i need some ment-lax

i am in a freaking lyrical funk. which is somewhat of a problem since every time i touch my guitar i write a new song..or two...or three. i am doing a study in two and three chord songs right now...seeing what i come up with when i drop some of the 2nds and 6ths and such and just work in simplicity. and i'm loving it.

don't get me wrong. the stuff i've written that has survived and made it into my sets these days is some of my favorite music ever. i've got stuff in DADGAD tuning with two capos and keep finding more interesting configurations. the group of musicians i spend every thursday night with have had nothing but praise for that stuff...which always feels good. and i did an hour long set last monday for about 10 people who had good things to say about my lyrics. but i was inspired by one Glen Hansard to see how simple i could go.

my roommate, danny, bought the Once soundtrack and we sat down to listen to it. i got my guitar out and, i'll be darned...i was able to play pretty much everything he did within 30 seconds. standard tunings, simple finger picking patterns, easy rhythms...and yet i freaking loved the songs.

so, i started with two chords...eventually added a third for the chorus...and literally played it for about two straight hours. i had so much fun creating melodies to those two chords. then i picked a couple of different chords, in a different key, capoed the guitar up about 7 frets to see what might come ouf of that...and played that for about two more hours.

trouble is, i need to find a lyrical laxative. i wrote one set for the second song. it was the most pathetic thing i've ever written. not bad/pathetic. sad/pathetic. like if someone took vince gill's most sorrowful music and attached that machine from The Princess Bride/pathetic. i saved it, of course, in case vince ever comes calling again for a song (you must know about the best burn ever to understand the "again" part). but it's not going into my repertoire.

my friend, brooke, used to tell me free writing was the ultimate unblockage technique, so i'll probably get to doing some of that tonight...and tomorrow...and for as along as it takes for a decent line to pop out of my head. meanwhile...if you know anyone who's writing lyrics every time they sit down with a pen but is haveing a severe music blockage, please send them my way.