Hello and happy Friday!
I have one of those rare and wonderful days where my kids will be taken care of by other people until 5pm (an early Christmas miracle)! I have big BIG plans to get some work taken care of, including tackling my #submissionmission and finally finishing the first draft of a new TYA one-act. On writing/working days like these I gotta bring out the big guns music wise to keep my fingers tapping and the words flowing, here are some of my favorites tunes to write to:
For serious writing-writing: first drafts and major rip-apart rewrites:
- Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis
- Tokyo Adagio - Charlie Haden & Gonzalo Rubalcaba
- Birthdays - Keaton Henson
- Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suites - Yo-Yo Ma
- Shake Sugaree - Elizabeth Cotten
- In Roses - Gem Club
- Come Sunday - Charlie Haden & Hank Jones
- Ambient 1/Music For Airports - Brian Eno
- Mingus Plays Piano - Charles Mingus
- My Favorite Things - Joey Alexander
For submission-ing:
- 100 Days, 100 Nights - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
- Seven Swans - Sufjan Stevens
- Begin To Hope - Regina Spektor
- Back To Black - Amy Winehouse
- 69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields
- Version - Mark Ronson
- St. Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley
- It's Impossible - Odetta
- Tell Mama The Complete Muscle - Etta James
- Buena Vista Social Club At Carnegie Hall (Live) - Buena Vista Social Club
For those times I want to write, ugly cry, and sing at the top of my lungs (and off key), I have special and specific songs:
- Romeo And Juliet - Dire Straits
- Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
- A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell
- Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell
- We Close Our Eyes - Oingo Boingo
- Madness - Muse
- Jolene - Cake's, Dolly Parton's, and Ray LaMontagne's - it's a miracle not I haven't named all my characters Jolene.
- The Joke - Brandi Carlile
- Why Can't He Be You - Patsy Cline
- Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Bob Dylan
- America - Simon & Garfunkel
- The Animals Were Gone - Damien Rice
- Elephant - Damien Rice
- Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday… Actually anything and everything by Billie Holiday
- Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor
…. And now you know all my music secrets. What are your go-to writing tunes?