WATCH MY 7 YEAR OLD CUT MY HAIR!

THE CD RELEASE CONCERT! TODD BURGE, TIM O'BRIEN, The Carpenter Ants, John Walsh  in Concert April 28th 2012 8pm The Adelphia Music Hall at the Galley - Marietta Ohio Also - Free Songwriter Workshops by Tim O'Brien and Todd Burge during the day.** Tickets on $12 in advance and on sale now by clicking here http://j.mp/toddtim or here http://www.theadelphia.com  or call 1-740-374-8278 A concert celebrating the release of Todd Burge's upcoming CD release "Building Characters" The CD for grownups Produced by Don Dixon and featuring Tim O'Brien. Todd and Tim will play songs from the new CD, but the evening will also showcase a healthy dose of the music that has made O'Brien famous around the world. The Carpenter Ants will rock and groove you into the late night with special guests. You simply won't know who might show up! Looking for a place to eat? Dine with us! www.thegalleymarietta.com Looking for a place to stay the night? Stay with us! www.thehacketthotel.com (only four rooms left) **SONGWRITER WORKSHOPS Come early in the day and participate in the Songwriter Workshops conducted by Tim O'Brien, Todd Burge and more. They are FREE and brought to you by The Colony Theater Restoration Project and The Ohio Arts Council. Find out more soon here. www.songwriternight.com Todd Burge (www.toddburge.com) Coming in April "Building Characters" by Todd Burge The New CD featuring Tim O’Brien, Don Dixon & Kenny Malone Produced by Don Dixon Listen to clips from this CD here www.reverbnation.com/toddburge "On his new recording, Todd Burge inhabits his invented characters. The scat singing and lyrical humor lighten the mood of some heavy subjects, letting his insights sneak up on you. He just keeps getting better and better." Tim O’Brien (Singer-Songwriter, Grammy winner) "Defying gravity and age, Todd just gets better. This collection includes songs that no one else could have conceived, much less written. Todd belongs in the company of Peter Stampfel, Todd Snider and Paul Thorn with Roger Miller winking from beyond. Dixon, O'Brien and Malone put up the perfect front to make it all seem so normal. Look upon his works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Larry Groce – Host of NPR’s Mountain Stage “With wit and pathos in equal measure, Todd Burge takes on subjects in his songs that never occur to most folks. Subjects too quirky, too controversial, too obtuse for most writers to get a handle on. His compelling vocal style and unique perspective keep me interested long after the last note rings out.” Don Dixon – Producer, Performer, Songwriter "I feel that I’ve built one character out of many here. He/She is following life’s path and along the way, is blocked by insecurity, predictions of the world’s impending doom, religious fanaticism, fatalistic egoism and less. In this recording you’ll hear about a woman who buries her husband of 35 years in her own flower garden, then waters him daily, telling him to “Grow Up”. There a tune about how Joseph must have felt when Mary said she was with child, without his assistance. A man buys enough Jesus night lights to plug into every receptacle in his house and is blinded by that light. Springtime comes and a hungry squirrel goes crazy and loses his religion while looking for his nuts. A cocky fly is shown some mercy and his raw attitude brings on some bad Karma. I certainly hope you have trouble relating to these twisted stories, but enjoy them all the same. We certainly enjoyed recording them for you.” Todd Burge TODD BURGE bio Over the last two decades, Todd Burge, has played everything from Alternative Rock to Bluegrass, performing over 100 shows per year in venues as diverse as CBGB’s, The Country Music Hall of Fame and the Kennedy Center. Burge is a repeat guest on Public Radio’s Mountain Stage and has been called the “dean of WV songwriters, the best we have”, by the show’s host, Larry Groce. Burge has performed and toured with Tim O’Brien, Kathy Mattea, Lucinda Williams, Bela Fleck, Mike Seeger, Larry Groce, Ricky Skaggs and many others. In April of this year, Burge will release two CDs, One for grownups entitled “Building Characters” produced by Don Dixon (R.E.M. Mary Chapin Carpenter) and featuring Tim O’Brien (Hot Rize, Mark Knopfler, Steve Martin) and one for children entitled “Character Building”. The Children’s CD will serve as an ongoing fundraiser for The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network. His high energy shows are packed with songs and stories of bizarre characters and critters, from dogs to sharks to humans and beyond. Burge has the ability to twist his catchy tunes into something we can all relate to. Todd Burge also hosts his own radio show and podcast, Songwriter Night with Todd Burge. He resides with his wife Lisa and two young children, Sophia (5) and William (7) in Parkersburg WV. For bookings or more info www.toddburge.com (304)481-2766 Other websites of interest www.songwriternight.com (The Radio Show and Podcast) www.facebook.com/toddburgemusic www.twitter.com/toddburge Tim O'Brien (www.timobrien.net) In Tim O’Brien’s music, things come together. The uncanny intersection of traditional and contemporary elements in his songwriting, his tireless dedication to a vast and still-expanding array of instruments, and his ongoing commitment to place himself in as many unique and challenging musical scenarios as possible has made him a key figure in today’s thriving roots music scene – and well beyond it. O’Brien’s presence – be it as a bandleader, songwriter, mentor, instrumentalist, or vocalist – has been strongly felt not only in his own rich music, but in the many recordings of his songs by such artists as the Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Dierks Bentley, Nickel Creek, Kathy Mattea, the New Grass Revival, and the Seldom Scene, and in his recorded collaborations with Steve Martin, the Chieftains, and innumerable others. Most recently, O’Brien has been performing before capacity crowds in the band of Mark Knopfler, who described O’Brien as “a master of American folk music, Irish music, Scottish music – it doesn't matter; a fine songwriter and one of my favorite singers.” O’Brien listens to bluegrass and hears the music’s roots in modal Irish ballads and vintage swing. He insightfully re-examines and reconstructs those styles, and many others, in his own music, throwing off new sparks by reawakening the tension and interplay of the colliding components at the heart of American music. “Over the years,” he explains, “my music has become a certain thing. Each time I go into the studio to make a new album, I could make an Irish record, or a bluegrass record, or a country record…but it seems artificial to sift anything out. I feel like I’d be leaving out something important. In the end, I just try to make it round…” That roundness of vision and scope permeates every aspect of Chicken & Egg, O’Brien’s thirteenth solo album, available July 13 via his own Howdy Skies imprint. Mixing O’Brien originals, collaborations, and a handful of outside compositions, Chicken & Egg is an illuminating, engaging, and ultimately life-affirming meditation on the art of living. “This stuff reflects what goes on in the life of someone my age,” O’Brien reflects. “I’m 56 years old. I’m not the young kid on the scene – and I’m happy about that. I’m at a strange point in my life: my kids are growing up, while my parents and teachers are passing on. There’s a lot happening – but it’s just life, and that’s what this album is about. There’s a little love song action here and there, but mostly it’s about living life.” The Carpenter Ants (www.carpenterants.net) Even the best bands come and go but the Carpenter Ants have been around – with virtually the same lineup – for 25 years. The Ants have defied the odds and outlasted most of their peers for a number of reasons. First and foremost, after more than 2,000 performances, regardless of the occasion, the band never fails to have a good time – and that feeling is contagious.Check out the amazing new CD with Bill Kirchen - Ant and Uncles. www.carpenterants.net Tickets  http://j.mp/toddtim Free workshops www.songwriternight.com

