FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE AND EXCELLENT SOUND, USE EAR PHONES.
We all have special and important people in our life. A significant part of my next album will have songs about lots of special people. Many of those songs may catch your ear and trigger your brain seeming universal when similarities pop. Several people have influenced in a big way the way I am. There is someone I haven’t written about yet who rests at the top of my mountain. My newest Song is titled, It’ll Be OK. The song doesn’t mention her by name until the very last. That is because she is always there for me in that unsung never forgettable role and doesn’t crave recognition. She is my good luck and is unwavering in her devotion to what I do. I always know where she is…not far away. She is imaginative and creative, has a knack for words in the English language, enjoys writing, and draws me toward places I need to see and probably wouldn’t have discovered on my own just like I do similarly for her. Her interests include things that are antique and old while walking in the world of traditional values. Her optimism should become legendary. Her insight is worth listening to. We discuss and plan lots of things both personal and worldly. The lyrics are a simile about a lady bug. Lady bugs are special members of the kingdom of insects. They protect their world by digesting menacing insects that are harmful. They are full of color, are fun to have walk on your hand and arm, and are legendary in the luck they can bring. Their very being contributes to happiness. My special person is my very own lady bug.
The first verse: A lady bug/Sits on my shoulder/Knowing me like no other/Wise through the years/With her my fears fly away/So I walk in the sun
I just returned from a trip to Labrador where I took in one of the world’s unspoiled places and met the most hospitable people ever and listened to them sing their Music. They are just plain kind, friendly and thoughtful. Labrador is digitally and internet remote. After I quickly adjusted to the reality, I hiked, enjoyed living around icebergs, ate Labrador home cooked meals 3 times a day, took pictures, slept like I had never before, talked to people from an historic culture, taught myself to play a 200 year old Harmonium pump organ in its church, St. James the Apostle Church, whose doors are always open for me and anyone to wander in 24/7 on Battle Harbour, and then wrote some music to honor the place, Labrador and its people. I met a rock musician from Quebec who wandered in when I was composing on the Harmonium and liked what he heard. In the evening with a grand picture- window view over the harbour with its temporary resident icebergs and logs burning in the stove to warm the space located over the site’s kitchen and dining space, I introduced to the Canadian guests in Battle Harbour some of the music from my up-coming album. Their enthusiasm was exciting. Before arriving I knew no one there. Now there are people who have met me and listened to my music in person in Canada. This music experience in Canada was very encouraging and felt wonderful.
I have been working on several songs. The lady bug song I finished just before leaving for Labrador. I wrote it in the key of E flat major. It has a happy feel with syncopated rhythms off the beat throughout the verses..and especially in the chorus. The bridge uses some back phrasing. The lyrics drive the song with the music serving as its foundation and background. I have also included several piano fills. The style is a cross between jazz and pop which I knew would please my mom. I could see this song being used on Julie Andrew’s Julie’s Green Room for the subject matter and because I’ve built the lyrics around a lady bug theme. Regarding Battle Harbour and Labrador I’ve written a song titled A Place You Never Want To Leave. Each time I play and sing the song, I’m transported back there again to enjoy its pleasures…its welcoming and super friendly people and their true stories, the home-cooked meals we ate together, the hills and vegetation, the clean air, the wind and icebergs and cloud formations, its historical old buildings, the 21 hours of daylight, the way it looks, the island it is, and the boat ride over and back, but most of all an intense feeling of happiness while there sharing a place with people devoid of material longings. We never wanted to leave. That is the reason for the title and the love I built into the song. The Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador are influenced by people from Scotland and Ireland who over the years freely migrated there.. many as children. The music I wrote feels that influence and the storytelling nature of its people and their origins. Listen to the two songs It’ll Be OK and A Place You Never Want To Leave. Both songs are super-important for me and sit at the foundation of whom I am. Both after recording in a studio will be on my second album. I recorded using my smart phone the sounds of the Harmonium organ while I was playing on it to compose. It was wonderful to have such an instrument available for my own to use in such an extraordinary place. Some of that 200 year old music sound will accompany A Place You Never Want To Leave that I wrote in the key of D major. For now you can hear me composing in the church in Battle Harbour. It’s the third recording at the top of this blog. When I listen to it I feel like I am in the small boat taking me back to that place. Just outside the church a grey arctic fox sat while I was inside playing the Harmonium.
The chorus: There’s a place/You never want to leave/Seems almost perfect/When you see it/Its people are pure salt and gold/This place is in the north/Born of the sea.
When I returned home mdearing from Colorado became my fan after listening to I Don’t Think I’ll Look At It The Same Way Again. I understand, too, exactly what that feels like. Don’t forget to learn about me and listen to my music on my website joshuaelimusic.com, watch me perform and record my music on YouTube.com under Joshua Eli Kranz, while on the go listen to my music on SoundCloud.com under Joshua Eli Kranz, using the internet listen to my music paired with my mentors on radioairplay.com under my preferred performance name Joshua Eli and check out vimeo.com/joshuaeli to see a video of Do You Wanna Dance. Please share all of the above and this blog with your friends and family who enjoy knowing the intricacies of music and its backstory. Since returning home I feel FIRED UP AND READY TO GO, using President Obama’s expression. That is the value of a true vacation.
The coming week will see Canada turn 150, the USA will turn almost 100 years older than that and my brother will have major fusion surgery on his spine. I am pulling for Jeremy and hopeful that our family will be able to celebrate the success of his surgery in parallel with the celebration of the birth of 2 wonderful nations!! Amen.
Sincerely,
Joshua Eli
June 23, 2017 also Happy 1/2 Birthday
This post first appeared on What's Up With Joshua Eli Kranz L.A. Composer/Perf, please read the originial post: here
