The Irving Sessions // Vol. Five: Midnight Train
06.01.09 / Nashville, TN

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And, we’re back!  Sorry for the three month delay since my last post.  In many ways it feels like it’s been a year, maybe two, and yet it also feels like I was recording just a few weeks ago.  A lot has changed since the end of February.  Most notably, I resigned from Target at the beginning of April to take an amazing opportunity with Love Everybody back in Music City, USA.  It’s great to be back in Nashville, back in my condo, and back in music.  I can’t really explain the difference in my overall well-being when I’m surrounded by creativity, entrepreneurship, and most importantly, music/film/media.  There are certain aspects to Minneapolis that I will definitely miss — living with fantastic roommates, a great group of friends, constant contact with motivated & career-driven individuals, the warehouse district, Barbette,  Metro Transit, traversing via foot, and Lake of the Isles, to name a few — and Target was a great company to work for.  Nashville, however, feels like home.  I couldn’t be happier about this chapter.  It feels right and I feel a new sense of purpose and motivation.

After only four volumes (I love how the word “volume” makes it sound like I have amassed a much larger collection than I could actually bring to the table at this point), the name The Irving Sessions is technically no longer appropriate for this project.  However, despite the fact that my studio has relocated some five states south to Fatherland St., I’m going to keep the name and keep the project moving forward.  With that said I’m happy to announce a first…

Vol. Five features a song written and recorded all on the same day — today (well, technically, last night)!  In fact, this song is so new that the lyrics have not even made their way to paper.  Perhaps it’s best to think of “Midnight Train” as a new recipe with which the chef is experimenting in front of a small number of guests or an automobile prototype much more imaginative than the production version that will be distributed in mass quantities at a later date.  What you have below is about the seventh or eighth take of this song, ever.  I recorded each version after the initial melody idea came together, and this one felt the most natural to share.  It felt the most like early morning hours.  The most like it’s lyrical intent:

I’m waitin’ on a midnight train // I’m waitin’ on the world to change // I’m waitin’ on a midnight train // to carry us home.

Version 1 / 06.01.09/ Nashville, TN / Fatherland St.

The Irving Sessions // Vol. Four: Untitled #3
02.23.2009 / Minneapolis, MN

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Untitled #3 (The Irving Sessions) from David Alan Wright on Vimeo.

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Hello, and happy Tuesday. And what a good Tuesday it is: The Cavs just beat the Grizzlies and the Buckeyes took care of Penn State a little earlier on ESPN. A good time to be a sports fan from Ohio. First, a few updates to the site…

One: I came across an awesome plugin for the blogging platform Tumblr called Streampad as I was browsing Aaron Jamison’s blog With A Shout. The plugin looks for MP3s within a site and references the links for collective playback at the bottom of the page. Thinking to myself, “how cool would it be if this were available for WordPress,” I soon discovered while reading their blog that, sure enough, a beta plugin was just released. So, I’m happy to say that you can now stream all of my music via the play button at the bottom of the screen, or, if you prefer, you can open the player – we’ll unofficially call it dWriTunes – in a new window while heading elsewhere on the Web (special thanks to Dan and Gregory for getting me all setup).

Two: You can now download MP3s of the songs for easy iPod listening here. Just right click on the links that say “MP3″, select “save link as”, and you should be good to go. Rock out to acoustic guitar-based tracks while working out! On the go! Or, while at work!

Three: I’ve added a page with some links to artists with whom I’ve either had the privilege of working or are friends of mine that you should definitely check out.

Four: I bought a new microphone and I’m pumped to see where my recordings can go as a result (recording these sessions live and trying to get together a basic mix on the same night can be a bit of a challenge, so every little step helps).

With our updates out of the way, that brings us to Vol. Four: Untitled #3, a song I wrote in late spring/early summer of 2006. It was written either shortly before or after an incredible three-week trip to Europe, and right around the time of my graduation from Belmont. Though I originally intended to add words to this composition, this song is special to me as is, as an instrumental piece. I wrote this song on a guitar that was given to me as a gift in remembrance of my grandmother (my dad’s mom), and shortly after it was written it turned into a song to celebrate the life of my grandpa (my mom’s dad) as I performed it for his Memorial on July 22nd, 2006. It’s the only performance during which I remember not being able to tell my hands what to do as they shakily made their way up and down the fretboard. It’s something I’ll never forget, and as a result, this song will always be special to me.

Two weeks later I sat down in Justin Saunders’ Nashville studio to record an acoustic version to send to my grandma (my mom’s mom; that version is below), and it hasn’t been recorded or performed live since. This song is about reconciliation to me. About paths that re-converge and the journey we take to reach that point. I also find the melody to hint at hope.

On a side note, the shirt I’m rocking in this video is from the company I helped start prior to joining Target, Speakerheart. Our invite code during our beta phase was “Orange” and you might see an artist or two sporting the same model out and about in Nashville.

Version 1 / Recorded 08.01.06, Nashville, TN

Version 2 / Recorded 02.23.09, Minneapolis, MN

Visitors by State as of Feb 09, 2009

Now comes the interactive portion where you get to guess which state’s constituents will be next to feel the beat and stomp their feet. Introducing…