• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Bands & Projects
    • Marty Willson-Piper
    • Marty & Olivia
    • Noctorum
    • MOAT
    • Atlantæum Flood
    • Anekdoten
      • How I Joined Anekdoten
    • The Church
      • Sleeve Notes
      • Videos
    • All About Eve
  • Discography
  • Gear
  • Talking
  • Lyrics
    • SOLO ALBUMS
      • In Reflection
      • Art Attack
      • Rhyme
      • Spirit Level
      • Hanging Out In Heaven
      • Nightjar
    • NOCTORUM
      • Sparks Lane
      • Offer The Light
      • Honey Mink Forever
      • The Afterlife
    • MOAT
      • Moat
      • Poison Stream
    • Seeing Stars
  • Sleeve Notes
    • Of Skins And Heart
    • The Blurred Crusade
    • Seance
    • Heyday
    • Starfish
    • Gold Afternoon Fix
    • Priest = Aura
  • Spotify
    • Marty Willson-Piper
    • Noctorum
    • MOAT
    • Atlantaeum Flood
    • Seeing Stars
  • Bandcamp

Marty Willson-Piper

The official home of Marty Willson-Piper

  • News
  • Blog
  • Shows
  • Songwriting & Guitar Guidance
  • In Deep Music Archive
  • Contact

Mar 29 2020

TO WHERE I AM NOW

Whenever I want to be reminded of beauty in a voice, absolute sensuous gorgeousness, warm, naturally talented, unique, breathy wonderment, then I listen to Colin Blunstone. I know Colin a bit, too, and he’s a lovely man. Today was a big session day for me so thanks to Tony, Rajan, Brian, Kevin, Joanne and Doug for listening, engaging, evolving and putting your unique skills into your own music and playing. It comes, you just have to believe it, oh yeah and do it as much as possible. I realize that I am in a privileged position being able to dedicate my life to creative pursuit, it comes with some risks, ha ha. But it’s probably worth it and with a little luck I’ve found a way. I’ve also found myself in another privileged position, that is sharing my musical experience with other people, teaching what I know and best of all doing it in my own way. When I was younger I was into languages and was really good at French at school. In the third year I won a prize in my class (do you remember that Deb, I think Julie, the shy one, won it for the girls). By the fifth year I was doing really badly at school, but the reason was at fourteen I got a guitar, everything changed. This was about the time they started asking you to think about a career. At nine years old it was zoologist, at fourteen years old it was language teacher, then that pesky music came along. My point, that teaching the language of music that I have learned to willing music lovers and having a German/Swedish wife who I often speak Swedish with makes my boyhood desires complete. All I need now is my own safari park – in France.

A long day ended today with the beginning of other things to do. I still have to listen to Tyler’s tracks for tomorrow’s sesh, Ed has sent Space Summit drum tracks to listen to and the day is not complete without listening to some albums. We sneaked in Mountain’s Nantucket Sleighride in between Kevin and Joanne. I’m loving the Felix Pappalardi songs from the album. Colin’s One Year and Ennismore are the first of the night, but I just heard that John Prine is ill with the virus and not in a good state. John is a rather special singer-songwriter, always with sensitive observation and a sense of humour, one of his songs, Illegal Smile is a case in point. Name-checked by Dylan, who called his songs Proustian Existentialism and Johnny Cash who referred to him as one of his ‘big four’. He seems to have made little impression here in England.

Today Brian asked me if I could show him how to play Say off Rhyme. It’s not as easy as you think to remember how you played songs you wrote 30 years ago. It took me a while, I was playing it all wrong, the guitar has to be tuned to E, the capo has to be on the 2nd fret and that chorus is way simpler than you think. Still some precise and consistent arpeggios are needed, a good one to learn if you are trying to improve that side of your guitar playing. Later I was thinking about this song and how I don’t really write that kind of song anymore, and should. So later, I was explaining to Doug how I learn so much from the sessioneers, just talking and answering the questions. Joanne told me there were four sizes of ukulele, who knew?

Getting into the archive tonight Olivia was looking for John Prine’s albums, not under US/UK, not under Country, but hiding in the Folky American singer-songwriter section. Some artists defy categorization or fit in more than one place, so you gotta make a choice. All these records, you have to separate them somehow otherwise the letter ‘S’ would have thousands of records under just that one letter. So, Canada is separate, Australia, New Zealand are separate, Germany and Switzerland, France and Belgium. Scandinavian countries are separated, there’s Japan, Italy, Eastern Bloc countries are together but separated into Poland, Hungary etc. Then there’s Easy Listening/Musicals, there’s a large Classical section, compilations, a thirties and a forties section, there’s Jazz, there’s Jazz Rock, ECM Jazz, there’s Blues and there’s a kind of contemporary Pop where FKA Twigs, LP, Solange, Lana del Rey and other mega R&B and Pop artists might live. There’s a Soul/Funk section, a section of eighties R&B and Pop where Madonna lives. Spanish language section, Brazilian section. What have I missed? Male and Female vocal sections, all kinds of box sets in a section and then I separate artists who I have a lot of albums by like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, CAN, Frank Zappa, Scott Walker, Elton, Moody Blues, Miles Davis, Rolling Stones, The Who. There’s Reggae, Africa, India and World Music, there’s even a small Hip Hop and Dance section. This is the vinyl. Then there’s the CDs, not so separated but more because of space, plus a CD singles section and then lurking in corners in alphabetical order there’s 7 inch singles. Behind the couch 78s. The cassettes are in storage. Plus there’s a large collection of music biographies and encyclopedias. I didn’t see the day today so I’ve told you about the archive instead and now…I’m going to go and enjoy it.

