Pub Songs & Stories: Come Adventure With Me (Patreon)

How did hobbits inspire a Kickstarter? Overcome your fears when you Come Adventure With Me and the title track of my 2022 CD.

You'll find the MP3 of the song attached to this post to download.

WELCOME TO PUB SONGS & STORIES

I am Marc Gunn. This is the audio liner notes for the songs I record and play.

The show is brought to you by my Gunn Runners on Patreon. If you enjoy this podcast and my music, please join the Club. You’ll get 2-3 podcasts per month. You’ll be able to download songs featured in this show, get sheet music, and access to Coffee with The Celtfather video concerts. You get a lot for as little as $5 per month. And you can save 15% with an annual membership.Thanks to my newest Gunn Runners on Patreon:

0:22 - WHAT’S NEW?

First and foremost, I’m working on a Kickstarter. The album is called Come Adventure With Me. I’ll tell you the story of how that song came to be in a moment. But if you haven’t supported it, I would greatly appreciate your generosity. Yes, it is already fully funded. But every little bit helps. Actually more than you know.

The last Kickstarter I did for Selcouth raised $8800. That was my second highest Kickstarters behind the Brobdingnagian Bards’ album I Will Not Sing Along.

I don’t explain where the money goes for this Kickstarters. So I thought I would.

You see, most of the money goes towards production of physical goods. I will buy CDs, album pins, and the tote bags with the money I raise. I will pay for the album graphics, which are being designed by Nikki O’Shea, who did my Don’t Go Drinking With Hobbits album, What Color Is Your Dragon?, and one of my Happy Songs of Death album covers.

Some of the money covers additional musicians and audio editing. Although a lot of that comes out of my monthly Patreon income.

And some of the money goes towards packaging and shipping.

But most of the money raised goes to me.

I actually don’t spend it immediately. I want to make sure all of the Kickstarter expenses are paid off. But I do get some money from this Kickstarter, which really helps.

I’ve found that I make a wee bit more money selling merch through Kickstarter than I do through my store. It’s a big event. People are more likely to support the Kickstarter than buy in my store. So that’s how I prefer to raise funding and make a living.

As I said, the Kickstarter is fully funded. Yet I am hopeful that I can pull in more. In fact, I’m seriously considering funding another album pin through Kickstarter. I’m debating whether I should add a Stretch Goal to that end.

What do you think? Drop me an email.

2:42 - UPCOMING SHOWS IN 2022

WEDS: Coffee with The Celtfather @ 11 AM

AUG 18: Sci F’Irish Roulette on Bandcamp @ 7:30 PM

AUG 20: Best End Brewing @ 7:00 – 10:00 PM

AUG 26: Three Taverns Brewery, Decatur, GA @ 6:30-9:30 PM

AUG 27: Pepper Place Farmer's Market, Birmingham, AL @ 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM CT

SEP 1-5: Dragon Con, Atlanta, GA

3:03 - STORY OF COME ADVENTURE WITH ME

‘Come Adventure With Me” is the title track of the new album I am funding on Kickstarter. I wrote it as part of the In the ‘Verse podcast I have with Mikey Mason. The song is inspired by the 1977 Rankin & Bass animated film, The Hobbit. If you want to hear our thoughts behind the songs, this is a great podcast to start. But I don’t think I ever discussed my story behind it. So here goes.

I was in the 6th grade when I first saw The Hobbit. That would’ve been 1982 or ‘83 I think. The movie truly changed my life. I’m still trying to fully understand why that is. I think it’s because it was a hugely transitional period of my life.

1982 is when I moved from my home in Silver Spring, Maryland to San Antonio, Texas. My dad was a microbiologist in the army. He was reassigned to Texas where both my parents were from. So we uprooted our lives, left my childhood friends, and moved far away to Texas, back when keeping up with friends was mostly done via letters.

Wow! As I say that, I see a parallel. Bilbo Baggins uprooted his quiet, happy life too.

You may not realize it listening to these podcasts, but I’m very much an introvert too. I’m also socially awkward most of the time. Especially back then. I didn’t make friends easily.

My best friend, Steve, well, one reason I considered him my best friend was because he was the first person I ever built up the courage enough to say, “hi” to. And one of the last for many years. Other friends just happened.

So there I was in San Antonio, Texas with no friends. Unsure how to even make friends. I remember wandering the streets of our neighborhood. I somehow met another Marc. He invited me to play Dungeons & Dragons. I played one and only one game with him. I was hooked.

In Maryland, I used all of my allowance buying Star Wars figures. In Texas, I became obsessed with D&D. I had the Red D&D books. If you play D&D, you know all about it. I think that was the second real edition of the game after the Blue. There was one pre-made adventure in it. I played a hobbit… or rather a halfling.

That sort of solidified my love of hobbits. My favorite D&D characters after that were all halflings, with an occasional psychotic elf.

