However Long (Ballroom demo)

The new installment of my “Songs From the Ballroom” is a song called “However Long.” I wrote the first verse and the chorus sometime in the early 2000’s, sang it into my memo device, and forgot all about it for years.

I used to keep a “businessperson memo device” in my purse. I’m sure most of these things are used to record statements like: “Note to self: Buy more gold!” But I used mine for music, to help me remember scraps of song ideas that came to me at odd times of the day. I’d sing song ideas into it while walking around, running errands, doing the dishes, driving (I know – dangerous,) having conversations (I know – rude,) recording in the studio, while writing.

Every once in a while I would transfer all the files out of the memo device and into iTunes. When I wanted to jog my memory or get some random inspiration going, I would play the song scraps and snippets back in shuffle mode. I was doing this kind of “random playback” on a cold day in 2010 and the verse and chorus for “However Long” jumped out at me. I think I finished the song over the next two days. The key changes were a surprise, I never do that, but they brought out the epic atmosphere of the lyrics.

“Lights, low in the dark
Slow-moving sparks
Sad as a bright tracer’s arc”

Today what I think of when I hear this recording is driving from Minneapolis to Mankato, Minnesota, to buy a pump organ that I’d found on Craig’s list. A hundred bucks. My then-two-year-old daughter Lily came along for the drive, against her will, and screamed in the back seat for the entire drive. It was totally worth it. That instrument is instant vibe.

The organ is small – one person can carry it by two handles inset into the sides. The nice woman who sold it to me said that her grandmother used to take it to church on Sundays with her, and play hymns in the parking lot. But since her grandmother died, no one played the pump organ. So of course I played “Amazing Grace.” “Listen!” she said to her daughter. “That’s what it used to sound like when my Grandma played it!”

Next time: a surprise, I hope.

Anyone can receive this track for free for the next couple of weeks by joining my emailing list (Please see link at lower left to sign up) I hope you enjoy it.