Singing For The Joy Of It

I had so much fun last night... just jamming on new songs with new music friends and it made me realize how much I love just being a musician... creating things with talented, creative people. Yeah! The happiness continued the next morning when I went to a wonderful little diner and ordered a large vanilla latte and it was great... I mean really great!

In the past, I've put all sorts of crazy pressure and deadlines on myself... a song a day... a song a week... among other memorable high intensity creative projects. This time around, I decided to take my time and create all the little nuances in every song, exactly the way I envision them to be. It's deeply satisfying and I finally understand what Maya Angelou meant when she said 'There's no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you'.

My stories have rhythm, pitch, melodies and meaning. I feel lucky to have met the guys in the band to help bring some of these stories to life in the way I could only imagine.

Right now, it's safe to say I've moved beyond contentment... somewhere around happy and the great thing about that is, it's not coming from a relationship. It's all based on having the time and freedom to be myself... my slightly dotty... lateral... creative self.

Rock on.

New Land, New Band

To paraphrase Eric Clapton, "It's late in the evening..." and earlier today was the first rehearsal session with my new backing band. It was really wonderful to spend time just focusing on the music. I decided to hire a backline of musicians rather than collaborate this time. I want to be completely free to create the songs in my head without feeling like I'm imposing on other peoples time and goodwill. We ended up having a wonderful jam session which focused on just one song. There was no rush to rehearse a set of songs to book gigs in order to make enough money to keep the band together. This was 100% about the music. I'd like to introduce the session players who took the time to help me craft one of my songs.

I met Jake when he came in to play a horn instrument for the music library. He told me one of his primary instruments is guitar. I asked if I could hire him for private rehearsal sessions and if he knew any bass players or drummers. Through Jake, I met Noah on bass.Through Noah, I might just have a percussionist next week. They can also bring in different instrumentalists for specific songs as and when we need them.

All we did for our first session was run through the song several times, iron out the tricky bits, record it for private practice time this week so we can really jam on this song next week. As we were unpacking, I played the song we were going to rehearse that evening, but as we were packing up, I played a new song for us to mull over in a week or two and we talked about it on the way to our cars.

It was really a lovely way to spend an early evening. I hope you like This Simple Song when we're all done. I'll add it to my Spotify page among other places and keep going.

Good night.

Rhonda

I Got A Feeling

This week there was talk of violence against Asians in America and the anger rages on back home as I sit in my quiet little studio near the sea in England. I miss my family and lifelong friends, sometimes it's a little bit depressing to feel this isolated, but I have a weekly gathering with my brother and sister... weekly lessons with about a dozen students online... a little garden behind the house to keep me busy and this studio to occupy my mind and imagination. But sometimes the horrible things in the world intrude on the oasis of calm I've created here and it breaks my heart. Today, I could feel the sadness creeping into my mind and bones like a deathly chill, so I looked through recordings I'd made on my phone over the past few months and came across this upbeat song and it just felt right for this week. I stood in my tiny kitchen, dancing with my own shadow, singing out loud until the sadness had to let me go for now. I hope these words will comfort someone and when I release the song, I hope the melody brings a feeling of being emotionally uplifted as it did for me tonight.

With love and tears.

Rhonda

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

Because it all came tumbling down, down down

Yeah, it all came tumbling down

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

Because it all came tumbling down, down down

Yeah, it all came tumbling down

All the fear and the worry

And the feeling that I’m never gonna make it through

All the fear and the worry

And the hurtful things that I’d say to myself

It all came tumbling down, down, down

It all came tumbling down.

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

Because it all came tumbling down

Yeah, it all came tumbling down

All the fear and the doubt in my mind

All the fear and the doubt in my mind

All the fear and the doubt in my mind

It all came tumbling down, down, down

It all came tumbling down.

Yeah, it all came tumbling down.

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

I got a feeling

It’s gonna be okay

Because it all came tumbling down

Yeah, it all came tumbling down

All the fear and the worry

Yeah, it all came tumbling down, down, down

It all came tumbling down.