So you can see how The Hobbit impacted me immediately. It spawned my love of Dungeons & Dragons and adventure. I remember visiting my mom in Italy. I took a trip to Rome. I was SO excited to be in actual everything-is-old Europe. I took three rolls of film in the coliseum. I think I got one good picture out of it. But I was so excited. All because of The Hobbit.

The Hobbit was also a symbol of how I felt as an individual. I felt small. Like I was living in hole. My parents separated in ‘77. Divorced in ‘78 or ‘79. I never thought about how much it affected me. But it made me feel small and insignificant. Being the younger brother. I already felt small. I would relish being in the packed, itty bitty teeny weeny space that was left for me. Closest… I loved them. They rocked!

Looking back at The Hobbit during our rewatch for In the ‘Verse, I realized there was something more.

Like I said, it’s a story about change. About transformation. But it’s also a story about overcoming your fear. That is the theme of my song.

I was so scared when I first met Steve. I was terrified about meeting people in San Antonio. I just wanted to be seen. But I found myself in my hobbit hole, filled with comfort. I didn’t want to leave it. In fact, I still have trouble leaving it 40 years later.

“Come Adventure With Me” is a story about overcoming your fear. It is based on The Hobbit. But the story is about life.

How often in life do we find ourselves paralyzed by our fears? I sure do. Still today. I find myself stuck in bad routines. I can’t or rather won’t make a decision that I know I need. I’m terrified.

That’s what the first verse is all about. It’s all based on that near the ending scene where Bilbo is in a secret passage heading into Lonely Mountain to visit Smaug. Though it also alludes to the spiders that paralyze the dwarves in Mirkwood Forest. But ultimately, it’s about taking one difficult step at a time to overcome our paralyzation.

But. There is always hope. The second verse tells us there are scary things. Goblins and deep, dark dungeons are just symbols of our fear. But there are treasures there. Magic rings. Fluttering birds, butterflies…and the memories we create.

Yes. It is so easy to be at home, resting in our comfortable living space. But imagine the life that you can live. Imagine the things you can see when you step away from what’s familiar. Life is Precious like Gollum’s magic ring. So consider… for just a moment, living it as such.

I will say I’m particularly pleased with that verse. “My precious life has so many memories”. I love that was able to use Gollum’s “Precious” in the song and make it a functional lyric. Inara’s favorite part is “My home is comfort.” It does make me wonder if she too is, like me, a little too comfortable with being at home hiding in our hobbit holes.

The final verse is about fighting back against our wars, our dragons, our fears. I love the line “I’m no coward. I’ll do what is right.” Because that comes from Thorin’s comments about Bilbo, calling him a coward. But is he? He went across the world on a grand adventure. All while doing what is right. Truly right ethically. Not what someone else tells you.

The verse ends with the memories. It’s about all the love and longing and joy that happens on the way. It lifts up and stays with us always.

Ah. This song makes me so happy.

Finally, we have the chorus, which I’m also very happy with. Because it’s all about celebrating life. Each moment of our lives. The true treasure we gain when we face our fears. And of course the invitation to each and every one of you to come adventure with me!

Lyrically and melodically, this song has a really neat 70s songwriter feel to it. Appropriate I guess considering the source material. But I was even MORE happy when I included a slight minor chord change at the end of the last chorus. I’ve heard that chord change before on other musicians’ songs, but not being paper trained, I never actually tried to figure out how to add that. I just accidentally played and said, “oooo”.

11:03 - “Come Adventure With Me” by Marc Gunn from Come Adventure With Me

I hope you enjoyed that song. Sam Gillogly plays violin on this recording. And I’ll be honest, I’m not sure this is the final recording at present.

You can download this song as an MP3 when you join my Gunn Runners on Patreon.

Thanks for listening to Pub Songs & Stories. The show was produced by Marc Gunn, edited by Mitchell Petersen with graphics by Miranda Nelson Designs. You can subscribe and listen to the regular show wherever you find podcasts. You can also subscribe to my mailing list. You will get regular updates of new music, podcasts, live performances, special offers, and you’ll enjoy more stories behind several of my most-popular songs.

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Have fun and sing along at www.pubsong.com!

#pubstories #adventure #thehobbit

You can publish this one any time.

How did hobbits inspire a Kickstarter? Overcome your fears when you Come Adventure With Me and the title track of my 2022 CD. Make a pledge on Kickstarter or Patreon and listen to this new exclusive podcast next week. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marcgunn/come-adventure-with-me-album

But wait for these until I published on Patreon and Kickstdarter.

One movie that transformed my life and find endless adventure. Listen to the story of Come Adventure With Me when you support my latest Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marcgunn/come-adventure-with-me-album

Will you come out of your hobbit hole and sing with me? “Come Adventure With Me” is the title track of my latest Kickstarter. Make a pledge to listen.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marcgunn/come-adventure-with-me-album