Happy Saturday and welcome to the first #GreetingsFromRockyPoint thread! Today I’m talking about “Summer Stock”, the first song on the EP.

“Summer Stock” was the eighth (!) song I wrote when I started writing songs. I wrote it in response to a Seasons of the Ukulele prompt “On a first-name basis with the Summer of Love”. https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?128237-Season-283-On-A-First-Name-Basis-With-The-Summer-Of-Love

The title “summer stock” came immediately to mind. One of my favorite summers was in the early 1990s, when I was in a production of The King and I on the North Shore.

(I changed it to Brigadoon, because “Brigadoon” scans better, it works better for the theme, and a fish-belly-white person like me being in The King and I was super problematic by 2017 standards.)

My school friend Becky and her friend Kristen were also in the show, and our parents carpooled us to rehearsals.

I was thrilled to be a small part of something wonderful that was larger than me. When we were waiting for our parents one night, Becky clapped her hands and said, “I want to do summer stock every year!” and was all “same”.

This was the last summer before my freshman year in high school, and my acting career—and, indeed, my life—stalled out after this.

Of the three of us, only Kristen has stayed involved in ~the theatre: She’s sung and acted in a lot of community and semi-pro productions in Eastern Massachusetts.

According to a high school alumni newsletter, Becky had a health scare not long after graduation and ended up becoming a dietitian.

I haven’t heard from either of them since my family pulled up stakes mid-freshman year.

I always missed being part of a family-adjacent group that got together to make something larger than us.

I also wrote this at a time when I was starting to feel like my life was passing me by. I still feel like that, but I used to feel that way, too.

The first draft of the song was more shouty.

When I came back to the song a few months later, I wanted to make something that sounded like a 1960s girl-group song.

I discovered that the D Du strum sounded like the drums from Be My Baby and decided to use that for the verses.

The bridge just naturally got shorter and less unwieldy—I think I started singing it from memory and it got shorter. (I do miss the Innsmouth reference, though.) https://soundcloud.com/travelswithbrindle/summer-stock/s-yz0Gt

When I started working on the Rocky Point demos, I met up with @hilaryisabelle to figure out a drum part. This is in a hallway at MIT, and she was playing a wall with drumsticks. https://www.dropbox.com/search/personal?path=%2F&preview=id%3AMSK7hlzHBNAAAAAAAAAAlQ&query=Summer&search_session_id=42655949986157048625886980116722&search_token=u80epStgk8xg9CMQApfnjYgsF7XrKobhN73LpxY%2B3DI%3D

Eventually I wrote down the chords and sent the demo and rehearsal tapes to @marshundasmith, and we hashed out the cello part in a gorgeous classroom at her school.

This was the second song we recorded for #GreetingsFromRockyPoint, and we made a video for the Tiny Desk Contest at @zumix on the same day.

The final product.

If you liked this thread, please buy #GreetingsFromRockyPoint at @bandcamp on Friday! https://travelswithbrindle.bandcamp.com/ 

I will also be doing an IG Live recording of the song in 10 minutes. Join me there at @/travelswithbrindle