Letting Go

I'm sitting down tonight to work on my Evolve album. And I'm thinking about song ideas I've tossed out over time.

Some song ideas clearly needed to go. I had one song about a (fictional) breakup that occurred just before summer, and the girl in the song said "But it doesn't feel like summer, though, since we let each other go." The lyrics weren't too bad, for one of my first songs. But the tune was outright maudlin - and I couldn't have fixed it no matter how experienced I was as a songwriter. Ick!!!

Others were songs that I never seemed to finish because they didn't hook me - pun intended. And some songs were simply repeating a theme, like not letting narrow-minded people get you down.

Or some sounded really great when I first heard them in my head...but flew out of it later. And it didn't truly matter.

I email myself song ideas when I get them, and I do a guitar demo on my phone for the ones that seem the strongest. So I do keep track of them. But my feeling on any song, really, is that the good ideas will stick around, and the not-so-good ones will go visit somebody who can use them better.

So I've learned about letting go of song ideas. I don't need every single one that flies into my head.

Not every song idea will win you a Grammy.