Songs? Stories? What's this about

First post: so I guess I should tell you what this is all about. This is a place to tell stories behind the songs. It's something that songwriters are often discouraged from doing in concert because really, 80% of the audience doesn't care. And sometimes it can be detrimental: interfering with the listener mapping their own experiences to the song and relating to it. So in concert I don't introduce every song, and if I do tell a story I keep it short... just enough to place it in context.

But this blog is for that 20% whether they are just enthusiasts interested in the creative process or other songwriters wondering whether anyone else is as crazy as they are. I think I'd had the urge to do this before, but I did recently come across a book that may have helped crystalize the idea. And I have to say as a songwriter I found it more instructive than most books I've seen on songwriting. It's On Songwriting by the Canadian folk legend Bob Snider . In it he starts out just describing in general terms how he goes about chasing an idea down and getting it right or leaving it alone and coming back to it, etc. etc. And then he takes 10 of his songs and tells the stories of how they came about.

I plan to tell the stories about my songs, but I hope this becomes a place for others to share their own stories and connections to their music. Perhaps this cloud of concepts becomes a new way of connecting people to our songs.