When life gives you laments, make lamentade!

I’m fairly confident that most (if not all) the songs I’m writing for the new album will be character-based stories or laments. As I said earlier, “Eli the Barrow Boy” has become a model for me in this regard. It sounds like something that was written in the 19th century, not the 21st. I’m aspiring to do the same thing…to come up with characters from different historical eras and sing about their trials and tribulations. I’m not trying to turn into Colin Meloy. I still plan on making my own sounds to go with these stories. But, yeah, if I become a cheap Decemberists rip-off, there are worse things.

I know there aren’t a ton of you out there hanging on my every word, but I’d like to hear from those who are–especially if you’ve got ideas for characters or stories. I plan on doing ten-to-twelve songs, and (assuming I get rights for “Eli”) that means another nine-to-eleven that need writing or discovering from the public domain.