It’s February, so it must be time to write some new songs. This year is a bit different, though, because I’m tackling the RPM Challenge.
The RPM is an annual creative challenge, seeking to motivate anyone to record original music during the month of February. Artists set their own length goals (EP, or full-length), and have until March 1 to complete their projects.
JimBaumerMe is tackling the RPM Challenge in 2023
Last year, I could have entered what became Living in Some Strange Days, my first full-length, but come midnight on February 28, I wasn’t happy with my final track. Instead, I wrote a new song the next day, “Kick the Darkness,” because I needed something more hopeful than the overly dark themes on most of the other tracks. I’m glad I did, as the song really became the “single” of the release and garnered some worldwide airplay.
This year, in January, I was intentional about doing RPM, properly. I even started writing a song before the challenge officially began.
I view some of these tracks as “sketches,” not entirely finished. I’ll probably come back to some or all of the five or six tracks that will make up the release when it’s completed. I’d like to add some multi-tracks on the guitars and bump up the vocals, but I’ll have to see how much time I have.
This song is about moving to my new home in Lynchburg, Virginia. I’m calling it “Movin’ On Down” as Mary and I moved “down” from the North to south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
I really liked the riff the first time I came up with it. It didn’t take long to put the guitar parts together and the words followed. Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon laying down tracks and getting a “rough” recording of drums, vocals, guitar. I mixed it this morning and you now have my “rough mix.”
Not sure that the other tracks will be so “positive” in outlook, and that’s okay. But this one will likely be another one of my songs that gets lots of play in my live setlist. I really like that it captures the anticipation of a new chapter in one’s life, and figuring out the challenges of new geography, and finding some new people to hang with.
Here are the lyrics for those of you who like those things:
Movin’ on down to a brand new town
Gonna’ start a brand new life
Been talking about rollin’ out
Push away all that strife
Leaving the north, heading south
Lots of friends left behind
I touched down, looked around
Too much to process now
In a rut just hanging around
Find a new patch of ground
My new home in a brand new town
Picking up a welcome vibe
I touched down, looked around
Can’t process it all today
This new home in a brand new town
Enjoying it in every way
The old hometown, left in the dust
Place of birth not the same
Got so much I want to do
Before I go away
Movin’ on down to Lynchburg town
Gonna’ start a brand new life
I’ve been talking about rollin’ out
Push away all that strife
I left the north, I headed south
Toom many friends left behind
I touched down, looked around
New people to get to knowwww
Movin’ Movin Movin on down
I’m south of the Mason-Dixon Line