I do not know if many people in the No Depression community participate in February Album Writing Month (FAWM) but I have participated for the past five years and I did so again this year. Like No Depression, FAWM is an online community that stretches around the world. All the writing activity happens in February but participation, networking and other activities continue for a couple months afterwards. I live in the Boston area, one of the nation’s hot spots for singer-songwriter activity, but there hasn’t been much participation in FAWM until this year when four Boston-based persons including myself made it across the 14 song finish line. FAWM is very democratic, open to musical novices and veterans alike. For me, FAWM and the now incorporated 5090 challenge have been an important resource for collaborating on songs and has involved me in some of my very best work. The song, Open The Wall here on this site is an example of such collaboration from two years ago, working with Michael Aquino from Montclair, NJ and anime-artist Ankari from Mexico.
I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my songwriting career in the last few months. I have come to the conclusion that I want recognition more than anything else and for me, that includes recognition as a collaborator. I love to perform and in the last three years I have really blossomed with this. But to dedicate much or most of my time to performing is beyond what I can realistically do and perhaps, more than I really want to invest in doing. I have a professional career that at the moment needs some shoring up. I have a new life with a partner shaping up for the very near future for the very first time, too. So I take a kind of hit and run approach with my songwriting career. It’s not bad-any good opportunities that come my way, I will gladly take them.
FAWM and 5090 keep my hand in things, along with fairly regular open mike performances. I would love to do Falcon Ridge. I would love to do Kerrville. But am I that serious? Not sure so I have to keep my expectations modest and mostly local. I am sure there are others out there like me so I thought it would be worthwhile to share my thoughts. Sometimes it is enough to keep engaged in things and I don’t plan to let that go anytime soon.
