Let Me Write a Song about Your Life
Yes, you read that right. I'll write a song about your life (or the love of your life) as part of my Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, Three White Spanish Horses, and then I'll record it. It's all part of my efforts to create a new album that rivals the fan favorites, Lone Starry Night and Purgatory Road. In fact, Matt Rollings, who produced Lone Starry Night, has agreed to add his piano to the new album, and James Mitchell, who did those soulful guitar parts on Purgatory Road, will do the same on this project.
If you can make it to Texas we can get together in person to craft a song about something that has moved you in your life or about or the love of your life: your wife, husband, child, or friend. You share the details, traits, anecdotes, and stories and together we'll weave it into a song! Afterward I'll record it, acoustically with lead vocals, guitar and harmony, or we’ll do a full blown production with my band in my recently revamped recording studio. You decide. If you can't make it to Texas we can write via Zoom and make tweaks as needed through Messenger or email.
If the current times have made it tough to give much you can download the completed album before it's available to the general public for just $15. You can preorder the signed CD for $20 or for a $60 contribution I'll send you the signed CD and put your name in the liner notes! There are several other options and levels of support (you can even choose to sing on the record). Whatever you do, you can help me by getting the word out. Share this link: https://igg.me/at/3WhiteSpanishHorses/x/20656177#/. I'm down with that!
Here's a couple of the songs I'll feature on Three White Spanish Horses. I look forward to creating an album that you'll want to listen to over and over. That's my dream.
The Phone Call by JAM & Janice Barrow Grape
You freed me from the falling rain
When you called me this early Monday morning
You heard the wind and felt my pain
Instinctively you knew I was alone
You brought up our shenanigans
We reminisced until the sun was shining
About the crazy things we did for grins
You kept me talking on the phone
You freed me from a faithless night
As you recalled my early stabs at poetry
Inspired by the Pedernales highs
Of Willie’s show outside of town
And the broken gasoline gauge
The cold night with Amanda in my Chevy
The day the Allman Brothers took the stage
With Jerry Jeff at Manor Downs
You freed my soul with banter
As we laughed about the New Year’s Eve in Nolanville
The long drive with your father
As we drove to post your bail on New Year’s Day
The talk turned to the early Wheel
Rusty Wier and the hallowed Armadillo
The songs we shared, how music heals
How it’s all part of every show I play
How do you know just when to call
How do you know I’m in free fall
You freed me with your faithful words
You listened when I chose to speak more fearlessly
You lifted me with lyrics I first learned
On the old guitar you gave me
Kristofferson still speaks the truth
I still play so many of those melodies
So last night when I felt the blues
The phone call on a stormy Monday saved me.
Port Aransas Standard Time by john Arthur martinez & Yvonna Martinez
It’s a walk at morning tide
As you watch the waking rays
Rising higher in the sky
On a lazy Lone Star day
It’s a mother and her child
Searching for the perfect shell
One that always brings a smile
As the salty waters swell
Port Aransas Standard Time
A song waiting to be rhymed
And the melodies you’ll hear
(like the dolphins whistling near)
Are so pleasing to the ear
A guitar in perfect tune
With the ocean baritones
The seagulls chuckling cries
(a chorus in the Tarpon sky)
Port Aransas Standard Time
It’s an old man shoreline fishing
On the Gulf of Mexico
It’s a great blue heron soaring
As another angler trolls
It’s dinner caught that very day:
Blackened redfish from the sound (on the town)
A slow drive on the causeway
spirits up Windows down
It’s an island education
For the coed undergrads
A mid-semester celebration
But it’s so much more than that
It’s a weekend riviera
For the working nine to five
It’s a perfect margarita
It’s where the soul can be revived
Thinking about making health information easier to understand, I find the smaller practical questions more interesting than a quick conclusion. Plain language can help readers recognise what a health explanation does and does not establish. I would keep that thought nearby when looking for ideas about health information literacy. The part I would like to explore further is what happens when the idea meets a real situation with its own limitations. What makes a health information page understandable to someone without specialist knowledge?
A conversation about understanding media messages more carefully seems most useful to me when it leaves space for uncertainty and further questions. Separating a claim from the evidence offered for it makes a message easier to examine. I would use that point as a starting question when considering media literacy skills. I do not have a settled view yet, but this seems like a good place to slow down and look more closely. What questions should readers ask before sharing a striking headline?
Bài Let Me Write a Song About Your Life làm mình nghĩ tới những câu chuyện nhỏ được kể lại bằng âm nhạc. Mình không biết nhân vật trong bài và chưa từng nghe ca khúc nào liên quan, chỉ đọc rồi hình dung một người ngồi ghi chép đời sống người khác. Trong lúc nghỉ giữa chừng, mình nhớ có đứa em từng gửi tên JD88 khi kể mấy trò chơi nó xem lúc ở nhà, mình xem rồi không nói gì. Quay lại bài, mình thấy hay ở chỗ nó để người đọc tự điền nỗi nhớ của mình vào khoảng trống.
Bài viết này kể chuyện người ta viết cả một ca khúc về cuộc đời bạn theo yêu cầu. Nghe lạ thật. Tôi thích kiểu ý tưởng biến đời sống thường ngày thành giai điệu, dù chưa từng thử. Nhớ hôm trước có anh đồng nghiệp khoe đang chơi game bài đổi thưởng trên UY88, vừa ngồi vừa bật nhạc nền cho đỡ chán. Tôi chỉ nghe, không rõ cách chơi ra sao. Nhưng quả thật khi người ta muốn kể lại câu chuyện của mình thì con đường có vô số kiểu.
Tôi đọc bài này vào một buổi tối khá chán, và phần mở đầu về việc lấy chi tiết nhỏ trong một ngày bình thường rồi kéo dài thành bài hát khiến tôi dừng lại đọc kỹ hơn. Trước khi nghe hết, tôi mở điện thoại lướt mạng cho đỡ buồn mắt và vô tình thấy GO88 ở một chỗ quen thuộc, tự nhiên nghĩ mỗi người mỗi chỗ để nghe nhạc, có người nghe từ bản nhạc thuần, có người lại đi từ câu chuyện phía sau. Tôi nghĩ bài này cũng đi đúng hướng đó, nhưng tôi vẫn chưa biết đọc bao nhiêu bài hát thì hiểu được một người.