"Me And My Guitar..."

Me And My Guitar — ©2025 Patrick T. Power

"...always in the same room" —James Taylor

A little over ten years ago, I lost my interest in photography. Or so I thought.

Only a couple of years before that, I had begun writing songs, but with the demise of my thirteen-year marriage, songwriting took up a major chunk of my creative psyche. I wrote songs on the way to work, at work, on the way home from work, in the car, in my head... anywhere I had a free moment to think, it seemed, songs invaded my headspace.

While in the thick of splitting up with my wife, I purchased my Martin guitar a few months before I moved out of our house. It was a present to myself as way of making up for all the years I'd pretty much denied myself personal possessions beyond books and record albums/CDs. I'd owned a 12-string guitar which Penny had picked up from a friend of hers for $70 as an anniversary gift. It served me pretty well for a number of years, despite its rather high action. But to improve as a guitar player, I needed a better guitar. I'd long wanted a Martin, so over to Elderly Instruments I went. My choice came down to either a 30-year old D-21 or a brand new D-1R. While I sometimes think I should have gone with the D-21, I chose the latter.

Hour after hour I would play on some days, either learning someone else's songs or writing and rehearsing my own. I met many local (and a few not-so-local) musicians during my first year after moving out of the house, so I was often invited to jams and song circles. I also became a regular at open mics. Never wanting to be without something new to play on these occasions, I tried to write as often as possible. Mostly, I wrote about myself... taking some aspect of my life and turning it into song. Divorce is pretty fertile ground for songwriting, as you might imagine, so I did lots of plowing of that field. It's only natural to do lots of processing after such a life-altering event, so I did most of my processing in songs.

A couple of wonderful yet short-lived relationships provided more song material and for several years, I attended a songwriting retreat; I began writing songs that didn't necessarily involve me thematically, although I'm always in there someplace, I suppose.

For the last year or so, I haven't done a lot of writing, other than for my blog, which until recently, has even been forsaken for my resurgent interest in photography thanks to Flickr. Every now and then, however, a song comes to me—whether to celebrate a friend's birthday, or in response to emotions I might feel from looking at a photograph. I write almost as if it's my duty, sometimes, whether that means giving voice to something I—or someone else—might be feeling.

I've re-recorded my most recent song (complete with train whistle).

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