A Song For the Buckeyes, Super Tuesday & Rush Limbaugh

Rush & His Pussy

With both sides of my brain tied behind my back, I wrote this song back during the Clinton years.  The story goes out to my buckeye friends and seems just right for super duper Tuesday and all the Rush Limbaugh hubbub.

Whole Lotta Choice (Lost in Cleveland)
LISTEN HERE

Whole Lotta Choice (Lost In Cleveland)
From "Most Requested" found in the store here www.toddburge.com
(C) & (P) Bunj Jam-BMI

Three strikes and you’re out

Two strikes and you’re a little bit down

One strike might send a king off to play golf

That same strike might send a pauper

A much lessor offer

But what if one strike went right to your pretty daughter’s face?

She’d have to hide that mark when she wanted to go anyplace

Way back when things were a bit more fair

The only care in her world

Was the perfect curl in her hair

And how the boys would stare

Must have had a friend

Must have had all kinds of friends

Once had a voice

And a whole lotta choice

Now I was leaving a show one night in Cleveland Ohio

My right hand was fishing around my car’s interior for a map

And the next thing you know

Instead of going down 90 South

I was destined to go up and get a drink

Out of a lake at the upper end of the state

Now I could’ve been driving just about anyplace

There was paint rotting off the houses and holes in the streets

There were beer cans along the curb

And about every other block I could see

The bright green

Squeaky clean sign that read “BP”

Like a light watching over me

So I drove up to get directions and a big bag of potato chips

But the door was locked and the speaker was broken

So we had to read each other’s lips

And man I thought I’d thanked that lady kindly

But just about then she flipped me the bird

And when I looked down in that sliding metal box

I saw a small container of paper clips

She didn’t see a single word

Must have had a friend

Must have had all kinds of friends

Once had a voice

And a whole lotta choice

Now I don’t know about the land of the free

But I can see the home of the brave

It’s behind bullet proof plastic

At a BP Station in Cleveland

So I got in my car with no more sense of direction

Than when I arrived at that service-less station

It was just about then that I met my escort

Came in the form of a police car, the finest in Ohio

He said what’s a white West Virginia boy doing

Driving a Geo, at 1 AM  in the Cleveland ghetto

I filled him in on my show and everything else I thought he’d like to know

I said, I’m trying to connect up with I-90 South

He said,  Follow me boy, I’ll direct you out

And man I thought I’d seen it all

When I saw a lady sleeping in the street

While I was cranking up my heat

And tuned into a re-broadcast of Rush Limbaugh

Must have had a friend

Must have had all kinds of friend

Once had a voice

Must have made that her choice

BURGE VS. LADY GAGA! (Help me win!)

Future Loser - Lady Gaga

I need your help!
That's right, I am chasing Lady Gaga on Facebook.
Lady Gaga has 47,919,600 people who "like" her
I have 1,401


Please visit my Facebook music page and click the "LIKE" tab.
Share the page with your Facebook friends too!

With your help, I think I can have her beat by next Wednesday, Thursday at the latest.

Much love and thanks!  Todd

(CLICK ON THIS LINK AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR TODD BURGE)

The Never Ending End (A Letter To Harold Camping From A Believer)

From the upcoming CD "Building Characters" produced by Don Dixon and featuring Tim O'Brien, Don Dixon and Kenny Malone.  Due out April 2012

LISTEN TO THIS SONG RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE

Is this the real end?

Radio Evangelist, Harold Camping predicted the end of the world would come May 21, 2011.  Many of his followers quit their jobs and sold everything they had in order to help him "get the word out".  According to Harold, Jesus was returning and our souls were going to be sorted out.  This is a"letter" from one of his followers written May 22, 2011.

