I’m glad I don’t have to choose a favorite holiday. I can love Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I can love Shavuot and Sukkot. But every year, when Sukkot arrives, it is literally, music to my ears. When I think of Sukkot I think of
Come, Come Whoever You Are by Noah Aronson
Last year, The Davis Academy hosted Noah Aronson. It was my first time meeting him and it was immediately apparent why he’s such a sought after artist in residence. Fast forward to last week, when someone posted this music video
L’chah Dodi
One of my more “popular” Jewish liturgical settings is a melody I wrote to the medieval hymn, L’chah Dodi. L’chah Dodi is sung during Kabbalat Shabbat, the Friday night prayer service that welcomes Shabbat. It describes two companions going out
Poems and Stories
I recently had a chance to become aware of a bias of mine. It’s a songwriting bias. The bias is this: when I write songs I think of them as poems set to music. There I’ve said it. When I
On the language of giving and receiving
I’ve always loved language. And over the last decade or so I’ve come to love language even more because language is at the heart of songwriting. More than blogging or journaling. Certainly more than emailing, texting, or tweeting. And in
Today, if only we could hear
Of all the songs I’ve written I think this is one of the most beautiful and meaningful. It’s based on two passages from Psalm 95. The first, “v’anachnu am marito v’tzon yado,” means something like, “we, your people, are like
#BlogElul 2017 Day 2– Search
Searching for the sound for the chord for the note for the words for the letters for the syllables for the rhythm for the meter for the heartbeat for the loud for the quiet for the silence of the song
Every song writer’s dream
I logged in to Facebook today to find that I’d been tagged in a post. But it wasn’t just any post. It was a post from my NC based songleading colleague, Penny White. And it included a video of her
Notes on An Evening with Gillian Welch
Last night, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings performed at Atlanta Symphony Hall. It was my first time seeing them live and they made a very strong impression. Performing in front of one of the most appreciative crowds I’ve ever
Another thing Daniel Silva said
At the same book talk that I referenced in a previous post, Daniel Silva also discussed the mechanics of his writing. It’s amazing to hear the ripple of disbelief from the audience when he says that he still writes