Tag Archives: Writing Songs

JimBaumerMusic Live Dates (Spring/Summer)

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I really don’t know who visits this website/blog these days. But in case someone local to Lynchburg (my new home) stumbles across it, here are the gigs I’ve managed to cobble together at the moment. Happy to have landed one of the coveted slots at the Lynchburg Community Market on Saturday mornings. I’ll be there on June 10th from 10:00 to Noon. Some of my favorite performances have been at farmers’ markets back in Maine. Always a fun time and I guess I’ll be able to break out the “Farmers’ Market Song” I wrote back in 2020.

Upcoming Music Dates

My live performances are always unique. I don’t play the same old covers that everyone else plays. I’ve also forged my own style of playing both electric and acoustic guitar. Not fancy, but my chops come from the heart. I also write my own songs and work these into my two-and-three-hour sets.

Hoping to find a few more places to play in Lynchburg and elsewhere. Don’t be surprised to find me busking on the mall in Charlottesville and who knows where else I’ll show up this summer and fall.

Here’s one of my own:

I’ll also be back in New England in August to make a return appearance at the amazing Bolton Fair on their stage near the beer tent. Hoping to find another venue or two in Maine to play for old friends.

Stay tuned!

Home Sweet Home/RPM Challenge 2023

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Last Monday, I finished my final mixes on my last two songs for the RPM Challenge. What originally began as a 5-song EP, over the course of February, became a 10-song album. Honestly, I wasn’t’ totally surprised that I had more songs in me than a mere five.

Home recording is a solitary activity. I don’t know how many people there are that would self-identify as home recorders. What I found enlightening during February, thanks to RPM’s attempts to connect all of us, is that there are more of us than I thought.

I’m not really sure where my music fits into the larger context of the rock and roll universe. I’m guessing I’ll always occupy some very small, obscure niche. And yet, I sometimes wonder why my music fails to gain any traction at all.

When I tell people that I “play music,” they invariably ask me, “what do you play?” It’s hard to give them an answer that satisfies how I categorize my music because my points of reference are generally obscure bands in the context of popular music.

My music has a definite point of origination—most likely 1992, when I first heard Guided by Voices double CD compiling Vampire on Titus and Propeller. I found it at WBOR, when I’d come in to listen to new music for my weekend radio slot I was doing at the time.

Another group of original songs.

The album possesses an aesthetic that’s all but disappeared in today’s music landscape. It’s like a lo-fi dream that walks through my own rock and roll journey from early 70s AM rock, through prog, punk, some British invasion, garage rock, with a tinge of psyche thrown in. Granted GbV aren’t the only point of reference for my music as it’s evolved over the past few years, but I think they are important.

This latest offering spends some time working its way through 90s shoegaze and has echoes of British bands Swervedriver and maybe even Ride and tracks like “Living in the Worst of Times” and the instrumental, “The Fool.” It also continues with populist subject matter that was part and parcel of last April’s release, Living in Some Strange Days.

The song, “They Don’t Care,” an acoustic number that I basically captured in one take after watching YouTube news footage of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, comes from realizing that we now have a uniparty that doesn’t care about poor people, black or white. East Palestine is an echo of disasters involving water and necessities of life that had already played out in Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi, before. As a result, life in America is become untenable for most.

“Guitar Story” is a song about the past six years, from picking up my old Yamaha guitar, and now, being able to play well enough to carry my songs (and some covers) as a one-man-band of sorts. It would be the “single” on the record, I think.

I called the 10 songs Home Sweet Home because the music emanates from our move and it also is an ironic title, also. If the past three years (or perhaps, six), I feel less at home in this world than ever before. Moving to a new geographic location is less jarring than the rapid-fire changes being thrown at us by elites via technology, social media, and now, AI.

The new release now gives me four musical collections. Similarly, I’ve published four books. I’d like to publish another book that draws upon my musical journey over the past few years. Maybe I can combine writing a book with releasing new music in 2024 during next year’s RPM Challenge.

Love Makes the World Go ‘Round (RPM Sketch #2)

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There’s some irony that, here on Valentine’s Day, I’m releasing my next RPM Challenge track, “Love Makes the World Go ‘Round.” It’s not the usual “love song.”

