“We normally get one good disc of songs,” mAcdonald said. All of the new songs are recorded at the motel’s in-house studios, this year by chief engineer Steve Hamilton from Making Sausage Studio in Milwaukee and engineers Steve Smith and Barrett Tasky of Chicago. In the Holiday’s other two songwriting marathons, double albums have resulted just twice, both for Steel Bridge Songfest in its 10-year history. ” volumes were single discs, but this year’s Vol. How well 2015’s experiment worked should be apparent when the usual CD of the best “Love on Holiday” songs from its last edition is released at the concerts.
“It shows off how multi-talented they are.” ” musicians are expected to contribute visual art pieces. MAcdonald also noted that it’s not unusual for musicians to at least dabble in visual arts and vice-versa, so the interest runs strongly both ways. “So this is a way to bring these people closer together in the creative core of things. “Another thing the writers enjoyed - a lot of our friends are not musicians, but they’re artists in one way or another,” mAcdonald added. “They said, Can we do this again next year?’” Melaniejane said the reaction was extremely positive from last year’s songwriters. “It kinda ensures that the song comes out of the event,” mAcdonald said, “not out of an idea rolling around in their head previously.” “There’s still the theme, love, but what I noticed last year is it really kind of forced (the songwriters) to start from a fresh, level playing field, from a fresh perspective on something they hadn’t seen before.” “From my perspective, I think it worked out great,” melaniejane said.
The directors said one positive aspect of using the art as inspiration is to have their songwriters work without a preconceived idea for a song based on love, since they most likely will not see the art until they arrive for the event.
Like last year, the artworks that inspired each song will be projected or displayed on stage while the song is performed.Īmong the local artists who contributed work are Dan Collins, blown and cast glass artists Jeremy Popelka and Stephanie Trenchard, mosaic artist Joseph Kaftan, jewelry artist Angela Lensch and photographers Ty Helbach and Teresa Young. The resulting concerts and songs, and the enthusiasm of the musicians, led mAcdonald and melaniejane to blend music, visual art and love once more for this year’s “Love on Holiday,” with concerts of the new songs taking place Feb. ” in 2015, mAcdonald and melaniejane also randomly matched the songwriters with a locally-created piece of art for additional inspiration. In the case for the mid-February “Love on Holiday,” of course, it was love, or love gone sour in some cases.īut for the fourth edition of “Love. Like its longer-running songwriting bonanzas organized by mAcdonald and melaniejane, June’s Steel Bridge Songfest and Halloween-time “Dark Songs,” “Love on Holiday” asked musicians to come to the Holiday Music Motel in Sturgeon Bay, randomly partner with other musicians through a spin-the-bottle game, then work together to write new songs based on a given theme or inspiration. Last year, “Love on Holiday” directors pat mAcdonald and melaniejane took a chance in changing the format of the weeklong collaborative songwriting event and subsequent concerts.
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