Free

This is my latest song baby. She was born the first weekend in May and came back from Mastering a week ago. She is definitely one of my more inspired pieces. What does that mean? It means that everything came quickly and easily from the words to the sounds to the recording. I played around awhile with the mix using different vocal effects and ended up happy with a clean version, just a touch of reverb.

The lyrics of this song haunt me. I got up Saturday morning and watched the Bruce Jenner/Diane Sawyer interview and the idea that we all just want to be “free” really stuck with me. I think the darker imagery stems from realizing that Bruce had been struggling with this issue for so many years. For me “Free” represents the deep unabating desire we have to reach self actualization and fulfillment. That’s really the American Dream is it not?

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David Houston and String Theory

If you haven’t caught David Houston and String Theory, make it a point to get to one of their gigs.  I’ve nicknamed David, Professor Houston because his talent deserves that level of respect.  As a songwriter I have a particular affinity for wordsmiths and this man is a genius.  The way he turns a phrase will catch you off guard and open your heart before you’ve realized what’s happened and then here comes String Theory with a sweeping line to lift you out of the mechanics of the lyrics and into the job that music is meant to do –  move you to another level, another hemisphere, another view.  Several times during their performance I marveled that this combination is so powerful and effective.  It’s vibrational open heart surgery, hits you in the nostalgic area of your gut, but the strings and arrangement saves you. They hold you up, help you feel and keep you from falling too far down.  That’s the feeling of an open heart.

It doesn’t get any tastier than this delightful pairing of aural pleasure.  Solid song structure, expert musicianship and powerful lyricism that at one point brought up a few tears.  Now that caught me off guard, I can’t recall when a performance delivered that kind of punch, hence this post.  Kudos Prof Houston & String Theory, I look forward to your next gig!  Stay informed:  http://www.davidhouston.com

Photo by Carrie Jenkins.
Photo by Carrie Jenkins.
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Photo by Carrie Jenkins

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Indie Band Guru – Review of the Wild West Medicine Show

http://indiebandguru.com/kally-omally-a-testament-to-having-a-musical-passion-even-with-a-day-job/

I love this review.  This guy gets me.  Part of me had to do this project just to see if I could and what I would learn along the way.  I’ve never believed in being a “starving” artist, or that you have to “suffer” for your craft.  My parents were both cops. They worked incredibly long hours often picking up additional off duty jobs to help pay for the extra’s.  They weren’t particularly musical either.  I’m pretty sure they saw that my head was in the clouds early on and perhaps that worried them.

When I was sixteen I asked them if I could run rickshaws in Coconut Grove (I thought it would be a great way to make money and lose weight).  After a resounding NO from the parental units I opted for a summer job at JC Penney’s.  After coming back from the military I started going to school at Miami Dade Community College on the Homestead Campus and ended up getting a job as a dispatcher for the Florida Highway Patrol.

At the time I was studying classical music and it was not uncommon for me to be humming or singing softly in the dispatch room in between calls, especially when I worked midnights and the shift was slow.

Slow and steady, with the full intent of improving along the way is how I approach my craft.

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Blurred Lines in the Music Business (Mimicry and Risk Aversion)

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Marvin Gaye’s family won the lawsuit to the tune of 7.5 million dollars.  So now Thicke and Williams have to pony up the loot. I’m a songwriter, a multi-instrumentalist and producer who strives for originality.  Now nothing in songwriting is purely original.  Most of us stick to the Western scale system and use I, IV, V as the root of our music.   Different formula’s for different styles but the fundamental platform in which we write a song has been an established paradigm for years.  So then what’s the problem? The business wants Mimicry! Repetition and for you to make it sound familiar!  One need only look to Glam Metal to see the obvious….lol.

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Making music is a huge business where ridiculous profits are possible (not probable for most).  Promoting the new and unique is akin to risk taking and like any big business, they’re risk averse.  They want to continue to reap profits from a proven method.  It’s understandable.  Fear of losing one’s paycheck is enough to incentivize them to want to err on the side of caution, so everything soon starts to sound the same.  Follow the rules, sound like someone popular, get to the hook fast, have production that sounds like the pro-sounds that the major houses put out.  One of the best examples of this is the Nashville sound, which has pretty much ruined country music.  The commercially produced music coming out of Nashville is sounding like pre-packaged meals, looks great on the outside, but inside it’s bland.  As long as the standard operating paradigm for the music business continues to be “do what has been done before,” we’ll continue to see judgements such as this.

