Andrea Stolpe is DA MAN!

Well, metaphorically speaking, that is.


Rockers! I hope y'all had a fantastic Fourth of July! For readers not in America, this is a holiday celebrating the independence from British rule. We stick it to the man each year with a patriotic display of Chinese-Made fireworks. These fireworks are music to China's ears, as it's the sound of exploding debt exploding a bit more.

The 5th of July, much less widely celebrated, marks the anniversary of the first draft. I believe there was some grumbling, and the precursor of the modern yo-yo was walked across the tea crates floating in the Boston harbor. Or something like that.

But anyways, I hope it was good for ya, and you got some time to catch up on some reading!

You NEED to Check out Andrea Stolpe's book Popular Lyric Writing - 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling. It rocks!

I've been reading it, and it's helping my songwriting already - and I'm not even done with the book! "Sure, Josh!" you may say..."Finish the book, bro, and then tell us!" Dude, when I'm done reading this worthy tome, I'm gonna be at the top of the charts, and I will have long forgotten about...anyway, I'm just kind of excited about it.

She outlines a great way to get ideas - it's called Destination Writing where you spill out yo' guts on paper (or screen), and then go back to rearrange those thoughts into a song.

Here's something I jotted down today.

Theme: Sunday evening

With a sigh, I signal for 210 south, and reluctantly step on the gas. Echoes of laughter mingle with the muffled roar of the exhaust, and are whisked away to the side of the highway, where they probably still linger, waif-like. I wonder if the ghosts of yesterdays all know each other. If they had a ghost party, I could almost picture it...Brightly dressed sprites of the fall excursions chatting effervescently with the tall spirits in Christmas sweaters, while quite a few dreary wallflowers lurk in the dismal shadows of unmet challenge.

Huh...I am a poetic fool of a guy. Now I gotta make a song out of this! (There's more to this, too.)

Rock on! And try this cool way of writing - you'll like it! And be sure to check out Andrea's website!

- Josh