Rick Moody on music and prose, 2009

“I would say that music making and prose writing are very analogous, allied activities. Prose, after all, has a musical dimension because it’s made out of sound. I think that great prose writers often have some kind of attachment to music--look at James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. Playing music emphatically makes me a better writer. It makes me listen better and think more clearly about how prose sounds.”

From an interview with novelist Rick Moody (The Ice Storm) on his band the Wingdale Community Singers. Read the full story in Brown Alumni Magazine here. Listen to the band here.

Note to John Lennon Songwriting Contest voters

Many of you were kind enough to vote, early and often, in the online vote that made my song "Fly" the Lennon Award winner for the top country song of last year. You may have noticed lately that Fretwire and other music marketing emails are showing up in your inbox--this is because of submitting your email address during the contest vote. FYI, at the bottom of these emails there is a small "Manage your subscription" link that allows you to unsubscribe with a couple of clicks. I just wanted to make sure you see there is a way to opt out...

Thanks again, everyone, for the support, and happy 2010.
JPR

Alternate Tunings: A Reader's Guide

The 20th anniversary of Acoustic Guitar is stirring up some fond memories of arcane little stories that we editors put together to amuse ourselves (and, we hoped, readers). Including this one from the December 1997 issue:

Have you ever noticed that some guitarists refer to specific open tunings as if they were words—talking, for instance, about D A D G A D as dadgad and D A D E A D as daddy-ad? Those unfamiliar with the way the guitar is tuned may have heard such lingo-infested conversation and wondered, “What is dadgad music anyway? Is it from one of those new countries in the former Soviet bloc? Maybe the guitarist’s last name is Gadd and it’s a piece dedicated to his father.” Here in the Acoustic Guitar office, a little joke about Mike Marshall’s tuning C F C F C F (see below) inspired this list of tunings for specific people, places, or events. As for the musicality of these tunings . . . well, you’re on your own.

For fathers of small kids: D A D D E E

For an abusive father: B A D D A D

For the world’s greatest father: F A B D A D

For a hip-hop father: D E F D A D

For a tough New Yorker: B A G C A B

For a talkative taxi driver: C A B G A B

For a Grateful Dead fan: D E A D E D

For C.F. Martin III: C F C F C F

For a caffeine addict from Boston: C A F F E E

For a former caffeine addict: A D E C A F

For a police officer: B A D G E D

For a file clerk: A B C D E F

For a dominatrix: B E D G A G

For Old McDonald: B A A B A A

For anti-government types: B A D F E D

For a big guy: B E E F E E

For a guitar named Lucille: B E E B E E

For the Gibb brothers: B E E G E E

For a chatterbox roommate: G A B G A B

For your old mattress: B A D B E D

For a hippie: B E A D E D

For an Irish musician: C A B A G E

For a guitar magazine that doesn’t know when to stop: A G D E A D

Indian rock revisited

Interesting to see that my story on the Bangalore-based rock band Thermal and a Quarter, which aired on NPR's All Things Considered in 2005, is still reverberating. This article just published in the Times of India talks about how Thermal and a Quarter and other Indian rock bands are using the Net to promote their music...

Derek Sivers on promoting music online, 2009

A lot of musicians these days think that networking online is going to break their music, yet real-world gigs and interactions with people haven’t become obsolete. In some ways maybe they’ve become more important.

SIVERS I’d say more important. The more valuable thing is always going to be the more scarce thing. So when everybody’s lives are led online, then having a great live performance is going to help you stand out from the pack so much more than being one of the one million musicians with a great Web presence a click away.

I think about that stuff a lot: What is the road less traveled? What is the thing that most people are doing, and therefore what is the thing that few people are doing? Whatever few people are doing is where the greater value lies. If a whole new generation of musicians is spending much more time clicking around MySpace to add new friends than they are practicing their scales and arpeggios, then if you are one of the few who puts in an hour or two a night to practice your scales and arpeggios and chord voicings or whatever, it’s going to make you that much more of a standout.

From "CD or No CD," an interview with CD Baby founder Derek Sivers published in Acoustic Guitar, January 2010. Read the full article here. More about Sivers and his current projects here.

John Fogerty on songwriting, 2009

In past interviews you’ve described many nights in the ’60s working on your songs until 4 am. Yet the songs themselves don’t sound labored over at all.

FOGERTY It’s an interesting dichotomy. The best songs are effortless—“Midnight Special” or “Cotton Fields” or “Down in the Valley” or “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was quite remarkable in its time. It was completely out of the normal rock ’n’ roll box. The way I think back on that was, the Beatles had been very heavily influenced by Buddy Holly, particularly songs like “Peggy Sue” and “Everyday.” Buddy would go through these circles of fourths or fifths and follow the chord to the next progression. The instrumental chops weren’t necessarily earth shattering, so he’d do it with mental power, you might say.

Well, America kind of forgot all that and went on with its own vision of rock ’n’ roll, whereas the Beatles kept cooking with that in their development. It came out in things like “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which had strange ways of changing key and going to the bridge, that kind of thing. But it still ends up sounding effortless.

The thing is, when you’re writing a song, let’s say you’ve got a good verse going and your next move is the bridge or the second verse or whatever. That’s when you have to want it to be a good song—not a throwaway song or in-a-hurry song. So that’s when the labor begins. That’s when you don’t settle for the first thing that occurred to you. You stick with it until it really fits. Sometimes that comes to you in an instant, and other times it doesn’t occur to you. And then one day you’re riding along in the car and you step out into the parking lot in the mall, or maybe you’re brushing your teeth . . . and suddenly that thing you’ve been thinking about for a long time just goes through your brain at a different angle, and you go—of course! And then it’s clear as a bell.

From my John Fogerty feature in Acoustic Guitar's January 2010 issue. Read the full story here.

Daniel Lanois interview

Enjoyed this interview with Daniel Lanois about producing and collaborating with U2, Dylan, Eno...

http://blog.discmakers.com/2009/10/Nothing-Is-Sacred/

I love Lanois' own records, especially Acadie. Such an emotionally rich atmosphere.

Jill Sobule on fan financing, 2009

“I feel good personally, because I never really made a cent on a record ever before. You know, people can use this model whether they have 100 fans or 100,000 fans. You don’t have to have a gold- or platinum-selling album to be successful, because you don’t have to worry about the record company selling so much. The first record I sell, that first $10 I sell at a show or online, it’s mine.”

From an Acoustic Guitar magazine story on Jill Sobule's record California Years, which she funded entirely with direct contributions from her fans via Jill's Next Record site. Read the full article here.