location of a song

Two weeks ago I was part of a fundraising concert for MCEC youth traveling to the Mennonite World Conference Assembly this July in Paraguay, where I'll be part of the music team. It was a fun evening - a real treat to play with amazing musicians as part of a band, which I don't get the chance to do very often. And four of my songs that we did that night felt right "at home" in that place - "You're Not Alone" (a solidarity song with suffering brothers and sisters around the world), "Prayer of Agur," "To Be Content," and "Tengan La Mente De Cristo" - a new song I wrote in traditional Andean Huayno style, as a setting for the theme text from Philippians 2:5-11.

Then last weekend I played at the Latcham Gallery here in Stouffville - a really cool event called "what does a piece of art sound like?" where local musicians are invited to write and/or choose and perform a musical piece inspired by one of the artworks showing in the gallery. This is the second time I've participated - these events are the brain-child of Marie-Lynn Hammond - and I think it's a great idea, and a fascinating exercise in "locating" a song (here's a little YouTube video with clips from the different performances). I did the instrumental "Off The Grid" and "Not For Human Consumption" which connect in various ways to a couple of the paintings... next time I hope to get to the gallery earlier and be able to try writing something new based on one of the artworks.

And this past Sunday, Easter morning, I was with the Iglesia Menonite Nueva Vida in Toronto. It's been a long time (well over a year, I think), and as always it was lots of fun and very inspirational to be with that community again. And, thanks to my being confused (again) about the time the service got underway, I was actually able to finish writing the song I had hoped to use that morning - "Rumores de Resurreccion" - and there was something special about writing that song "in location" where we would be worshiping, with that song among others, in that very space. Somehow it was easier to connect with that community by being physically in that space while writing that song.

So I guess songwriting does have something in common with real estate. Location, location, location.