Lockdown lifted, playing new songs with Sweetwood

Everyday I write about the music made by artists, today I write about my own band, playing covers and the new songs we are working on. Just because I like what I'm hearing, because we can finally play together again. The band is called Sweetwood, named after the village Zoeterwoude, where the location is where our fortnightly practice sessions take place.

Like the rest of the world, the location went into lockdown, again, early December 2020 and opened three weeks ago, so we have had two sessions, in which we focused mostly on new songs. The final two left from the 2019 list, one song that sort of drifted in without any voting and seven really new ones. How does that work, getting new songs an our list? Before 2019 each member by turn could suggest a new song and when it worked it remained on the list. The result regularly was that after weeks of trying a song was scrapped because it did not work or somebody did not like it.

In 2019 we tried a different approach. Each member brought in five songs and we all voted over a period of weeks. This results in a list that is far more balanced. In theory none of my selected songs can be in the top 10, while still winding up with a great list.

In the past we mostly selected rocksongs from the 60s and 70s, with a few notable exceptions. In the winter of 2021, although we were not playing together, the list is incredibly more diverse and challenging in some cases. A few things were different. In the spring of 2020 in the first lockdown, my girlfriend and I, both in the band, played front garden shows for our neighbours and an occasional friend who came by. This was on the blog already last year. Several songs we played there we liked that much, that we brought them to the band list of 2021. To my surprise some made the top 10, easily.

What changed in the second lockdown, is that we played weekly sessions in our home with the keyboardplayer, one visitor allowed!, working on new songs, recording them and sent them to the rhythm section in Leiden. Where they started to play together. This resulted in all having mastered the new songs long before we finally could play again together in Zoeterwoude. The second session was recorded and, no, we are far from perfect and never will be, but I am regularly impressed with what I'm hearing.

Being the only guitarist in the band, having started fairly late as a player, I am more the kind of player who has to work hard to get average results at best. Some of the new songs posed a challenge. The solo parts of 'My Sharona', The Knack's only hitsong? The classical guitar solo in Steve Harley's 'Make Me Smile'? The sort of jazzy solo in The LVE's 'Love When You Don't Want It'? And guess what, I've sort of mastered them, including the staying in the groove and not dragging behind wrestling with the notes.

But what I'm especially happy with is hearing the groove in Beth Wimmer's 'Better Than You Think', being laid down with that bossa nova kind of feel behind it, the rocking sound in Fleetwood Mac's 'Don't Stop' being there while having played the song only a few times together. Hearing Karen sing Adele's version of Bob Dylan' 'Make You Feel My Love', the song that just came in because Karen wanted to try and sing it, and the pièce de résistance, Supertramp's 'Dreamer'. With the three of us it had become a piece of cake and now we hear the rhythm section coming in. It will become so powerful.

The big question mark is The Temptations' 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone'. We haven't really tried it yet. And there are 3 or 4 songs, like 'Radar Love', that will remain on the shelf for some time to come. We have a 60 song back catalogue that needs playing again after over six months as well. The first show, corona permitting, has been booked for September!

It is when making music together I notice how much I've missed this, although through all the playing music in the front garden and in the living room, we have without a doubt become better musicians and singers. We had so much more time to go into details, harmonies, etc. In the first lockdown the world had almost stopped, so all the time to practice in the world was available to us. We took it. There have been upsides to the lockdown, although I gladly would have traded them had that been possible.

Let's hope the world can remain open in the fall and that some shows will become possible as well. These are always the best incentive to work just a little harder in regular, non-Covid times. The fun of playing music is still there.

Wout de Natris

You can find a few Sweetwood tunes here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdVhKpLou2XQyv9-9ZHyJAw