I love this picture so much. I took it in my basement while we were setting up for a few days of tracking. Milt was so enthusiastic about it, he just loved to play and record; really the whole creative process. And although I know he loved working in world class studios I think he particularly loved sessions like this one where you’re forced to find a way to get it done without all the tools you might like to have. He really shined in that environment and he was truly gifted at it. I’m so fortunate to have worked with Milt so much over the years. We made three of my own records together and he played on a collaboration I did with Joseph Parsons (photo is from those sessions). We also spent a lot of time on the road together, logging a lot of miles both here in the States and in Europe. I fondly remember the many late night hotel room conversations and the long hours in the van discussing everything from philosophy and religion to what makes a good bordeaux. But it’s the music I remember most and performing on stage with Milt night after night was a joy. It felt both safe and dangerous to me in the best possible sense. Never quite the same, always fresh and new; I loved that about him. Of course work quickly turned to friendship and truly it’s that friendship that I hold most dearly. I would gladly trade every note Milt ever played for me for that friendship alone. I love him still and will miss him very, very much. Rest in peace my friend.
I’ve been trying to finish some songs lately and feel like I’m stumbling with the lyrics. I’ve got a bunch of musical ideas that I really like; things that are in what I’d call “song form”, just waiting for the words that will complete them. Usually that’s how it goes for me, I’ll rarely sit down thinking I’m going to write about “this”. Instead I try to let the song reveal itself to me and in most cases it tells me what it wants to be about. I’m sure that sounds kind of passive, but for me songwriting is like a combination of stone sculpting and putting together a puzzle. In some ways you just keep chipping away and refining the raw idea until you find the final shape that’s waiting inside. Then like a puzzle you try different pieces, both musically and lyrically until you’ve got a finished picture that you like.
Of course it’s never a uniform process, each song is unique and comes together in it’s own way. Sometimes there are songs that fall in your lap and just happen. They come to you almost fully formed with seemingly very little effort. I think most writers would tell you that those tend to be your best songs. Those are the ones you live for. Johanna’s Dreams is that kind of song for me. I think I wrote the whole thing within twenty minutes or a half an hour. It’s a powerful experience when that happens.
Most of the time however songwriting is work for me, albeit work that I love to do. And inevitably I’ll hit spots like this where I’m struggling to figure out just what it is that I want to say, or how to say something that’s been said a hundred times before in some new and fresh way. It can get frustrating and even scary at times. You wonder if you’ll ever get through it. But I try to remember that I’ve been here before, right where I’m sitting now and I’ve always found a way through. I’ve gotta believe that’ll happen again. So I’ll keep chipping away and see where it takes me.
