Aotearoa Calling: The Land of the Long White Cloud
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Check Out the Album
Original Concept:
This will be a concept album inspired by, and making reference to, my second trip to Aotearoa New Zealand -- this most recent trip having been a 30 day excursion in the Fall of 2022. I attempted to write some lyrics while there, but they are currently on the shelf. I imagine there will be a fair amount of nature imagery in the songs supporting this project.
Artist Post-Game:
I believe I adhered to The Rules again this year. There is a chord progression throughout "Queenstown Farewell" that mirrors the Van Morrison song "Ancient of Days," but it's not a complete rip of the melody and lyrically of course it is different. I rewrote and repurposed "Lean In" which is a song I wrote after a trip to another island, but it has new lyrics appropriate to this new album, so it meets the Rule in place for composing the majority of the album in March. All the recording was done in March, using my still primitive understanding of GarageBand. I've been in something of a creative funk as regards songwriting for a number of months now, so this effort was more perspiration than inspiration -- although the 2022 extended trip to Aotearoa New Zealand was plenty inspirational. As always, I'm grateful for the chance to participate in this yearly event.