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.

This Is Not Where It Ends

For this song, I wanted to challenge myself in a couple of different areas. Now that I know I can add a bunch of instruments and make songs with sort of lyrical twists, I wanted to see if I could... not.

So, this is a straight up love song with just vocals and guitar. No double tracking, no overdubbing (other than the vocals themselves) just a little bit of reverb and compression for effects and that's it. I wanted to see if I could make an interesting song without some of the things I would normally reach for in my bag of tricks (trying to look at things from a different angle lyrically, guitar solos, weird chord progressions, multiple instruments, etc.). Did it work? I don't know. I kinda like it.

Lyrically, I have never been good at or comfortable with analogies-- like a fat girl waving her trophy from the smell contest-- so I wanted to give some of those a shot. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'd normally like a song this direct in its cheesy earnestness, but given my goals/challenges with the writing of it, I think I did what I set out to do.

You can also buy this one at my Bandcamp page to benefit the Nashville Red Cross flood recovery efforts. Download now to help the Music City! I will have the whole lot of them up for purchase very soon. Thanks for listening!

This is Now Where It Ends

This isn't just one day down off the calendar I'm gonna be around to be with her

This isn't just a fleeting thought or a last attempt Whether she believes or not, I'm gonna make it fit

'cause I know this is not where it ends Yes I know this is not the story of a trampled rose Yes I know this is not where it ends 'cause we've still got time to grow

This isn't just say your piece and let her leave This is more than sweet release for a careless sieve

This is more than sleight of hand and parlor tricks This is time to be a man and make it stick

'cause I know this is not where it ends Yes I know this is not the story of a dead-end road Yes I know this is not where it ends 'cause we've still got miles to go

Don't let it drown in the water Don't let it out in the ether We'll sort it out together Because this is me and you

And I know this is not where it ends Yes I know this is not the story of a trampled rose Yes I know this is not where it ends 'cause we've still got

Yes I know this is not where it ends Yes I know this is not the story of a dead-end road Yes I know this is not where it ends 'cause we've still got Yes we've still got Yes we've still got miles to go