What is a Song Seeker?

And how to figure out if you are one!

Chances are, if you’re reading this right now, you are in fact, under my entirely arbitrary standards, a Song Seeker (Yes, I’m capitalizing it. It’s a quite prestigious formal title). But if you’ll indulge me for a moment, I want to give you a bit of an explanation of this entirely made up title and why I chose it for the name of this Substack.

“I like music. So am I a Song Seeker?”

That’s the bare minimum that must be true. Although it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t like music, I’ve heard of a few and I pity the type of lifeless existence they must have to endure. But thankfully, they seem to be few and far between. So yes, like music? You’re on your way.

It’s more than that, though. See how you answer the following questions questions:

1. Do you primarily read musician bios?

2. How many music docs have you seen/want to see?

3. Are you able to pass a record store with out popping in?

4. Have you ever obsessed over the creation/curation of a playlist?

5. Have you caught yourself waiting in eager anticipation as you listen to the radio or a streaming service to hear what’s next?

6. Do you catch yourself focusing on hearing the background music while others engage in social activities like normal conversation?

6. You have multiple pictures of setlists on your camera roll?

Did you answer something like this?:

1. Yes

2. Yes, too many to count

3. Um…of course not

4. Yes

5. Yes…doing it right now

6. Yes…and how dare they put music in the background

If you did, I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re a Song Seeker.

However, when it all comes down to it, you’re a Song Seeker if you’re continually moved by music and on a constant search for the next piece that stirs something within you. You found it once and you know you’ll find it again, so the turntable is always spinning, the headphones are always on, and your calendar is packed primarily with concert dates and reminders to log into the next presale. In short, music is everything to you.

But it’s not just about new music. A true Song Seeker is open to the new ways an old song might find them. It might be the circumstances of hearing a song on a particular day. Maybe the weather was just right. Maybe it was wedged perfectly between just the right songs on a playlist. The point is, you’re open to the element of surprise from both known and unknown alike.

I want to give you another definition, though, and it’s the definition I really hope to explore extensively in this space. I present to you the verb, songseeking (not capitalized as it’s more of an action…still quite important, though). Consider it an alternative to the word “sightseeing”. It’s sightseeing for music fans. It’s the act of traveling somewhere and centering your activities around music-related things—live music venues (large and small alike), record stores, karaoke bars, historically significant music sites. But as opposed to just seeing the sites, you are engaged in the active exploration and seeking of the music as you traverse through this physical realm where they live/lived.

Historically significant music site, yet still vibrant music venue—the essence of songseeking

I’ve always had a deep interest in geography and how it has shaped culture. I love learning about how regional music scenes developed which were clearly influenced by the types of people coming and going, the surrounding landscape, and just the broader community and what it is they valued or were seeking themselves.

I don’t know if regionalism still exists. Can you say there are still local scenes? On the one hand, clearly culture is more homogeneous than it once was. But on the other, music isn’t created in a vacuum. It is, until AI takes it over and/or destroys the human race, still created by humans who live and breathe in specific locales that thrive, struggle, and just exist based on certain unique circumstances and melding together of people, ideas, commerce, landforms, and opportunities…or lack there of.

So songseeking is one part a tourist, I’ve-been-there venture, but it’s also about uncovering a deeper truth about the music. Or maybe it’s just about finding cool record stores and some decent local tunes. It’s a little bit of both. I want to write for a couple of different types of Song Seekers. On the one hand, I want to write for the thinking Song Seeker who sees it as a philosophical duty to traverse musical landscapes and report back. But also I want to write for the music traveler who wants to know what the good restaurants and record stores near the venue are. Travel guide meets cultural examination, all in the name of uplifting, highlighting, and celebrating the songs that make us want to dance, sing, and just generally make us feel or think. If that sounds good to you, well, I proclaim you a genuine Song Seeker of the highest order.

A band I’d never heard of, in a store I’d never been to, but a moment rich with surprise and discovery

As a songwriter too, I think there’s another way to look at songseeking. It’s the every day act of engaging with guitar, paper, mind, memory, and the great continuum of song that’s come before, in order to make something new. It is, literally, seeking in various corners of the mind, body, and spirit, in order to generate a song. It can be invigorating, frustrating, daunting, confidence building, and confidence crushing…all in the same day. But when it’s right, it’s right…even if the song turns out to be something totally unexpected and seemingly unintentional. It’s an act of love, for music and one’s self, and it’s made me a better person. It truly has. So a little of this space might be dedicated to that form of songseeking as well.

My genuine hope is that I can turn you on to some good music and maybe help you look differently about the places where music lives, where it is created, where it is venerated, and where it takes shape into ways both expected and unexpected. It’s a dynamic process and I hope to answer my own questions about regionalism, scenes, and the particular ways one looks at a place based on its past and present associations with music.

This space is dedicated to the love and preservation of music and music spaces for one and all. I hope you’ll join me!