Off 'Round the Bend
This happens to me every once in a while, I'll hear about a musician that I've not listened to before from two or three different people at the same time. And usually when that happens I'll come across that musician's name at every turn too. I also usually take this as a sign that, for whatever reason, I'm meant to listen to this musician. And I'm usually not disappointed. In the case of this song, the musician was Townes Van Zandt. I was so moved by his music and life story that I wrote Off'Round the Bend within three days of my first listen.
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This song arose out of two seemingly unrelated events. The music was just a seed of an idea with the working title Late Winter Snow. I sketched it out and recorded it on my phone after we had about 10 cm of unexpected snow in April of last year (I think). We don't get that much snow in the Kanto region of Japan, you see. At least not in April.
The lyrics were written on an 18 hour overnight ferry from Tokyo to Tokushima. The ship's path took us from Tokyo Bay out into the Pacific Ocean and the sea was a bit choppy that night. My son and myself were feeling a little wobbly and, while he managed to get in some sleep between trips to the head, I spent a good portion of the evening keeping my dinner down by cathartically writing down the evening's events and making them rhyme.
On that trip I found the recording of Late Winter Snow on my phone and wondered if it would go well with the words I had just written. And thus came to be Rock Me Slowly.
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This is something I should have done long ago! I will be posting some backstory for my songs here once a week and you can listen to them directly from the Songs section on this page.
One More In Ten Thousand (A Letter To Stan Rogers)
I wrote this song to pay homage to the late great Canadian Country Folk legend Stan Rogers. If you're already a Stan Fan then you should be able to pick out a lot of the references I put in the lyrics (even the title!). If you're not a fan yet then I hope you'll accept this invitation to the world of music left to us by Stan Rogers! And have fun searching for the Easter Eggs! Peace!
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Jonny Barefoot / Blog
A Different River Backstory #3
Off 'Round the Bend
This happens to me every once in a while, I'll hear about a musician that I've not listened to before from two or three different people at the same time. And usually when that happens I'll come across that musician's name at every turn too. I also usually take this as a sign that, for whatever reason, I'm meant to listen to this musician. And I'm usually not disappointed. In the case of this song, the musician was Townes Van Zandt. I was so moved by his music and life story that I wrote Off'Round the Bend within three days of my first listen.
Reply
Backstory #2 Rock Me Slowly
This song arose out of two seemingly unrelated events. The music was just a seed of an idea with the working title Late Winter Snow. I sketched it out and recorded it on my phone after we had about 10 cm of unexpected snow in April of last year (I think). We don't get that much snow in the Kanto region of Japan, you see. At least not in April. The lyrics were written on an 18 hour overnight ferry from Tokyo to Tokushima. The ship's path took us from Tokyo Bay out into the Pacific Ocean and the sea was a bit choppy that night. My son and myself were feeling a little wobbly and, while he managed to get in some sleep between trips to the head, I spent a good portion of the evening keeping my dinner down by cathartically writing down the evening's events and making them rhyme. On that trip I found the recording of Late Winter Snow on my phone and wondered if it would go well with the words I had just written. And thus came to be Rock Me Slowly.
Reply
A Different River Backstory #1
This is something I should have done long ago! I will be posting some backstory for my songs here once a week and you can listen to them directly from the Songs section on this page.
One More In Ten Thousand (A Letter To Stan Rogers)
I wrote this song to pay homage to the late great Canadian Country Folk legend Stan Rogers. If you're already a Stan Fan then you should be able to pick out a lot of the references I put in the lyrics (even the title!). If you're not a fan yet then I hope you'll accept this invitation to the world of music left to us by Stan Rogers! And have fun searching for the Easter Eggs! Peace!
Reply