Meet Kitt Ramble

This song began as a personal challenge. I had not written anything in 6/8 time before, and I wanted to try my hand at composing something adjacent to a waltz. Once I had sketched out a rough chord progression, I began reaching for lyrical ideas. Because I enjoy reinterpreting well-known stories, I quickly landed on the classic tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, as it would let me play very directly with the idea of ‘dancing.’ Almost immediately, the first line flashed into my head: “Dancing slippers are sitting beside my bed / Worn all through with tatters of silver thread.” With that, I knew I was off to the races. From there, I had a two part goal: narratively, I wanted to reimagine this story in an interesting way (likely taking some unconscious inspiration from Jessica Day George’s Princess of the Midnight Ball); lyrically, I wanted to paint beautiful imagery that draws the listener in, encouraging them to watch the story unfold in their mind’s eye. 

Because it is exceedingly difficult to fit a full narrative within the narrow confines of a song, I had to write myself a “story map,” deciding in advance the critical plot points that each verse would contain. From there, it was a matter of chipping away at each verse, each line, each word choice, until I was satisfied with the whole piece. 

At first I did not believe that this song would appeal to a wide audience, and I kept it on the backburner as a pet project that rarely saw the light. However, as soon as I started performing it, “Dance of the Faerie King” immediately drew people in. This positive feedback inspired me to create an entire musical arrangement for this piece. Unfortunately, the sonic world that I wanted to craft around this song far exceeded my compositional abilities at the time. Fortunately, over the almost year-long, painstaking arrangement process, I honed the compositional and recording skills that this song demanded of me, and conquered many personal fears about putting my zany musical ideas out into the world.

One of my favorite things to do is to take a well-known story and twist or tweak it in some way, pushing the boundaries of what the story has to offer. I like to shift the lens of examination by asking an interesting starting question. In the case of Dance of the Faerie King, I asked: “What if one of the Twelve Dancing Princesses chose to stay in the Faerie realm?”

This simple starting point spins out a mesmerizing web of plot points and further questions: What would cause the princess to choose the Fae realm over her own home and family? If she stays in the Faerie realm, is she even human anymore? Is she being enchanted and deceived by the Faerie King? And, if not—if the Faerie King has genuinely fallen in love with her—would this not make her the Enchantress, the sole master of her own fate, the one who defies social castes and stigmas in order to secure immortality, a devoted husband, and an everlasting throne?

My parents, who brought me into the world of music so gently that it felt like breathing, and who have always been my most staunch supporters

My brother, who taught me both guitar and how to be a cool human

My beloved little old lady cat, Gracie, who has been my constant companion for every late-night songwriting session.