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First off, last week I launched as a creator on Patreon, and I want to send out my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have become patrons so far. In one week, this project has taken on a new level of sustainability thanks to your generous support. There are some patron-related details on this week's song here, so make sure you check it out for the full scoop! [note: if you haven't yet, you can become a patron at any time, at any level. Or don't! This music is for your enjoyment either way.]
This song is brand new, only a few days old, and I can't tell you how relieved I am to have written it. I've been puttering around here these last few weeks, putting in the work with no new songs to show. I still have plenty of old ones stored up in the smokehouse, but each week that passes without a fresh catch adds a sort of dim panic to the backdrop of my work. I know I shouldn't panic. I know that songwriting is a rhythmic process, and there are bumper crops and dry spells. But the dry spells definitely feel different when you've made a public commitment to publish something every week. Songs come through, as they always do. What yanked me out of my creative torpor this time around was this one quote by Allen Ginsberg: "Poetry is ordinary magic." I tend to dislike lumping poetry and songwriting in the same pile (I'll save that rant for another day) but in this case, I think songs are ordinary magic too. I'm grateful to have a little of it back, grateful to share it now with you. The video features various signs of Spring found in my yard. EXECUTIVE PATRONS (thankyouthankyouthankyou) Karen Schantz and Alan Bargar
Lyrics
I am in need of some ordinary magic can you help me please? I light the candles and check the corners down here on my hands and knees I've been at work and it's been 19 days and an early April freeze I lose my mind and sing my head off like that one cold robin in the trees Do you remember when we had next to nothing but we used what we had we talked to the night until the night talked back with mud on our boots and dust on our clothes and ordinary magic in our bones I am well-read, man when I wasn't I lived like my life was the whole damn book Those boardwalk days I crashed the carnival and turned it up til the floor boards shook Back when we had next to nothing and we used what we had talked to the moon until the moon talked back with mud on our boots and dust on our clothes and ordinary magic in our bones So I will take these trinkets and treasures and hang em all on the same old string they'll catch the light and spin prismatic all these beautiful and common things Do you remember when we had next to nothing and we used what we had talked to the moon until the moon talked back with mud on our boots and dust on our clothes and ordinary magic in our bones I am in need of some ordinary magic can you help me please?
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This work is supported by patrons.
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