Hear Me Sing

I've never been shy about singing poorly, or the fact that I have been strumming my guitar for years and can barely piece together a song without awkwardly stumbling through a tab. I like the idea of singing and recording and sharing, if for no other reason than because I can. So often as teachers we ask our students to express themselves or present information or create something, as if all students are somehow fearless artists who are dying to expose themselves. The truth is that they are not. Neither are we. It takes time and courage and the ability to take risks and chances before we can upload random vidoes of ourselves singing songs to the Internet. People can argue that this deluge of mediocre content is clogging up the Internet, but I disagree. The web is begin enough for us all to stake our claim and make our mark.

I do it because I love singing and I like to monitor my progress. I have never seen singing on my blogs or my online life as a whole as anything more than a rough draft, a map of my journey through life. Nothing will never been done as I don't believe in final products. Sure it would be nice to be more talented and craft better songs, but being a singer is not the path I have chosen. I do plenty of others things, fairly well, that I allow my mediocre singing be the time to experiment and try to improve my skills.

I think I have. Improved that is. When I started out, I was really bad, but since that day I have performed several times in front of crowds and this latest song, in my humble opinion, sounds pretty good.

From the first second I heard the song Sacred Vision by Iron and Wine, I knew I wanted to sing it. One afternoon I fumbled about with the chords and came up with this version. After the success of recording Nothing Man with Leslie, I asked her to sing a few back up lines as well. I loved the way she echoes some of the parts. Wish her part could be louder, but maybe next time.

Anyway, without further ado I suck at singing but I want you to hear me sing:



I have a few songs off the latest Decemberist album that I want to try. Let me know if you want to collaborate. Oh and of course I have vowed to write at least three original songs this year too.