We love songwriting for the framework, it’s like you’re given free range to roam within a certain set of rules and boundaries.  But there’s nothing new in the universe, so being creative is a challenge.  As a voice student, I was taught to never try to sound like anyone else, but to discover and cultivate my own sound.  The same approach applies to my songwriting craft.  I sonically isolate myself from popular music or even any music at all when I’m creating and let the words drive the melody.  Even with all safeguards, it’s still possible to end up with something that may sound a bit like something else.

To intentionally create music that sounds like something else flies in the face of true artistry, but we can’t help but wonder if the jury had really been peers of Thicke and Williams (meaning a jury of fellow songwriters) would the outcome have been the same?  I can easily distinguish the cowbell rhythm differences, and other major differences, but could the jury?

I use a submission service to place my music and I’d like to give you a little taste of my last rejection from Warner as it demonstrates this paradigm: “Hi Kally, First I want to say you are a true artist/writer.  I admire when an artist is not afraid to do something new.  The problem is, we work with straight middle America pop and RnB.  I wouldn’t know where to begin to place your project so for that reason, I have to pass.  If in the future I receive an opportunity that fits your style of music I’ll reach out to you.”  I’ll take the rejection over watering down my artistic integrity any day.

I’d be willing to bet that many artists get worn down over time and eventually bend to what the business wants, which is guaranteed profits.  It would be all to easy to sacrifice that integrity for the idea of “success” which is something every composer/producer must face.

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The Wild West Medicine Show

The Front Cover
The Front Cover

The Medicine Show rides again!  Though it’s live on most music distribution platforms, I recommend getting it at bandcamp for just 7$.  http://kallyomally.bandcamp.com/album/kally-omallys-wild-west-medicine-show  It’s a wild ride through falling barstools, shady medicine men, a hotel with a phone that doesn’t work and some transition easing buorbon.  I’ll be announcing the CD release show here shortly and will have the physical copies delivered early next week.  If you would like a physical copy, send me an email and I’ll get one to you via mail.

I’ve already starting working on new material for the next one and still am working on getting the instrumentals out.  If only there were more than 24 hours in a day or I didn’t need to sleep.

Stay safe, stay happy and stay on yer barstool!

Big hugs and thank you!

Kally O’Mally

Kally O'Mally
Kally O’Mally

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Happiness

Oh I’m a happy gal these days! I worked my booty off over my two week break from my med center job and during that time I worked with a fervor I didn’t even know I had. I went deep and at times felt like I was cliffhanging- my Craigslist super iMac kept crashing and there were several times I thought a song was done in that I couldn’t get past the crash factor. But persistence and patience paid off.

A great mix is key – it’s the hinge. I was good to go through the mixes but when it comes to mastering that’s where I sorta kinda know what it should look and sound like but there were times I knew something wasn’t quite right. Thankfully there’s a service for that process.

In the end, I feel like I grew my grey matter and pulled out the tools in my arsenal, humor, harmony, and a dose of whimsy. Let the Wild West Medicine Show take you on a journey! To be released soon!!!

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Bourbon on my Deathbed

I’m terribly impatient. I want to release these as I get them recorded and don’t have anything keeping me from doing that. Freedom is a beautiful thing. I’ll eventually pull them all together into a CD format and hopefully manage to keep a few songs a surprise.  

My family is from Ashland Kentucky and my Granny and I had an especially close relationship.   She was an amazing and entertaining lady.  She would talk about how beautiful Kentucky was and how she ached to return to the land of her roots.

When she was in the assisted living facility she was a hoot.  I was visiting with her one afternoon and she was telling me about what was happening with the lady she shared the room with and somehow we started talking about  Kentucky and she said, “Oh, what I wouldn’t give for some KY bourbon.  Just a taste would be sooo good.”  and I said, “Granny, I can take care of that for  you right now.  There’s no good reason why you can’t have yourself a little swig of bourbon if you want it.”  You could see her eyes just light up at the thought and then she said, “Oh, no…no. I just couldn’t,”  “Yes, Granny, yes, you can.  It’ll only take me a moment to run to a package store and get you some!”  She refused.   It was a funny moment that stuck with me.  So this song is for her.  I tried to capture her passion and love for the state and I accidentally made up a word, which I can fix in editing  – I’m just  not sure I want to.

