Songwriters Speak turns 15

This month I’m taking some time out to celebrate the 15th anniversary of my book, Songwriters Speak, on my social media platforms. So I thought I really should acknowledge it here, too, now that I’m expanding the content on Debbie Does Music to cover the Australian music I was raised on and worked with prior to moving to Los Angeles.

Because I am in fact starting work on a new book about music, I’ve been diving back into the memories and archives of the conception, writing and publishing of Songwriters Speak.

My first music love… like no other love

Sherbet and the sound that is ever sweet

When the present is so precarious and the future is uncertain, there is one thing that is sure and true – the past. It can’t be altered, and if we are lucky it’s a trip back to some of the happiest times of our lives and culture…

The beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere means my mind is playing and replaying the best summer pop song I know, Sherbet’s “Summer Love”, and wishing life was like that song instead of what it currently is.

Where I’m Not

I’m not at an Eagles concert, which I would have been, twice, this weekend.

I’m not at any concert now or any time for the foreseeable future, as one by one the music events I was looking forward to – Joan Osborne at Pepperdine University’s Center for the Arts concert hall, Beth Nielsen Chapman at McCabes Guitar Shop, a Julie Andrews talk at the Skirball Cultural Center, the Eagles Hotel California shows at The Forum – were crossed off my calendar, along with other music and non-music happenings. My calendar is a mess of things crossed out. I sure hate a messy calendar.

My Favourite Superstars

The live Australian Cast Recording of Jesus Christ Superstar and Remembering Jon English

Or: How to Clean Your Home When You Don’t Want To

Easter has come and gone for another year, Passover is just about passed over, the Angel of Death didn’t get me thanks to my parents’ mezuzah on my doorpost, and I have a clean bathroom thanks to my favourite stage musical. Read on to see how these things are connected.

Chicago – hard habit to break

3 March 2020, Fred Kavli Theatre, Thousand Oaks, CA

I guess it’s just complicated. Like so many relationships in life. Relationships to family and loved ones, relationships to work and relationships to certain music. Music I love, musicians I am ambivalent about as time goes on.

“As time goes on I realise just what you mean to me…”

It’s hard not to throw in lyrics and even pun some when it comes to talking or writing about Chicago.

Brandi Carlile – Homing in on home base

Brandification travels begin.

You know you’re hooked on an artist when you start spending money to travel for concerts. I’ve been doing it for the Eagles since that mad time I flew direct to London from Brisbane for three shows to launch the Long Road Out of Eden tour in early 2008. Flying from LA to Seattle to see Brandi Carlile play her hometown symphony hall wasn’t quite as far or costly, but I felt compelled to do it at this stage of my Brandification, and so glad I did it this time, as we were literally only a few weeks from the entire world shutting down.

Brandi Carlile and some Hollywood Hellraising

The Brandification continues.

Here was Brandi in full band mode for me at last. She had begun 2020 optimistically with a huge schedule of shows, had in fact just done a series at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and was about to head to Mexico for her annual “Girls Just Wanna” weekend festival (which to this day I have never attended), and this was Grammy Week in Los Angeles so she made an unforgettable stop at the Hollywood Palladium, one of the most unfiltered rock and roll Americana shows I’ve ever witnessed.

Brandi Carlile – The first sweet time

After seven years of being Brandified and constantly reminding myself that I need to post all the photos from the amazing shows I’ve been to by this amazing artist – and that is very few compared with the long-time die-hard Brandi Carlile fan people, I am finally retro-posting.

Call this Brandification Part 1.