Why no originals?

Critical Grass doesn't play any original songs. Yet, anyway. Certainly if somebody in the band wrote a song, we’d all be happy to give it a whirl. But at least so far, nobody has shown that interest. 

Me, I’ve never had the urge to write instrumental music, or a song. From an early age, I realized that the world was full of astonishingly good music, across hundreds of genres. Just a few years into my musical journey, I further understood that even if I were to spend my entire life searching out great music, I’d barely scratch the surface before I left the planet.

Why, then, should I toil at writing music that was likely to be mediocre at best, when there was an infinite supply of phenomenally good music waiting for me? Furthermore, even as I was finding amazing music, more was being written. I was seven years old when McCartney wrote “Yesterday” – I started behind the curve and have been falling further behind with every passing year.

Of course, if you find that writing music of any sort is how you express yourself, then you must do that – even if the music you write isn’t very good. Taylor Swift tells a story about writing a song in her bedroom because her parents wouldn’t let her go on a date with an inappropriately older man. She concludes: “The moral to parents is to discipline your kids well. They might sit in their room and write a #1 song.”

It seems that none of us in Critical Grass is in danger of writing a #1 song. But we all seem to excel at finding that great music of which I spoke. I believe in playing to our strengths, and picking the prettiest flowers in the musical field is our super power. 

I note that Linda Ronstadt has only three published songs solely attributed to her. You can have a pretty successful career if you know how to pick a song and make it your own. Critical Grass is no Linda Ronstadt, but we’re having a grand time searching out the next awesome song to make ours.

NB #1: There are no guarantees that one day we won’t turn up with an original.

NB #2: If you know of an unpublished song that we should audition, drop us a note.

—Lee