Tonight (March 26th, 2012) I have a show at Silvie's Lounge -- music starts at 8 pm, but I'll be playing a short set sometime after nine. This is a busy music week for me...on Sunday, April 1st, I am doing another show at the Elbo Lounge where I'll be performing with seven other musicians (Chris Quigley, David Kav, Dawn Xiana Moon, Jeff Brown, Kyle Greer, Shelley Miller, Dan Clingman!) and playing some of our best work from songs written during the 2012 February Album Writing Month (http://www.fawm.org).
While I was doing the FAWM thing I noticed somebody mention on fawm.org that they were doing some songs for something called Sing Me A Story. It turns out that a former Chicago musician (Austin Atteberry) who moved to Nashville started this cool non-profit organization that matches kids in need who write down and draw stories, to songwriters who then craft some music for them. I HAD to jump in and try that! It just sounded cool.
I visited the website, singmeastory.org, signed up as a songwriter, and then browsed the stories they have available. I came across a story by an 11 year old from New Dehli, India, about a tiger who is hungry and tries to snatch a frog from a pond. The frog is clever, however, and escapes! I wrote a song called "Clever Frog" and submitted it. It's a bit rough and probably could use some more polish, but I'm pleased I was able to contribute to this project and this idea.
http://www.singmeastory.org/?pg=stories_songs&pid=50
Here are the lyrics to the original song, "Clever Frog"
The hungry tiger crawled through the field
Searching for his next meal
That's when he came upon the pond
filled with so many frogs
One of the frogs was bigger than the others
Easier to catch, it would end his hunger
He pounced on the fat frog
and caught it between his giant tiger paws
The clever frog yelled "wait!"
Right before the tiger put him on a plate
"Let me wash my body clean from this icky mud
Then you can eat me up!" said the clever frog
The tiger said, "ok, sounds good
Go wash yourself and come back soon!"
The clever frog waved, "Bye Mr. Tiger!"
And the tiger waited for a long long time
But the clever frog never came back
But the clever frog never came back
But the clever frog never came back
But the clever frog never came back!