Best Of The Song A Week Challenge #4 : Good Friends, Good Times, Good Music

I couldn't have made it through to the end of this challenge without the interest and support of my friends and fans. Knowing that folks were keeping track of this thing certainly motivated me to keep going. This all started with my buddy Ross Neilsen and I joking around about the idea on Facebook. We had never met in person up to that point. We just helped each other out with information about venues, helped set up gigs, etc. When Ross did a show here in Kingston at the RCHA, you know we just had to get a song down for this challenge :





Ross was doing the challenge as well, but only made it to week #15. Still, he got some great tunes out of it, and a couple ended up on his latest record. I'm sure he would say it was a worthwhile creative exercise. You can pick up a copy of his latest record HERE.



Another opportunity that arose from this challenge, prompted mostly by the necessity to continually come up with new material, was co-writing. Tony Silvestri, Geoff Chown, and myself were sitting around, before or after practice one day(can't remember which), and I turned to Tony and said,'I need a song for this week, like today. Let's write one.' So we did just that. I'm still not sure I know how to play this one on guitar. Tony took care of the music. We need to get a studio quality recording of this song(sound quality on this video is pretty rough). It's gonna be a hit, I tell ya!




While TST was on tour out west last fall, we stopped in and visited with our good friend, singer/songwriter JD Edwards, at his home in Winnipeg, MB. As always when we are in Winnipeg, we had an awesome time out on the town, and ended jamming at a local pub by the end of the night. But to start off, we sat around in JD's living room and wrote this tune. Warning: this can be an earworm.

This recording says it all for me, about the experience of doing the song a week challenge, and being creative for creativity's sake, and nothing else. Good friends. Good times. Good music. If you've got that, you're doing alright.

2012 Song A Week Challenge Complete!!

I started out 2012 with the resolution that I would write, record, and post a song online for every week of the year. A daunting task. One I wasn't sure I'd be able to complete. But I'm here to tell you I did it!! Posted the last tune at around 12:15 on Dec. 31st.


This was not easy. At the beginning, the songs flowed out of me, and I was thinking it would be a piece of cake. Then February rolled around. Things began to slow down.

This challenge taught me a lot about the process of writing, and opened me up to new approaches. I found myself looking for the song, rather than waiting for the song to find me, which is how I used to operate. I have to say though, the songs that just kinda come to you are still the best ones.

Three of the "songs of the week" ended up on the latest TST record - Overdrive Express, "49 More To Go", "Lunatic Baby", and "We're Older Now". I'll be going back through the songs in the coming months to find my top ten for my next recording project, which will be a solo record. Most likely acoustic.

I've gotta thank Ross Neilsen for getting this thing going. Without him joking around with me about it on Facebook, this project would never have gotten off the ground. Ross started off the challenge with me. He only made it to week 15, but got some solid tunes for his latest solo record, and I think maybe for his upcoming record with the band.

A worthwhile creative exercise for both of us I'd have to say.


I started off this challenge by posting religiously on Monday mornings, and using Bandcamp. But as the year went on, and my touring schedule complicated things, I switched over to mobile recording on my ipod, using the Soundcloud app.

Feel free to have a look back on my creative output for 2012. When I find my top 10, I'll be sharing them as well.


Happy New Year!!
Tom

Four months into the year, songwriter is meeting the challenge

Thought I'd repost this article from the Kingston Whig-Standard about the Song A Week Challenge here for folks following the blog. Thanks again to Tori Stafford for asking me to do the interview, and for doing such a great job writing the article.

Four months into the year, songwriter is meeting the challenge

By Tori Stafford
Posted 2 days ago

Essentials
Where to check out Tom Savage this month:
 Friday, May 11: The Tom Savage Trio at Brandees, 8 p.m.
 Saturday, May 12: The Royal Tavern (as part of HomeGrown Music Festival), 8 p.m.
 Friday, May 18: Acoustic Grill in Picton, 7 p.m.
 Friday, May 25: The RCHA Club, 8 p.m.
 Saturday, May 26: The Toucan, 9 p.m.

