Learn to steal The Viper way! This session is designed for anyone who's ever had writer's block or who's felt stymied in their songwriting because they felt like they had nothing new to say. Such a shame, when there are so many great old things that have already been said lying around just waiting to be picked up, repurposed, and put to use.
Let The Viper show you how to strip an already existing song for parts, sand off the serial numbers, repaint, and fence the thing for fun and profit...er, that is, how to participate in the grand old time-honored folk process. By the end of our time together, you'll have crafted new verses for some great jug/blues songs and ballads like "Uncle Bud" and "Tear It Down (Bed Slats and All)," and you'll be well on your way to writing a whole new song of your own.
And so you see now how we creative artists work. It really isn't like any other kind of work, for it must come from a great emotional upheaval in the soul of the writer himself; and if that emotional upheaval is not present, it must come from the works of any other writers which happen to be handy and easily imitated.
-- Robert Benchley, “How I Create” (1932)
Saturday afternoon, Nov. 5
2:00-3:00pm, Community Center for the Arts
Free! No wristband required