*My* Songs

I've got a bunch of songs in the pipeline.

By "pipeline", I mean, they may or may not get recorded. But you never know!

The problem I was having was that I kept re-recording guitar/vocal versions of the songs, until I was at least semi-happy with them as demos. But when I went back to listen to them, I had too many versions of the same song, and I didn't know which was the "good"version, and which was a prior attempt.

So, I thought, hey! SoundClick! SoundClick isn't much good for anything other than storing songs for future reference.

So, since it's FREE, I thought, why not set up a page to store all my "best" versions of my demos?

One tiny problem with that is, everybody can listen to them. But that's a small price to pay, really. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? Somebody will listen to a song and think it's horrible? Well, who are these people anyway? And don't they have anything better to do than to troll for new songs on SoundClick?

Face it, if SoundClick thinks all those hip-hop "artists" they keep pushing are so great, how bad could my stuff sound?

So, my initial idea was actually a good one.

I set up a page: Michelle's Work Tapes

And I WARNED people in my "interview" what the page was all about. I asked people to PLEASE not add any of these songs to their stations (people can set up personal stations there). I told everyone in no uncertain terms that these were WORK TAPES.

Did that stop people? No. Of course not.

Somebody added one of my "songs" to their station.

While it's flattering to find that out, it's also really embarrassing. But what the heck?

I guess I choose to look at it this way: At least it tells me which songs people actually like, and therefore, which songs might be candidates for full-blown recordings.

The one song that people seem to like is actually a throw-away. And I knew that, for whatever reason, that would be a song that would get picked up for recording. My producer feels the same way. That song is, "Hello Dear Heartache".

It sometimes makes me wonder why I put so much work into some of my songs, when the quick and easy ones seem to capture people's attention.

What really struck me as funny was that a song that I wrote a long time ago, "Kathryn's Place", actually hit #20 in Cajun/Zydeoco! Ha! It must have been the bad accordion playing that roped people in. Either that, or, there just aren't a lot of songs in that particular category.

Also, surprisingly, a song called, "The Game", that I wrote a LONG time ago, hit #23 in Honky Tonk. Again, not a real popular category, I'm thinking.

So, all in all, this turned out to be an enlightening experiment. The songs I consider to be my "best" didn't chart at all, while the throw-away songs garnered some attention.

Regardless, the next Red River song to be recorded will be, "The High Cost Of Living".

After that, it will be, "Heartview".

Neither of these songs even hit the charts on SoundClick.

I have to go with my intuition, and that of my producer.

Trust me. These songs will sound good. Way better than the demos.

And I hate to break it to the "fans", but "Kathryn's Place" will never see the light of day.

But "Hello Dear Heartache" will no doubt be recorded.

So, that's some consolation.