Don’t Look (Remain Idle Cover)

Cover day. Sigh. I’ve written about my angst surrounding cover day before, so I won’t repeat myself for once. This year, I had my favorite candidate from the day it first appeared and while several other fantastic possibilities appeared during the month, nothing ever knocked this song out of my top spot. The trouble this time is that not only did I know I’d be doing a more involved production than the original, but I personally know the people who wrote it. They’re family-by-marriage, and that can be a delicate thing. They’re also relatively new to Song-A-Day and I’m the … Continue reading

Wintry Mix

The first real winter storm of the season has arrived. In an effort to get one more exercise session in prior to the snow and ice showing up, Olive and I went to the dog park right after breakfast, and it started snowing while we were there. I wasn’t expecting anything to stick, much less stay frozen for long, but the buildup was surprisingly fast and by the time we got back home, I was already having a few traction issues driving the truck.2Later in the day, I would experiment with 4×4 mode on … Continue reading

Don’t Fight the Funk

I wrote fairly extensively about “Other Ray” in I’m Back (And I’m Backin’ It Up!) – the last time he showed up. I can’t say specifically what prompted this track, but I can tell you that I was procrastinating so hard. I really didn’t want to write any music. I wrote a blog post, I surfed the web, I looked at my archival process… With midnight fast approaching, I finally knuckled down and tried to find something interesting to do. I had a basic drum loop going and was futzing around with some synth patch when I correctly (and accidentally) … Continue reading

Heat Before Serving

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Either it’s getting close to the end of the month, I’m running out of ideas, or I’m just in a groove making Lo-Fi. Well, it’s actually probably a little of all three columns. For the last several years, I’ve had an unwritten “never do the same genre two days in a row” rule for Song-A-Day. Actually, it’s not really a rule, but more of a guiding principle. The underlying questions I have for myself is why do I have that … Continue reading

Sea Pap (Derek Greenberg Cover)

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Another Song-A-Day, another cover. I’ve written about my love/hate relationship with cover day before, so let’s just assume I rehashed it all. Most years, I struggle to pick something and then deal with all sorts of self-inflicted angst about covering a song that I know the original artist will hear. 2024 did give me a lot of possibilities, though. When I looked back at my notes, I had nine different songs written down as cover options. Surprisingly, Sea Pap wasn’t … Continue reading