Red River: Blog

As a songwriter, I'm often asked where the inspiration comes from for my songs. And while that’s a great question, the truthful answer is, "I don't know".
People ask "What comes first, the music or lyrics"?  The melody comes first for me, but often times it's accompanied by a brief lyric. From that one line of lyric and a short melody, a new song is thus born.
And I think for me, it has to be the melody, because if I get a melody I don't like, I simply don't pursue it any further. 
Describing the writing process is very difficult. It's like a puzzle in your mind, begging you to explore it more fully, and when you open your mind to the process, all of the answers to the puzzle are revealed to you. 
The best songs come startlingly fast. I've written complete songs in less than half an hour. I cannot turn it on or turn it off, though believe me, there have been countless times I wished I could have. 
Sometimes a song comes to me as I'm [...]

So, I flipped my calendar over before I left work today, and noticed that Monday is September 25th. That’s Alice’s birthday.
Alice would have been 51 on Monday. Wow, a lot of time has passed!
I met Alice when I was 11. Our family had just moved from the farm in Minnesota, since my mom and dad had decided to get the hell out of farming and buy a business. At first I was excited to move, until I realized that I was leaving behind all my friends, and would be thrust into a new school situation, where I would be the “new kid”. Yikes! Bad age for that, too. You’re all self-conscious about yourself anyway at that age.
It was creepy that first day - and of course, it was in the middle of the school year, so all the friendship ties, if they weren’t already established years ago, were at least established by the time I got there in December. It was sixth grade, so we still had recess. So, I sort of tagged along behind some people who seemed semi-friendly, but [...]