Joseph's Prayer To His Baby Son by Todd Burge, Tim O'Brien, Don Dixon & Kenny Malone (Due out April 2012)

LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE

From the upcoming CD "Building Characters" (coming April 2012) by Todd Burge.

Watch the video here about this project

Joseph's Prayer To His Baby Son.  I was wondering how Joseph felt when Mary told him that she was "with child" without his "assistance".  I would have been horribly insecure.

Recorded on the upcoming CD project "Building Characters" produced by Don Dixon and performed live in the studio at "Tim's World" in Nashville TN by Todd Burge, (Acoustic Guitar & harmonica) Tim O'Brien (bouzouki & violin ), Don Dixon (Bowed bass), Kenny Malone (Percussion)

The song fits the general theme of "Building Characters". A work that revolves around 2012, religious fanaticism, darkness and enlightenment. Oh, it is a really fun CD too. It will be out in the Spring of 2012.

Check out more about this recording as well as its companion CD for kids entitled "Character Building" (a fundraiser for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network) right here.

http://rockethub.com/projects/3846-building-character-w-burge-o-brien-dixon

There is a video waiting for you there.

Let me know what you think. Thanks for listening! Sincerely, Todd

www.toddburge.com

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LIGHT by Todd Burge, Tim O'Brien, Don Dixon and Kenny Malone

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LIGHT(CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!)
this is the only song that will be on both the CD for "kids" (Character Building) and the CD for "adults" (Building Characters) "Building Characters" produced by Don Dixon and performed live in the studio at "Tim's World" in Nashville TN by Todd Burge, (Acoustic Guitar & harmonica) Tim O'Brien (Electric guitar), Don Dixon (Bass), Kenny Malone (Drums)

The song fits the general theme of "Building Characters".  A work that revolves around 2012, religious fanaticism, darkness and enlightenment.  Oh, it is a really fun CD too.  It will be out in the Spring of 2012.

It also fits the theme of the CD for Kids "Character Building" which deals with many critters and human placed under challenging circumstances.

Check out more about this recording as well as its companion CD for kids entitled "Character Building" right here.  or by clicking on my pic below. There is a video waiting for you there.

This recording will serve as a fundraiser for the Food Allergy Network.  I can use you help.  Watch the video and let me know what you think.  Thanks for listening!  Sincerely, Todd

JESUS NIGHT LIGHT by Todd Burge, Tim O'Brien, Don Dixon and Kenny Malone

JESUS NIGHT LIGHT (Click here to listen ) is the only older tune that was recorded on the upcoming CD project "Building Characters" produced by Don Dixon and performed live in the studio at "Tim's World" in Nashville TN by Todd Burge, (Acoustic Guitar & harmonica) Tim O'Brien (Electric guitar), Don Dixon (Bass), Kenny Malone (Drums)


The song fits the general theme of "Building Characters".  A work that revolves around 2012, religious fanaticism, darkness and enlightenment.  Oh, it is a really fun CD too.  It will be out in the Spring of 2012.

Check out more about this recording as well as its companion CD for kids entitled "Character Building" right here.  or by clicking on my pic below. There is a video waiting for you there.

This recording will serve as a fundraiser for the Food Allergy Network.  I can use you help.  Watch the video and let me know what you think.  Thanks for listening!  Sincerely, Todd

Review of The Fourteenth Colony (A Novel with Music by Jason T. Lewis)

I just finished reading The Fourteenth Colony by Jason T. Lewis.  The book comes with an eight song companion CD/download. 

Lewis was a well known regular in the Morgantown WV music scene back in the early 90s.  He later moved to New York City to pursue his music, started an Americana rock band there called Star City, worked with the late Jay Bennett (Wilco) and for the last couple years has been Director of the Writing and Humanities Program at the University of Iowa.

My first memories of Jason Lewis are that of a musician and journalist.  If I remember right, he was a music writer for The Daily Athenaeum, the WVU student newspaper.

He interviewed me 20 years ago when my cassette “New World Out of Order” came out.

To be from West Virginia is to be an artist.   You must be creative to stay, but you must be creative to leave and stay away.  Staying away is the real trick. Some find it impossible.  Others live their lives tortured by it. Pining away for the Great State or the selective memories of what they thought was great before they left.  In West Virginia there’s art in the way people speak, in the food, the land, the slice of a buck’s belly, the pain and the heaven that is there or almost there, daily.

I spent my twenties trying to get out of West Virginia and I spent my thirties trying to get back. 

The Fourteenth Colony is a fictional work about trying to “get back” home and slipping as you try.  It is about trying to mend your broken past somehow. 

It is about a musician from a broken family, a broken state and heart stepped on by a mother and a father who didn’t know how to be a mother and father.  A musician who moved to New York and was signed to a major label, but then the bottom fell out and left him with nothing but some master tapes that he had no legal right to release.

I know that some of this work of fiction is fact and follows Lewis’ actual life, but I’m somewhat afraid to ask him which is which as it all seems so painful. 

The story is a compelling one for me as I too come from a broken home and am a musician who moved away to search for my musical “legacy”. My reasons and motivation to start playing rock and roll were not sexually motivated as is the case with most young men, but possibly a reaching out to my family.  An attempt to prove something to them. If Dad had hugged me once or twice as a baby, maybe I would have been an accountant.

I feel this to be the case with the main character in Lewis’ book, John Martin.  I can’t shake the name. Or maybe the name shakes me in an interesting way.  John Martin.  John=John and Martin=fine guitar.  Crapper Guitar.  Crap Guitar.  Music in the crapper.  Ha.

