thankfulness and sorrow - and songwriting interview with Richard Leigh

Good morning! As we get closer to this holiday season I'm reminded of life and how fleeting it is... Looks like we will not be making a trip to see Kyle before Thanksgiving... He surprised Vanessa last year by driving down without telling her (yes, I knew it) and it was great. We didn't get to see him for Christmas though, and that was hard.

Well this year we had hoped to drive up before Thanksgiving and see him then, but it's not going to work out. Instead we are making plans to go up during December. We miss him, but we are glad that he's happy and making his way in the world. We came so close to losing him a few years ago and we are SO very thankful that he's alive and well! He's actually going to be playing in the Star Wars Edge of the Empire campaign I'm preparing. squee :-)

We also had bad news this morning. One of Vanessa's aunts has been in the hospital. She passed away this morning. Remember, folks, life is fleeting... Things can change in a heartbeat! Make the time special EVERY day, not just around the holidays. Do you love someone? Have you told them today? They might not be around tomorrow to hear it... You might not be around tomorrow to say it...

I've finally caught up on my podcast listening on a new podcast I found - Order 66. It's about the aforementioned RPG. Meanwhile my favorite podcast - The Commercial Suicide Songwriting Podcast - has released TWO episodes. Here is their website - http://commercialsuicidesongwritingpodcast.com

I want to first thank Steve for mentioning me and Vanessa on the show. We had the pleasure of finally meeting the hosts in person a few weeks ago and Steve and I shared the stage during an open mic that night. If you're here from Facebook, you've probably seen this pic -

Moving on to the interview - it was of a great songwriter named Richard Leigh. Here's his site - http://www.richardleigh.com

As is usual when it comes to the interviews these hosts provide, this one was VERY encouraging! Richard spoke about "critiques" and echoed my thoughts of "don't let someone else tell you what not to do - do what feels right." He went on to say that if it's the truth to you, use it! Again, very encouraging, as I've tended to write what I feel and what I would want to hear. This "rings true" for me so I pursue it. It's not necessarily commercial (note the name of the podcast ;-) ) but that's okay. Richard points out that if YOU like something then there are a million people in the world that like it too. Maybe not 100 million, but still quite a few. Don't sacrifice your art to hit MORE people when you should be hitting the people that DO like what you have. (that last part is my paraphrase, but I think it's echoed by the things he said)

There are other nuggets of greatness in there too - if you are a songwriter, you should already be listening to this podcast. :-) If you haven't before, this is a great one to start with! You'll find yourself wanting to go back and listen to the previous ones too...