Feathering the Nest
I sort of beat myself up sometimes for doing things in what appears to be a strange order. There’s that saying that goes, “Don’t put the cart before the horse.” In a lot of ways, I’ve felt like I’ve been putting a lot of carts before the horse when it comes to my music. From buying instruments I don’t know how to play, to saving boxes of envelope mailers & empty jewel cases from when my old company shut down, each element has little secret plans attached of how I’m going to incorporate those pieces into a bigger musical puzzle.
I’ve been doing this for a few years now, all without knowing if or when I’ll have songs that I believe in enough to record and polish the performances and give a go at sharing them beyond my local open mic. Some part of me must have kept believing all along though, because it knows very clearly when to grab a specific element.
One of the elements I acquired last year (two years ago??) was a beautiful wooden painter’s box, with little movable shelf bits for sorting paints, brushes and canvas or paper, and a palette. Part of me knew right away that I was going to put my merch in it. Another part of me said, “That’s all very well and good, and when are you ever going to have any merch to put in anything, let alone that?” and shoved the box into a corner.
In my big process of cleaning, organizing and storing stuff prior to starting my Rubicon Year I found the box again. I also found the battery-powered lighted flower garlands we used at our wedding, another piece that I knew I wanted to add to my merch set-up. And I decided I wanted to give the box a trial run.
(Please excuse the crappy webcam photo, but I think you get the idea)
Filling in for my yet to be created CDs are Rachel Ries, Susan Gibson, Dar Williams and Jana Pochop. Sarah Sample is holding court in the DVD area. As you can see, there is plenty of space for business cards, stickers, buttons or what-have-you, and the little bar that would hold perhaps paper when set up as a painter’s case could hold things like dangly hand-made earrings maybe, who knows?
Further indulging in my make-believe, I imagined bringing the box to an artist friend of mine who made me a little songbird picture for my birthday once (A purple bird! Playing a guitar!), and asking her to paint me another bird on the outside.
Somehow the thoughts of birds brought me to the beautiful, comforting thought that maybe, just maybe, I haven’t been putting carts before horses all these years. Maybe, I’ve been slowly, carefully, deliberately feathering a little musical nest, so that when I’m finally ready to lay the fragile eggsongs, they’ve got a soft place to land and a safe place to grow until they are ready to fly.
Now go click those names I linked you to up there, if you haven’t already!
