Dream Cut Series: Settlin’ Down with Worktape Video

As I mentioned in a prior post, I decided to kick off a new branch of my blog called the Dream Cut Series. In this series, I’ll be discussing the artists that I imagined singing the songs as I wrote them, and the vibe I was going for. As many of you know, my musical skills are limited, so I rarely actually get the songs where I want them to be, but I try.

To start the Dream Cut Series, it only seemed fitting to talk about a song that has a line in it that came from a dream I had about co-writing with one of my idols. In this dream, from what I can remember, I was sitting there with Gary Allan. We were chit-chatting and working on writing something, when he looked up, kinda shugged off a cold chill, and said “Whoo, I felt my guardian angel fly a little too close that time”. I woke up right after that line, picked up my phone and typed it in, then went back to bed.  I was bound and determined to use that line in a song someday.

Fast forward to the May Songwriting Challenge.

I had jotted down that line to use during the challenge, but never really “felt” it. Then Aaron challenged me to that non-rhyming nonsense. At that point, I was at a cross-roads with the line. It was on my mind but I couldn’t get the vibe I wanted, so I used it as my inspiration for the non-rhyming...thing. Amazingly, the non-rhyming exercise helped a lot. I’m so used to writing around my rhymes that the line content suffers for the sake of the rhyme. By not rhyming at all, I had a song full of concepts that just needed finesse and direction. So when I re-wrote it the next day, I considered my dream, when the rhyme came from my idol, and I wrote with a “let’s make this a Gary song” mindset.

The whole time I wrote this, I was going for that edgy, bluesy, country rock vibe. Instead of writing commercial and imagining it on the radio, I imagined it as a filler on his next album. Let’s just say track 8; starting to wind things down, but still has a little kick, with a play on words. I mean, a song called Settlin’ Down can’t really be about taking it easy. With the vibe I was going for, Settlin’ Down into a rockstar, on the edge, pedal to the metal lifestyle was exactly what I was looking for.  Of course, when I recorded it, I had to go electric to get a little harshness and edge. Edge was pretty much the theme of this whole song. Edgy edge edginess. The thing I really like about this one is that it is rough. It doesn’t fit together perfectly, it doesn’t hit the major themes on radio, but that’s the whole point of the piece. It’s simply “this is how I live my life and I won’t be changing anytime soon” song, which makes it so much fun.