the Solitary Songs
The first Solitary Song will be available for free download on the 1st of April at www.reverbnation.com/miriamjones
Coming to the Solitary Songs
After much deliberation, to-ing and fro-ing, I’ve named and started a new project called the Solitary Songs.
The completion of Inside Free in December, my first UK release, was a great challenge (being more responsible for all aspects of the project than I’d ever been) and I think, for better or worse, that I may have hit on a drug called in control. There are a lot of reasons to enjoy not being in complete control, and I think if I was on a major record label I would both love what that looked like in some ways, and learn to hate it in the others, but as an independent artist, it inevitably becomes more appealing to do it yourself, or at least know how to do it yourself.
Specifically for me, I partly mean the engineering/editing/producing – doing it all yourself means you can be as picky as you please – but I’m also talking about the way I’ve chosen to write songs on the whole thus far in my little, he hem, career. I’ve written increasingly with the intention of throwing a band of some type behind me, or, since I’ve married a lovely piano player, a piano; but I’ve started to find it a rather crippling aim at times, as most often I can’t afford to haul a band around, and even my pianist can’t always be trailing after me – quite shocking, I know. I’ve started to notice that without the songs to serve an intimate guitar/vocals performance, I’m less inclined to play on my own. There are some of course -Dust & Sand and 5 Interstate, for instance – but on the whole I’ve not majored on writing in this way.
The Solitary Songs is my initiative to well, take initiative (yay, it’s working already). I’m going to be attempting to write, record and release for free download, one song every month. My only rules are that I must write them solely on the guitar, thus demanding a more creative approach to my guitar parts, and that I must record them on my own as well, adding only what I can play. I hope the result will be a collection of songs (which I will likely re-record and release together as an album in the end) that will be intimate and interesting, with more attention than ever given to the bare essentials. I don’t pretend that I will become a guitar playing genius, but I do hope to spur myself on to become more creative in that area, and also in the area of…sounds, if you follow me – I wish to trust in and explore more playfully my voice, after much time striving to make it do what I want.
It’s all sounding very much like a tall order to me as I write it out, but better to try than not, and as the first song has come to me already, a lightly swinging tune of apology called Come Clean, I may be off to a good start.
I hope you will all feel free to take part in this with me, and you’re welcome to visit reverbnation.com/miriamjones on the first of every month coming, beginning next Wednesday, April 1st, to download my my offerings as they appear. If you’re on the mailing list, I’ll be sure to remind you when the next song is due, and if you’re not, you can easily do so, either at the reverbnation link just cited, or on my miriamjones.com home page.
Again, thanks for your support. Away I go.
Miriam