Few people make a New Year’s resolution that lasts beyond the the month of January, and fewer still keep their resolution long enough for it to make any difference in their lives.

But for local musician and songwriter Tom Savage it was a New Year’s resolution that began what has now lasted 17 weeks — something few people, let alone musicians, would ever attempt to do.

And it all started as a joke.

Having played the night before, Savage arose on Jan. 1, 2012, “a little groggy” and announced his resolution.

“I said, ‘I’m going to write a song a day for the year,’ ” Savage recalled.

“And my resolution will be broken by tomorrow!”

His friend and fellow musician, Ross Neilsen of New Brunswick, suggested Savage would likely be able to tackle a song a week.

“I said, ‘Umm … all right, I think I could maybe do one a week,’ ” he said, hesitating even in recollection.

“I said, ‘I’ll think about that.’ ”

Savage smiles, recalling how it all began. After all, forced writing is a difficult challenge for any musician. And Savage is one of those musicians that normally writes a song over time, allowing it to steep and grow before putting pen to paper or pick to strings.

But, from that joke over coffee with his friends and family, the 2012 Song A Week Challenge was born.

Now, with 17 songs under his belt from the challenge, Savage said it was a resolution that is certainly broadening his musical horizons.

Born and raised in Westport, Savage is the son of two musicians, and the third generation of a family of piano teachers.

“My dad was touring around when I was little, too, for a little bit,” Savage said, noting that his father stuck to the folky, “Gordon Lightfoot-esque” tunes of the early ’70s.

“So definitely I had musical instruments around. And I sort of just latched onto that. That’s all I did in high school, basically,” said Savage.

“I’d play, like, six hours a day. I’d go into the music room at lunch hour, or on my spare, and then I’d come home, get something to eat, go in my room and play until I went to bed.”

That early training prepared Savage with the talent that would become his livelihood.

Savage is best known around town for a few things. His solo work is a folk-country-rock fusion that seeps of Bob Dylan-like lyrics with strong and catchy melodies that come back to you year after year.

He also heads up the Tom Savage Trio, whose sound he describes as “dirt road rock and roll,” and recently started up the Aldous Huxters, a side project with brothers Kevin and Pete Bowers. This band, he said, is an outlet for musical creativity that doesn‘t fit with any of his other work.

“I guess it’s more indy-folk-rock sound,” Savage said of the Aldous Huxters.

“ I had this pile of tunes and it’s just good to be able to play them now.”

Savage began playing for audiences at 18 years old. He’s recorded five albums, the last of which was in 2009. The only time he’s taken much of a break from playing was while he was “a stay-at-home-dad guy” when his son and daughter were still in diapers.

Now 10 and almost 7, his children, Zach and Bella, have caught the hereditary bug. Both have expressed desires to become musicians, Savage said.

“They say they want to be musicians, and I’m like, ‘No, you don’t,’ ” said Savage, laughing and leaning back in his chair. After all, Savage knows all too well the trials and tribulations of being a full-time musician.

“But, if they ever did, they’d be going in with their eyes open.”

It’s not surprising that Savage’s children ended up with the music bug. Not only does the music gene run in his family, Savage’s wife, Vanessa Longul, is a classically trained flutist who can seriously rock a jazz flute solo.

In fact, when the family was on the East Coast last year, Savage had what he refers to as the Savage Family Band, consisting of himself, Vanessa, his father and the two kids.

“Bella had the shakers. She sang back-up vocals, too. They do like five or six songs, but I think it was last spring that I told Zach, ‘If you learn some songs, I’ll pay you for the gig. I’ll pay you $20 if you play a set with me,’ ” Savage said, a modest-yet-proud father.

“And he did it.”