At any rate, The Fourteenth Colony is a book of struggle that is more than worthy of a read from anyone, but especially those who grew up in West Virginia then moved away.  Maybe it is best to never go back, but sometimes going back is the only option. 

John Martin finds himself going back to the same haunts, losing sobriety and his mind or possibly finding his mind as he gets lost.  He seems to be connecting himself with those people who most remind him of his past.  A stripper who reminds him of his mother who has a teenage son comes to mind.  The stripper talks about how she had her son a bit too early in life and one of my favorite lines of the book falls here.  She talks about how her boy will take off without letting her know where he is, just long enough to make it hurt. “He knows how to make time painful”, she said.

John Martin sees his teen years in that boy and his mother in the stripper.  He desperately attempts to mend his past by connecting with both of them.  The spark of the book is in this ongoing friction.

John Martin’s dying father’s request for a deer steak for his possible last meal turns into a wonderful metaphoric trip through the familiar West Virginia hills of my boyhood.  I can almost smell the words.  As John Martin reluctantly hunts the deer down he is thinking, “It wasn’t in me, but I had to try. I stood and walked further up the hill, past the place where I’d been the day before, toward the clearing above.  It was an unknown place. Maybe unknown things could happen there.” 

Unknown things do happen there.

Throughout the story, Martin refers to the master tapes that are in his van, the major label release that fell through.  In most books you would simply imagine the music, but Lewis has included a CD/download of some of the songs mentioned on the master as well as others that touch on the book’s theme.  The book gets so desperately dark at times that I expected the songs to venture into Lou Reed’s territory, lyrically I mean, but they don’t.  They are straight forward Americana rock songs with a well rehearsed band.  No hillbilly twang here.  They are aching Americana Rock tunes.  They sound like songs from a man who may have spent his twenties running away from his West Virginia roots only to realize that there was nowhere to run.  They most certainly sound like songs that could have been on John Martin’s never to be released CD.  The book stands strong on its own, but it is really great/unique having this musical companion.

As a songwriter, this work was inspirational to me.  It is an exciting and admirable achievement by Lewis.   

Read it.

Todd Burge Jan 11th 2012

Find it here:

JASON T. LEWIS

Amazon

Goodreads

Love Songs SUCK! possibly, possibly not

Hi and thanks for stopping by my ongoing blog about songwriting.
I've been working on writing songs for an upcoming recording I'll be doing with Tim O'Brien and Don Dixon at the end of this year or early in 2012 and this is another one that I'll send on to them for review.

More songwriting tips and tricks and songs can be found here
www.toddburge.blogspot.com.

LOVE SONGS SUCK?

What's wrong with silly love songs?  McCartney says nothing.  I try to stay away from them as much as possible because they are so overdone, aren't they?

I was in a workshop once conducted by the great songwriter, Darrell Scott, and towards the end of it he said that he likes to read and watch art films as they inspire him into new tunes, and when someone asked him if there was anything else, Darrell said, "life".

So, when it is real and comes out quickly with a descent melody, I think love songs are lovely.  And I most certainly do not have enough that pay tribute to my wife Lisa.  She is amazing.  The backbone of our family.  The glue, the center, the sticky center.. wait, that's sounds weird, but anyway, she is simply the best mother and wife anyone could ever want, and deserves a box set or few of love songs.  My kids (Will 7 & Sophia 5) will probably both call me on the fact that the song says "Me and you" instead of "you and me".. ha., but, well, it doesn't work with the rhyme.

So, today I touched down and wrote a real one, tomorrow I'll probably take off again and build some more characters.  See what simple thing you can write down today as a tribute to a loved one.  Write on!  TB

This Tune of Me and You
(c)2011 Bunj Jam BMI




I don’t always know just what I need to


But I do know I truly do need you


I don’t always say just what I want to


But I know I truly do want you






My love is there when I need my love


Now I must thank you


I could get along on just a pray and a song


But then I would not have this tune of me and you






I’ve spent the better part of the last twenty years


With this music pouring through my heart


It comes from above


It comes from below


And I sing to you my favorite parts






My love is there when I need my love


Now I must thank you


I could get along on just a pray and a song


But then I would not have this tune of me and you





More songwriting tips and tricks and songs can be found here

www.toddburge.blogspot.com.
www.toddburge.com

How To Write A Song With Bruce Springsteen. Lyric tricks and a new video from Todd

Hi Everyone!  Thanks for reading my ongoing blog about songwriting!

I'll get to Bruce Springsteen here in a minute...

This is a common deal for me when it comes to songwriting.  I look for "friction & resolve".

While I write, I sometimes stumble along by moaning and groaning and improvising nonsense words and phrases, and a lot of times this will lead me to an interesting line.  I'll admit, this is a tricky method when someone else is in the house.   Sometimes I'll stumble into a word or phrase that is interesting enough for me to build a verse around.  Today's phrase was.

You never looked so good.

I really liked the notion of how I could play around with the meaning of this one simple sentence.

It could be an endearing one.  Or, well, the opposite of that.  

On a side note, I don't worry much about grammar and syntax.  The main reason is, most of the time I'm attempting to write from a characters point of view, and, well, the most interesting characters in my head are not too concerned with grammar and syntax, actually, most of them probably wouldn't know what syntax means.  Ha.  Leaving this behind helps free up my mind..  if something is way off, I'll edit a bit. Most songs are a combination of many different characters and people I know or have known.  Sometimes nonsense makes sense depending on the context. (See lyrics in verse 2**)  This one is one of those, although, I didn't think a whole lot about that while writing.  It comes naturally after a while by doing it daily I'm certain.