Today’s song is Say from Rhyme:

 

Say

I’m completely
Mesmerized
Fascinated
So sublime

I’m forgetting
I’m denied
Undernourished
Have to cry

Say hello, say goodbye
Say good morning, say goodnight
Say I love you, say you might

With my leaving
My supply
Is diminished
Undignified

Lonely, lonely
Satisfy
Disappearing
In the light

Say hello, say goodbye
Say good morning, say goodnight
Say I love you, say you might

To be certain
To be true
I insist I
Am with you

Words are flying
Through the sky
Catch them for me
With your eyes

Say hello, say goodbye
Say good morning, say goodnight
Say I love you, say you might

I’m completely
Mesmerized
Fascinated
So sublime

Hear the cello
Violin
I am dying
To begin

Say hello, say goodbye
Say good morning, say goodnight
Say I love you, say you might

(Willson-Piper)
Rhyme (1989)

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there's any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

  • spotify
  • facebook
  • instagram
  • youtube

Liking the blog?

Tour Dates

Instagram

Bye bye, Oz! Okay, so I’d better go pack, we hav Bye bye, Oz! Okay, so I’d better go pack, we have to be up at 5.30 AM. And oh yes by the way, Olivia remembered at 11.41 PM that today was our six years anniversary together, haha 😍

📷 @tonyrumble
Triple Marty Triple Marty
OUT NOW 💪 Afridi/Willson-Piper present SISYPHU OUT NOW 💪

Afridi/Willson-Piper present SISYPHUS off their debut album In The End, The Birds Will Sing (2022, tba).

Available to stream via the usuals.

@ahadafridi @afridiwillsonpiper #ahadafridi #martywillsonpiper #intheendthebirdswillsing #thesessioneerseries #songwritingandguitarguidance
We can't decide what colour this Strat is... We can't decide what colour this Strat is...
Ambidextrous Comping 🎸 #arktiklake Ambidextrous Comping 🎸 #arktiklake
Star Tracking 🖖 #arktiklake #oceanicstudiobroo Star Tracking 🖖

#arktiklake #oceanicstudiobrookvale
In autumn 2018 I went to Nashville, Tennessee, to In autumn 2018 I went to Nashville, Tennessee, to work with Salim Nourallah and his band, Richard on keys, Joe on guitars, Jason on bass and drums, and John on drums and bass and in a co-production role with Salim and as a fifth member of his band. After Nashville we retired to Dallas where all but Joe live (he lives in San Antonio) and worked on overdubs, mixing was next…then the pandemic hit. Finally, the album is now mixed and will be released in early 2023 but before that, we have the See You In Marfa EP from those sessions released yesterday on Bandcamp:

www.palosantotx.bandcamp.com/album/see-you-in-marfa-ep

A CD is also available and streaming will be from August 19th. The lead track on the EP is Hold On To The Night, complete with a video featuring an animated yours truly and co-written (a bit) by me: https://youtu.be/GhUk-MDm1VQ

This whimsical video was done by an Australian videographer/musician, Jordan Thompson.

#salimnourallah #martywillsonpiper #holdontothenight #seeyouinmarfa #seeyouinmarfaep #anuclearwinter #jordanthompson #rickenbacker
Are we at home here or what? #lardocelar #garagea Are we at home here or what?

#lardocelar #garageandstage #jazzbirthday
Many years from now... ✨ #handymen Many years from now... ✨

#handymen
Load More… Follow on Instagram

Mailing List

In Deep Music Archive

Songwriting & Guitar Guidance with Marty Willson-Piper
ORDER HERE

"These are awesome sessions that I highly recommend for guitar players of all levels. Very informative, frank discussions on everything related to guitar and music in general. Definitely a must for anyone pursuing songwriting."
(Stephen G., VA, USA)

"Marty knows how to bypass scales and get to the heart of feel and timing. His musical knowledge spans multiple cultures and genres. Perhaps most importantly, Marty is a cool dude. I highly recommend his guitar guidance." (Jed B., MN, USA)

"Ok, so you’re sitting in your home and Marty is across the world but is actually right here teaching you how to play guitar and write songs. He is a delight to talk to and he is your teacher, meaning he wants to see you get something out of his lessons. You know he’s paying attention and wants to steer you in the right direction. I am so grateful and humbled that he offers his time in this manner. This is an amazing opportunity for anyone who admires anything from his enormous body of work. How often do you get to learn from somebody that inspired you in the first place? Amazing." (Ann S., CA, USA)

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there’s any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

MARTY WILLSON-PIPER © 2022 - Front Page Images by Hajo Müller