Tweakdom

There I go again with my words. When I compose/write a song (music and lyrics), during the initial days following the song’s birth (yes, it is a laborious, deliciously painful process – the spiritual analogy to physically giving birth), I work out the major facets of its arrangement, then add enhancements, the intro and the ending, and during this time, too, develop the vocal component. Once all of that is working, the song enters into the phase I think of as "tweakdom"!

Tweakdom begins intensely – a vocal gymnastic here, a register change there, and ends quietly ... somewhere down the line, maybe in days or maybe in weeks ... when all the subtle touches have been put into the arrangement.

In recent weeks, I found myself composing a song intended to inspire and honor a musical partner who was finding it necessary to step away from music (our music and, perhaps, music in general). Because it’s a ballad (he likes ballads), it’s very techy and not easy to sing and play, but also is quite pretty. It’s called Here In The Moment. I recorded it this past Wednesday evening at Songwriters Studio here in Knoxville.

For this song, tweakdom continued almost right down to the wire, with the last tweak the day before the recording was done!