Savage’s son even learned the Hendrix classic All Along the Watchtower, which the pair played in the key of C. This way, Savage said, he could teach his son how to fake solo on the white keys of the piano.

“I gave him a little secret there, telling him, ‘You can’t play a wrong note if you stay on those white keys. We’re in the key of C. Just go for it!’ So he did.”

And when Savage isn’t playing around the city — he plays solo and with the trio often, and has a steady open mic night gig at The Rose and Crown on Wednesday nights — he tours the country, coast to coast.

In the last year, he has toured in Alberta five or six times, he said. The audiences there really appreciate his country-folk-rock sound, and the gigs pay well, too.

He also goes to the East Coast about once a year. Again, the grassroots sound he’s mastered is easily swallowed in the eastern provinces, and he likes to meet up with his musician friends out there as well.

But the 2012 Song A Week Challenge has expanded his repertoire, he said. Though he sticks with the genre he knows best for the most part, he doesn’t want the project to go stale and sound too similar, he said.

Through the weeks, he’s dabbled in blue grass, straight-up blues, and even tackled a barbershop-style tune in the most recent week.

And, apart from challenging him musically and lyrically on a weekly basis, the project has also drummed up some interest online, Savage said.

“People are interested. They seem to think it’s a cool idea,” Savage said, again with the modesty that allows him to be talented yet down to earth.

“I’m getting hits on the blog and stuff, so people are checking it out.”

Will he make it through the whole year?

“I think I can. I have friends, or, I guess fans, who have said that I can’t stop now. Even if it sucks, they say I have to post something every week!”

He is also about to go into the studio to record his sixth album of original songs, a couple of which were born from the Song A Week Challenge.

It’s projects like the Challenge, Savage said, that allow him to continue growing and developing as a musician — a career choice that isn’t always easy to live with.

“I don’t know if it has anything to do with Kingston. I think just being a musician in general is difficult … It’s extremely hard to make a living … I try not to think about it,” Savage said with a hearty laugh.

“When I was in my 20s, I’d tell people I was a musician and they’d say, ‘What else do you do?’

“Then, as I’ve become older, I tell people I’m a musician and they say, ‘Well, how do you do that?’

“Obviously I’ve been doing it a while, but you have to love it. You can’t be in it for the money.

“If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’ … I couldn’t do it.”

To find out more about Savage and the 2012 Song A Week Challenge, check out his blog where he posts each song at tomsavagetrio.blogspot.com.

You can also follow Savage on Twitter under the handle @TomSavageTrio, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tomsavagetrio.

Song #14 Week #14 2012 Song A Week Challenge

I've been the measure of consistency since this challenge started, posting my songs without fail every Monday (morning usually). but that all changed this week, as I gave myself an extra day for Easter celebrations. It did not go unnoticed on the Twitterverse however:

holy shit! i think this is the first time in months I've beat @TomSavageTrioto posting my song for the #songaweekchallenge!

— Ross Neilsen (@RossNeilsen) April 9, 2012

That's my buddy Ross giving me a hard time. If you've been following this blog, then you know he has taken on the challenge as well. I think he even ended up recording a couple of the tunes on his new record (to be released in the fall).Go check out his tunes over on his website.



This week, I've got a sort of coming of age, or looking back on youth(teenage years specifically)song. It's called "We're Older Now". Hope you enjoy, and by all means, let me know what you think.






waiting for the dawning of a new age
listening to Segar Turn the page
out in the driveway on the patio chair
taking in the beauty wonderin what's out there

philosophical discussion , we're way too stoned
I can't feel my body, but i know i'm not alone
it's a hell of a trip this midnight ride
speaks to your soul, hits you inside

CHORUS
we're older now x 3 - x2

voyageur bus trip hunted by ghosts
i guess that a home was the thing we wanted most
laughing and joking masking our pain
made sure we stayed high
so we could stay sane

CHORUS

you went your way I went mine
neither of us can say we really fell in line
with this day to day routine, we're ramblin still
no matter where we go, we'll be climbing up that hill

CHORUS


credits
from 2012 Song​-​A​-​Week Challenge (April), track released 10 April 2012
words and music by Tom Savage

Song #11 Week #11 2012 Song A Week Challenge

This whole crazy thing started when Ross Neilsen and I were joking around on Facebook, and here we are 11 weeks later, still truckin' along. This week, a special surprise guest joins me for my song of the week. The man himself, Ross Neilsen!

