The journal
On songwriting, and the writers I steal from
Notes from the apprenticeship — close readings of the songs I love, and what their structures teach me about building my own.
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01
Influences · Writers
Studying at the feet of the greats
Frankie Laine, Dylan, Guy Clark, Townes, Prine, Kristofferson and Cohen: what each one taught me, and the songs to hear it in.
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02
Craft · Guy Clark
What Guy Clark's verses taught me about structure
One image per verse, saved for the last line — how "The Randall Knife" builds a whole life out of small, exact things.
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03
Process · Creativity
Making room to be creative
What over fifty songs and John Cleese's talk on creativity taught me about setting up the conditions to write.
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04
Business · Your rights
How I'm protecting my songs
A paper trail, copyright registration, and why the plan you make AI demos on matters.
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05
Process · Tools
The doorway: how a tool got me writing at all
Write, demo, listen, rewrite. How a quick demo loop keeps me practicing, and where the craft stays mine.
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06
Craft · Genre
Why I write story songs
Theater of the mind: why my words lead, the instruments play supporting cast, and the genre works more like rap than rock.
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07
Process · Making
Every layer, nobody to pay
Painting is a one-person art. Software, molds and rooms take layers and people. Why songwriting is the first layered project I can do all by myself.
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08
Liner notes · Boom Town
Boom Town: the West, built from the Pacific
Liner notes. Gold in San Francisco, Wyatt Earp’s freight wagons to Salt Lake, the rails from the east, and an old lawman telling it to John Ford.