Okay, so, I have my phrase and I started out by funneling the lyric through time a bit.   I mean, it starts out young, then middle aged, then old.  So, it has a linear that hopefully keeps the listener a bit interested.  I try to make this happen with all songs although I don't always achieve it.  I think every line should move the listener forward somehow.

And here is a trick that moves me through many of my verses.  I think about opposites.

Check out the lyrics to today's song, 

You Never Looked So Good - July 12 2011 t. Burge

When you’re young and in love

All down sides are up (opposite)

And the sweet mood it smoothes out the rough(opposite)

When you’re young and in love

Ya got it bad and that’s good (opposite)

You’re as happy as you should be

And you never looked so good

I automatically think about the opposite of a word as I'm writing lyrics and it can drive me through a lot of times.  It also creates a friction/irony in the tune that needs to be resolved or, well, leaves me wanting to give the whole thing a positive spin at the end.  See final verse*

But time has a way

To tick tock your tail (**)

Some lovers they leap and some fail

If you let your guard down

In come the troupes  

A few years and you’re pooped

A look in the mirror

May not reflect as it should

You’ll never look so good

*When you’re old and in love

You sit with your time

The stillness is moving to you (opposite)

When you’re old and in love

The years are all there

In your thinned out hair

In the lines of your brow

In the wisdom somehow

In the touch of two hands

In the smiles of grandchildren

And when you look at them

You look just as you should

Yeah

You never looked so good

You never looked so good

Now, let's talk about working our songwriting muscle with the "Boss"
"Writing with Bruce Springsteen?"

This is an attempt at bringing on new lyric ideas. An attempt at kickstarting something new. A way to go to a place you might not have considered.

Try using opposites as your writing lyrics and see where it takes you.  Try taking a favorite line from a song you love.  I just randomly took Born to Run  (LISTEN ) by Bruce Springteen and with each line of the first verse, blurted out a quick response while thinking loosely about opposites.  My loose responses in no way connect to one another, but this is giving me some lines that I would not have otherwise thought of.  It is a great way to kick start a song!

The boss is in BOLD ... of course

In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream 

At night it's dry in the fields of some stagnant and strange nightmare

At night we ride through the mansions of glory in suicide machines 

In the morning we walk through the ghettos of sorrow with the weight of our life long dreams

Sprung from cages out on highway 9, 

Trapped in a rage with my dirt track date (ha)

Chrome wheeled, fuel injected,and steppin' out over the line 

Rusty wheeled, broken down and slipping up behind the track

h-Oh, Baby this town rips the bones from your back 

Damn it to hell, this city puts the meat on the muscle man

It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap 

It's life's release, this being "born to please"

We gotta get out while we're young 

We've got to get in before we're too old

Check out all of Todd's tricks for songwriters here.

He talks about using Bowie, George Carlin and many others for songwriting ideas!

www.toddburge.blogspot.com

Write What You Know? I Don't Know, You Decide. My Fire Works by Todd Burge

Some instructors of songwriting say, "write what you know", and I've done plenty of that, but as time moves on, I find it more of a challenge and so, I write about things that are strange to me and simply strange things.

This tune falls a bit into the "what I know" category.

It was written back in 2007 and I considered putting it on my CD entitled "My Lost and Found, but it didn't make the cut for various reasons.  Maybe I needed some distance, maybe it simply isn't that good.  I'm often not the one to ask when it comes to my own work.

My cousin passed away from an illness years ago.  His two year old baby passed some time before he did.  My memory is sketchy on the details and timeline.  He and his wife had a daughter who survived and this song comes from a Myspace blog of her's that I read back in '07.  In the blog post she was looking back on her early childhood.  Their family lived very close to the City Park where each year on or around the 4th of July, there was a monster fireworks display.  Well, there still is.  (If you have ever experienced a firework display from up close ... say, 30 yards, you know how awesome it can be. It is like the difference between actually seeing a Motorhead concert and listening to them on your iPod.  My family now lives near that same city park and our small children feel that fireworks display each year.)  Their house was about 25/30 yards away from where they would launch the fireworks.  In the young girl's blog, (in 07 she was about 14 or 15) she described how she used to watch the fireworks with her family and they would vibrate her feet... then, a few years later, after her dad had passed I'm assuming, she would stay inside and watch them or feel them from her room.

I tried to make this a happy or at least kind tune from the point of view of a 15 year old.  I hope it pays tribute to my cousin and his family.

Lyrics below the video.

My Fireworks – Todd Burge –
(C)2-15-2007 Bunj Jam BMI

In my 15 years I’ve sure seen a lot of hurt

And I wear it on my chest like a heavy metal shirt

We moved so far away from my West Virginia home

I need a buckeye boyfriend so I don’t feel so alone

My daddy left this world long ago and my baby brother too

And I became a big girl, that was all that I could do

Now I’ve tucked my thoughts away, keep my smiles in my room

If you were in my shoes I’ll bet you do the same thing too

Sometimes I’m broken and my life hurts, but my fireworks

It’s been too long since I’ve seen a really good display

But this one’s got my head up on this hang my head down day

When I was five I’d watch them barefoot, on my parent’s porch

I loved the way they made me giggle, they’d tickle and vibrate, my feet

Then I grew sentimental and watched ‘em from my bed instead

A thousand smiling faces, lit up blue and green and red

Colors sparkled on all those cars parked up and down our street

Colors bursting in me, made me happy, made me feel real

In this world of make believe

Sometimes I’m broken and my life hurts, but my fireworks

But just like a firework with one spark and a blast

Some things burn out quickly so I must let go of my past

Baby brother smiles while daddy says hi

Yeah, in my mind they’ll always shine like the fourth of July

Sometimes I’m broken and my life hurts, but my fire works

Todd Burge's tips and tricks for songwriters can be found here

www.toddburge.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/toddburgemusic

