I have enjoyed sharing my journey as I joined February Album Writing Month and attempted to write 14 songs in 28 days.  On February 16, I posted my 14th song.  I am going to continue throughout February, but I am a little astounded that I could write that consistently and quickly.  Let me share what I posted in the fawm.org forums after I finished my 14th song.
 Now What?:  This afternoon I posted song #14. I guess that makes me a winner. (Although I think anyone who participates in fawm is a winner).Now what?Of course, as long as the songs are flowing, I’ll keep writing, and busting zongs, and trying some collabs, and stretching myself.But what do I do with this collection of new songs?I could book studio time and do the full production treatment on them and the best of the 10 year’s catalogue I have since my last album, but I have no desire to go to that time and expense right now. I could finally get around to learning how to use my gear to produce good multi track recordings myself.I spent the autumn renovating our basement and building my family a nice rec room. I will likely invite friends and family to a little End of FAWM concert in my wreck room. I may even get a couple of no-rehearsal calibre side musicians to help me sound good.
How about you all. Now what?
I got some good feedback from others on the forums and one of the outcomes is that I am trying out new recording software to see if it makes it easier for me to self-produce multitrack recordings. Â I love Audacity. I have used it daily for 6 years, so I am really good with it, but I find it a little cumbersome for doing multitracking.
I checked out a number of different free and inexpensive DAW software packages and decided to try out Reaper. Â I’ve known about Reaper for years. It was developed by Justin Frankel, the same guy who wrote Winamp, Kazaa, and made a killing selling winamp to AOL before he was 20. Â After one song recording and this podcast, I am very impressed. Â Recording a 30 min podcast took less than 1/2 the time it would take me in audacity, as editing mistakes or adding new tracks can be done on the fly. Â It is not free software, but they have an uncrippled version you can download and try for 60 days. Â After that it is a very reasonable $60 for noncommercial or small business and $240 for a pro license. Â If I keep using it, I see a $60 purchase in my future.
Songs in this episode (All of these are unreleased demos posted on the fawm.org site. Â All songs and recordings are copyright their respective authors).
1) Â Theme Music: For the Sake of the Song (c) Sean McGaughey
You can leave comments on the blog, send me an email to ductapeguy at hotmail dot com or join the For The Sake of the Song Podcast group on Facebook.
I tried embedding the lyrics to all my FAWM2013 songs into the post where you can listen to them, but the music player did not want to work with the embedded lyrics. Â So here they are.
Tom Slatter is a London, UK based songwriter and podcaster. He produces the Songwright blog.  He was a guest on the  For the Sake of the Song in 2008.  On January 31, he posted that he was participating in February Album Writing Month, taking on the challenge to write 14 songs in  the 28  days of February.  I decided to take the plunge, keeping in mind that at my most prolific, I wrote 14 songs in 9 months, and last year I wrote 6 songs.  Fast forward 10 days and I have written 8 songs and begun to get to know a ton of great songwriters on the Fawm.org website.
Today, I’m going to talk songwriting, FAWM and play a few tracks by FAWM songwriters.
Corin Raymond has been one of my most frequent guests on For the Sake of the Song, appearing as a solo singer-songwriter, as 1/2 of the Undesirables and with his frequent touring partner, Jonathan Byrd.  About 18 months ago, Corin co-wrote a silly country song with Rob Vaarmeyer from Winnepeg which features Canadian Tire money.  The song struck a chord with his audiences and soon he found people giving him Canadian Tire Money at his performances.  THEN, he discovered that his record producer accepts Canadian Tire money and the Great Canadian Tire Caper of 2012 was on.  Corin set out to pay for the production costs of  his live album, Paper Nickels, entirely with Canadian Tire money.
Corin’s quixotic quest caught the imagination of Canadians and of the media around the world. Â To date, Â he has collected over $6200 in Canadian Tire money– over 32,000 bills. Â And he has collected the stories about Canadian Tire money that people have shared with him during this crazy caper. Â On January 22 and 23, 2013, Corin Raymond and the Sundowners will officially release Paper Nickels. Then they are setting out on a Canadian tour in throughout January and February. Â Dates and details of the tour can be found on Corin’s site, dontspendithoney.com.
