Baby Bluebird – Little Sailboat

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Amara, the artist behind Little Sailboat asked me what it was about this track that caught my ear and I remember laughing thinking - you know what - I have absolutely no idea - but if I'm going to add it to the list - I'd at least better try and explain. ;-)

Music's nuts and so massively subjective you wonder why people bother to put playlists together when one person's experience of a track can be so radically different than an-others, and yet lists like this continue to grow and gain followers - why?  I think it's 'cos there's a certain quality level to the tracks on lists like these - lists that are constantly updated and are made up of new tracks as well as classics.  If you're listening every week you're unlikely to get a clunker!

I think this track does well because it balances the need for repetition against the trap of sounding boring.  The opening left hand motif is found all the way through the track and instead of being dull it becomes a platform that the right hand can dance around on and mix things up without taking the track off into too many unfamiliar places.

There's a simplicity to the track that really works in its favor. It doesn't stray too far from the original melody and the right hand variations are pared down and relatively straight forward but that's its beauty.  You follow the slow development with each variation being easy to understand and appreciate until you have those running thirds at 2:30 and the piece is starting to move.  And then - everything is pared back down for another repeat of the opening and by now the melody's in your head.

Only thing to do now is put it on repeat and get writing!

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As part of a series of interviews with Curators and Artists over on the Music to label Facebook page , I was lucky to spend an hour with Amara talking about the music business and what it's like to be an independent artist nowadays.  It was a great discussion and we could have spoken for a lot longer.  Do click through to the links below and check out Amara's work.  Her recent music is more guitar based in the folk, singer songwriter genre - links below:

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You can learn more about Little Sailboat here:

About the Curator: Andrew McCluskey

The first visual memory I have is that of the white upright piano in Singapore, Hell and the dark forces lived at the bottom, Heaven and the Angels at the top. They would play battles through my fingers and I was hooked.

Although I've always played, I haven't always been a musician.  Most of my twenties were spent working with people, buying and selling and learning how the world works.  It was in my thirties that I came to America and focused on music and began to develop music2work2.