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The SAW is back for 2009! What is the SAW? Read on ...

Listen. Create. Participate.
Presenting the musical Podcast experiment known as Song-a-Week (or just SAW), managed and maintained by the former bandmates now strewn across the western United States.

But what is it exactly?
SAW is a loose collective of artists, each writing and recording a new original song within seven days. We recommend that you subscribe to the podcast, either with the RSS link or the iTunes link, but you can also visit us right here and use the widget thing below! All the previous SAW contributions are still available in both the podcast feed and the widget. For a little more insight, visit the SAW Blog for missives from the salt mines of workaday creativity.

Inspired by programs like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: www.nanowrimo.org), some folks may think that a week for this whole process is a tall order and others may think it is no big deal. But if you like the IDEA, think it would be FUN, and have the facilities to do so, we'd love for you to participate. If you can't participate but you know someone who you think should, spread the word. Since SAW was started at the beginning of 2007, participation has been mostly by the members of Haiku Rd. (taking turns). But as the head-honchos of this thing, we think it would be great to look back every so often and see a wide variety of writers, composers and musicians from across the country (or the world) contributing to the collection.

To listen: To start, there are the links and widget above. If you're not sure what to do with an RSS feed, use Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 and you will see a nicely formatted page of all the existing songs to date. If you care to search for us using iTunes, search for "Haiku Rd." at the iTunes store and you'll find a link to the "Song-a-Week Podcast."

To participate: Simply send us a message (you know where the link is above and to the left) and we'll work out what week you'd like to be the next SAW star! But remember the rules ( 'cause all we have to go on is the honor system) -- written, composed and recorded ALL within the span of ONE week. Encode your finished song as an MP3 (easily done through iTunes using the "Good Quality" setting, 128 kbps ... you can use other bit rates or quality settings, but for podcast purposes we've found that's the best compromise of quality and download speed) and e-mail it to us with the title and a short paragraph of anything you'd like to say about it. We can even include a URL for your site or page or whatever other info (within reason) that lets you show off other work you've done that you want other SAW listeners to know about.

It doesn't cost you anything (except your time and determination), but you and everyone who listens can get something out of it. The clock is ticking, so get your creative juices flowing ... turn on the SAW!