The Kitchen Musician ~ August 2016

This month I got a little inspiration from a phoebe who nested in the rafters of my front porch. Of course, this inspiration settled into a song. Come into my kitchen and I will share it with you!


Index
  News:
  This Month’s Music: “I Do the Best I Can”
  Upcoming Shows
  Featured Non-Profit: The Steppingstone Foundation

Tom-and-Seth-Wachusett
I always enjoy sharing the stage with Seth Connelly.
Photo: © 2016 Dan Tapppan


News

Margo and I are enjoying the first weeks of our retirement in our summer getaway cabin in Jaffrey, NH. I think I can get used to this.


This Month’s Music
I Do the Best I Can


I Do the Best I Can
© 2016 Tom Smith (ASCAP)

The weight of an ugly presidential campaign has been pressing heavily upon my shoulders these last few months. When I couple this with other discouraging headlines, I often want to just give up. During a quiet time in our little cabin in the woods of New Hampshire, two voices spoke to me and lifted my spirit. The first voice came from my mother. When I was a boy, at times like this she would tell me “Just do the best you can, Tommy.” And the second voice came from a phoebe who nested in the rafters of my front porch. Such a lovely voice from a little bird who tirelessly foraged for dragon flies and worms for her noisy offspring.

I love it when listeners discuss my songs with me and share their own insight. At a recent performance at The Natick Center for the Arts, one listener told me that he really liked that song I wrote about Bernie and Hillary. Perhaps he saw the tilt of my head and the curious look in response when he said, “Obviously Bernie Sanders is the ‘old man who plays the banjo’, and Hillary Clinton is the phoebe.” This brought a large smile to my face, and I wonder now if that is indeed what I was subconsciously thinking when I wrote this song.

This phoebe family seems to pass down this same nest from generation to generation. The video below was made back in 2010. I like to think one of those little fledgelings in this video is the adult phoebe who spoke to me this spring.

Do the best you can. Your children and their children will thank you!

Tom

(If so inclined, I invite you to leave a comment by scrolling to the end of this page.)


Upcoming Shows

Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016 at 2:00 pm, Concord, MA
The Chanticleers joyfully return to the Old Manse in historic Concord, MA. Kate Chadbourne, Pat Kenneally, Robert Phillipps, Linda Abrams and I perform traditional Irish/English/American and original music with guitar, harp, flute, banjo, boudhran, harmonica, and other instruments. Weather permitting.

Saturday, Nov. 4, 2016 at 7:30 pm, Tiverton, RI
Chuck Williams hosts four songwriters from the Rhode Island Songwriters Association community. I am pumped to share the evening with Grant Malloy Smith and two other songwriters TBA.

Click to view details for all upcoming shows.


Featured Non-profit: The Steppingstone Foundation

CSA-2014_home-teasers-289x194Founded in 1990, The Steppingstone Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that develops and implements programs that prepare underserved students for educational opportunities that lead to college success. Since its founding, they have set 1,805 underserved students on the path to college. I am proud that The Park School has been a partner school since the beginning, and I have been a witness to the successful matriculation of many Steppingstone students.

Please join me in supporting The Steppingstone Foundation.

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12 Comments
  • Tom
    August 8, 2016

    I Do the Best I Can
    © 2016, Tom Smith, TomSmithMusic.com

    An old man on a stage and age belies the power of his song
    With a voice that may be shaky, he clearly sings of making right from wrong
    Because he’s old he is told, “It’s time to bring your singing to an end”
    He replies “As long as I can play this banjo I will do the best I can”

    I do the best I can
    I don’t listen to the noise
    When I wake up I take a stand
    Put my heart into my voice
    Stones are smoothed by grains of sand
    So even though I’m just one man
    I do the best I can

    That phoebe in the rafters of my front porch does not stop to take a rest
    When she hears that music flowing from her feathered offspring filling up her nest
    To and fro, bugs in tow, on a task that never seems to end
    I ask her how she does it, she tells me “I just do the best I can”

    I do the best I can
    I don’t listen to the noise
    I don’t claim to understand
    I do not have a choice
    But I’ll sing in the end
    This is where it all began
    That’s why I do the best I can

    Sometimes I count myself among the many who are ready to give up
    Perhaps we’re starting way too late and the distance is too great to make it up
    But step by step, we can get, farther from the start than from the end
    For the sake of all our children and their children I will do the best I can

    I’ll do the best I can
    I won’t listen to the noise
    I woke up, I’ll take a stand
    And put my heart into my voice
    I will get there in the end
    I sing it once again
    I do the best I can

    Do the best you can
    Don’t listen to the noise
    Wake up and take a stand
    Put your heart into your voice
    You will get there in the end
    Every woman, child and man
    Do the best you can

    CODA
    We will get there in the end
    If together hand in hand
    We do the best we can

  • Liza
    August 8, 2016

    Really lovely, Tom! and, I especially loved the bird treat there, too!

    • admin
      August 8, 2016

      Thank you Liza! Sing on!

  • Pat Kenneally
    August 8, 2016

    Thanks Tom. A message I needed to hear today. Pat K.

    • admin
      August 8, 2016

      Please carry it with you to the kids at your wonderful school!
      Thank you for your wonderful songs.

  • Deb O'Hanlon
    August 8, 2016

    Wonderful song. A song of humanity. If we allow that we all do the best we can, then we have more tolerance and respect. Thanks for your music, joy and sincerity.

    • admin
      August 8, 2016

      Great to hear from you, Deb – and to read your kind words. Looking forward to hearing your wonderful music (and the husband is pretty good too). 🙂 Carry on!

  • Oen Kennedy
    August 8, 2016

    Hi Tom , we the inhabitants, thank you and your guitar for this lovely and uplifting tune, a counteractant to all the noise! Bless you brother Tom.

    PS Loved the Phoebe video too, replete with soundtrack by “…a midsummer and a mid wood bird.” (Ovenbird)

    • Tom
      August 23, 2016

      Hello Oen,
      I just stumbled on the Robett Frost poem “Oven Bird”, which you referenced. Blessings to you Birdfriend,
      Tom

  • Anne Sandstrom
    August 8, 2016

    Lovely song. I’m sure this will be running through my head over the next few days.

  • Amy Conley
    August 8, 2016

    Great song, Tom, and it’s always wonderful to see how you are doing. Enjoy the beauty of Jaffrey with Margo! Your cabin looks amazing too!

  • Pam Swift
    August 14, 2016

    Hi Tom,

    I’m thinking and feeling all you are. Its been nice to have a break to spend time in nature swimming in S. Dartmouth, riding bikes, playing music and hanging with family and friends.

    Really nice song! Absolutely love Phoebe and her family.