Poems Put to Music & Original Songs by my brother, Michael Dixon

On a recent trip to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, we were invited to a lunch with poet Margaret Sullivan & artist Jeff Lederman, both former Chicagoans, as is my wife, Veronica Kessler. We were new acquaintances, and Margaret treated us to a reading. The conversation turned to adding music to poetry, which Margaret had on display on an iPad in their gallery, "Jeff and Margaret". Turns out Margaret has a friend in L.A. who used to play for the Pixies, if I remember correctly, and he composes music to fit her poems and plays them over the phone to her until she approves them. He then records the song-poems and sends her the files to post on the iPad in their gallery. Then Jeff played a song he generated with AI to Margaret's poem, "Mean Dogs," and it was (is) stunningly good. The song captured the feeling of the poem's words, and blew us away. You be the judge. You can listen to it here: 

https://www.studiojeff.net/2026/7/3/94qpw0jt48jv5jkuqyvzoqhyy6qbrd

I was so impressed that I said, "I want to try that!" And so I did. In the next few weeks of experimenting, I created three poem-songs that I actually liked, but got mixed reviews from people I solicited responses from. My two sons, especially didn't like knowing AI was used, and my eldest, the artist said, "Dad, how would you feel if I used AI in my art?" I had to admit I'd judge it badly. Something about AI feels like cheating. It's reminiscent of when digital photography replaced film in a VERY short time. Once the cameras became affordable and computers were powerful enough to manipulate large images you could print and print big, Kodak went bankrupt, Ilford cut way back, and other film manufacturers and developers either pivoted to embrace the new technology (Nikon, Canon & Sony, for example), or they went out of business altogether. I for one embraced digital from its early stages, and I loved playing with images in ways I never imagined. A big part of me feels the same way about AI. If only I could ignore its horrible downside, putting thousands out of work, listening and surveilling everything we do — then marketing to us relentlessly, amplifying how threatened we feel by its very existence. 

But this story wasn't done. I took my laptop on a trip to see my sister and brother back east, ending with a visit to Veronica's sister Mary in Orlando. While at my brother Mike's in rural southern Maryland, I played him one of the poem-songs I'd created. His eyes lit up as he asked, "Could you do this with my songs?" Mike has always been a songwriter and master guitarist. He has upward of 50 original songs he's written, and with the help of his audio-engineer son Jeff, he created a "Music Room" next to his huge woodworking shop, and together they recorded his songs and produced digital files of each one. But Mike always wanted the songs to be more than just him playing the guitar and singing. His dream was to have other musicians come to the studio and lay down other tracks for his songs. Drums, bass, banjo, mandolin, cello, you name it. But because of the remoteness of where he lived, no one ever came to give it a go, and now that he's dealing with the early stages of dementia, he resigned himself to thinking it would never happen and no one would get to hear his songs fleshed out like he wanted them to be.

So we sat down in the Music Room during our visit last month and worked out how to import a song into an AI music generator (I use Suno), how to direct the engine to produce a song with harmonies, multiple instruments, and what genre of music to fit it into. It uses and enhances Mike's voice, the melody he sings, the fingerpicking and the lyrics. While I was there, we produced four songs. I'm now up to 15, with more to come. The question has become, "How do we make these accessible?" For family, certainly, but for others to listen to. Mike believes — and I do too —that the songs were "given" to him,, and so he wants to pass them on — not make money from them, but to share them with others. You'll find few attached below. Please comment if you have something nice to say. If you don't like them, of object to AI's involvement, that's your prerogative, but please don't leave mean or abusive comments. It's a big world. Let's try to be as big in it as we can.

And here are a couple of my original poems accompanied by AI.