"Beginnings" - Chicago (1977) courtesy of ChicagoKid1969

Those of you who have followed or just visited ryanwelton.com for the past several months or years have seen a blog in desperate search of an identity.

Am I going to write about American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance?, or am I going to focus on my efforts as a songwriter? Will I provide pithy commentary on pop culture, or will I periodically focus on sports?

Well, I've had an epiphany.

I'm going to do all of it through music.

For the past few weeks, I've been reading a great book called "How Soccer Explains The World," by Franklin Foer. It's his look at how soccer permeates society and government and the way people and governments behave. Wonderful book.

As I posted Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree" last night, I thought to myself that I was doing the same thing, at a very base level, with music: Talking about the world through music. That thought sparked a series of thoughts about a blog focused on music and how it relates to pop culture, sports, politics, the world, whatever.

It's not so much that my opinion would be reflected in the music I choose relative to subject matter, but I could use it to ignite the discussion among the millions of people who read this blog.

OK, thousands.

Er, make that hundreds?

Most of my traffic enters ryanwelton.com through posts I entered months if not years ago. I'll take the page views, but I truly at this point reject anything I might have said or written in the past. I'm not interested in perpetuating it even if it piques your interest, and as I transition into this effort, I am likely to convert this blog to my WordPress account so that I can utilize cooler technologies and functionalities.

So, when I tell you I've had a blogger's epiphany, you can take this to the bank. I have found a format, a center of discussion, a set of topics, an editorial discipline that I not only like, I love.

Not only do I think this format will be super narrow, it will be uber-unique. And, it will be enjoyable if you like music. I'm apt to have posts show up at any time of the day relative to the happenings of the world; however, I'm planning some music-centric goodies based on the day of the week.

Metal Monday. Look, I was a big metalhead in high school, and I still enjoy harder rock-n-roll.

Two-Step Tuesday. I dig country particularly older more traditional stylings and red-dirt efforts. However, anything in the world of country is eligible.

1-Hit Wonder Wednesday. I'll focus not only on one-hit wonders but also groups and singers who had very limited success, perhaps two or three-hit wonders.

Theory Thursday. This one's going to be a challenge, but I'm going to use Thursday's to talk about how the sausage is made. It won't be so musically nerdy that a non-musician won't understand it, but it won't be worthless. My hope is that on Thursday the person interested in music will come away from ryanwelton.com having learned something new about music or production or songwriting itself.

Freestyle Friday. It's an anything goes day, but it will be purposeful.

Songwriter's Saturday. I'll write only about brilliantly written songs.

Sunday in Columbus Sunday. Let me explain. My family coined the phrase 'Sunday in Columbus' music to describe mellow music, namely smooth jazz. I've got a fairly solid background in that style of music, and because most cities don't have a smooth jazz station in their market, I want to expose you to the best 'Sunday in Columbus' artists.

In between, I'll add posts using music to do what I described above. This will all start on Monday, and I have some work to do between now and then. This post will stay up in the interim, so please make a note to come back Monday and check it out.

On the topic of songwriting, which is what ryanwelton.com is supposed to be about in part: I don't talk enough about lyrics. And that's going to change.

There used to be a time I didn't pay attention to them much.

In the 1980s, I'd listen to Chicago and Toto and all these great studio bands and I would wonder who in the world needed words. Listen to this MUSIC!

However, as an artist, I came to realize the music part of a song is like sex. It's important to the overall marriage, but you eventually have to talk to your spouse, which means there needs to be some substance there.

Lyrics are substance. It's why Dylan is a god and why Springsteen is still influential, even though he hasn't had a chart hit in almost 20 years. Rightly or wrongly, words are why rap and hip-hop are not only popular but influential.

The process of writing words, for me, isn't one of communicating inner pain or resolving conflict. It's about creating aesthetically pleasing combinations of words in hopes of building a coherent lyric set to music.

I don't sleep with a notebook by my bed.

But if something comes to mind, as it did a year ago when the phrase "cigarettes and Certs" came to mind, I pop it in a Notepad file and store it away. Eventually, I wrote a song and gave it that very title. Click on my "originals and covers" tab to go listen to it.

The process can become a mix-and-match shopping trip, particularly if a writer is in need of a great first line of a verse or chorus. Take Peter Allen's song, "Arthur's Theme," which he wrote with Carol Bayer Sager, Burt Bacharach and Christopher Cross back in the early 1980s. They won an Oscar for it.

And, it had one of the great first lines ever for a chorus: "When you get caught between the Moon and New York City."

Independent of the song, what does that bring to mind? To me, I can't separate it FROM the song. It paints a picture of a boyish dreamer, a manchild perhaps, which is exactly who Dudley Moore portrayed in Arthur.

But that line was actually part of another song Allen co-wrote with Sager. Perhaps it wasn't finished. Perhaps it was never demoed. Maybe it was a throw-away. I don't know.

The line was so good though that he lifted it from that tune and plopped it into this one, which is something songwriters do all the time. Lyrical recycling.

The process of writing lyrics, for me, is one where I sit down and do it all at once. I open a rhyming dictionary. I surf the Web for ideas. I'll watch TV online. I'll veg. I'll take a phone call. I'll read the paper. But I'll do it all with my lyric sheet open.

And I don't get up until I have at least a lyrical construct in place.

However, when it comes to the details, the phrase turns, the tense, the search for that great opening line or great title, I get writer's block constantly.

And that's where this little creative trick can really bail you out.

The point is simple: Don't get so married to your phrases and lines that you aren't willing to recycle them. If you know you have a home-run melody, like Allen and Co. knew with "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," then you have to take one for the team and sacrifice that already-used lyric.

Don't think for one second that if I'm faced with a once-in-a-lifetime writing opportunity on a song with a great melody and an opportunity for big success that I won't reuse a phrase or line I had put to bed long ago.