In 2010 I met Emily White and Andy Miller. I already knew Emily Dunbar. Anyway, we call each other the superfriends. We see each other a handful of times each year. This last weekend we met up at a cabin in Iowa to work on songs, to sing songs, to talk songs, to help each other with our songs. That is exactly what we did.
We froze in subzero temperatures, we ate really good food, we drank beer and wine, we walked to the echo bridge and yelled our names. Our names yelled back to us. We walked on a frozen lake and saw the ice fishermen in their ice fishing shacks. We saw bald eagles in the sky, we wondered what the other people in the cabins were doing in a frozen state park on MLK weekend. Maybe there were lots of songwriters writing lots of songs. We never had a chance to ask.
I wrote two songs. One song was a song about a writer sitting at a desk and getting ready to write a song and then getting distracted from songwriting (true to life). I wrote a song called, "Charlottetown" about a boy meeting a girl without the happy ending (also true to life).
We sang cover songs, we tried out new chords we learned from one another, we tried out new licks. Did we go outside? Yes, we did. Only briefly. It was a high of -13 yesterday. Not cool.
We remembered funny jokes we've kept with us for the past six years that are still funny. We smiled at the memories we share. We made new ones this weekend. I am so thankful for time to work, time to reflect, time to hang out. I am also thankful that it is not -13 back here at home.
Go write some songs. A cabin in the woods helps, but it's not necessary.