Is This What You Call Progress? #CreativeProcess

I’ve been working on this album for a while. Am I even making progress? Are we there yet?

The Long and Winding Road

Not yet. There’s still a long journey ahead. But I made significant strides over recent few days. I’m working on a new rendition of “Wreak-less”. Yes, I already have three versions of this song, but give me a couple of minutes to explain.

If you’re following along, you know that I have been working on a folk album for more than two years. Every song has some or all instruments recorded (but read on to learn about the surprises on this current song). There are two songs in preview. Those are “Wayfaring Stranger” (a traditional song) and “Early” (a recent original song). That’s progress, but not even close to done.

Progress In Spite Of

There are 9 songs in progress for this album. As I noted, Wayfaring Stranger, the one “cover” song, is ready. There will be two original songs that I’ve previously recorded. The other six songs are newly (not previously recorded) written and arranged by me. I’m mostly excited about these new tracks.

Unfortunately, the times we are in have taken a toll on my drive and inspiration. Living under a fascist government definitely hurts the soul of a caring artist. We creative folk long for freedom and this regime wants us to be anything but free.

So, I (and we) must find our way through this in spite of that thwarting. We seek ways to rise up. In fact, the title of my album is “How To Rise and Keep Rising“. Appropriate given the backdrop.

Singing Is Telling

This current song presented me with several attention-getters in recent studio sessions. First, recording vocals is one of the very challenging parts of this process for me. In order to make progress, I have to feel the fear and record it anyway.

Once I have a good an adequate vocal take, I work with it in the mix. That tells me a lot both about the singing track, but often even more about the instrumental tracks. This was certainly true on this new version of Wreak-less.

There was a guitar part that was bothering me. All of the instruments in this recording are acoustic, so this very electric-sounding acoustic guitar part was not working. I decided to ditch it.

Telling Is Progress

Well, almost. I kept it in the choruses, but as a background part. To adapt the song to the much softer, more introspective version that’s shaping up, I pulled out my Taylor. This acoustic guitar lent itself easily to a finger-picked track. This is the instrument that now holds the center of the arrangement.

My guitar playing has taken second fiddle (pardon my mixing of metaphors). I’ve been fully focused on piano and organ playing (besides singing). Still, the simple chords in this song were quite easy for me to fill out an arpeggiated finger-pick.

That shift allowed the lead singing and harmony vocals to shine. Are my vocal lines perfect? No way. But they are part of the progress for this album.

Focus Ahead

In this rendition of “Wreak-less”, I really wanted a mellow, pensive mood. And I think I’ve created that. The track is not done, so I am not ready to share it yet.

Except with my spouse. When she listened to it, she encouraged me to strip out even more. So, this track will be the height of exposed vulnerability (at least for me). There are places where a single voice and single guitar hold down everything. I look forward to being able to share it with you.

Meanwhile, the progress on this song is helping me to be more hopeful. May you find reasons to hope and thrive in the challenging times we are facing.