As I write, “love is misunderstood.” You think?

I’ve always had a problem with the way that the word “love” gets tossed around incessantly. IMO, it’s often used to speak of something other than what I think love ought to be.

I’ve said to people that I love, who said “I love you,” that they didn’t know what the word meant.

We see love used as a slogan, a word on signs about “loving neighbors,” when the people with those signs never once attempted to connect with me, their neighbor, next door. (true story)

Lest people just want to call me a “bitter crank,” I do know what real love is. I had that with my son and his death’s impact was so profound because of that deep-loving bond we had with one another. I’ve had that bond with my wife now for more than 40 years. I know what love is.

But, songwriting is subjective, so I’m not going to delve deeper into my intent on this song.

I’m happy with the lyrics and the overall production. The song has a 70s vibe to it, and I count that as a positive. Even added a little reverb on the vocals.

As a one-man-band, I don’t have a drummer or a bass player, but I find ways to lay down drum tracks (a drum pedal) and the low-end gets handled by tuning down a half-step and using my Danelectro and single-string intonations in creating a bottom on the track.

For those who like the lyrics, here they are:

Love Makes the World Go ‘Round

Love, Love Makes the World Go ‘Round
Love, Love Makes the World Go ‘Round

Not Sure Why They Say Its, Just Look at the Evidence and Weigh It
Love, Probably Don’t Make the World Go ‘Round

I Don’t Think That Love Makes the World Go ‘Round
No, No, I Don’t Think That Love Makes the World Go ‘Round

Come on Brother Be Straight, How Can You Not See All That Hate
Love, Love, Love Don’t Make the World Go Round

(Break)

Love Is Just a Word that People Say
Yes, Yes, Yes, Love Is Just a Word That People Say

They Love to Cast Their Spell, But With Them It’s Like a Clanging Bell,
Love It Don’t Make the World Go Round

Love Is Misunderstood, try to treat people like you probably should
That Kind of Love Might Just Make the World Go ‘Round

Love Is Misunderstood, try to treat people like you probably should
Oh Yeah, That Kind of Love Might Just Make the World Go ‘Round

©EveryDayYeah Music

Movin’ On Down (RPM Sketch #1)

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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

A Guitar Saved My Life

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The governor has shut me down. Just when I was starting to slide into a groove of sorts with my guitar-playing and getting out to various open mics, the governor in what seems like simply a random dictate—has snatched away these weekly chances for me to take my music from the basement bunker onto a stage. It’s become a way to push myself to become better, which only comes when you perform. Song lyrics and chords that you nail flawlessly when it’s just you alone in a practice space suddenly disappear when nerves hit prior to going on before strangers.

Mark was killed in January 21, 2017. During the second year of living through grief and loss, things seemed to get worse, if that was even possible. The summer of 2018, I became deeply depressed. I contemplated ways to kill myself. The loss of Mark and the isolation of being alone all day in a large house with no one calling or even emailing me made life seem untenable. As much as I loved Mary and didn’t want to inflict even more pain on her than she was already carrying around, I just couldn’t see any options.

On the darkest day of my life other than the night we learned Mark was killed, I was moving towards a final decision. But, for some reason, I walked towards the corner office I had in our house we were renting in Brunswick. To this day, I still don’t know why. Maybe to buy some time before making an irreversible choice.

Sitting in the corner was my guitar case holding the Yamaha acoustic I bought back in 1989 at Buckdancer’s Choice in Portland. Just recently, Mary found the original sales slip. I paid $140 for an instrument that has brought me joy, along with frustration for 30 years. I say “frustration” because at that point in my life, I’d never managed to push through that “wall” that all guitar players have to pass through on the journey towards being proficient on their instrument. I read a book earlier this year and the author said something to the effect that “the guitar is an easy instrument to learn: it’s a difficult instrument to master.”

Until 2018, I never committed to mastering the guitar. Oh, I’d have periods that would last a few months to a year when I’d play enough so that I built callouses on my fretting hand. I’d learn Christmas songs for the holidays, or in 2001, while attending a Vineyard Church in Lewiston, I became the small group worship leader, the guy who played simple songs on my guitar and led us in worship songs each week. That’s how I learned about Michael Pritzl and The Violet Burning, a band I now cover.

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