I met songwriter Bill Wickham during the Glendale Folk & Heritage Festival in Arizona. I was immediately impressed with his songwriting and casual nature. We played together a few times in Arizona but now Bill is coming to California.. and so…

The “Roots and Roll” Tour

Okay, tour might be ambitious but Bill and I are playing 3 shows together (as of this writing).  The show dates and locations are below the posters. Click the posters to get a full-sized version and feel free to pass the poster or this page to your friends.

Thursday, September 1st, Butler’s Coffee, Palmdale

Time: 7-9PM
Address: 40125 10th Street West, Palmdale, CA 93551

Friday, September 2nd, Rusty’s Pizza, Ventura

Time: 7-9PM
Address: 444 Santa Clara St., Ventura, CA 93001

Saturday, September 3rd, The Talking Stick, Venice

Time: 6-8PM
Address: 1411-C Lincoln Blvd., Venice Beach, CA 90291

The 1st and 2nd will be acoustic shows. Tom, our drummer, should be back by the 3rd and so most of the band should be at that one.

I look forward to seeing you there.

I used to hate recording. The truth is I find it tedious although it has become more pleasurable. First, having the guys at Easy Street Studio in Simi Valley, CA handle all the technical details is nice.

But anyway you cut it, the studio is NOT the stage. The stage provides immediate gratification. It also allows for “stylistic flexibility” – aka: mistakes. They are there and then gone – you move on, you perform, no one is any wiser. It is energy.

The studio, not so much and that is a critical component. A recent vocal professionally gave me this suggestion.. “Start performing in the studio – capture that energy. Don’t worry as much about pitch and performance. You can do as many takes as possible and you will get pitch but if you don’t perform you won’t get the energy.”

Okay.. that is sort of a paraphrase of a longer and more scattered conversation but the point is well-made and well-taken.

Other Observations & News

Backing Vocals/Harmonies

We are going back to the studio to finalize 8 songs we’ve tracked and start on at least 2 more. First, however, I’m taking some time to work on the backing vocals on those 10 songs and several more.

The same vocal pro referenced above, worked with Melinda and I. (Melinda is new to the band and a beautiful vocalist.. We’ll introduce her soon.) During that time, he encouraged me to stop worrying about the technical harmony – the 3rd – and simply find a new melody line to my song – and test it over my melody line. Practice with several – above and below my line. Of course.. that worked and great headway has been made.

Merchandise & Gigs

We are working hard to create some new t-shirts and book more gigs. The focus on recording took me off this activity but I am back to it again.

Also, we have a couple new t-shirt ideas in the works. Look for announcements.

For current gigs – look here. We are planning a combination of band, solo, and semi-band (me and Elliot, me and Melinda, me and some of the other band members) – NOTE, I AM IN ALL THOSE COMBOS. 

If you get a chance, come on out!

Some songs have a “real life” experience backing them up. This one doesn’t.

Those who know me know that I am “almost” a teetotaler. I drink a glass of wine every other night, maybe. Sort of funny when the bar you play music at gives you free drinks and you are ordering Arnold Palmers – that is my mixed beverage of choice.

This sort of came about as a phrase through some rapid random thoughts.

We had a bottle of wine on the counter next to some cheerios – and I thought.. “wine and cheerios.. breakfast of champions.” Then I thought, “It’s too early for wine and cheerios – so dump the cheerios and go for the wine.”

Almost immediately, the idea of this song arrived. I thought it would be too early for hard liquor and some heartbroken guy could choose wine instead. Hence:
“It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine.”

I liked it!

I wrote the chorus before I ever picked up my guitar but I knew immediately that it was a honkytonk – simple sort of tune. I’ve played it once before for my band and they like it – although, we’ve yet to adopt it.

CHORUS:
It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine
Too late for forgiveness, she’s made up her mind
I should be heartbroken but you know I feel fine
It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine

In my mind I created a scenario – a simple scene played over and over again.  The woman, finally fed up, leaves. In the song, I have her leave her wine so that my anti-hero can drink it the next morning. Rather than “drink it down” he “drunk it down” – which is a purposeful grammatical mishap.

I wrote the chorus, sang it for about 2 weeks before writing the rest of the song. I had the chorus written first, so I usually sing it starting with the chorus.

Here is the song in it’s entirety. Enjoy!

Too Early For Whiskey (so I’m starting with wine)

Copyright © Matthew Moran – 2010

CHORUS:

It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine
Too late for forgiveness, she’s made up her mind
I should be heartbroken but you know I feel fine
It’s too early for whiskey so I’m starting with wine

VERSE:

The sun comes up and the sorrow starts to make me think
That what I want for breakfast is a long tall drink
But my friends tell me that morning and Jack don’t mix
So this bottle of cheap red wine had better do the trick
(chorus)

VERSE

She finally got the nerve to say she’d had enough
Put her glass of wine down, packed her bags and threw them in the trunk
When I woke the next morning she was nowhere to be found
I took that half-finished glass of wine and I drunk it down
(chorus)

Let me know what you think.

