#satisfaction #contentment #singersongwriter #acoustic #guitar #banjo #piano A simple metaphor where an entire lifetime is seen as a single day. There is nothing more beautiful than peace of mind regarding your own life. Podsafe Audio: https://studio273.bandcamp.com/track/a-good-day

Over more than twenty years of participating in February Album Writing Month (FAWM), I’ve settled into a workflow that lets me capture a solid recording almost as soon as a new song exists. Everything begins with a guitar progression and a melody I’m humming into place. Once a few words surface, the actual songwriting kicks in. Even with all the digital tools available today, I prefer to keep things grounded by playing real instruments. I print the lyrics in large type, hang the sheet above a camera, and run through the song a few times. Usually the fourth or fifth take is the one I keep. FAWM taught me early on not to get stuck chasing “perfect.” After recording, I pull the audio from the video and drop it into a mixing program. Most of my effect settings are locked in beforehand. Then I add extra vocals and additional instruments like guitar, banjo, piano, keyboard. Once the mix sounds clean enough, I sync it back to the video. Every year I pick a new two-tone color theme for these recordings. If a song is captured this way during FAWM, it’s considered finished. After the month ends, I usually have three or four keepers that I test live on stage. Performing them helps the songs develop, but I never rerecord them. Around ninety percent of everything I’ve written in the last two decades began during FAWM: simple, consistent, effective. These days I use ChatGPT to check my lyrics for grammar and spelling and to offer suggestions; before that, I leaned on native-speaking FAWMers. The audio mix I upload to Bandcamp is identical to the one in the videos.

Walking in the evening light knowing what will follow is the night Dawn was full of fun and the day was right memories of joy colour the skies

Time goes fast shadows fade Forget what I’ve lost remember what I’ve made Grandchildren singing a happy tune so many good things in the afternoon

Walking in the evening light knowing what will follow is the night Dawn was full of fun and the day was right memories of joy colour the skies

Looking in the mirror I see the truth The lines reveal there was sorrow too I’ve learned to value the time I’ve got knowing what’s important knowing what is not

Walking in the evening light knowing what will follow is the night Dawn was full of fun and the day was right memories of joy colour the skies

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