Lonely Path
b'Episode #110: \\xa0Lonely Path\\xa0 (Song starts at 7:03)\\n\\nI enjoyed singing and playing Lonely Path live for today\'s episode. I do this sometimes. Other times I\'ll select an old demo or maybe an album track. It adds variety along the way. It\'s all a work in progress.\\nI played a gig today - and yesterday - at the village green. It\'s a small village. A very nice community farmers market was on today. I\'d shut my eyes as I started off singing and opened them after a couple of songs.\\xa0\\nI found myself pretty much surrounded by a decent crowd. They\\u2019d materialised very quietly, drawn by the music and were listening very closely.\\xa0\\nIt\'s the most rewarding thing when you get that response as a songwriter. What it means is: because these people don\'t know the song they\'re listening too, it had better be engaging emotionally and have whatever it takes as a performance to draw the listener in\\u2026 and that\\u2019s what happened.\\xa0\\nYesterday, on the green, the same thing happened but on a smaller scale. This time when I shut my eyes to start it was just myself, a few sculptors, a human performance artist coloured gold, being a statue. Interesting gig! I was hired to attract attention to this public art demonstration/event.\\xa0 And... The \\u2018extra\\u2019 listener I drew in first was a fellow who had obviously had a big night out and hadn\'t gone home.\\xa0\\nHe came right into my personal space...I sensed him before I opened my eyes.. When I did he looked at me menacingly and said " do I look angry to you? "\\xa0\\xa0I said "No, man, you look like you could do with a lie down.\\u201d\\nWhich he did. He promptly lay down and appeared to pass out. After that, during the gig, every now and then he\'d wake up appreciatively declare " %}^% ing brilliant", "Beautiful music\\u201d.\\xa0 The sun shone and we looked after him. He was safe with us, the artists.\\xa0\\nSo I played music rather like a soundscape for what was going on around me.\\xa0\\nI mention all this because the subject of today\'s song. Lonely path. The fellow asleep next to me on the green yesterday was alone. I was alone playing. We are all alone, in a sense. \\nThe song came about when one of my students asked me what it\'s like to be a songwriter. I told him the usual stuff (rewarding, exhilarating, hard at times, a joy, etc).\\xa0\\nImmediately after he left, with a quiet laugh, I said to myself "It\'s a lonely path.\\u201d\\xa0\\nSo that\'s where the song started.\\xa0\\nAs an artist, there is a sort of a price to pay, somehow. It\'s well worth it. But it does require long periods of contemplation, which requires solitude. A lonely word in itself, yet there is solace here. Times of regular reflection sure has its rewards.\\nSo here we go, with a \\u2018heart my sleeve\\u2019 episode... here\'s how I feel, being a songwriter, painter and poet.\\xa0\\nAnd.. of course, on this episode you\'ll get to find out about more about how a song comes together.\\xa0\\nHere we go\\u2026\\nAs usual, the lyrics are on this week\\u2019s blog post :\\xa0 www.petepascoe.worpress.com (plus Seascapes, Cartoons and more).'