Two more songs

I've added two more songs to the list for "Wordlessly." Here's the countdown so far:

• Still Waters · download MP3
• First Frost of Autumn · download MP3
• How Long Wilt Thou Forget Me
• Joy in Simple Things
• Gethsemane · download MP3 of early version
• A Covenant Between Them
• Hopscotch
• Home Is Where You Are
• Transfiguration
• The Cascades

That's 36 minutes, 38 seconds of music, but I feel this project must have at least 45 minutes of music.

So, back to GarageBand I go!

(And be sure to check out my real home page.)

'Wordlessly' available for preorder

Now you can go to my home page, find the web store, and preorder the upcoming "Wordlessly" CD!

If you order it before the end of June, you'll save two bucks. And if you order three or more, you get free shipping! "Wordlessly" would make a wonderful gift...

Three more songs complete!

For those keeping score at home, I've now in my back pocket three more instrumental songs for my upcoming instrumental CD, "Wordlessly." The titled assigned to them are thus:

• Gethsemane
• A Covenant Between Them
• Home Is Where You Are

Ah, but maybe you're thinking, "'Gethsemane!' I've already downloaded that from his nifty download page at download.com!" Well, you'd be only partly right, because I've completely re-recorded the song with some additional instrumentation, plus I've beefed up the song and made it along the lines of an ABA song structure.

This is not the same as an ABBA song structure.

ABA song structure just means that the song is in three basic parts: The first part is your main theme (A), the second part is a second, complementary theme (B) and then the third part is a repeat of the first part (A again), perhaps with some slight variation.

Verse-chorus-verse would be an ABA structure. It's really that simple.

So, for "Gethsemane," I took the short song as originally recorded, used that as the A part, and wrote a B part for the middle, between the two As. The song's now more than four minutes long -- like a real song.

If "A Covenant Between Them" sounds familiar to you, perhaps you attended my sister's wedding. It was one of the songs I played during the prelude of her wedding.

And if "Home Is Where You Are" sounds familiar, you're crazy, because it's brand spankin' new.

Don't forget to visit my new home page, where you can play a snippet of the song, "First Frost of Autumn."

New home page

I've redesigned my original home page in preparation for my upcoming instrumental CD, "Wordlessly." Take a look!

www.jonswerens.com

'Wordlessly' CD status report

How do you give a title to an instrumental song?

Except for some minor mixing tweaks, I've completed five songs for my upcoming instrumental CD, "Wordlessly." But coming up with titles for songs without words has been a challenge. All I have to go on is a vague emotion that I've attached to the song as I've written it. My fear is I'll come up with titles that are either pretentious -- "The Danse of the Foxe Hollows" -- or ridiculous -- "Minuet Rice."

But I'm swallowing my fear and releasing the names of the five songs I've recorded so far:

• "Still Waters"
• "The Cascades"
• "Joy of Simple Things"
• "First Frost of Autumn"
• "How Long Wilt Thou Forget Me"

Alert fans will recognize the last one -- it's the tune I've used at Providence Presbyterian Church for our singing of Psalm 13.

And please note that a version of "Still Waters" is available on my downloads page.

So, only nine or ten songs to go!

And don't forget to click here to sign up for my email newsletter, by which I'll remind you of events and updates.

The new floor

Click on the photos for a larger view.

Due to popular demand (i.e., the haranguing of my siblings) I present to the world these photos of my new laminate flooring in my living and dining rooms.

Here, our friend Cecil, in white, helps me, in orange, try to figure out how to get started doing the new floor.

The actual laying of the floor was the easiest part of the project. The hard parts were moving the bookcases out of the dining room and installing the quarter-round around the nooks and crannies of our living room.




Our cat, Violet, helpfully demonstrates the difference between the yucky old floor on the left and the fabulous new floor on the right. (That may be the first time the adverb "helpfully" was ever applied to a cat's actions.)

The old floor was what was left after we tore out the hideous, dusty carpet when we bought the house seven years ago.

But the worst part about the old floor wasn't the looks of it. It was soft and unfinishable, and we were eternally pulling splinters out of our socks and feet.




Ah! So now, when you walk in the room, here is the floor that greets you. The living room is noticeably brighter with the new, bright oak-like floor.




This is the view from the living room into the dining room, complete with silly daughter.




Here is some of the quarter-round that was especially, um, challenging to install. The pieces that were only 3/16th inch were stuck to other, longer pieces with super glue.

Music for 2006

So, what's up with me musically this year?

Instrumental CD: My brother Jeff has asked me to create some instrumental music for his upcoming wedding. So while I'm at it, I will compile the music into a CD I hope to have for sale sometime this summer.

Gigs: I will continue my gigs at The Anchor Room, with my next ones on Friday, March 10, and Friday, May 12.

Three-song demo CD: Maybe after my instrumental album is done, I'll be putting together a three-song demo CD that I can send to potential venues in Northeast Indiana.

I'll keep posting updates and links to downloads as they become available.

The 'paganism' of Christmas

Gene Edward Veith of World Magazine helps clear up some mythology about the so-called origins of Christmas in a pagan Winter Solstice festival:

True, the Emperor Aurelian, in the five short years of his reign, tried to start (a winter solstice festival), "The Birth of the Unconquered Sun," on Dec. 25, 274. ... But Aurelian's new festival was instituted after Christians had already been associating that day with the birth of Christ. ... Christians were not imitating the pagans. The pagans were imitating the Christians.

Read the whole article.

And Douglas Wilson helpfully tells us something about where all the pine boughs came from:

(T)he Christmas wreath custom did not come from paganism, but from a remarkable defeat of paganism. Boniface (680-754), missionary to the Germans, had chopped down a great oak, sacred to Thor. Three days later, on the first Sunday of Advent, he prevented a human sacrifice and used the sacrificial knife of the Druid priest to cut fir boughs for the people to take home as a reminder of Calvary. And of course, the inventor of Christmas tree lights (non-electric) was Martin Luther.

Wilson's article is here.

New gig! Friday, Dec. 9

Yes, this is a new gig! Come out to The Anchor Room on Friday, Dec. 9, from 7:30-9:30 p.m. and hear a special, Christmas-y gig. You can sing along! You can drink mochas! You can stop shivering!

Other changes:

• The gig for January 13 has been canceled due to an accidental double booking by the venue.
• Another new gig has been booked for Friday, February 24, at The Anchor Room.

As usual, details are on the engagements page.

Gig today at 1 p.m.

Come out to The Anchor Room today if you're in a Christmas-y mood. I'll be playing songs of the season from 1 to 2 p.m. Go to my engagements page for details.

And I'm happy to report that the medicines have pummeled my sinusitis.

Hope to see you there!

The cough-y house

Well. After two weeks of having what felt like the cold that would never leave, I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. Sinusitis, most likely. Strong medicine, too.

But now, thanks to my illness-induced asthma, I have begun to cough.

I still hope to be feeling better before my gig on Saturday. If this medicine works, I'll be able to sing for an hour, no problem.

If not, expect to hear an awful lot of instrumental music.

My Christmas songs

We pause at last for Christmas past
Simplicity of Babe and creche
We sing the songs, confess our wrongs
As hearts of stone are turned to flesh

If you are looking for the lyrics to my Christmas songs, here are the links:

• Christmas in Our Town (quoted here)
• And Mary Said
• Nativity
• Blanket of Snow

And God descends and calls us friends
And grants the presence Jesus gave
We eat His meal and humbly kneel
Before the Son who came to save

Come and sing along at my gig Saturday afternoon at The Anchor Room.