As you have probably gathered, this year has been a busy one.  Lots of travel and increases in responsibilities.  I am finally getting the time to work on skills (guitar, voice and writing) and was able to get a song -- tentative title "That's Where We Belong" -- submitted for eval last Friday.  Glad to get back into that routine.  What this is probably telling me is that it will become more important to co-write so that I can maximize my efforts and learn new things at the same time.  Up til now I have only done solo writes.

Galen Breen (Gator Hole Studios) emailed me today that the demo for "Rubbin' Off On Me" will be done this week.  Definitely looking forward to that!

New week starting... I'm on evening and weekend call for my day job this week and no sooner had I gotten to the house than I had an urgent call to drive 30 minutes back to the office.  That episode took about two hours to complete so my evening had a two-and-a-half  hour delay.

That meant I missed my normal doggie and kitty time, exercise and light supper before other stuff like practice and writing.  Instead, I had a honkin' big piece of  home made apple pie, spent some thinking time and finally got started practicing guitar which is a very enjoyable "release" time as well as preparing me to play out.  Gotta build those chops!

Saturday I had the enjoyment of being in Ben Wheeler, Texas at The Forge with my friend Carol Ann Hicks.  There we saw The Magill's (Matt and Megan) perform.  Always great to hear live music and they were very high quality entertainment!

Capping off tonight, I took a break from guitar practice and wrote the lyrics to a song I'm calling "Jack and Diane and Me" -- apologies to John Mellencamp.  It just sorta "came" while I was playing guitar and I will go to bed shortly with most of the song finished.  I like that!

Since returning from Spring Training and Tin Pan South, seems like a very busy time in my life such as it is.  I was all set to begin getting evals on a song I have been working on for a couple of months (so long due to a variety of circumstances -- day job, etc.) when I got some very good advice on the content, first from writer Brent Baxter, then from treasured friend Carol Ann Hicks.  Tonight I began a re-write on it based on those helpful comments and will try to move it forward.  I've said before that any time I have needed to re-write, I always end up with a better result, so with that... hopes for a better song that hits the target.

What an exciting three days in Nashville!  I made long trek home yesterday and had my mind swimming with song ideas and such.

I arrived in Nashville early afternoon on Thursday, March 31 and had a very beneficial 1-on-1 with Brent Baxter at NSAI.  That evening, I went to the 9:00 show with the Big Loud Shirt writers:  Craig Wiseman, Chris Tomkins and Rodney Clawson.  Between and among the three of them are s-o-o-o many hit songs made famous by Kenny Chesney, George Strait and many, many other artists.  It was great to get to hear them perform their own work at Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant downtown Nashville.

There were opportunities to make new friendships with other writers throughout the day Friday and to get some great instruction and lots of question-and-answer.  Kenny Loggins, Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman -- all great writers in their own right -- now have teamed up and formed a "supergroup" called Blue Sky Riders.  They performed for us in the morning.  Then we got to eat lunch with a writer -- in my case, with Rand Bishop. 

The highlight of the day was the publisher session.  Each attendee signed up for the opportunity to play a song for their publisher of choice in a small group session at the end of the day.  I was fortunate to be with Bobby Rymer from Writers' Den Music Group.  He was very affirmative about "Worn Pages"  I didn't get a "give me a call"  -- only one writer in the group of a dozen or so got that privilege.  But... there were only four of us who got a very affirmative listening.  So, I am gratified by that.

Friday evening was the early show at the Commodore featuring writers Marc-Alan Barnett, Jimbeau Hinson, Bonnie Lee Panda and Allan Shervelle.  Very enjoyable and I got to meet a bunch of SongRampers.

Saturday brought a panel discussion featuring song placement folks for the Film and TV market.  It was very informative, too.  In the afternoon, Chris Wallin played some of his tunes recorded b by Toby Keith, Trace Adkins and other.  I returned to Puckett's for the early show that evening and heard Regie Hamm, Billy Kirsch, Wil Nance and Karen Staley.

In all, a very worthwhile trip.