Interesting Saturday.

This past Saturday I (and six other folk) spent the day with Roy Forbes (aka Bim) for a song writing seminar. For those of you who aren't familiar with Roy you can visit www.royforbes.ca . I first heard Roy and his unique voice late one night in 1976 (Roy believes.... I thought it was a couple of years later..but no matter). I was supposed to be asleep but I had a radio in bed with me listening to a live broadcast on CHUM FM radio of a concert from The Riverboat (Bar? Restaurant?) in Toronto. I was mesmerized by his lyrics, his guitar playing ability, and most of all by his ability to tell a story and keep the audience hanging on his every word. I ended up going out and buying "Thistles" on LP very soon after that and both my father and I have been fans ever since. (Interesting that both my wife and my mother can't stay in the same room when his music is playing.) If you are interested in Roy's music, I'll suggest getting his CD "Almost Overnight". It's a solo acoustic guitar and voice collection of some of his best tunes from his career and is very close to what I heard that night on the radio.

So here it is 30 years later and I'm sitting in a small room with this guy analyzing the first self written song that I've had the guts to record. I actually recorded the tune with Bob Murphy on piano just last week in anticipation of this seminar, but didn't actually decide to go until just half and hour before. It certainly helped that the seminar was being held half a block away! I'll tell you...sitting there hearing my tune playing while 7 critical ears listened was worse than the most difficult audition or practical exam I've ever experienced. The tune I'd written was/is dark and maybe even a bit disturbing being about the horrendous situation on East Hastings Street in Downtown Vancouver, but people were receptive and Roy's advice was very practical and I think that I've already made changes that have improved it. My apprehension about going to this seminar was definitely over blown and i realized that I was not out of my league being there. I come away with some great writing tips and the understanding that it's tough for every songwriter with a crap to gold ratio of about 100 to 1. The trick is to simply write a lot, keep everything, and hope that something you put on paper ends up working when you turn it into noise.