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Hey all, this is sort of a concept song that has come together pretty quickly in the last day or two. I'd love some thoughts on the direction of this. Thanks, and Happy New Year!

Wet Firewood
© Kyle S 12.31.15
https://soundcloud.com/kyle-s-2/wet-firewood

I’m sitting here
In the dark
Watching embers burn the ground
In the shape of a heart

It could be you
You could save the day
If you followed all your signs
Damn it would be nice
To breathe some life into these flames

You remember those times
This was red hot in the dead of the night

Like setting fire to wet firewood
It never burns like I wish it would
But all that smoke gives me hope
It’ll light in a minute or two
Like setting fire to wet firewood
Throwing on more won’t do no good
Gotta sit back and hope that your heart
Did enough for you
Baby if I start this fire, maybe I can start ours too

We set this up
To burn all night
Foundation laid throughout the day
And waited till the time was right

Even when it’s all planned out
The rain still comes and covers all the ground

Chorus repeat

As you know Kyle. Love this tune. Great lyric. Wanted to give you a bump! People need to hear this one.

Dave

Thanks Dave, I appreciate the support! I'm glad you like this one

Kyle

Hi Kyle,

I love this from the very start--the neat strum with those pedaled notes over the changing I and IV chords.

I can hear clear intention in your singing--you seem to be processing the words while you sing, which is the key, imo, to a thoughtful performance. I love your phrasing of "Damn it would be nice/To breathe some life into these flames.." Most excellent.

You nailed the ad lib that took you into falsetto land, and I loved that. It will be really brave if you do that in live versions, down the road. Oh, the butterflies you will feel! ..but less and less as you get more comfortable letting your voice soar like that--the key is to be really focused..so much that--and this will sound like some Zen crap--but a strong focus can dissolve the singer/listener duality and put you right on top of every improvised note, able to guide them effortlessly where you want them to go.

You seem to have that focus in your performances of late, and your songs, having minimal, repetitive chord structures, not unlike Van Morrison's, do really invite the ad libs and add a brilliant, heartfelt dimension to things.

Mike

Oh Man, Mike! I was going to say all that!

Love the metaphor of trying to get green wood to burn for trying to put some spark into a (new/old?) relationship. Just the right touch of frustration and longing. Nicely done, Kyle. I'm a fan!

Ricki

Another cool tune and a mighty fine performance. Always have that voice that makes the songs easy to listen to. Nice hook title "set fire to wet fire wood". Yea, super nice falsetto stuff. Good one!

Is it almost time for college to start up again, or have you graduated by now?

Kyle--

I love the honesty in this one--

Seems to have truth spread through the song, with a nice rhythm! Keep up the good work!

Mackie

Nicely done Kyle ... I like it!!

Top notch Kyle, I agree.

Solid lyric, nice free flowing kinda melody, and well sung.

You have yourself a song here you can be proud of.

Mike, you're the man, man. I appreciate the kind words. I'm glad you think I got away with the ad-libbing and spur of the moment singing, but I do think that I should have taken a little more time to get the vocal melody down solid. I've unintentionally included a couple ad-lib vocal solos in a couple of my songs that go into falsettos, and when I'm playing live I've been forcing myself to go there- while not always as successful as I want it to be, it is something that I want to be able reproduce live. Great to hear you liked what you heard with this one.

Ricki, thanks for the listen! The metaphor and lyric in general developed really quickly and I kind of used what came to my head without looking back, so I'm glad it all held together pretty well without much revising. I appreciate the kind words.

Kevin, I appreciate you giving this a spin, and I'm glad you liked it. The falsetto is a bit of a struggle but definitely something that I want to develop. I actually graduated in May of 2015, and just moved down to Dallas a couple months ago for my first "real" job. Since I've been down in Dallas I've been really focusing on getting out and performing as much as possible, and so far so good. Good to hear from you!

Mackie, thanks for the listen! I'm glad the honesty came through, that's always a goal of mine. Cheers!

Jimmy, glad to hear you liked it! Thanks for giving this a listen.

John, I appreciate the kind words, they're always great to hear. I've played it live a few times and it's been received well so far, so I'm happy with the direction of it already. Thanks again!

Kyle

Hi Kyle,

You got a nice fresh sound going on, good job.

Calvin


The Bright Lights Of Hollywood - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/calvinstewart

Hi Kyle
Loved the tune, it's got a great feel to it. Great job with the guitar.

Calvin, thanks for taking a listen to this, I'm glad you liked it!

Chester, I appreciate you sharing your feedback. I'm pretty happy with how the guitar work came out as well. Thanks!

Kyle

Kyle,

I like the vibe/melody/lyrics/performance. Nice work, and your productions are improving for sure. This song IMO, only needs a very short intro. (When you're famous, you can have long intros, keep them short for pitching).

You know I was thinking, especially at the instrument solo area, how a cello would be very cool with your acoustic vibe, maybe a duo cello music arrangement for some cello harmonies. (No violin, just cellos).

Keep'm coming!

steady-eddie.