Kitty - Nathan K

Hello! This is your friend in the orange, Nathan K.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night with the perfect analogy to set up this email. It was so good that I was convinced that I’d remember it in the morning, and write a perfect email to you.

Unfortunately, I didn’t remember it.

It reminded me of when i was in high school, I used to wait until the house was finally quiet (ie when everyone was asleep), and write songs in the screened in side porch. The door handle didn’t quite work but it didn’t matter. No one was going to barge in on me, except for our dog Rudy, who would barge in and lay at my feet while i wrote, with the summer air blowing on my face.

I would take extensive notes on the melody and chords so that i would remember it in the morning. Mostly arrows up and down or straight. It usually worked, but eventually I figured out that i could use my blue walkman and record onto cassette tapes. I’m not sure if i have any of them but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re in a box somewhere.
Doesn’t matter. My dad always said that i should just play the song over and over, and if it was good enough, I’d remember it in the morning. The first one i remember remembering in the morning was a song of mine called “Brightly” – I was 17. I wrote it for a girl I met at church camp. it’s still my sisters favorite of mine.

I played Brightly in the talent show that year. I was so nervous that my hand cramped up in the middle of the performance. After that, for a few years people would say “I like that new one, but it’s no Brightly.” Once i visited my old high school to pick up my brother, and I heard a student playing it in the hallway (my brother had given him a bootleg recording of the song). Pretty cool, but doesn’t matter. The main thing was, it was the first thing i wrote that truly expressed what i was feeling at the time, rather than just trying to write something catchy. It is very catchy, though.

It took a while before i wrote something else that had the same feeling. I want to say it was a song called “Me or Jesus Or That Guy In Space”. A fun easter egg was when i would sneak in the word “jam” after “space” so that it was secretly about Michael Jordan.
Anyways, I was thinking about what my dad said, how if you don’t remember it, it might not be a good song. Unfortunately, he’s wrong. I wonder how many amazing ideas, songs or otherwise, get lost because they didn’t get written down, didn’t get recorded. Millions. I used to have a book on tape, literally on 6 cassette tapes, and the guy said that every person had every person has at least one “million dollar idea” a year, they just don’t write it down and they forget it. It’s true. Maybe not with inflation though. Doesn’t matter.
But really – what my dad should have said is “if you still remember the song the next day, you might not be writing enough songs.”

Hear me out.. we just got back from Kerrville Folk Festival, which is an incredible experience. It was our second year in a row going, because my wife Sara Beth Go (check her out!) was a finalist in the Kerrville New Folk Competition 2 years in a row, which meant I get to go two years in a row as her +1. (She won this year, which was huge.. over 1100 submissions, she was in the top 6. Congrats babe!!)

Anyways, we would sit around all day and all night at these song circles where we would share songs. My mind always would go blank as the guitar made its way over to me, and in a panic and forget i has ever written any song. The reality is I’ve written 125 songs this year, most of them i have only played once – the day I wrote it. So i’d sneakily read through titles that sparked my memory and scanning through the lyrics before i shared them with a circle of unbelievable writers. Despite barely remembering them, the thrill of playing these songs for the second time was incredible, and the response was even more thrilling.

Although I’ve written over 550 songs since 2020 (and who knows how many before i started keeping track), it’s not about the numbers. Doesn’t matter. What it’s all about is cracking open my heart every single day to see what’s in there. It’s always different. I could attempt to write the same song every single day and it’d still be different, because i’m going to be different than the day before. I could write 1000 songs about the same thing that happened to me, and each time have a slightly different, more compassionate view of it, because now i’ve seen it from 1000 different angles. It’s making me a better person each time. That’s what it’s all about. That’s the job. and hopefully when i get better about sharing my songs, they can help you view your own self, and others, with more compassion.
Anyways, here’s one i wrote last friday after a long week at my day job. I was completely fried tbh, and didn’t think i had anything to say. I wrote it and recorded it and completely forgot about it. And then a few days later Sara Beth mentioned it at a party to show our friend. Im glad she remembered, cause it’s a good one. here’s the link: https://s.disco.ac/yvmsrrplbbnn

This is your reminder that even if you don’t think you have anything to say, you do. and it matters.

OH, and also, i have a new song coming out next friday 6/20 called Funny Feeling. I wrote it back when SB and i first met and i was realizing she was “the one”, and how timing is such a funny thing. if you want to listen to it ahead of time, you can click here: (with the caveat that you must share it with a friend after it’s released – sorry that’s the rule!) https://s.disco.ac/yfmssenhcaxa

And the next day, on 6/21, that I’m competing against Sara Beth and some other friends of ours in the Rocky Mountain Songwriting Contest, part of Red Lodge Songwriter Festival in Red Lodge Montana. Wish us all luck!

Sincerely,
Nathan

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UPCOMING SHOWS: – 6/21: Red Lodge MT: (Red Lodge Songwriter Festival – I’m a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Songwriter Contest!)
– 7/3 -7/6: Urbana IL: (Audiofeed Festival)
– 8/7: Philadelphia PA: (Brittany Ann Tranbaugh Presents: The Meet Cute w/ Big Suze & Sara Beth Go)
– 9/24-28: Austin TX (SWRFA – Southwest Regional Folk Alliance Conference)
– 10/12: Houston TX: Houston Folklore and Music Society w/ Sara Beth Go