How To Find Songwriting Ideas From Graves, Insanity & Murder

Today's tune was inspired possibly by murder and most definitely insanity.  Maybe you read about this woman who buried her husband in the flower garden? Read about it here.  Once in a while I get inspired by a headline.  My trick is to NOT read the article completely.  Actually, in this case I simply read the headline and had what I thought was a strong idea for a chorus.  I skimmed over a couple more lines and the rest of the verses came.  I find this method, of not thoroughly digging into a story, helps me keep things fictional and possibly more original.  After I'm close to having a complete song, I'll read the complete piece and sometimes that will help finish it up.  Another fun trick is to completely immerse yourself into a character who is totally unlike, ... you.  Singing this from the female's point of view most certainly did that for me.  Try it.

Grow Up (june 27 2011)

(c)2011 by Todd Burge Bunj Jam BMI
Taken from a write up about a woman who buried her husband in her flower garden.

The headline read

Raleigh woman's garden became her husband's grave

By RENEE ELDER Associated Press The Associated Press

Monday, June 27, 2011 8:05 AM EDT

For 35 years we were married me and he

But he never seemed to need to add to his family tree

We traveled all around like two wide eyed hippies

But I had to let go of always thinking so retro … and say

Grow up, sprout out of the ground

Let your colors shine like the springtime

As the sunshine dances on my weathered brow

All you’ve got to do for now

Is grow up

Is it wrong for a woman to want a better life?

With a man who’s kept at bay by his ways so childlike?

He could bring home the bacon ‘stead of actin’ like a swine

Put away the pop and have a little sip of wine

And 

Grow up, sprout out of the ground

Let your colors shine like the springtime

As the sunshine dances on my weathered brow

All you’ve got to do for now

Is grow up

Now I’m handy with a shovel and I’m handy with a spade

And when he wasn’t lookin’ I was handy with a blade

Now he’s in my garden, pushin’ up my daisy

And some may think I’m crazy

But now my love must do what I say

As I say

Grow up, sprout out of the ground

Let your colors shine like the springtime

As the sunshine dances on my weathered brow

All you’ve got to do for now

Is grow up

A Song About Bologna?

Bruce Dalzell has this wonderful group of songwriters in Athens Ohio and the surrounding area.
They meet almost every week and talk about songwriting, share works in progress, work on tunes etc.
They have a weekly workshop called "Quick and Dirty" and one of the writers throws out an idea.
Recent song titles have been, "Foot", (see my tune "Foot in my Mouth" at this end of this blog)
"Fire Extinguisher", and this week's, "Bologna". The idea with "Quick and Dirty" is to bang out the tune without thinking or working too much. Oh, and keep it under an hour.

You can contact Brucie and get on his mailing list. I don't often make it to the weekly gathering, but I love to participate at home as often as time allows.
Bruce Dalzell
byrfyrd@earthlink.net


Bologna – (a Brucie “quick & dirty” song)

Between the Po and the Apennines
Between the Reno and Savena
I’ll bet every heart in that old city stopped
That day I met ya
In Bologna
In Bologna

I was as high as the towers
As we walked along the porticoes
Time stood still for a second
Then it breezed by as fast as the wind blows
In Bologna
In Bologna

Our new love stood out
In a city that’s blood lines
Flowed 1000 years before Christ lived
My God and now you’re gone
And this song lingers on
To remind me of how
I once held ya
In Bologna

Does it matter where she’s gone?
Maybe in the states someplace
Or down my street
With some Italian student
Enjoying her face
Maybe their love will outlast me
And this lively old city
Of Bologna





Foot in My Mouth
(c)2011 Todd Burge
Bunj Jam BMI
Foot in my mouth
Foot in my mouth
Head over heals, thoughts gone south
My little man says, let me out!
Got a foot in my foot in my foot in my
Mouth

I’m telling you all that’s been told
All that my pea brain will ever hold
Apologies from the north to the south
I’ve got my sole in my pie hole and I can’t get it out

Chorus

My mind is dusty, my mouth is dirty
I simply felt like being a bittle lit flirty
But my words got twisted, my charm’s been de-gifted
Now I’ve just got my my my my my my

Chorus

More songwriter tips and tricks found here
www.toddburge.blogspot.com

Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan & Me Continued

Okay, I'm on a Bob Dylan kick... again, and that's not such a bad kick to be on.
I often tell friends that Bob Dylan's book, Chronicles I, is a great place to find interesting song titles. Dylan doesn't really get into his own writing process in this wonderful book, but his imagery is so superb, that, well, it is inspirational to me.

In the book Dylan talks about how (back in the late 50s I'm guessing?) he would visit Woody Guthrie in the hospital near NYC. Guthrie died from complications of Huntington's disease, a progressive genetic neurological disorder. During his later years, in spite of his illness, Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.

According to Dylan, Guthrie liked to listen to Dylan play,.... Woody Guthrie songs. Dylan knew many and Woody, unable to play them himself at this point, loved hearing them. So, Dylan would take Woody a pack of Raleigh smokes and play Do Re Me, Dust Bowl Blues, etc. Dylan said that the facility was more like an asylum than a hospital and that people were indifferent to the fact that Woody Guthrie was there. He said it wasn't the type place where you get better. "Patients would roll their eyes while their tongues sniffed the air".