Paper Nickels  is a compilation of Corin’s favorite songs written across Canada (and the USA) by some of the best songwriters you may never have heard of (but thankfully Corin has).  The Sundowners are on fire on this record.  It is what country and folk music should be, soulful, hurting and haunting. Included with the CD is a beautiful  144 page book wherein Corin recounts the crazy journey to gather his hoard of CT$$ and shares the stories he has gathered along the way.  All in all, it is a talisman of Canadiana containing songs and stories from across our vast nation.
Corin is still collecting Canadian Tire Money.  His production costs for Paper Nickels are about 7333 and he has currently amassed about $6200 in CT$.  You can help out Corin by searching  for Canadian Tire Money in your closets and sock drawers, and sending it to:
Corin Raymond 39 Oxford St., Toronto, ON M5T 1N8Â
You can also head on over to his website, dontspendithoney.com for great stories, tour information, and to purchase Corin’s albums, or concert tickets.
One bit of sad news. Above is a picture of Hutch (David Hutchings), a popular sound man in our area, taken in 2006 at the Mundys Bay Folk Society. Hutch loved live music, and always made everyone sound fantastic. Â Sadly, he passed away this week. Hutch was all about live music, so in the memory of Hutch and to support indepenent Canadian music, , Â I am paying Corin and extra ten bucks above the $30 cost of paper nickels.
If you knew Hutch, and wish to help his wife Dorthea in this time of need, there has been a bank account set up for donations. Â The account is at the National Bank in Midland, account number 3156695. Â The
account was set up in the name of Carol Brady, in trust for Dorothea Herron. Â Carol Brady is Dorothea’s niece. Â There is also talk of a celebration of Hutch’s life on February 24, but I have no further details.
Finally: Â In January 2012, right at the beginning of the Canadian Tire Caper, I recorded a cover of Don`t Spend it Honey at my songwriter`s DIY getaway weekend, which Corin acknowledged as the first cover of the song. Â Enjoy.
You can leave comments on the blog, send me an email to ductapeguy at hotmail dot com or join the For The Sake of the Song Podcast group on Facebook.
This episode is a listening party/musician’s commentary on Aaron Mangoff’s new EP, You and I.  Aaron Mangoff is a young songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Orillia.  You can download it on Bandcamp  or find it on iTunes, or on the Sleeper Records homepage.  We are joined on the podcast by Aaron’s Sleeper Records labelmate, Christopher Thompson.
You can leave comments on the blog, send me an email to ductapeguy at hotmail dot com or join the For The Sake of the Song Podcast group on Facebook.
If you ask a songwriter which is his favourite song, he may answer, “The new one.” . Guitar players often have a similar affection for their newest guitar. This is my most recently completed song, The Park.  We live a block from a huge public park, and I wrote this song as a reflection of all the good times I have had at the park over the years.
I performed it on my newest guitar. The other day, I was at the Goodwill store with my family. On the counter there was a very battered and dirty guitar case and guitar. There was a greasepencil price of $40.04 on it. I tuned it up and even with old rusty strings, it sounded quite good so I bought it, even though I already have several acoustic guitars. There were unopened 20+ year old D’Addario strings in the case. My friend Brian put them on for me and it sounds great.
It is a late 60s or early 70s Yamaha FG-180 built in Japan. Apparently they are sought after by collectors. It may just have a few songs in it. I have one already 1/2 written. It was pretty dirty and mildewy when I got it but I have cleaned it up, so it looks and sounds great. It could probably use some maintenance and repairs on the neck and lower frets, but considering what I paid for it, it is doing remarkably well for a 40+ year old instrument.
I am launching a new format for this podcast. Â Think of it like the director’s commentary on a DVD movie but for albums. Â I will have a conversation with musicians while we listen to one of their albums. Â The conversation will last for the duration of the album. Â Enjoy.
Christopher Thompson is a young fingerstyle guitarist from Orillia.  He recently released his second EP, La-La on Sleeper Records.  Sleeper records was founded by Aaron Howes as a way to promote young Orillia area musicians.  You can download it on Bandcamp  or find it on iTunes.  We are joined on the podcast by Chris’ Sleeper Records labelmate, Aaron Mangoff.
You can leave comments on the blog, send me an email to ductapeguy at hotmail dot com or join the For The Sake of the Song Podcast group on Facebook.
