We spent part of a day on Saturday making a home recording of a song I wrote in the fall. I haven’t been in recording mode for most of the year, but the process of adjusting mics, completing takes, and listening back felt like putting on an old shoe. I don’t have a big production in mind, but the wheels began turning quickly, a sign to me that a project has caught fire.
Finding the next steps in a project is like following a trail of sparks. What idea catches is sometimes different than you think. And sometimes, an idea smolders a while before going anywhere if not stalling altogether.
Yesterday's sparks were questions: What other instruments could we add? Who would be fun to have contribute other parts, not only because of their skills but their relation to the material.
I often think this way when calling people to collaborate in some way: Like any other job, my criteria is about actual qualifications but I’m just as often thinking about a little more than that. Were they a part of my life when I wrote the song? Did they inspire me or the material in some way? Do they have a relationship to the subject matter or material?
The entire Love the Bay project grew out of us being two songwriters with respective audio-video engineering and journalism experience deciding to employ their skills under sail. We choose our featured guests from the many other artists our lives have intersected with over the past few decades.
Last week, when the project on (literal) deck was decorating our sailboat for local Lighted Yacht Parade, an event we’ve intended to enter for years, but time constraints or something else has always interfered. Last year, we ordered oodles of extra lights in preparation and they arrived the day before the event was canceled due to Covid. We did up the porch instead. This year, with limited time to get it together due to work and gigs, we decided to squeeze it in regardless.
We knew we wanted to have a musical component as well. But navigating along the parade route amid all the lights and busy estuary traffic would take a good portion of our attention. We either needed people who we trusted to negotiate the course safely or folks who were comfortable performing in tight corners and at ease on small boats. In the end, we called upon two friends, Janet and Jeff, who’d been aboard Espresso in the past who played small instruments —ukuleles and U-bass — and who happened to have led music groups in playing holiday songs.
The afternoon before the parade was a crunch for us and them. They were getting ready for a trip the next day. While I ran around town assembling provisions for the evening on the water, Kwame ran the last of the lights up the halyards, tested our portable power source and affixed our race number placard — we were #95 — to the bow.
I stopped into the Thai place on Webster for fresh spring rolls (something healthy we’d be able to eat with our hands!). The dining room was bustling with holiday shoppers, and the two women who were managing orders at the register worked with tense determination. They told me my order would take a half hour.
I popped into the Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter Thrift Store next door to poke around. Used clothing, shoes, housewares and assorted sporting goods crowded the shelves. In that wonderful way that happens when you’re in the stream of a project, I found the exact finishing touches for the evening's parade amid it all: two Santa hats and a used string of red lights.
When I returned to the marina, I tested the two-dollar string of lights. They actually weren’t red: instead they matched the orange color of Espresso’s hull, even more perfect than I could have imagined for the remaining lifeline that needed decorations.
While I set to work winding them securely around the port lifelines, Kwame ran home to retrieve the music gear. As I finished putting lights around the mast and pulpit, several other boat owners happened by, including a couple who'd just moved their boat to nearby F dock. We chatted about the logistics of decorating the boat and they went on their way.
Jeff and Janet arrived minutes before we needed to cast off. I helped them load their instruments battery-powered amp onto the boat, Kwame lashed a JBL to the mast and set up a mic in the cockpit. We plugged the lights into a small board, connected everything to our portable power source and we left dock.
As we motored to the start near Coast Guard Island, Janet suggested a few songs and ran us through the chords of an old Wham! song we wouldn’t have considered otherwise. As we were among the smaller boats, we lined up toward the back, watching as The Potomac turned around near the start to lead the parade to Jack London Square.
It was magical and slightly chaotic out on the estuary. More than 45 boats were entered in this year’s parade while a few rogue vessels had come out as well. We passed an impressively-lit whale boat powered by a rowing club, and fell in behind a sailboat done up completely in red lights. A dragon boat paddled by and we some friends in kayaks waved from shore before putting in.
As we neared the judge’s stand, we switched on our amps and began singing “Last Christmas”. Crowds of spectators were lining the shore and cheering from the tops of houseboats. I'd let several of our friends and neighbors as well as my sailing classmates know what our boat number was, so I wasn't sure who was responsible for a whole dock full of onlookers erupting into my name at one point, but I was tickled.
After completing the loop past the Oakland waterfront, we circled home. Mission accomplished! In the dock, we plugged into the marina electricity and decompressed, playing songs with the boat all aglow. At one point, a couple came by with their grandchildren to take a closer look. Then we heard a voice come over the parade’s designated VHF channel to announce the results. We cheered when we heard #95 announced as placing second among the sailboats.
A little later, the boat owners I’d met earlier in the day came by our slip: they were the ones who had instigated the cheer of my name from a dock. They were also inspired to participate with their boat next year — another spark lighting the way to the next step, the next project….
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