In an effort to celebrate the official launch of djphillips.com, challenge my songwriting/ recording abilities and to take my own swipe at a 30 Day Project I will now post a new song idea every day for the next 30 days. These are not necessarily finished products. They are not necessarily fantastic pop nuggets. But they will be new ideas (written at least within the last few weeks). They will be (pretty much) on time. And they will be original.

Along with each posted song, I'll include a little story of the writing and recording process. If you're the kind of person who doesn't like to know what's behind a song, feel free to skip all the content below the track.

I'm putting these out there-- warts and all-- so let me know what you think! The songs that get a good response will be the most likely to be included on a future release.

Too Much

This has been a crazy weekend for Nashville. Water levels continued to rise all day despite the rain letting up after sometime yesterday. As a result, many in the city have lost power, their cars, potable water, their homes and in a few tragic cases, their lives.

I have been extremely lucky. The police asked that we evacuate our home last night due to a nearby gas main break. I get the impression that it was just a precaution because my roommate and I were allowed to return this morning. A slightly inconvenient night and damp portions of the basement seems so silly compared to some of the scary things people are having to deal with across the city.

I have had the idea for "Too Much" for a while but it made a lot more sense when I wrote it in context of the flood. It's just about how the damage is devastating and it feels like it's too much but, as a community, we are too good to keep down! Cheesy, yes. But hopefully effective.

If you like the song and you'd like to own it, I've created a Bandcamp page where you can purchase a download of the song for a dollar (or more if you'd like) and I will donate all of the sales to the Nashville Red Cross to benefit flood recovery. It's not much, but it's another little way that you and I can help those in need.

If you guys like this idea, I can work on uploading some of the other songs to Bandcamp and we can work out the same kinda deal for the downloads to raise some cash. I hadn't intended to sell these demos, but since they are out in the world anyway, maybe we can do a little good with them?

As for the recording process, I tried some new things I had yet to attempt. You'll notice the fade out. (Thank you, thank you.) That was a new adventure. I think I did it the hard way, but I got it figured out anyway. And the organ sounding parts in the background are actually background vocals through a cool Leslie effect.

I originally came up with this chord/ melodic idea when I was experimenting with open tunings. I tuned the guitar to an "open" D major 7 chord, which for the non-musicians out there just means that when I strum the strings without holding anything down it is tuned to a chord. Open D major is very common but changing it to an open D major 7 gives it a nice little twist, I think.

Thanks for listening guys and let's send some good vibes (and maybe even some mulah) towards those in need!

Too Much

Lack of imagination keeps us all uninspired It's time for restoration after all that's transpired It just keeps coming down on us

It's just, it's too much It's just, it's too much

They're drowning in it all but there's no one here to blame The city starts to fall all from just a little rain But we just say that it's too much

It's just, it's too much It's just, it's too much

We're too good to keep down We're too good to keep down

We're just, we're too much We're just, we're too much