Those of you who have been following the challenge, know that Ross has been writing a song a week as well. He played a show in Kingston on Friday and crashed over in the jam shack, so Saturday morning we shot this video. I had just woke up, hence the bedhead I'm sportin'. You can't fake that stuff man.

Ross & I hadn't actually met in person before Friday. We've helped each other out the past couple of years (via the internet) with finding gigs and stuff, and have seen each other's posters at various venues across the country, but never actually met. The internet is cool that way.


Enjoy the video. It's not framed very well, you can't see Ross' fingers flyin', but I think you can pick up what we're puttin' down.

Song #8 Week #8 2012 Song A Week Challenge

I'm getting in touch with my inner lounge lizard on this week's tune. This one is written in an interesting lyric style.Basically using only two words for most lines. There is a story in there. See if you can pick out what it is about.

This week we have a special musical guest. My lovely partner-in-crime, booking agent, publicist, and Mother of my children, Vanessa Longul. Stick around until the end of the tune to check out her smooth jazz flute solo. I've mentioned that Vanessa was playing on this week's track to some other musicians around town, and they've expressed interest in making their own guest appearance on a song of the week, so watch for more special guest musicians in the week's to come.

Also, be sure to swing by my buddy Ross Neilsen's site to see what he's got cooking for week #8.

cheers,
Tom




slow walker
fast talker
big dreamer
quiet screamer

undecided
misguided

unrepentant
whatever that meant
instinctive
knows where you live

headline grabber
endless jabber
early riser
advertiser

high beams
ghetto scenes
flat tire
gun fire

hospital bed
hole in his head

life support
order in the court
judge & jury
there's no hurry

He's passed on
Yes he's gone
Hearse is rolling
There'll be life without paroling

slow walker
fast talker x2


from 2012 Song​-​A​-​Week Challenge (February), track released 27 February 2012
music & lyrics by Tom Savage

Week #3 Song #3 - 2012 Song A Week Challenge

This week I've got another tune with some dark subject matter. Picture if you will, a murdering, thieving, outlaw who is explaining to a hitchhiker, why he has ended up being the way he is, and warning her against getting into his truck. That's the basic gist of the song. I don't know where this stuff comes from. But I like it.

Another thing I like about this tune is that it is one chord. And it totally works.

Let me know what you think. And be sure to check out Ross Nielsen's blog for his tune.






stark raving mad
i'm a lunatic baby
but you don't want to get
the wrong impression of me

I'm wanted in 49 and a half states baby
the only place that they don't want me is in southern Tennessee

i was born into a low-budget hollywood movie
my daddy had a six-gun and he did what he pleased

my mama tried to raise me as best as she could
but her best wasn't good enough so you get what you see

we moved from town to town
Daddy'd get himself to workin
But then he'd end up robbing the local liquor store

One day he shot the store clerk
and he ended up in prison
Then all that was left
Was my poor Mama and me

My Daddy got the chair
My mama found religion
I found the keys to his pickup
An '89 Ford

I rolled down the interstate
Lay waste to all that I saw
An angry little boy
My Mama's demon seed

Now you don't have to wonder
why i am the way i am
It's the cards that i was dealt
and that's how it's gotta be

once you step inside this truck
you're world's changed forever
Cause I don't let nobody
take nothin' from me

stark raving mad
i'm a lunatic baby


credits
from 2012 Song​-​A​-​Week Challenge (January), track released 23 January 2012
music & lyrics by Tom Savage