Lyrics:

Give me bourbon on my deathbed
fill my cup, before I die.
In that cup, I place my solace and the
secrets of my life.

Kentucky bourbon on my deathbed
when the bells begin to chime
Oh the devil comes a callin,
If I drink before it’s time.

Give me God that sweet refreshment
it’s like horses running wild
through the bluegrass fields of heaven
as I cross the great divide.

One last kiss of pure delightment –
one last taste upon my tongue,
for this land has been my heaven,
Kentucky bourbon take me home.
Kentucky bourbon take me home.

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I’m Gonna Run

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For battered NFL wives, a message from the cops and the league: Keep quiet By Simone Sebastian and Ines Bebea came out today in the Washington Post.  These two brave writers are peeling back the layers and shining a light on domestic violence in the NFL and the tacit reaction on behalf of law enforcement and NFL leadership.  Spousal abuse and child abuse are issues we continue to face in this country and the costs associated with this type of abuse are astronomical.

So what kind of costs am I talking about?  All sorts of costs, health related, educational and emotional costs that put the victim into a type of emotional bankruptcy.  How do you measure the value of self worth or the value of one’s potential?  Abusers are excellent at whittling you down, making you believe that you deserved the beating you got.  Messages like, “you can’t do anything right!” and “you’ll never amount to anything!,” and let’s not forget “you made me do that!”  degrade a person slowly over time until the they start to believe it.  It’s a slow erosion of self worth that will eventually color their perception. Like a form of PTSD, the victim will start to see things only from the abusers angle and actually believe that they’re inciting the anger and if they just did things a little better, it would be different.

Abusers manage the abused in very clever ways.  Their raging anger spilleth over like a pissed off volcano so the abused will look for ways to cope and mitigate the effect. They’ll walk on eggshells,  have dinner on the table, have the house sparkly clean, do a once over the house to make sure there’s nothing to trigger an outburst. They’ll engage in polite supportive conversation that avoids triggers. They may seek to console their pain in substance abuse or forms of repetitive behavior that have a calming effect.

The longer these coping mechanisms are in place the more the abused loses their voice and their power.  Their life gets sucked out by the abusers volatility and the constant effort to keep the abuser pacified. The costs to the physical and psychological body may seem like they can never be recovered but they can, only if the cycle is broken.  The road to healing starts with the desire to reclaim your own self worth and voice and the recognition that something is very wrong.  But for real change to occur, you’ve gotta hit the tipping point, the point where the desire to live in a different way overcomes the abusers conditioning.

How does someone who finds themselves in this circumstance reclaim their voice and their right to live in a safe environment?  Talk about it, reach out, make a plan.  Involve your healthcare provider.  Healthcare professionals in California are required to report injuries related to abuse.  Reach out to the local or national organizations that are available to help.  In Sacramento we have WEAVE.  In Jacksonville, FL, there’s the Quigley House.  The National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 1-800-799-7233 and they’re equipped to provide local resource information for victims.

The one thing’s guaranteed, abusers escalate.  They get off on abusing and seeing their victim tip-toeing around their rage.  Get out when you can, before it’s too late and before #WhyIStayed turns into #HowIDied.

I wrote “I’m gonna run” with all of this in mind. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month #DAVM.  Let your voice be heard and stand up for every woman’s right to live in a safe environment without fear. Run if you need to.

Lyrics:

It’s gotten bad, it sure ain’t good.
His temper’s rising, he’s gotten cruel.
It’s time to go. I’m no longer safe.
Ain’t no therapy, gonna change that face.

I’m gonna run, I’m gonna hide
I’m gonna find, the strength I left, behind, I’m gonna run.

I’ve got a plan. I’ve packed some bags.
Gonna head straight up through North Carolina
I’ve got three thousand dollars, and a clean car title.
I know I’ll be just fine, if I can make it past the state line.

Bridge:
I’ve grown stronger. I’m standing tall.
I may bend, but I’ll never fall….
cause I’m gonna run.

I made the video using images from Flickr’s creative commons and am not monetizing the video.

Most importantly, #KnowWhenItsTimeToRun and #Dontstay #itcangetworse.

Every life is valuable and everyone has something to contribute.  Don’t ever let someone else tell you differently.

