#Frail Autumn,, #music, #songwriting

Frail Autumn.

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Band and musical project name.

Over the past few weeks a plan for getting a home music recording system has been looked at. Extensively. Seems like the way forward is one of the Apple systems. Options are very many and the total cost is expensive. Well…..for a pensioner. So the need to get it right is important.

After many internet and YouTube visits, the choice is finally made and will be ordered this week. Then it is a matter of learning how the technical side to all this works. And also it has been important to create a future project for a band and album name.

FRAIL AUTUMN.

Why? When 16 years old I wrote this ‘FRAIL’ name on an old army bag I bought from an army surplus store. My brother, the guitarist, found it in his garage. I’d forgotten I actually had it. Emotional acquisition to be found again? Definitely. It was possibly a self name given to how I was feeling at that time. Who knows! ‘AUTUMN’ is my current status of where it feels that I am, and my musician cohorts are in ‘a life lived so far’ in years. Closing in on 70 years old. So ‘Frail Autumn’ is our life’s journey so far.

I wrote a song way back in my teens called ‘Old Man’. I have been restructuring the instrumentation and chords recently. The melody was a decent one which still works. The lyrics are being updated. So, with intent, a ‘life as lived’ holistic concept is an active project forming currently.

Got to love a plan with a concept.

Do I now add AUTUMN underneath?

18 thoughts on “Frail Autumn.”

  1. Ah, great name, “Frail Autumn.” Sure! Add Autumn under Frail on the army bag. That is as long as you are set on the name.
    I can sense that finding that army bag was emotional for you, Gray. Try and take it as a sign though. A wink from the Universe and Kev that you are on the right path.
    Looks like fab choices on the new computing equipment to record! Bravo!

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    1. Cheers Sheila. After the live summer gigs were scuppered, it badly needed a new direction. I read on your own posts in the past regarding a journey in which you have limited people around yourself to bring a vibrancy to certain areas in life. Music, for myself, needs exchanges. Same with you too I should imagine. Being in a band was perfect for bouncing around ideas musically. So having this project of home recording allows ‘airdrops’ to my brother and John the drummer. They know they can tell me the good, bad and ugly of my songs. And give constructive feedback. We exchanged lie this in rehearsals and produced more dynamically. And they add for the better with their own musician skills to all this. Being 130 to 150 miles apart hasn’t got the luxury of regular meet ups. So getting this system should help enormously with keeping mental well being in order.

      The bag came from a military surplus shop in the town I was born and grew up in back in the day. So it was nice to catch it again decades on decades later. The Universe does indeed have a compassionate nature.

      The weather is much improved recently, so have been outside gardening. Very nice to be dry outside! All the best Sheila.

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      1. Oh, this indeed sounds wonderful, Gray! The dry outside environment and time for gardening! YAY!
        And yay for rediscovering the military bag. Gifts from the Universe like that (even if simply due to their timing) is beautiful. I hear you.
        And yes, the new recording system will bring you the ability to create the songs though you all have so much distance between you. I do know what you mean about needing collaboration on creative endeavors such as this.

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      2. Thanks Sheila. It’s been a nice day again here, so maybe the balanced weather is returning. When you move in a week, there will be much inspiration and creativity to be found in your own life I should imagine. Gifts from the Universe await for yourself and Richard too. All the best.

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      3. Thank you sooo much, Gray! Yes, I am hoping all goes well in our new location. The climate is so different than where we have lived for 40 years yet we won’t know until we go (how we will acclimate).
        So glad your weather there is improving/becoming more balanced.

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    1. Thank you cookie. Little project ideas and events are like jigsaw puzzle pieces. This one is out of the box and the straight edged pieces are beginning to be recognised and being sorted to create the framework. Then time is needed to focus on the other bits and find the inspiration that sees an inner picture properly start taking shape. Then comes patience and focused attention to slowly, bit by bit, finish the picturesque theme. Hope you are feeling inspired yourself with your own songwriting. All the best cookie.

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    1. You are in no way a mere observer Shep. Nor the others here. Love your ideas and input. And I do take ideas on board. I have been thinking of different names for this project for a few months now. Albeit only time to time. Not earnestly. I’d type a name into Google and look and behold, there would be a band with that name. Even my brother and myselfs’ first band Soft Ground is a Spanish band’s moniker now. Frail is a current band too. Probably Autumn!

      I started with the ‘Frail’ added onto ‘Autumn’ choice as a musical life journey idea Shep. Maybe as a CD title and band name. Could shorten it to FA. But we know what that is short for. 😊 The army surplus shop I got the bag from was near to a little second hand record store which sold old 45s really cheaply. This was before I owned my first decent guitar. I did have one of those plastic ones with The Beatles’ faces printed on it though. Wish I still had that!

      I bought loads of very odd rare post juke box soul records from that little record shop, a few years later down the line after first finding it in my school days. Needed for inspiring writing for the Team 23 soul band project. Writing self penned songs with a soul kick. Loads of Northern Soul 45s were bought. No centres in any of them. I carried my record vinyl 45 purchases home in that green Frail bag. Could get a fair few inside too.

      Hey! There’s an idea. Put some of the old 45’s from those days in the bag and photograph them! See…… you have given me an amazing idea for the picture story board Shep. Mere observers? Never in a million years. Cheers Shep. All the best.

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    1. Father Time is a nuisance presently for me too Shep. Mind you Autumn Leaves means going into Winter too. This Autumn period in life feels comfortable presently. I can see what you mean re: consideration of choosing something that has to stick around once chosen. I want to get this project started asap. As said to cookie nieves here in the comments. It’s currently like a jigsaw puzzle of separate idea pieces with all these random shapes waiting to fit together and complete the whole picture. Pick them up sometimes and then put them down again if they are not quite right for linking to another piece. And Jigsaw were a band from my home town! So that won’t do as a name either. 😆

      Looking forward to building knowledge with the Apple stuff when it is realised Shep. That little bass line from the other day is now extended into a song called ‘November, the Stereo and You….’ Works perfectly. So little experiments do find perfect places in the bigger picture. Talking of seasonal weather and being in the right place….Hope you are enjoying that sea air Shep.

      Frail has nursing connotations with me. We had ‘fragility/frailty’ assessment forms to fill out for older patients. I reckon I am beginning to tick the boxes previously left empty (if considering in my own body’s analyses) when filling in the form for others. I often wondered if I would be Fragile/Frail in the same ways discussed on the list of questions later down the line.

      A CD cover name would certainly work. I mentioned the name to Steve, my brother, a few days ago. He laughed when I gave him the reason for the double word. Especially the Autumn of our lives bit. I’m always open to developing change when it feels right and makes sense. All those early band names discussed in our teens are a great example of what suddenly feels perfect and hits home. Like a football team manager says, ‘It is a work in progress’. Cheers Shep for your contributions. Much appreciated. 🙏🏽

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  6. Is that the short term narrative? Not the long term narrative? Heard this over the weekend from one of the AFL coaches after another loss. Apparently they know what they both are! Look forward to the aural pleasure of November, the Stereo and You….a cold wind was blowing off the ocean today – as Kramer would proclaim “very refreshing”. Ch S

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    1. Football managers over here often use the work in progress phrase. Players have so much power to dictate and often, managers are the scapegoats. The November song is a decent one to sing. It is a story lyric too. Nice chord progression too. I like those type.

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