Acoustic Forum member suggested we have a Gathering in Germany. Acoustic Forum members have held gatherings in other locations, and I'll be at the one in Ohio in June, but I'm excited to have the opportunity to play out in Germany. The only other country I've ever played in was Australia...and that was because a piano player needed a vocalist so they could play at a community coffee hour dealio. So this will be entirely different with my music and accompanying myself and jamming with other people that I haven't met in person yet. Major fun.

So, I had a bet with my guitar instructor recently. The conversation went something like this. G=Guitar Instructor, M=Me

G: So how does this feel? You've been writing a song a week and you aren't struggling with the guitar on these songs.
M: (smiling) Yeah. This is great. These songs are really mine, completely mine. I didn't have to go to someone else to talk about chord selection. And it wasn't hard to do. It just flows. Gosh, if I didn't have a full time job, I could write a song a day.
G: (rolling his eyes) Yeah, and if I didn't have to use all my brain power running this school, I'd be a genius.
M:(jaw dropping to the floor, picking jaw up and putting it back where it belongs) You don't believe me? I have tons of song pieces recorded and all sorts of prose. What would it take? If I wrote five songs in a week while working full time, would you believe I could write a song a day if I wasn't working?
G: Sure.
M: You got it.

So I got through to Wednesday and I had written five songs in five days. And I charted them. And THEN I realized I had only written four songs. Yes, in my state of exhuberance, in the glory of my primal win, I had gotten it in my head that I had five songs when I only had four. I decided that was still amazing and that I preferred to enjoy this fact rather than torture myself by staying up extra hours to write that last song.

However, my source decided that wasn't to be. I woke up on Thursday morning with another song going in my head: Five Songs a Week. It was funny and funky and wanted to be born right then. So I recorded the first verse. Jumped in the shower. Got out, recorded the second verse. And that night I recorded the third verse. I had five songs. Then my guitar teacher fell ill and I was robbed of my triumphant play of the Five Songs a Week song.

Not to belittle my instructor's suffering, because he has been VERY important in my recent developments as a writer and a guitar player. But I was looking forward to my victory dance. I had it all planned out: I'd put the four songs on the music stand. They'd be charted perfectly on my heavy stock parchment style paper. I'd play through them and my guitar instructor would say, "Was that five?"
And I'd answer, "That was four."
And he'd say, "That's still very impressive. It is unusual for someone to produce this amount of work in a week. You should be very proud."
And then I'd pull out my blue notebook and say, "But...I always have the notebook song." (My notebook always contains at least one complete song that hasn't made it to the final charting process, sometimes because the song needs work and I'm not willing to share it yet, and sometimes (as in this case) just because there wasn't time to write it neatly on the nice paper.

And then I'd just start playing it:

Guess I must be shockin' you
with my amazin' feat
You did not believe me
I can write five songs a week
Workin' full time, wrote 'em on the side
Five lovely songs, all in good time

Wasn't a hard thing to do
I write songs in my sleep
And sometimes when I'm drivin'
I dream up symphonies
I bob my head, I tap my feet
I yodel-odel-odel, people stare at me

My boyfriend used to criticize
'bout my strange disease
Claimed it wasn't natural
to write all thorugh the week
and so I left him, that so-and-so
He said no writin' in the tub, what does he know

Hope you have compassion
for my special needs
Some people live for vino
I just want five songs a week
Don't need no diamond, don't need no fancy shoe
Gimme my guitar, and I'll do what I do

Okay, so I didn't get to do this on the appointed day. I had to wait an entire extra week. And my instructor was still looking rather puny and recoverish when I met with him. So I didn't relish the win as much. But I did relish the lesson I received. You see, I knew I could write five songs within the time limit of a week, but I hadn't realized I could write five songs that I would enjoy. I had limited my abilities in my head to achieving a number only, and I hadn't allowed for the enjoyment until it was upon me ;)

We are capable are far more than we normally allow ourselves. Give time to your talent, and it will give to you far more than you had imagined.