Friday, May 20th, at The Red Cove. We are playing with two heavy funk jam bands – The Hours Before & Jam Stain. I’m not exactly sure what heavy jam funk is but we plan to rock with them in Ventura.

Thursday, June 23rd, we are playing in Santa Barbara at The Creekside Inn.

Monday, June 27th, we are closing the night for Rena Wren at The Talking Stick in Los Angeles.

Check out the poster’s below for details or see the show page.

We added Slam Shut to the set list. I wrote it a few years back and have played it off and on live. In fact, I played it with a house band in Arizona and that is what prompted me to put my band together.

Origins

A couple years ago my son hitchhiked around the US. He chronicles some of that journey and its spiritual impact here. While dropping him at a bus station I saw a young lady getting off or on a bus. Bus stops seem to be hard luck story breeding grounds so, although I only saw the young girl briefly, I started filling in back story.

2 songs came out of this single incident.  Do It Again (which we will write about later) and this song, Slam Shut.

Below the lyrics I have a video of a simple acoustic rendition of the song. Warning: When you see this live, the band plays this MUCH LOUDER! 

Lyrics

Slam Shut
Copyright 2010 © Matthew Moran

VERSE
She said she was looking for a better life
A brand new start, a way to jump this bumpy ride
Her broken dreams and shattered faith had been tossed aside
But give her time to find herself and she’ll get by

He hitched himself a ride just south of L.A.
Wondered if it would drop him short or take him all the way
As the city receded it was begging him to stay
He had nothing to lose, he had nothing to say
(chorus)

CHORUS 
Slam shut another door
Chalk it up to just one more
Relationship that’s gone awry

You can’t hold onto to your past
Or what was never meant to last
You gotta give in if your gonna get by

VERSE
You make your bed when you make your mind
You gotta sleep in it, you gotta do the time
There’s no use second guessing what is yours and what is mine
If the truth be told you’ve been doing fine
(chorus)

Everyday Lies – with lyrics

and..

Little Bit of Everything – with lyrics

I hope to read and process more of this but it looks like we’ll be playing tonight – a band open mic in Simi Valley. We’ll try to get some video from those performances. We should have a lead guitarist too.

I’ve started packaging up CD’s to send to those who have responded to the “FREE CD” form.

Here is what you will receive.

(click images to see larger version)

The CD Label with
“Permission to Pirate”

A postcard/insert with abbreviated bio and background (front & back)
 

Actually, the back of this postcard promotes the upcoming performance at The Red Cove in Ventura. The one I am sending out has different little blurb in place of that.

In 2007 I had made a decision to be a bit more intentional with my songwriting. Rather than wait on inspiration per se – writing when the mood struck me, I would pick some general themes or stories and write to them on a schedule. Still, “American Dream” sat for awhile longer while I wrote, “South To Mexico”, “Everyday Lies”, and a few other theme – as opposed to inspiration driven – tunes.

Then I picked up a file I keep with scraps of paper with lyric ideas and American Dream was the first scrap that came out.

The song is one of the most simple musically – largely 3 chords. But it is one of the favorites for the band and one that I get a lot of comments on when performing live. People love the middle-of-America, back to basics, universal lesson.

In this version of the recording, Bill Dutcher, an Arizona guitarist, songwriter, and performer added some slide dobro and electric guitar to “flavor” to the song.

LISTEN:
DOWNLOAD

AMERICAN DREAM
Copyright © 2009 – Matthew Moran (Sounds Like Life Music)

An old yellow note read government repo
Just a sign of the times since the factory left town
The windows are dark, lonely, broken, and boarded
I see a half dozen more just a half a block down
And I can recall the tears on mama’s face
When daddy handed her the key
Just three rooms and a garden out back
But it was called the American Dream

I’ve spent half my life chasing prey so elusive
My burning desire is this dream to be free
From East Coast to West, through the soul of the heartland
Though I’m in pursuit I know it’s chasing me
And I’ve seen the look in the older men’s eyes
They shake their heads in disbelief
”Son,” they say, “don’t miss the life that you’re living.”
”Cuz that’s the American Dream”

For 20 long years I’ve been seeking asylum
My dream just a prison, my ambition a chain
Through my sacrifice I leave you this lesson
To save you this sorrow, to save you this pain
It’s love that you need to live for a life that’s worth living
Don’t trade it for some vagabond dream
It’s a heart, not a purse, that you should be filling
Because that’s the American Dream

Many of you know I’ve been doing a lot of work with other performers and musicians teaching them how to use various technologies, websites, and online strategies to run and organize their music business.

I used to post that information here. However, to better organize that information, and keep it separate from my activity as a songwriter and performer, I’m moving that content

and activity to TheSongwriterOnline.com

There is, of course, some overlap and hopefully this site, just through the work I am doing, will be an example of how to use what is taught at TheSongwriterOnline.

At times I am a great example of the cobbler’s children having no shoes. Part of that is a time issue and part is simply creating a plan of action for the various social media outlets – like YouTube and ReverbNation, for instance. I do this for business clients and for others but often do not take the time to do it for myself.

Hopefully, this will help change that.

Check back and spread the word!

Thanks,
     Matthew Moran