Nothing Left but the Sea, part 1

The fifth song on handmade, “Nothing Left but the Sea”, completes a three song trilogy. “Like the Ocean Needs the Moon” began the story, with the emotions overruling the rational mind; “The Outer Banks of Love” presented the inevitable run-in with the hidden dangers; and this song finished the thought by sinking all the ships and leaving nothing but legends and stories.

The ocean theme appears a lot in my music; makes sense–here I am in Florida. I’ve been dazzled by the ocean’s beauty and devastated by its monsterous children (in 2004, my wife and I endured two severe hurricanes in a row). As I mentioned in an earlier article, my next album (still with zero songs, only a concept) will have even more of a nautical theme.

After a disaster there are always stories. Sometimes they are of survival; sometimes they are cautionary tales of foolish choices and hard consequences. Funny thing is, the human mind sometimes hears of tragedy and tries to make sense of it through humor. For this reason, “Nothing Left but the Sea” is an anthology of musical stories, told with a sort of good natured bounce (the melody), but with an undertow, an edge, a hint of shadow (the dark and strange chords I’m using, in this case).

Tomorrow, in part 2, I’ll talk about the composition of this song.