By Chuck Whiting
MCAU Editor
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (July 2015) – Some songwriters pen songs in their living rooms, others in
the cozy writing rooms at ASCAP and BMI.
But
for pop/rock/Americana artist Chakra Bleu of Spokane, Wash., successful
songwriting wouldn't be possible without solo excursions into the great
outdoors. Her "songwriting adventures" as she calls them are a way to
bring "wonder, awe and gratitude" into every song she writes.
On
July 31 (Friday), the artist will take her guitar, notebook and pencils to the
mountainous Spokane region for what she hopes will be her most inspiring
writing sabbatical yet. She will spend almost three weeks alone at a cabin in
the rural inland Northwest, writing melodies and crafting lyrics with daily
breaks for hiking, roller blading and meditation. This fall, she will do the
same thing near Asheville, N.C., in Pisgah National Forest.
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| Chaka Bleu on one of her 'Songwriting Adventures". |
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"The
utter peace, adventure and wonderment of the great outdoors calls to my heart
and inspires me on so many levels," said Bleu, whose latest single
"All of Me" has topped New Music Weekly's Top 40 Indie Chart for five
consecutive weeks. "I focus completely and solely on writing songs or
melodies at those times. Both cabin locations are close to a lot of mountains and
natural water, be it a lake, streams and river, and have access to hiking
trails and greenways."
Chakra
starts each sabbatical morning with a meditation (her songwriting
multi-vitamin) to clear her mind and free up her creative spirit. She eats fresh
organic yogurt while reviewing a new lyric or melody she wrote the night
before. She then takes a four to five-mile walk with pen and paper in hand,
thinking of ways to expand and/or build on her ideas.
The
tunesmith plans to write up to a dozen full song melodies during her Washington
sabbatical, recording rough versions with a small, portable tape recorder. She
will play the melodies back again and again in Nashville before penning lyrics
during her October songwriting adventure in North Carolina.
"While
playing back a melody, I tune into my feelings, asking myself what the song
might be about," the artist added. "Before long, I start getting
ideas for a particular direction. Sometimes, I just start hearing lyrics, perhaps
part of a phrase. Then I start the process of building a story."
That's
just what happened with her latest hit song "All of Me", which
currently sits at number one on NMW's Top 40 Indie Chart, number two on NMW's
mainstream Top 40 Chart, and number seven on NMW's Hot 100 Chart. The music was written at a lakeside cabin
in Washington. She added the lyrics while on a songwriting adventure near
Asheville five months later. The melodic theme under the words "I want to
know" was inspired from a Chickadee songbird that she heard while on a
camping trip in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee.
Bleu
noted that her song, "Sunflower of My Dreams", was written after she
roller bladed through a field of Washington sunflowers.
"The
sunflowers evoked a feeling of joy and happiness in me," Bleu continued
with a smile, noting that the song is featured on her fifth album, "You're
The One". "I noticed how they were all facing the direction of the
sun. Once back at the cabin, I researched the symbology of the sunflower. The
next morning, I started hearing the beginnings of a beautiful melody in my
head, which I started writing down immediately. I finished the rest of the melody
once back in Nashville, whereby I wrote the lyrics several months later in the
Blue Ridge Mountains."
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| Chakra Bleu rests during a mountain climb. |
Other
songs created during her writing adventures include "Footprints in the
Sand", "Hidden Mirror", "Retreat to the Center",
"Believe in Me", and "You're What's Missing".
Bleu
will take a short break from writing on Aug. 10 to appear on the "Good Day
Spokane" talk show, airing live on Fox 28-TV.
The
artist's passion for hiking, climbing and camping in the great outdoors isn't
limited to her two annual songwriting adventures. She set out on her first
backpacking trip into the Cumberland Mountains shortly after moving to
Nashville in the 1990s. She knew she was addicted soon after she hit the
primitive camping trails toting a backpack, cooking gear and flashlights --
although a bad thunderstorm, red ants, ticks and chiggers gave her a few second
thoughts.
"The
desire to know how to backpack more efficiently led me to take some classes at
REI," Bleu added. "From then on, I've been backpacking in places near
Nashville such as Savage Gulf, Fall Creek Falls, Virgin Falls, Frozen Head,
Pickett State Park, and Big South Fork."
Bleu
also has taken numerous hiking and climbing adventures in Idaho, Montana,
Wyoming, Colorado, Washington and other states in the Northwest. During a
recent trip to Montana and Idaho, she joined friends for a rugged outdoor
adventure that included climbing a three-pitched granite rock called "Cruel
Shoes", riding bikes up and down steep mountain roads for miles, and
hiking cliff-hanging trails thousands of feet above sea level. She ended her
trip by hiking to a mountain-fed lake on Jenny Lake Trail in the Grand Tetons.
The
artist says her backwoods jaunts in the South are just as exciting, although
with a few annoyances.
"You
can expect to get a few hitch-hikers, namely ticks and chiggers, and see a
copperhead snake or two on the trail or swimming in the water with you,"
she laughed. "I've been grateful not to encounter a wild boar or angry
momma bear. Yet, I hang my food at night and depend on my dog's nose and ears
to give me fair warning of uninvited critters coming into my camp."
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| Chakra Bleu enjoys a creative songwriting hike. |
Although
Chakra doesn't believe her songwriting adventures are for everyone, she
encourages creative types to get outdoors. She's run into a few of her peers
during day hikes near Nashville, including Percy/Edwin Warner parks, Radner Lake Trail, Long Hunter State
Park, and Montgomery Bell State Park.
"The
delicacies of nature are divine and wondrous," said Bleu, who also
sidelines as a visual artist. "I actually get into looking at the details
of a petal of a wildflower, counting its petals and looking at its unique
shape, color and texture."
Born
and raised in Spokane, Wash., Bleu grew up with a passion for music and the
outdoors. She started writing songs in middle school and performing with jazz
choirs and grunge, rock and country bands in high school and college. On
weekends, she headed to the mountains for hiking and camping. After college,
she lugged her guitar and synthesizer to Paris, where she taught English at the
French/American Language Academy for a year. She spent the next two years back
home in Washington working in secondary education. But a trip to Nashville
changed her life. Successful performances at the Bluebird Cafe and other venues
convinced her to move to Music City to pursue a professional career as a
singer-songwriter.
Bleu's
music accomplishments have been substantial since then. Her recent single,
"The Shadow", quickly climbed various NMW charts, reaching number
four on Top 40, number four on Hot 100 A/C, number five on Top 40 Internet, and
number one on Indie Top 40 (where it remained for six consecutive weeks). Her
sixth album, "Souvenir", generated five top-40 hit singles on various
charts, with the song "Addicted to You" receiving
"Spotlight" recognition in Cashbox
Magazine. Other hit singles from previous albums include "When I Hold
Your Hand" and "Hopelessly in Love".
According
to Dave Carew, a writer for the blog
Underground Nashville, Bleu is
"hands down one of the most original and distinctive pop/rock/Americana
artists ever to grace the underground Nashville music scene. Inspired by
everything from the styling of bands like Heart and the Cowboy Junkies, to
transcendent New Age thought, she has forged, over the past decade, some of the
most uplifting, eclectic, thought-provoking, and empowering music ever created
in Music City USA."