In today's song I tried to imagine a patient down the hall from Woody, hearing these tunes sung by Dylan and being consoled by them. Dylan at this point was unknown as a performer, so, it wasn't like he walked in the place with celebrity status of any sort. He was simply a young man/boy playing Guthrie tunes.

At the end of the blog I talk about how I use different finger styles to pull some new melody and song ideas out of my head.

I'm going to flip through this book some more.



Listening to Woody Guthrie Tunes
©2011 Todd Burge – Bunj Jam – BMI

While sitting in my room
Constant thoughts of doom
Overwhelm me
Until I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune

I have my dust bowl blues
Figured out without a drought
For now
As I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune

White coats coming
Paranoia drumming
Bangin and a beatin’
On a single skin
Close your mouth
As I ain’t lettin’ a
Single word
In my head
I’m out of this world
A younger man with cares
Too few to mention
As I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune

Patients roll their eyes
While their tongues sniff the air
An old man sees a spaceship
On the campus green out there
As I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune

If I could get out now
What the hell would I do?
I’m here for your own good
And it’s good for me
So I look forward to
That young man who
Plays the Woody tunes


White coats coming
Paranoia drumming
Bangin and a beatin’
On a single skin
Close your mouth
As I ain’t lettin’ a
Single word
In my head
I’m out of this world
A younger man with cares
Too few to mention
As I listen to
That young boy play
A Woody Guthrie tune


Here's a video where I talk a bit about figure patterns on the right hand, and how they help me with melody.

The WV Blues Still In Me - "If You're Stealing From Me, It's Been Stolen Twice"

Ron Sowell (Music Director for NPR's Mountain Stage) once said something to me like, "if you're stealing from me, it's has being stolen twice!" Meaning, he has copped all of his songwriting ideas from others. I don't believe this, but there is something to be said about using your idols/friends/favorite writers to drive you in your own songwriting.

This tune I wrote today, may or may not become one that will last or become recorded. The fact is, most of my songs do not, but the writing process might interest you, so I'm posting it. I'm also going to suggest until the day I write my last tune, that "bulk is the answer". Writing daily or as often as possible will free you up to getting to something you dig. Dig?

A few times throughout my many years of songwriting, I refer to old folk songs when I i'm out of ideas for lyrics, or even melody. With today's tune, it is probably obvious that I turned to "Girl From the North County" by Bob Dylan. Of course, the lyric "Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine", is a line that is older than dirt. Nobody knows where it comes from, so anyone can use it. Paul Simon did in Scarborough Fair



And Neil Young (kind of) in Powder Finger (last verse)



It is a powerful image I think. Being stuck somewhere far away and pining away for your home.
Try thinking about that. Maybe this is already your situation. I know it is for a lot of West Virginians. We've been forced to leave the state to look for a "better life". Hazel Dickens had to move away at an early age and spent a lifetime writing powerful songs about her home place.

I spent most of my 20s wanting to get out of WV and every time I left, I spent all my time away, wanting to get back.

I don't know why I picked Johnson City in the song. I have been there and love it.

The past is a powerful source for future songwriting.

Try painting word pictures from your past in a song. Or, maybe better yet, try mixing those images with books/movies/songs that you love. Lift lines from famous songs and insert them into your verses, simply to kick start your muse. You'll of course have to remove them once they have done their job. I did this with this tune. I took (yes, Dylan again... damn, sorry, I do listen to other artists.. ha) Dylan's "Sweetheart Like You" and inserted the first line of his tune into this one. "The Pressure's down, the boss ain't here"
I like to take lines I like and "work against" them. Meaning, I think of what the opposite is.
"The pressure's high, the boss is still here", led me to a whole verse. I changed the first line to, "now the heat is on, the grass is green" and so on, and this lead me to the final verse. Dylan is dropped and what we have is an original verse.

I could write volumes on how I've used this technique to get lyrics.
Try it.

Okay, now for the song.
Let me know what you think. Thanks!
Todd



The WV Blues Still in Me
By Todd Burge
©2011 Bunj Jam Music BMI
6-14-2011

Thought there was some prize
For not staying put
And taking my dreams across those mountains
But now I work each day
To get a little bit of pay
Just to have more of it taken away

Johnson City is pretty in places, I know
And there are a lot of things to do and go to
But if I’m staying broke
I’d rather be back home and have
Family and friends to cling to

Once I was driving away from the land that I love
And I would have moved a mountain to get here
But once I got to where I was going to
I just wanted to go back there
So remember me to my friends & family
If you ever get back home to see them
As I’m broke down in East Tennessee
With these West Virginia blues still in me

Now the heat is on and the grass is green
And the kids are out laughing and screaming
Sounds of joy surround this house
And it has me school dazed and dreaming

About how I was aimed to make a name for myself
And she was determined to change her’s
We crashed in the middle
Then in the end
Simply forgot our intended beginning

follow Todd Burge's songwriter blog here
www.toddburge.blogspot.com

Songwriter Night with Todd Burge
The Radio Show and Podcast
www.songwriternight.com

One Star - The Song I Wrote With George Carlin

As I mentioned yesterday, My songwriting goal will now revolve around the fact that in December I'll go back into the studio with Tim O'Brien I'm really excited about this.

I plan on going over my notes and lyrics from the past year and fine tuning some songs. New songs will be coming too I'm hoping. I'll post tricks and methods here for those who are interested.

