Everyone I know loves finding new music. So I plan to try and share as much as I can with you via "The Filter".

My friend Zac Rae, who produced my last two records, has just finished working with Sara Lov on her new recording. I went to see her play at the El Rey last week and have been meaning to write about it ever since.

She has such a beautiful voice and this is her first solo record. I don't think it's out yet but you can listen to some of the songs on her website. I have taken a shine to "New York"

Enjoy.....

This is the week of Valentines Day. So here is a flower for you and a love song to share. One of my favorite websites right now is last.fm. I have been telling my friends about it and have been surprised by the blank stares.

So here is a reason to go check it out. If you don't have a copy of "Bonfires" yet, you can go to last.fm and download "As Sweet As Your Love" for free. While you are there take some time and see what an amazing resource it is.

As Sweet As Your Love

Verse 1
I found a garden on a hill
Where the wild lilies grow
Where the sound of rain begins
And drowns out the madness far below
I traveled there by tired foot
Rusty Train and crippled horse
Drank the water from the springs
Two miles deep at the source

Pre-Chorus
Yes I tasted amazing grace
Had more time than I could waste
More songs than I could sing
But not one single thing...

Chorus
As sweet as your love is
As sweet as your love is
As sweet as your love is

Verse 2
I saw a blackbird in the war
Turn and charge into the sun
In that flash of light was you
And I knew the time had come

Pre-Chorus
So I ran through hurricanes
Cities lost and cities named
Summer fall and spring
But never found a thing....

Chorus
As sweet as your love is
As sweet as your love is
As sweet as your love is

Verse 3
New Year's Eve I had a dream
All the clocks were laid to rest
All the bonfires were out
And we buried loneliness
Yeah we buried loneliness

I was not really sure which headline to go with so I copped out. One has a sensationalistic thing going for it while the other puts you in a contemplative mood. Either way the ideas are the same and that is the thought here. You say potato?

I remember reading an interview with Bob Dylan where he said that if nobody wrote another song the world wouldn't suffer for it. I found a transcript here, you can read the whole thing, it's a good one. However, Bob was wrong. Sure, I understand where he's coming from and most days when I am sifting through the vast sands of the internet looking for music to feed me it feels like there are plenty of songs. That is a gross understatement, billions of plenty of songs. But that is not the point.

A favorite book of mine is about the craft of writing is The Modern Library Writer's Workshop. I have even highlighted it and one of the passages that I keep coming back to when I feel like anything I could say has been said is this.

"The truth of fiction is imaginative truth partly to remind us that authenticity is a changing stream, that every generation,and every group and individual within every generation, must rediscover it."

As someone who choses to create this brings me comfort. Authenticity is a changing stream, the way we as people interpret our world does evolve. Of course we don't need to reinvent everything all the time. Stravinsky's famous quote "Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal." applies. We build on the foundation of those who came before.

I mentioned in my post about "Cameras in California" that all of my songs were love songs. They are, and love will always be love, but cameras will go away. Something will replace or leapfrog them. I can't imagine what that invention will be but it will happen and in time people won't talk about cameras or cell phones or laptops but they will love. The stream will change directions and they will create art that speaks in context of the world as it will be for them.

This all reminds me of the Buddhist concept of impermanence or the greek philosopher Heraclitus saying you can't step in the same river twice. The ideas all intertwine and mean something different to us when we meet them at different times on on our journey. Saying we don't need anymore songs is like saying we don't need anymore food. We have had enough. We should be full. But when our appetite returns we will be hungry and we can enjoy fresh grapes and aged wine. They each give us something the other can not.