Setting A Poem to Music

[Gary Blanchard]

I am in the process of working with a local poet for a joint program. Through the night I will play some guitar as he reads his poems, he will read a poem on a theme and I will do a song on the same theme, he will read song lyrics, like Sounds Of Silence, and I will sing the song. It should be an interesting program.

I decided I would take one of his newer poems and set it to music. He is the type of poet who does not use rhyme or meter. This really presented some challenges and forced me to take a very different approach to the music. I hope to record the finished product this weekend; I'll post it when it is done.

Anyone else ever do this?

[Bernie Franks]

Haha, oh dear. I did "that" with a Yeats-Darwish poetical mashup for some kind of HC songwriting contest or other. It's called "Eleven Honkies in the Last Appalachian Sky" and it's a very strange song indeed, even by my standards.

I can't write lyrics for shit, so if I ever find myself in need of lyrics for some reason, I typically turn to poetry.

[Kerouac]

I know you're not a fan, but I'd look and listen to this:

http://onealbumaday.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/ani-difranco-album-cover-utah-phillips-fellow-workers-di-franco.jpg

It may not help either, but if you go to my Myspace I kinda have a spoken word piece called "Shape of A Poem."

www.myspace.com/andymclain

[Gary Blanchard]

I'll have to check out the music later. I will probably like the Ani DeFranco/Utah Phillips disc.

Here is what I did with the poem.
http://c1.ezfolk.com/Gary_Blanchard/?song=20523