The "Dave" Note

My name is Greg Smith, and I am privileged to play keys, sing and write for Paper Street Music Company.  Many of you have been tuning in to all the things we have been doing the past six months.  We've been on the road, playing shows, writing music and recording podcasts, and now we have a central place for all of it!  Our website is the next step in bringing Paper Street Music Co. closer to you, and you to us!  We've got our music here for you to jam along with.  Our podcasts will be posted here for your enjoyment.  Pictures and videos of our beautifully scruffy faces will light up your screen.  And I'm going to be here with this blog the whole time keying you in to another part of our story.  This site, and everything in it, will build off of everything that we hoped to accomplish with our podcasts and take it one step further.  Speaking of which...

In this month’s Paper Street Post (episode 4) Bobby pulled Dave in to talk about “Rust Belt Lines,” which Dave wrote. Bobby says that, on this song specifically, each of the five members of PSMC have crafted a unique part for the song.  You can pick out what each of us is playing at specific moments throughout, and each of them are essential.  I don’t disagree.  The attack of Tim's guitar part drives the song forward, and his melody in the chorus works in tandem with my harmony.  I have a piano motif I’m pretty proud of which moves the song away from the verses and toward the chorus.  JP’s harmonica part works contrapuntally with the piano rhythm - at times commanding a melody, and at others creating a backdrop for Dave's vocals.  Dave’s voice is perfectly in character, and I could dance to his bass line alone.  Bobby’s busk-beat is the only thing that he could have possibly come up with to make the song believable, and he delivered.  

I think Dave would agree with Bobby’s observation about the parts, because that’s the type of musician he is.  Especially when he’s holding the bass.  When Dave plays, he thinks about how he fits into the whole ensemble.  How does the bass fit with the drums and keys ?  How can the entire rhythm section work together best?  Does there need to be another guitar doing this right now?  If there are words here, shouldn’t we change something to accentuate that?  He’s not thinking about what he wants to do to make playing his part fun.  He’s writing a part that builds off of the other members and lifts up the strengths of each song.  He’s doing everything he can to make a song the best it can possibly be. 

For me, though, the best part of “Rust Belt” isn’t the intricate and personalized orchestration.  It’s the lyrics.  Now, I’m a sucker for good lyrics.  Lyrics are usually what determines whether or not I think a song is any good at all.  I’m not subtle about my thoughts, and I’m not an overly generous critic which probably makes me a difficult person to write with, but I am a firm believer that music is made to communicate something.  And if you’re going to use words to do so then the song better have something worth saying -- and it better be good.   

Dave is not like me – not exactly.  Dave is a contradiction.  When listening to a song, he has told me that lyrics are nearly the last thing he listens for.  A song which grooves hard but has mediocre lyrics doesn’t bother him one bit.  When one of us bring a song to him, he usually has very few lyrical suggestions and doesn’t concern himself with discussing the arc of the song's concept.  He wants to make sure the musical ideas are consistent – that they make sense together and in the order they’re in.  He wants the story to be clear without the words.  However, those rules change when he writes.  Maybe Dave locks himself in a room with his lyrics until they’re perfect, or maybe he’s one of those people who can, on command, spit out some beautiful line of verse which is the one thing you’d never think of, and the only thing to make sense.  You know, the type of person you want to hate because they're so talented and either don't know it, or don't acknowledge it.  Either way, Dave’s lyrics are heavy.  Every time.  They carry the message of the song on their backs.  He uses simple words and images to communicate emotions that every person on the planet can relate to, even if the story is seemingly specific.  

But Dave knows the limitations of lyrics – definitely better than I do.  The words can only get the listener so far.  There’s only so many literal options with language, and only so many ways to interpret the images put forth in a song.  The music has to do the rest, and Dave’s “white space” in his songs is just as effective, if not more, than his lyrics.  For me, it goes back to that note at the end of Rustbelt Lines – 3:03.  The lyrics have ended.  The story has run its course.  The message is over, but the song still has more to say.  And Dave enters in to bring the song to its resting place – not with words, but with this raw, guttural, emotive yell.  It’s Frustration, and Empathy, and Satisfaction and nothing at all… and probably three other things I could never comprehend.  In that moment, I am truly “Hijacked by the noise that’s coming from all around.”  It’s moments like that yell that remind me why I still have so much to learn from these guys – about songwriting, instrument playing, Storytelling, life living… the list goes on.  Every one of these guys approaches music in a way that is foreign to me.  They push me to see, hear and approach the world differently in order to make new music.  To sing songs which haven’t been sung yet.  And those songs are coming.  Listen closely.