Songwriting Scratchpad from Brian Spahr Music
At the beginning of 2025 I decided I wanted to write a new song every week. Sonny and Georgia, the amazing owners of Wildwood Recording Studio in Brooklyn, NY have been so helpful in this pursuit by hosting a weekly songwriting challenge. Each week they share a simple prompt on Monday and songs (in whatever state of completion) have to be submitted by Saturday. It has been a fun challenge and great accountability to keep writing, and I currently hold the distinction of being the only three-time winner of the contest (Week 8, Week 13, and Week 18). These are all the songs (all recorded live on my phone or with a quick mic setup) raw and rough. There are mistakes, bad notes, dogs barking… but the songs exist. Maybe one day some of them will be singles or on an EP. Either way, I wanted to share them with you in their earliest forms. Happy listening! brianspahr.substack.com
Episodes
The prompt this week was Celebration. I thought of the “Orphans Easter” dinners we used to host for friends without local family. No fancy china, no seating chart, just paper plates, too much dessert, card games and stories that stretched late into the night. It’s a reminder that sometimes the holiest communion isn’t in a sanctuary, but in a crowded living room where grace pulls up a chair and calls us beautiful.
Verse 1No need for ...
This is song #31 in my attempt to write and share a new song every Monday in 2025. The prompt this week was “Vacation” To listen to the other 30 Songs (plus a few extras) CLICK HERE
I’d love to know what you think if you have time to listen. https://threadbarecreative.com/track/4394662/dashboard-altar-wildwood-week-31
The best vacations for me involve loading up for a long drive to somewhere wonderfully ordinary. Give me an audible b...
"Confluence” is a love song for Fort Wayne. Not the postcard version. This one is for the muddy waters and mismatched sidewalks, the collision of past and future, the sacred ordinary of rivers that refuse to flow alone.I wrote this song around the image of our city’s three rivers, especially the place where the St. Joe and St. Mary meet to become the Maumee. They come from different places, with different stories, but they don’t fi...
"By 10 O’Clock I’m Done” is basically my introvert anthem. While some folks head out for a wild night, my idea of going out is a good meal, meaningful conversation, and being home in time to sit on the couch and not talk to anyone. This song is a love letter to simple joys, early bedtimes, and the people who make quiet nights feel like everything.
Lyrics
VERSE 1The Beastie Boys fought for my rightTo party through ‘til dawnBut I like ...
[NEW SONG OF THE WEEK]Not all protest songs raise a fist.Some simply say: “Let me hurt without being hurried.”Well-Intended Weapons is a song for anyone who’s ever been met with clichés when they needed compassion. A protest against the pressure to skip grief and jump to healing.May we learn to sit with pain, not solve it. May love sound more like presence than platitudes.
Get full access to Working It Out As I Go at bria...
When Notre Dame burned, it wasn’t just a building we mourned, it was the loss of something we thought would last forever. This song explores the grief of sacred collapse and the enduring presence of a love that fire cannot consume.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]Pungent smoke like incense burningRose up from the spireIt lingered in the Paris skythe cathedral was on fireAlarm Bells rang like Quasimodostill lived in the towerThe faithful prayed their...
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