Blues rocker Kelly Richey tells us about the song "Love" from her latest studio album "Shakedown Soul". Here is the story:
I started writing the song "LOVE" from my home studio. I was teaching a guitar lesson and was showing one of my students an example of how to turn a blues scale into a song. I used the song "Heartbreaker" by Led Zeppelin as an example of how a simple, five-note blues scale, can turn into one of the greatest Rock n' Roll songs ever recorded. From there I began to expand on the groove, and it turned into a new riff, and it stuck, so I added three power chords and started singing a vocal line. I plugged in my guitar, fired up my recording DAW, grabbed a straightforward heavy drum loop, reached for some lyrics I'd been working with, and a few minutes later, I had the foundation for the song.
I was headed out for a tour the next day that stretched from Cincinnati, through Calgary and went as far as Edmonton before working our way back home. I remember sitting in a hotel room adjacent to "Blues on Whyte," a club in Edmonton, Alberta, where all the touring blues acts play for a solid week. I was playing the song on my acoustic guitar and kept playing until it felt right. I loved the raw power, and the message spoke to me: "Love, anyone can do it, that's the thing..."
In a world where we're constantly hit with negativity from the news media and FaceBook rants, to the stress of day-to-day life, some days it's easy to feel hopeless and like our actions can't even make a dent in our world's problems, but they can...! LOVE has the power to bring about change, and it's the one thing that we all have to give; it doesn't cost a thing, and it yields one of the greatest R.O.I.'s. Our return on investment when we love is something I enjoy singing about, and if I'm going to choose to rip apart anything, I'll choose a guitar any day...!
Note: This is one of the songs that I use in my TrueFire guitar instruction series titled, "TrueFire Presents Kelly Richey: Focus On: Blues Rock Power Trio." This series does a deep dive into the depth of simplicity, just like the song.
You can find this song on my "Shakedown Soul" CD, on iTunes and all other online media sources, and there is a music video for "LOVE" on my YouTube page:
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself here and learn more about the album right here!
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