As a music duo, PJ (my ex, who I have referred to for years as “old number one”) and I took woodshed time. It was a block of time to be isolated from each other and the rest of the world. A time to make space for our creative residues to bubble to the surfaces. I think the expression came from taking a guitar
out to the woodshed and making lots of noise to learn music.
The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, AR, is set up with that same goal in mind, but it’s more luxurious than your everyday woodshed. If an author is flooded with ideas… there is nothing to interrupt the flow. The resident can put life on hold and follow the muse. http://www.writerscolony.org 
One of the times we did this, I camped my way between Gibraltar and southern England in a little NSU Prinz. PJ went to Morocco on a Velocette motorcycle he’d restored in Gibraltar.
Months later we met up and began working on our songs and performance, with an eye toward finding our niche in the amazing British scene.
What kind of songs did we write while we were on woodshed? Some of the songs carried an immense longing for something we couldn’t identify, something just beyond our reach. Others songs showed the frustration of living in a world we didn’t understand.
One of the most fluid and dreamy songs that PJ wrote was “Seagull”. I think he was in Casablanca Morocco where the European Herring Gulls, the yellow leg, and the Kelp Gulls soared along the Atlantic coast.
Arranging his song together, setting out harmonies, tempo, and bass lines felt like flying. I think it is one of his finest songs.
Seagull by Paul PJ Johnson
Seagull follow me, lend your eyes to sea
Way up in the air, help me find it there
Bankin’along on a cold winter’s breeze on the sea
Carry the dreams of a man here who won’t let me be
Seagull fly away…. You and me someday.
You up in the air, let me take you there
Past a thousand years of sorrow and of tears
Where time is a dream that is splinterefd on sunshire for free
Love is a lamp that allows everybody to see
Seagull fly away…. You and me someday.
Lovely spooky song, love to imagine the two of you creating and arranging and singing it somewhere along the geography of Europe.
Jan, Can you imagine how far back that was? I’m so happy to view those years from this perspective. I’ve had a home for 36 years!!! They said it couldn’t be done. Wishing you health and happiness C
Loved the Seagull. Harris
Thanks Harris… So happy you enjoyed it. That sure was a different era in music, but fun to revisit. Wishing you good things, c
I have stayed in Muse III (has a new name, now) several times. Years ago, my favorite place at WCDH was the Tulip Room at the old Farmhouse. I probably stayed there at least 7 or 8 times.
I love it when you put your music on the blog!!