Winners for the most recent CD Contest are:

Kim from Vermont, USA for the Brain Fart category

T-Bone from West Virginia, USA for the Simple Pleasures category

Bruno from Vienna, Austria for the Slice of Life category


Kim's Entry:

Not a brain fart, exactly, more a consequence of being somewhat behind the times technologically...I was setting up a new answering machine for my mother and I hit the red plus sign instead of the black plus sign. Very quickly, I learned that the red plus sign is the speed dial for 911, and I hung up, thinking I would avoid wasting anyone's time. Within a few seconds I received a phone call from a 911 opearator. With a red face, I explained what had happened. Minutes later, thinking I was through the worst of it, there was a knock on the door. Two squad cars had pulled up to the house and 2 officers had come to check on me and make sure I was okay. OMG...I wanted to crawl into a hole! (I can laugh now, but I just wanted to die then!)

T-Bone's Entry:

Near my fishing camp in West Virginia, there is a mountain site that used to be the home of an old fire tower. The tower has long since been torn down but the road that leads up the moutain is still maintained.

It's one of the highest points for miles around and it's like standing on God's thumb. I can see forever. Just standing there with nothing but my thoughts and the wind in my ears puts me at ease.

Whenever I go for a fishing trip in that direction, I make a journey up the mountain road. Before I do anything else I spend some time in that high church, that temple of stone.

Bruno's Entry:A couple of years ago, I bought a van in Canada (good old Rusty, nomen est omen) and drove it down to Argentina, where I sold it 13 months later. It was a remarkable trip, though not as remarkable as some apparently believe ;)

Halfway down in Central America, I realized that there was a gap in the road to Panama. You have to take a ship or plane to get from Panama to Columbia, or wherever in South America you want to go, as there is no road through the Darien jungle. And there is no ferry, so the only way to get Rusty across was to put him on a cargo ship.

It turned out that the normal price to get a vehicle across was around $3,000 U.S. which would've blown my entire budget. I spent many hours of many days in the harbour talking to captains and shipping agents, trying to negotiate something more reasonable. And in the evenings I went to the yacht club where I met a German sailor and his teenage daughters who were sailing around the world in their self-built nut shell boat. (A boat smaller than most of the sailboats that cruise our lakes in Austria). They had been sailing for 3 years at that time and had many stories to tell. One evening as we sat in the yacht club wathing the sunset above the Caribbean, the German sailor said, "Why don't you build your own raft for Rusty?" Of course, I thought he was joking, but in the following days we discussed the details, how many locals it would take to build it, what type of outboard motor, how much gas was needed, papers for the harbormaster, what I would do in case of a storm, and so forth. Other travelers would join in on the discussions with suggestions or laughter.

I had actually settled for the raft idea when I heard about a dodgy harbour with a dodgy ship and captain who would take Rusty over for the cheap price of $1,000 U.S. I got no receipt, and the official loading process involved setting Rusty atop all the containers aboard ship. I flew to Columbia where I met up with Rusty again.

Half a year and 14 flat tires later, I found myself in Buenos Aires in a backpackers hostel. I sold Rusty with a week left in my travels. Other travelers came and went. And on the last night before I left, we had a party to celebrate a girl's birthday and the end of my trip. I felt a mixture of happiness and sadness and I was confused about whether I really wanted to go or stay. And then everyone at the party began sharing their stories with a travel book author from Chile. After a while this Canadian started: "OK, that sounds all very fascinating, but you won't believe the story that my friend, Jim, told me. When he was in Panama, he met this guy from Austria who was building a raft for his car to sail on the Pacific Ocean all the way down to Ecuador!
And that was when decided it really was time to go home.

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry.

There was a man who rarely visited his mother due to her nagging nature. On visits to his mother's house he would end up fuming and blocking out everything that she said...until one day he realized all of her precautions and advice were an expression of love. Not his preferred expression, but it was what she knew of love. And after the man realized this, he was able to hear his mother saying I love you, I love you, I love you. So, he still didn't really hear a word she said - but at least he wasn't angry about it anymore.

So if you want a free Seventh Siren CD, email your holiday realization. Realizations do not have to be limited to family or friends or self...take it wherever you want to.

My favorite will be posted in the News/Journal section on the week of January 21st.

-Virginia