Stay Safe,
Kally O’Mally

*Kally O’Mally is a composer, performer and multi-instrumentalist living in Northern California.  She writes and produces her own works.

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I’m Gonna Run

I spent Saturday working on this piece using Logic Pro X, my Ipad and IMac and my Blue Yeti microphone.  Composing brings out my OCD. I love nothing more than delving into edits and continually fine tuning the instrumentation and mix and getting it out of my head and into a solid format.

The scandalous NFL Rice and Peterson incidents have instigated much needed discussions surrounding domestic abuse and family violence.  The #WhyIStayed comments have been incredibly revealing and I wanted to write a song that was more hopeful and optimistic about the topic.  It takes a lot of strength to break out of something bad, especially if it’s been going on for awhile and conditioning takes hold.

This is for the women who aren’t afraid to run.

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It’s gotten bad, it sure ain’t good.
His temper’s rising, he’s gotten cruel.
It’s time to go. I’m no longer safe.
Ain’t no therapy, gonna change that face.

I’m gonna run, I’m gonna hide
I’m gonna find, the strength I left, behind, I’m gonna run.

I’ve got a plan. I’ve packed some bags.
Gonna head straight up through North Carolina
I’ve got three thousand dollars, and a clean car title.
I know I’ll be just fine, if I can make it past the state line.

Bridge:
I’ve grown stronger. I’m standing tall.
I may bend, but I’ll never fall….
cause I’m gonna run.

Photo by Sascha Kohlman

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My Songwriting and Producing Process

I work in academic medicine during the week and my evenings are packed with workouts and band rehearsals so Saturday and Sunday are ideal for composing and getting deep into my craft.  I’m coming down to the final process of my instrumental CD, 12 songs are mixed and ready to be looked at for line up, transitions and mastering.  I accidentally fell into my 13th composition for that CD last Saturday and I think I’ve decided on a name, Delandia.  Naming instrumentals is much tougher than a lyric based song so I look for a word or group of words that conveys the color/hue/vibe of the piece.

I’ve also started recording the tracks for my next CD, which will include, Sweet Delta Breeze, Fly, Oops I Fell Off the Barstool, Miss Understood, Got my One Good Eye On You and a bunch of other tracks.  As a sound engineer, I am extremely interested in the mix and the tricks, continually asking myself, what can I do to make it better, richer and sonically clear. I see so many folks listening to songs right from the speakers of their phones so I think about that mix as well.

My songs are born from all sorts of methods.  Sometimes I get the music first, sometimes I get the lyrics first.  Sometimes some sort of event occurs in my life that is so vivid, so strong it becomes the catalyst for inspiration.  I often get the song all at once, as if I opened up the front door to discover a beautifully wrapped gift left on the porch.  All I have to do is pick it up and unwrap it.  Sometimes it’s so simple it’s downright silly.   Other times it’s silly but not quite as simple.

Oops I Fell Off the Barstool took a little longer and it belongs in that vivid life event category.  Here’s how it went down: A very nice looking blonde lady was sitting at the bar of One Speed restaurant in East Sacramento and enjoying dinner and beers.  She looked a little tipsy but not drunk.  She was laughing and chatting and having a nice time.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw her hand fly up and then heard a big commotion and looked over and she was on the floor and the barstool was on it’s side.  The servers and busboys came running over to make sure she was okay and she popped right up, red in the face and embarrassed.  She went back to her meal and things settled down.

About 4 days later I was sitting in that same barstool.  I had just finished teaching yoga and was enjoying a nice cold beer or two and don’t quite recall exactly how it happened.  I may have leaned back a hair and not realized it, but the next thing you know, I’m on the floor and the chair is on it’s side and I was like, “What just happened?”  I got up and pulled myself together and did a mental review of the incident but couldn’t quite believe it.

The next morning I was in the shower getting ready for work (I get a lot of songs in the shower) and I heard the melody and the line, “Ooops, I fell off the barstool last night!, Gave the poor bartender a terrible fright…the chair flew out and I fell down, people the restaurant turned around when Oops I fell off the barstool last night.”  The rest of the song came over the next few days and involves a bump on my head, a sore butt cheek and one or two beers too many….  Bright fun harmonies and a nice rowdy feel with humor.

So tell me, have you ever fallen off of a barstool?  Or seen someone else fall off of a barstool?

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