Dan Hewins: The Deck 52 songs in 52 weeks: A Deck of Songs in 2009 by Dan Hewins. A song-per-week project.

So, there are 26 songs so far. I’m going back and listening to some of them again so I can asses what I’ve done so far. Here’s how I see it:

I think there are about 6 categories that these songs could fall under: guitar and voice songs, acoustic-based instrumentals, ambient, rock songs, African-influenced songs and instrumentals, and ‘other.’

Guitar and Voice Songs:

• Ace of Spades: The Beginning
• Two of Spades: Merry And The Swede
• Four of Spades: Song Of The Sea
• Seven of Spades: O Captain
• Eight of Spades: Contemplation Of A City: Los Angeles
• Nine of Spades: Road Song In The Key Of We
• Ten of Spades: Subway Platform: 2:45 AM
• Ace of Clubs: A Proposal
• Two of Clubs: Let It Rain
• Seven of Clubs: Remember The Sound
• Ten of Clubs: Big Indian
• King of Clubs: A Very Old Man With Very Large Wings
• Queen of Clubs: Half

Acoustic Instrumentals:

• Five of Spades: Five Of Spades
• Queen of Spades: Darn These Walls
• Four of Clubs: Two Days After A Day At Coney Island

African-influenced Songs:

• Three of Spades: Letters Home
• Six of Spades: The Sun Rises But Shines Not
• Jack of Spades: A Man A Plan A Canal Panama (instr)
• King of Spades: King Of Spades
• Jack of Clubs: That’s How You Act, That’s What You Get (instr)

Rock Songs:

• Six of Clubs: Featherlight
• Nine of Clubs: Special Glasses

Ambient:

• Four of Clubs: Two Days After A Day At Coney Island
• Eight of Clubs: End of May, Part 1 (guitar)

Other*:

• Five of Clubs: Bad Day/Song

* Concerning the “other” category, I’m not really sure what this thing is but I like it. If you want to get to the meat of this one, skip ahead to about 2:56. In fact, in listening back to a bunch of these songs, I’ve learned that a lot of them reward listening to the end. If you don’t you might miss something interesting.

The Deck is my attempt to create a lot of music in 2009. The plan is to put a deck of songs together made of songs I write and songs I didn’t write, but record a version of. The songs I write will be the black cards:  spades and the clubs. The cover songs will be the red cards: diamonds and hearts. The goal is to have two decks by the end of the year. Or at least two decks’-worth of spades and clubs, because I am going to concentrate more on original songs. I’ll fit in the covers as I can (I’ll take suggestions for cover song ideas as time goes on).

Ten years ago, my friend, Michael Zapruder, wrote 52 songs in one year and I would say that that is definitely part of the inspiration for doing this. Another inspiration is that I really wanted to force myself to make music this year and something structured like this is the only way I know how.

I really don’t know what’s going to happen, how well it will work, if I fail or succeed, or what any of these songs are going to sound like. I have no set agenda of making any number of any kind or genre of song. I may or may not end up with a group of songs that could later become an album. Some songs will have vocals, probably most, and some will be instrumental. Along the way, I will probably have friends play an instrument or sing on a song or a few. I am as in the dark about what the results will be here as anyone else. So, off we go!

I will start posting the songs here very soon.