Details. Finally set up a persona page on the East Kingdom Wiki. Updated the About page accordingly. As you were.
Author: Drake Oranwood
Drake Oranwood (Eric Schrager) is a singer, songwriter, producer, lutenist, and medieval enthusiast who brings modern sensibilities to original songs set long ago and far away.
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Studio Day: “Tam Lin of the Elves”
Dave and Arden will be here today, to lay down tracks for “Tam Lin of the Elves”. It’s my longest piece at over 6 minutes, so we will probably finish it (and “Plantagenet”) during next month’s session. Wee bit psyched.
This news is a few weeks old, but I’ve been busy. Still, it deserves its own post. I am very excited.
Maistre Lucien de Pontivy, current Queen’s Bard of the East Kingdom and recently elevated to the Order of the Laurel, has taken me as a student of the Bardic Arts.
My “crew” is here, and we’re doing our second full-on basement recording session for instrumentals–today it’s “The Last Plantagenet”. I’m very excited. The talent and experience these two gentlemen bring to the project is elevating these songs to a level of art I can imagine in my head but cannot execute myself.
To celebrate, I share with you a video of my performance of the song at Winter Nights last month, which I had not previously publicized.
I am honor bound to report the results of the Winter Nights bardic competition yesterday. Sir Michael of York won the competition, and Lady Lorita de Sienna was chosen as Baronial Bard of Concordia for the coming year.
I am happy for her, and disappointed for myself. I wanted it, and I honestly had already counted the chicken and was planning out what I’d do with the eggs. The Baron said it was the toughest choice he’d had to make, and I’d made it harder by not making any mistakes.
I’ll post at some later point some of the learning I’m taking out of this. I didn’t make any mistakes…but I did make choices that were driven by wanting to win, that resulted in staying in my comfort zone with pretty much all my performances. I’m taking a look at that, and starting to see the blessing under the disguise.
I have been quietly enjoying a trickle of acknowledgment that others have begun making their way here and browsing around. The blog is getting followed by one or two other bloggers, and pages are getting “liked”. The Facebook page I set up for Drake last year (quite prematurely, I soon realized, when what I really wanted at the time turned out to be this website) has been picking up a few “likes” here and there the past few weeks, and from people I don’t actually know. Small confession: it makes me smile. But I’m sure many of you have the same experience.
We had a lengthy discussion on the Facebook group this week about whether we should abandon, de-emphasize, or clarify our use of the term “bard” in the SCA. I won’t rehash the discussion here, though I probably personalized it more than necessary. I will share, however, what I wrote when Isolde de Lengadoc challenged all of us to quit navel-gazing and pen to virtual paper and write a sonnet of our thoughts:
A fellowship I have, and hold it dear,
These kindred spirits lately have I found.
A fireside among these, ’tis sacred ground!
And yet, ’tis lately discord that I hear.
For we’re a motley group with several aims:
We’re singers? Writers? Hist’ry lovers? Fools?
Are we one clan or many? Have we rules?
And oft, I too get caught up in these games.
So long have I this life sojourned alone,
I dread the splint’ring of this merry band.
Whate’er the name, I know for sure I stand
In such a circle as I’ve never known.
Can we all stand together in our art?
Or shall we (with my soul) now fly apart?
The SCA is sponsoring a talent competition on YouTube, since the Society has many very talented people in it. What can I say, I entered something.
If you like it and you think I should be a finalist, you can vote for it on YouTube. You do this by “liking” the video on YouTube.
Some of you have already heard this song, but most people haven’t seen the video from the Heather Dale concert. Enjoy!
(With apologies to Frank Miller and fans of the Dark Knight)
So, as summer comes to an end, I find myself reflecting back on my first full year as a “working bard” (participating in actual bardic events, interacting with the bardic community). I tend to mark a Scadian year as falling from one Pennsic to the next. It is the biggest and oldest event in the society, and affords opportunities to live one’s passions like nothing else on the East Coast, at least.
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Updates–website and projects
Quick updates: I did the next thing on my to do list today, and submitted this year’s six new songs for copyright. I know I don’t really have to–or at least I could wait until I’ve written three more to finish the album. But having registered the copyrights, I’m much more comfortable letting my songs fly free.
Also, to submit my songs, I have to transcribe the sheet music (since now I can do the whole thing in 10 minutes and upload sheet music PDF’s online!), which means…
Yep. Sheet music to all the songs are now posted on the song pages. (Also, I re-posted the MP3 download links.) I’ve started posting chords.
And now, the serious recording process will begin. Starting with GarageBand demos of all the songs (some of which I’ll probably post).
‘Night.
Drake Oranwood 