This tune came to me after listening to a great George Carlin interview on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Groce.
As far as I'm concerned, Carlin was brilliant in a universal way. I pay tribute to him a bit by being a bit blunt in this tune and taking one of his comments, and, well, running with it.

Groce, knowing that Carlin wasn't a religious man, asked where he thought he "fit in" in the grand scheme of things. Carlin said, "Some time ago I figured out, with the help probably of some reading that I can't recall now...that, if it's true that we are all from the center of a star - every atom in each of us from the center of a star- then, we're all the same thing. Even a coke machine or a cigarette butt in the street in Buffalo, they've all been recycled thousands of times, as have you and I. So, if that is true, then I am everywhere in the universe, uh, in an extended sense and therefore, it's only me out there, so, what is there to be afraid of? Nothing"

There was plenty more and you can listen to the whole interview HERE, but that was the source of the song. I incorporate this universe according to Carlin into my thoughts of war and peace. If everyone believed this, how could war exist? As far as George and I are concerned, we are killing ourselves. And if Carlin is right, then, George Carlin and I wrote this song, with you and a cigarette butt in the street in Buffalo NY.



One Star

Dig out dig out
Move the dirt
It’s a bitch of a ditch
Full of the gone too soon
And the stench of regret
And yet

One star one star
From this is where we all are
But we’ve gone deaf and dumb
From our gaze upon our own stardom

Starlight star bright
I wish upon us all tonight

Are we strung out and all sung out
As these hard times hit
We’ve got lost love and a soft arm
While looking down on something stiff

Build it, let’s build it
Of love and rock and cemented sand
Til this river of spilled blood
Gets plugged up by our
“we give a dam” AND

Chorus

Well I’ll be, I believe
All the hippies had it right
So let’s tune up and drop down
On our knees and dream of peace

And one day, hope our heads
All meet at one collective feast
And with prejudice so extreme
Devour this Goddamn beast

Chorus


More songwriter stuff by Todd Burge can be found here
www.toddburge.blogspot.com
Listen to his radio show and podcast
Songwriter Night with Todd Burge
www.songwriternight.com







D

First Day of Spring - Sometimes the Songs Just Appear (The Shaved Sessions)

So, I missed last week as I was busy organizing the benefit for the Food Allergy Network. Our work is ongoing and you can learn more here.

Sometimes songs just come. There isn't a trick.. they simply arrive and I'm thankful. This is a matter of sitting down everyday and doing it. If you work on it daily and stop thinking that every note and word is so precious, you could find that a song will just come out of you without trying. A song that pleases you that is. A song you would like to possibly play out.

As you can see, my beard is gone. (Read more about the "bearded songs" in older posts) About a week ago I realized that I had more than 10 ten new songs that I would like to play out in front of an audience and/or record.

My songwriting goal will now revolve around the fact that in December I'll go back into the studio with Tim O'Brien I'm really excited about this.
I plan on going over my notes and lyrics from the past year and fine tuning some songs. I'll post tricks and methods here for those who are interested.

Today's song.. It was a long winter wasn't it? My buddy boy Lou did pass away around the beginning of spring too. RIP Lou




First Day of Spring
by Todd Burge© 2011 Bunj Jam BMI


It’s the first day of spring
The first day of spring
So why is it so damned cold?
I need to sneeze
Need to release
The last of a winter
That has made me
Feel two whole years older

Maybe this year
When and if this snow clears
I’ll start going to church
God knows it’s been years
But it’s all his fault
Cause no sane man
Would drive to congregate
In this frozen screwed up mess

Chorus

Our good dog is gone
He was old and could not pass
Through one more season
Like that last one
But the cold still sticks around
Kickin’ me in my happy
I suppose I’m just
Sad about
This man’s best friend’s end

On this first day of spring
First day of spring
Why is it so damned cold?
Maybe we all need
To be brought to our knees
To be thankful for
What this new spring
Will eventually
Bring

Songwriter Night with Todd Burge Podcast for June 2011

A note to our affiliates. This show is 59mins with station ID breaks place around
18:40 and 40:30

Many of you know about my radio show
"Songwriter Night with Todd Burge"
You can listen to older live podcast with Steve Forbert and Bill Kirchen here
www.songwriternight.com

Our mission is to expose you to the great performing singer/songwriters playing in our region and hopefully, motivate you to support what they do!

JUNE PODCAST (Intro music by Bruce Dalzell)
DOWNLOAD/LISTEN HERE

We are sponsored by The Adelphia Music Hall in beautifully historic Marietta Ohio.
Bringing you fine food and fine live music
Many of the artist in this podcast will be performing there in 2011.
Check it out here
www.theadelphiamusichall.com

JESS KAUFFMAN of DUKE JUNIOR & the SMOKEY BOOTS

Play List
Amy LaVere
Killing Him
The Beat

Marti Jones and Don Dixon
Feels Like
That Scorching Song

Girlyman
Youn James Dean

Zoe Muth
You Only Believe Me When I'm Lying
Little Star

Bruce Dalzell
Where I Come From

Duke Junior and the Smokey Boots
Bag of Bones

RJ Cowdery
I Believe

Tim O'Brien
Workin'
You Ate The Apple
Hose Race

Alice Gerrard & Hazel Dickens
Won't You Come and Sing For Me

Eileen Jewell
Sea of Tears

Follow the ongoing saga of Todd Burge's Songwriting here
http://toddburge.blogspot.com/

Visit often
www.songwriternight.com
www.theadelphiamusichall.com
www.facebook.com/theadelphia