Fall 2008: Got the Blues?

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Reminder: the SFK Club Newsletter has switched to a quarterly schedule. We'll publish an issue in the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Here’s what’s in this quarter's newsletter (click a chapter title to go straight to that chapter):

NEW BOOK! Hip Hop Speaks to Children
I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner
Fall Songwriting Challenge
Poll: Names of the Blues


NEW BOOK! HIP HOP SPEAKS TO CHILDREN

I'm excited to announce that my song, "Long Track Blues," with words by poet Sterling A. Brown has been included in a new children's book/CD set edited by Nikki Giovanni. Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat has received rave reviews and is #9 on the New York Times Bestselling Picture Books list this week!

Read the story behind Long Track Blues at my blog, Please Come Flying.

Listen to the All Things Considered interview with Nikki Giovanni...including a clip from "Long Track Blues"!


I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest Winner

Congratulations to Lauren, age 7... Lauren wrote a hit song!

Lauren, from Louisville, Kentucky, wrote a great song about trying to get to know someone better. You can view the lyrics at the I Wrote a Hit Song! webpage. Please stop by and leave a comment for Lauren to let her know how much you enjoyed her song.

If you'd like to enter the I Wrote a Hit Song! Contest, read the contest rules here. The next winner will be announced in the Winter newsletter. Good luck!


Songwriting Challenge: Got the Blues?

We've all felt down in the dumps. Lost a dog. Lost a friend. The sun won't come out. Bike broke again. That's the blues. The deep down underground blues.

This month's Songwriting Challenge is to gather up all that gloom and doom and put it into a song. A BLUES SONG. I love to sing the blues. Because the funny thing about singing the blues...no matter how bad I feel to begin with, singing the blues almost always makes me feel better.

Fall '08 Songwriting Challenge:
Can you write a Blues Song?

There are lots of different ways to do it.
Here are some tips:

It's all about feeling it.

• What's got you down?
  
• Tell it like you're telling it to your best friend.
  
• Put some soul into it.
• Let it all hang out.

Try to write an AAB Blues.

• An AAB blues has 3 lines per verse. The first line is repeated twice. LIKE THIS:

When you were lonesome, I treated you kind
When you were lonesome, I treated you kind
But since you've got money, it has changed your mind

Days are lonesome, nights are so long
Days are lonesome, nights are so long
I'm a good gal, but I just been treated wrong

(from Bessie Smith's "Lost Your Head Blues")

Poll: Names of the Blues

If you can't see the poll, just click here. (Once you vote, you'll be able to see other people's answers, too.)