November Newsletter: Varied Thrush

Hush! Hush!

Happy November!

Your free demo this month is...

“Varied Thrush”
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(keep reading for more info on the song)

According to my notes, I started writing “Varied Thrush” on January 2, 2017, the day before I had surgery to remove the plate from my collarbone. (I broke it in 2015 in a bike crash.) I hoped going into the surgery and recovery period with a work in progress would keep me from losing my songwriting momentum.

Apparently it worked, because I finished the song on January 10th, 2017. But some of the lyrics were actually written sometime around 2010:

Are we a "we are" today?
Will we be a "we will be" tomorrow?
Were we a "we were" already long ago?

I had thought up those lines and kept them in my back pocket for a good six or seven years, waiting for the right song to come along so I could finally use them. I’d sing them from time to time, and mumble all the words I didn’t know yet: “We don’t know hmm-ba-dum-dum price to pay, brop-a-dum-bum-bum-bum-something sorrow, bop-a-lop-bop-boop-bop-something-ohhh…”

As far as I can recall, the inspiration for “Varied Thrush” came from just looking out at our frozen backyard, watching the birds and daydreaming. I had fallen in love with the Varied Thrush — their haunting metallic song, their burnt-orange and black and blue-gray plumage — several years earlier, and wanted to include them in a song. Even still, whenever I’m lucky enough to hear them, there’s a sharp intake of breath, followed by open-mouthed listening and probably a starry-eyed look on my face. Was that…? Could it be…?

Joni Mitchell, in “Urge for Going,” sings, “I get the urge for going but I never seem to go.” I wanted to write about that, the difficulty of leaving the cage even when the door is wide open. Why do we stay in conditions that threaten our survival? I mentioned this, how we stay too long, at my show in New York last month and everyone nodded knowingly.

In the same song, Joni Mitchell also sings about geese:

See the geese in chevron flight
Flapping and racing on before the snow
They got the urge for going
And they got the wings so they can go

But even birds don’t always GTFO. In February 2014 I found a MacGillivray’s Warbler in a blackberry bramble by the mall in Eugene, Oregon. That bird had no business being in Oregon in winter. He should have been mingling with other warblers in a shade coffee plantation in Central America.

I didn’t ask him what his deal was, but I’m sure the situation was more complicated than I could imagine. Finances, family drama…

Another time I was birding in the Wallowas — some mountains in Northeastern Oregon — and some other members of my party found a Cape May Warbler in someone’s yard. (This discovery made the paper. I’m in the second picture!) That warbler should have been in the Caribbean for the winter — and never in Oregon, not even in spring or summer.

Anyway, if it can be hard for birds to leave, or correct course, no wonder it’s hard for humans, with all the baggage of our competing needs and wants and societal expectations and on and on and on.

That being said, an Osprey who puts off migration till the ponds freeze over is either going to starve or die trying to dive through the ice. We have to look out for ourselves and leave when we need to leave, if at all possible. Hush, hush, listen to the Varied Thrush. In a quiet moment, you just might have a revelation.

This demo is a work in progress, but I’m really excited about it the way it sounds so far! It has a bunch of vocals, piano, bass, strings, marimba, and percussion. I’ve also incorporated a recording of a Varied Thrush from the Macaulay Library, taken in 1995 by Geoffrey A. Keller.

Thank you as always for letting me bring a new song to your inbox each month. And remember, I always like hearing from you! You can email me, or reach out on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Take care,
Stephan
www.stephannance.com

Shows

Nov 8 - Sofar Sounds, Boise, ID
Nov 25 - Yotsuya Tenmado Comfort, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Nov 26 - K.D. Hapon, Nagoya, Japan
Nov 28 - PEPPERLAND, Okayama, Japan
Nov 29 - LIVE rise SHUNAN, Shunan, Japan
Dec 1 - LAGBAG MUSIC, Kagoshima, Japan
Dec 2 - Graf, Fukuoka, Japan
Dec 4 - Risin’, Saga, Japan
Dec 9 - HOME, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Jan 17 - Sofar Sounds, New York City, NY
Jan 18 - Sofar Sounds, Boston, MA

PS Do you want me to come to your city? Tell me and I’ll try to make it happen! (I don’t always know where people want me to go…) Also, if you’re curious about hosting a concert, it’s easier than you might think! Especially if you're in the US or Canada. Piece of cake.