Feather

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Before the pandemic I made a promise to myself to make more of an effort to performing my original songs in solo settings. After decades as a singer-songwriter it dawned on me that I wasn't really doing much work in that department. Playing in bands, singing on occasion, doing the horn thing, yet. But being on stage alone, just me? Nope. A virtual blank page in my musical resume. It's one thing to sing with a band, quite another to perform alone.

Fortunately, there were a group of songwriters and musicians hosting monthly session at the Corvallis Art Center, a stage I've played on with other musicians but never (gasp) all by my lonesome! The first time I performed on piano/vocal alone I was pretty shaky - I was nervous, but I muddled through best I could. Over the months I relaxed more and gained some confidence. I also had the benefit of an audience who was supportive. Further, I began to cultivate some opinions as to what kinds of tunes I felt work working for me personally in that capacity. Watching and listening to the other songwriters/performers is always a good investment. I was proud to be in the room with like-minded folks even though our tastes in music were often widely different.

I'm a horn player (trumpet, flugelhorn, some sax) mostly, and am pretty comfy in that role. And I'm comfortable as a writer and producer and recording in my little basement studio where it's safe and free from scorn and embarrassment (mostly). But up on the stage alone with just a piano? That's a muscle I definitely needed to work on. Sometimes the songs I performed were songs I'd written that week. Feather was one such song. I needed a song for that month and came up with this one. When considering what songs to add to my Quietly song collection, Feather was a natural choice.

I tried to give the recorded version all the emotion I could. I'm proud of the lyric on this song and the fact that I can blow my horn on it too over some nice chord changes!

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