Drake OranwoodDrake 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.
I started this post back on Monday of War Week, but Pennsic kept happening, and on our return home, mundane life (particularly my job) pulled me right back in. Much as I wanted to do a detailed diary of Pennsic, and/or a lengthy gratitude list, I’m going to resist the impulse because:
Still have yet to put together my final Pennsic posts (getting back into mundania), but I have posted a page with my songwriting class notes.
Note that I’ve also add new YouTube videos, and linked to them on the pages for “Mug Your Gate” and “Lady of the Rose”.
I will post about my experiences at Pennsic when I get home. I will note that I did get several requests for lyrics and/or music to songs I performed during the war. (Bardic squee.)
As of now, all of my original pieces performed during Pennsic 42 have their lyrics posted, including “Lady of the Rose”. I will attempt to put up recordings or videos of performances the songs as soon as I can, for any who wish to perform them.
No one needs to ask my permission to perform one of my songs–there is no higher compliment a songwriter can be given. Please credit me as the author (as Drake Oranwood if you’re in the SCA)…and if you dropped me a note after you performed one for the first time, I would be delighted to hear about it (though that isn’t required).
The family is enjoying our first taste of Peace Week (the first of the two weeks, the setup week) at Pennsic this year. We are also enjoying camping at the event instead of staying at a hotel as we have in past years. Friends have been seen (and are being made), Bardic circles have been attended, fun is being had, and the passive voice is being greatly abused.
Of my newer pieces, “Mug Your Gate” and “Tam Lin of the Elves” are both proving to be hits, and all of the older pieces are being well received. (I have yet to perform any of the others at this point.)
A note for anyone actually checking this blog (yes, you and your friend!), I’ll be part of the mini concert performance set Sunday night between 8 and 9 pm at the Performing Arts tent. And Monday morning I’m teaching my first class, “Songwriting to Tell a Story”, in AS 9. Monday afternoon brings the Bardic Exposition from 2 to 5 pm, and I’ll be performing just before 3.
Hope to see you there!
So I just got back from NRWC, and boy are my legs bitten. I mean, the mosquitoes were insane. But apart from that the event was fantastic.
So, I finally found the WordPress iPhone app. Given that I do most of my writing these days on my iPhone, that’s very cool.
I’ve been trying to manage my writing process better since I committed myself to bardic just about a year ago (a few months before I set up this site and the Facebook group). By “better”, I mean “make it more convenient to write, easier to find my stuff, easier to share my stuff, and less likely to lose my stuff”. And since I first got an iPhone in my hands last year, that has meant (as so many of you have probably already found) doing it on my iPhone.
I know–I don’t write, I don’t call… What have I been up to?
So I haven’t posted since December. Bad bard. Bad, bad bard. Well, busy bard. Which is good. (And it’s not like the handful of you out there aren’t catching all of this on Facebook anyway.)
Still, what’s the point of a “blog” about my “bardic career” if I don’t take the time to post about said “career” when I’m actually “doing things” in it? Probably because I have the grace to be at least uncomfortable with the implicit narcissism involved, but if I can deal with it, I trust you can too (or you’ll stop reading, and we’ll all just have to find a way to cope).
I’ve been playing with GarageBand a bit today, with a bit better understanding of how to get vocals mixed, and with the advantage of a USB microphone (thanks, love, for getting me “Beatles Rock Band” two years ago!). In addition to some actual Bardic work (to be shared when the time is right), I finally tackled the vocals for my hitherto-unrecorded epic rock song “House of Dancers”.
Now you can finally hear the song Spiny Norman was never ready to bring onstage, as best I can record it on my own.
Edit (2/3): Re-uploaded the file I’d apparently deleted when I was trying to improve the mix. Don’t think I succeeded, but at least the s0ng is back on the site, and I corrected the links.
So I’ve cranked out another new song this week (“Changeling”), and hope to record an a version of it so that I can share it in the “Works in Progress” section within the next few days (still finalizing the tune). It’s exciting to feel the rust coming off the hinges, as I’m starting to be able to compose new pieces in shorter order without having to be at an event like Pennsic to get the wind in my sails (O, the mixed metaphors!). More are on the way.
Drake Oranwood