… Sparks has a knack for delivering powerful messages…. That alone probably best explains the honest nature of her lyrics where seemingly nothing, even a raw emotion or a revealing self-discovery, is ever held back. - Offbeat Magazine.
Wednesday lunch-time was "improvise some melody in front of the computer" time. "Big Pink Letters" was a collection of words I put together about 8 years ago ... the melody just happened as we went along today.
It was great to be at the N.G again and to see all the familiar faces.
Daron Douglas on fiddle, Jack Craft on cello and Austen Travis in the back, on drums.
Recording in the living room with Barry and Michelle, and Melissa; we all played together - ambient kids playing basket ball noises and all, I loved it.
Shiny, happy, home schooled, on-tour, seventies-looking, scruffy pile of kids - and of course Melissa.
Patty style .... They were only with us for three days,but we had a blast.
A couple of lovely things have happened recently ... I got together with Jack Craft of the band 'Glasgow' who plays cello, beautifully and also the very talented Daron Douglas who plays fiddle and we had our first rehearsal together in my New Orleans home. They are incredibly gifted musicians and it was great to play with them. We'll be playing in New Orleans over the next few months (dates to be posted) along with my old pal Austen Travis on drums - I'm so lucky such great folks want to play music with me.
Also before I left Colorado I went over to my pals Barry and Michelle Patterson's home and recorded in their studio for a couple days. It was awesome great fun and very productive - The Patty's will be coming through New Orleans on their Spring tour this week and we're going to finish the recording - Songs will be available in the next few months once all the mastering etc is done - hurray:)
I wrote this song a few months ago and have been fiddling with it around my house, singing it to myself for a while. It kind of correlates to the post from a couple weeks ago about a story I've been writing.
Sometimes I just feel an actual hunger to hear something nourishing and good - Tell me one of the ancient stories - tell me something that will feed me. So this song is about that.
In 03 when I was pregnant with Leyla- Mya I recorded an album called Dirty Little Fingers. I had been living in New Orleans for 7 years at the time, and truly felt in the thick of it - the thick of New Orleans that is.
Several of my friends were having babies that year, and Chrissy's newborn Aaron was 3 months old, while I was in second trimester. I got an early morning phone call one day that summer, asking me to come to the hospital, Aaron had died in his sleep. It was an awful time for all of us who knew him and his mum, and although I was by no means one of her closest friends, I helped organize Aaron's funeral and identified his remains before his cremation.
He was a very beautiful boy.
I recorded the song "Too Sweet" a month or so later and dedicated it to Aaron.
Last year before I left New Orleans and moved to Colorado, a local radio station asked me to donate a song to their annual compilation. Although it's kind of a sad number I decided to put "Too Sweet" on there. I think it is just a song from my most "New Orleans" time - a year that was full of grief and sadness, but community, friendship, parties, babies, hurricanes, heat, humidity, food, booze,music ....loads of music:)
Hit the music player widget over there on the right to hear Too Sweet - and also Bravest Woman, which is the track I wrote for Aaron's mum Chrissy.
When we moved to Colorado from New Orleans last year I decided to take a break from gigging and to my surprise I found myself with creative energy brimming for other things. It's taken me about 9 months, but I just finished writing my story. It's called "The Girl and the Griffin." I've had a huge amount of fun writing it - it's about a girl (obviously) and a griffin, a celestial war for the souls of humankind, giants, trolls, school-bullies and power outages. Also it's been fun drawing illustrations and proof-reading it to my kids - so far they like it. Now I just need to figure how to go about trying to get it published!
Here's an excerpt:
Long, long ago, the children of men knew.
The children of men knew, not all, not everything by any stretch, but much that has been forgotten, pushed down and stowed away.
Their eyes were wide and their senses sharp. Their ears pricked up at every rustle, every hint of something. Someone coming.
They had no choice but to see and hear. The universe in all her glory was laid bare before them. Night after night the heavenly realms shone with the brightest stars. So bright even a child could know and map and memorize the pictures, the stories, the songs. Morning after morning the Star of Dawn, the Sun, rose in all her splendor and brought them light, heat, life. Who could not wonder? Which of them could not probe, think, explore and desire to know, to hear clearer, to feel sharper, to see farther.
All the peoples of the world, in every island and land, knew.
They knew they were made of something. And so, in order to find out what it was that pricked their senses so, that made them tight beneath the skin, that made their hearts beat with love and hate, jealousy and desire. In order to know WHAT they were, they began to try and test their theories.
They told stories and sang songs.
Each one told of their beginning, from where they came and how they turned, and when, and from Whom.
Gods of love, and war, and industry, men of valor and honor and bravery. Violent beasts and loyal creatures. Passion and paradise, treachery and death.
In order to reach and hold the heavens they honored so dearly, the children of men built great towers and monuments. Pyramids and temples and circles of stone; in desert and jungle, and mountain and rock, they pushed and probed and thought, they dug and praised and fought.
But…as time rolled on, and the universe turned, the Darkness, the Doldrums, slowly, but ever so surely, came.
This was the dulling.
The children of men are industrious, and longed for comfort and ease.
They made lights so bright, they could no longer see the stars.
They made noise so loud, they could no longer hear their hearts.
They made food so sweet, they could no longer taste earth’s fruit.
A creation all their own. So they no longer had to wonder who Creator was, they knew. It was they themselves.
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