Hi friends,

Happy October! Though it may not feel very Octoberish yet where you are . . . .

Bandcamp Friday

Today, Friday October 3, is another Bandcamp Friday, when Bandcamp waives their usual cut of sales revenue for the day and passes it along to the artists. On my Bandcamp site you’ll find “official” and not-so-official releases, and other merch. Check it:

https://kevingordon.bandcamp.com/
Shows

Just a couple of local solo shows coming up–

Saturday 10/4  Eastwood Fallfest   Nashville   2pm
(Honored to be playing our neighborhood’s 3rd annual festival; it’s free, and there’s lots going on. Location has moved this year–to Chapel Avenue, between Greenwood and Roberts.)

Friday   10/17   Eastside Bowl (Low Volume Lounge)   Madison TN   7pm
(I’ll be workin’ it out solo in the front lounge at ESB–maybe trying a new song or two!)

I’m also proud to announce that I’ll be a part of a very special night in Iowa City, Magic Dust: The Songs of Dave Moore, honoring the songs of the great Dave Moore. With Jeffery Foucault, Greg Brown, Iris Dement, Pieta Brown, Bo Ramsey, Kris Delmhorst, Joe and Vicki Price, Erik Koskinen, and Dave Zollo. Thursday, December 11, at the Englert Theater. Tickets are on sale and going fast! Here’s a link:

https://tinyurl.com/5ba89m3u

Hope to see you there!

About That Song: Simple Things

“Simple Things” was the first single from my latest album, The In Between. I often refer to this one, in the spirit of comic absurdity, as my second “pandemic hit.” I started writing it in early April, 2021. Here’s a scan of the first draft of the lyrics–

I kept working on the lyrics up until I recorded the final vocal track, over a year later. Some songs will tell you that they are “singles”–and expect a certain approach to the craft when you’re writing them. This was one of those. Keep it short: two verses, not three. A straightforward attitude with the lyrics. Using weather as a kind of a metaphor helped keep it from getting too sentimental–and I liked how it’s something we all live with, and live in. Like the plague we were all dealing with then (and still do, to some extent). I came up with that instrumental intro not long before we recorded it; and instead of a potentially self-indulgent solo section in the middle, Joe and I decided on using it as a breakdown, a breath (and musically very similar to the intro–repetition being a good thing in songs like this). And how about that harmony vocal?! Luella came in and nailed it. I am so grateful to live in a town where so many super-talented people are. And to count them as friends means a lot to me.

Got a question or a comment? Email me: kevingordonmusic@gmail.com. I always enjoy hearing from you!

Love,

Kevin

Hi All,

I visited family in Des Moines for a few days recently, and retrieved the guitar that got lost there back in June. (I’ll be telling that story on my social media very soon.) Used to be a 12-hour drive from Nashville, but since it’s now all 4-lane except for one 20-mile stretch, you can do it in 10 or 10 1/2, allowing for a couple of fuel stops. The van’s running well (knock-on-naugahyde); mileage is at about 190K now. How am I running, you ask? Well, I had a little abnormality show up on my annual CT scan in early July, and had a biopsy of it done right before heading to Iowa. Fortunately, the news is good; as my ENT predicted, it turned out to be a benign growth (a “granuloma”) that’s related to inflammation, on one side of my vocal cords. Had a follow-up this past Monday, where the doc took another look via scope (yuck), and everything’s fine down there. He added some prilosec to my daily pharmaceutical diet, which should help with that inflammation and avoid a recurrence. 

Hey! I’m playing a few dates in September—(all band shows except 9/23):

9/5   River Jam—US National Whitewater Center Charlotte NC

9/9 Five Spot Tight Tuesday hosted by Chris Frasco  Nashville  8:45pm (trio)

9/11 Eastside Bowl Nashville    (unofficial Americanafest show) 8pm

9/23 Bluebird Cafe Nashville    9pm (hosted by Paul Burch, KG in the round with Will Kimbrough and Emily Clement)

As ever, check with the venues directly before traveling to a show. Crap happens! Such as, last year when we were scheduled to play the Whitewater Center on the same evening when the hurricane aftermath flooded and destroyed so much of western NC. Had we made the drive, we might not have made it home for a while . . . .

In lieu of traversing hundreds of miles of asphalt over the next few months, I have plenty around here to keep me busy. The long-promised “Burning” album reissue is coming along. My team and I will be launching a pre-order campaign soon—stay tuned for details. We’ll be releasing the original album on vinyl, with supplemental content available digitally. 

Speaking of recordings and such, don’t forget to check out my Bandcamp store, for official and not-so-official releases, as well as other merch: https://kevingordon.bandcamp.com/

About That Song: The In Between

“The In Between” is title track from my latest album, which is dang near a year old now. They grow up so fast . . . . I started writing the song on June 16, 2021, and it quickly became obvious that it was going to be very personal, and very much about “the now” (as it was then.)

It felt to me as if the pause we were all living through in those two years offered me the chance to go inward, to reckon with my own present and past, instead of someone else’s (something I do quite often.) I heard that phrase as the title—not exactly a fresh idea, but I thought that it fit what I was writing about well enough that it was okay, and if I brought my own stories to the idea, it might still work. 

First verse was the first verse I worked on—the internal battle of good vs. evil—and how our lives are always somewhere between those two extremes. Once I had “just being born/Burns off your wings,” I felt good about it. The other verses came in a random order, including at least one that didn’t make the cut on the final version. In the final verse, the “ill wind blowing/Through the trees and truck stop signs” is a reference to all the dystopian political madness we were living with then—the politicization of an international health crisis. My favorite part of the lyric is the last half of the bridge—“feeling like Gary Busey/Playing old Howard Hughes”—not something that’s ever happened, far as I know, but imagining it provided plenty of appropriate absurdity for that middle-aged-eccentric-trapped-in-the-house vibe. 

Now that the album and a couple of extra singles have been out nearly a year, what’s your favorite track? What sticks with ya? Reply with a comment to this post, or email me: kevingordonmusic@gmail.com. I always enjoy hearing from you!

Love,

Kevin