Marlborough Blues

song 2 of Lou's January '23 song-a-week challenge (1/15/23)

I imposed another challenge on myself in January: I went ‘dry’, no alcohol. I’ve written lots of songs about alcohol. Let’s see how many I can name! Social Medicine (a sebadoh B-side), Pour Reward, Thirsty, Impulse, Tempted, Spirit Clearly, Finger (all these littered over solo releases) Liquid Bread from the Deluxx Folk Implosion.  There’s probably more. Very long story short, my experiences with the heavier shades of alcohol have left me ragged but unwilling to totally give up on ethanol as an easy way outta brain town.

Welcome the tender, grapefruit, and grass-flavored kiss of a crisp Sauvignon Blanc (white) wine of New Zealand’s Marlborough region. Sounds fancy but you can buy it in gas stations and supermarkets for less than a 4-pack of some gut-grinding IPA. My concern with booze is mostly about my health these days and even this docile, mild-mannered sheep (NZ has more sheep than people) is the wolf disguised. I didn’t drink during January and by mid-month I was seriously craving it, so much that I had to write a song about it.

  I’ve never used the word ‘Blues’ in any of my songs or song titles. Almost every songwriter has though, right?  Nothing against it, I just never felt I could inhabit the vibe. But I missed my Matua so much (the tastiest of the cheap Marlboroughs, the bottle has a little snowflake on it that turns blue when it’s properly chilled!). The sense of melancholic longing I felt could only be described as the Blues of a privileged variety.  When I was searching for lyrics to fit the foggy instrumental I had recorded, I zeroed in on my Marlborough longing.

Musically this one got confusing in a cool way immediately. It’s a single nylon 4-string guitar (my modified baritone ukulele) riff that I bisected, turning it into a low part and high part that interact. I’d like to think it’s country-influenced, like the Bakersfield sound but filtered through my hazy mind and slow fingers. I layered the amplified picked riffs, each bathed in the reverb from the tiny Roland, battery-driven, Cube amp that I put almost everything, including vocals, through. My set-up is truly cheap and bare-bones. How little I’ve advanced in my 30+ years as a home-recording musician is remarkable. I added two dry…