Bring on the douns

Josy and I experimented on Tuesday, September 13, and then again on Thursday, September 22, to see how my songs sound when she plays douns and I sing.   We feel encouraged ~~ I feel ecstatic, actually ~~ about how good they sounded.   It's the foundation for the way I hear my songs in my head.

On Tuesday we found some grooves with Coconut Oil and Burnt Sugar Blues.   I figured if we couldn't find good riffs for those two songs, we better just give up and go home.   But they sound cool!   Yay!

On Thursday we refreshed Tuesday's songs, then added Wayfaring Stranger and Fever and enjoyed another round of good luck.   The two links here go to youtubes of the nearest inspirations for our take on these cover songs.   I rewrote about half the words in each so I'll update this post with links to my versions.

Bob Miller of Foliba offered super suggestions and recorded the basic rhythms with his phone so we would remember them for next practice.   In this picture, Bob wears a white shirt as he plays the douns.

Foliba plays Open Mic at Cafe Paradiso in 2012

Josy started drum lessons with Fonziba Koster about seven years ago, and has developed into the go-to doun player in her intermediate drumming group, keeping a steady beat for their traditional West African polyrhythms, from simple to complex.

I feel overjoyed and deeply honored to hear Josy holding the basic rhythm structures for Burnt Sugar Blues' songs.

Coolest props

Coolest props to all my peeps!

. . . coz in weather like this, my warmest wishes would sizzle the swizzle right off yo' skin . . .

* * *

I like layers of meanings, and I like unwinding them ~ ~ ~

"props" ~ is kudos...and propellers ~ this is a reference to my very first fan club of 7 members: the big fan in the living room, the side-by-side fan in the bedroom window, three six-inch fans (one for each of us peeps), my daughter, and my son.

"swizzle" ~ could mean anything starting with "sw-", and here I meant "sweat", as in "When sweat oooze and soak you wet", the beginning of the third verse of Coconut Oil.

Coconut oil ran clear months ago, chocolate bars (and chocolate chips) have been gooing for weeks, and sweat oozes and makes people wet ALL DAY LONG.   This is summer in Iowa!

I'll link Coconut Oil to the lyrics page as soon as I add that song to it.

* * * Update:   July 22
Coconut Oil is now online.