When I was a kid, I discovered Marty Robbins’ “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs” in my Dad’s record collection and played it obsessively. I fell in love with the stories that that album told and the colorful characters in songs like “Big Iron” and “El Paso.” It was immediately apparent that to me, music was not just a melody and a beat; it was also visual and preferably cinematic. The story that the lyrics told was what really brought a song to life for me.
Listen to the song “Bird” while reading the text.
When I started writing my own songs, it was the lyrics that really excited me. Sometimes, the story just flows, and I write all the lyrics in one ten-minute sitting. My song “Bird” was one where the lyrics spilled out of me like from an overfilled glass, fully formed on the paper before I even knew what happened. Sometimes, I must ruminate on the words for a little while to get them right. I remember having the concept and main lyrical theme for my song “Senator’s Daughter” and holding onto the idea for months until the rest of the lyrics burst out of me onto a cocktail napkin on a plane ride back from a surf trip in El Salvador.
Every song I write is based on a personal experience I have had or a personal viewpoint that I hold. One album reviewer described the stories in my songs as “eccentric.” I take that as a compliment because I have been eccentric (in the best sense, I think) my whole life: quirky, off-center, out-of-the-box, whatever you want to call it, and that essence of me comes through loud and clear in the idiosyncratic stories my songs tell. Hopefully, the listener relates to the story I am telling, but, if not, that’s okay because these songs are for me first, and if others like them that is just gravy. Don’t get me wrong. I like gravy a lot (I’m writing this post just after Thanksgiving). I prefer gravy on my turkey and mashed potatoes, but if the gravy is not there, I will still “eat”/write songs because I love the creative process and the results.
I generally write the music first and then the lyrics, so for me virtually nothing on this planet compares to the natural high I get when I finish the lyrics for a song. Then I have a complete song, an end product, and as a lawyer as well as a musician, finishing what I start is very important to me.
Then the question became, what do I do with these story songs I have been writing and collecting? Of course, I make an album. So, I just released my debut album, “Interludes,” which is full of colorful characters, off-kilter adventures, and hopefully, some humorous observations related to my life and the shared human experience.
So, in summary, my methodology for songwriting, which may not be the correct path for everyone, is to write what you know and know what you write, and the story is everything (at least it is for me). The main thing is to enjoy what you are doing, whether that be writing, performing, or listening to songs because music is one of the best experiences and means of communication that we have in life.
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Just discovered Lincoln the Lawyer through Facebook and I’m loving his music, reminds me a bit of Jeffrey Lewis. I hope he keeps making this great music!