I've been working on a new love song -- "Near" -- this week. I wrote the lyrics the last of April and am just now getting to the scoring of it. That has been going well and I hope to have an initial version of it done this week. I will (finally) have some new demo material posted soon. Stay tuned!
This has been a very busy few weeks. I have been doing a lot of traveling... many trips to Texas and one to Kansas. In the midst of it, my third eval for "That's Where We Belong" was very good and Lucky 13 had a few suggestions to tie it up. I submitted the latest -- and possibly last -- version of it this week. It has really shaped up and taken a different tone musically and lyrically than it started out with -- all to the better.
I've been working on a new love song -- "Near" -- this week. I wrote the lyrics the last of April and am just now getting to the scoring of it. That has been going well and I hope to have an initial version of it done this week. I will (finally) have some new demo material posted soon. Stay tuned!
0 Comments
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. Last week was a busy one for me... day travel to Houston for work then leaving again the next day for a long weekend in Kansas for my Dad's birthday. During the trip down, I got a new eval for "Rubbin' Off On Me" in my email inbox. I was just sure that I had gotten it where it needed to be. Not to fast, buddy! Lucky 13 had a couple of more suggestions that will require some... you guessed it... rewriting! But hey, like I say at work, "this is our life" -- and I had better enjoy the challenge! Now that I'm home, I can get into a routine again and get the re-write done.
I bought a ticket to see Travis Tritt later this month doing a solo show here in El Dorado. It will be an interesting learning experience from a singer/songwriter perspective. I have been to writers' night in Nashville and Little Rock. It will be interesting to see how a seasoned performer handles it. Looking forward to that! Starting at 9:00, the first three class sessions were all at Warner Records with Pat Pattison. Pat is on the faculty at Berklee College of Music and is very, very entertaining and instructive. We had a look at the power of lyrics (when properly done) as well has how to build a storyline from a title and how to marry lyrics to a melody (prosody). He is a master lyricist with tons of experience.
I skipped the 3:30 session and began the trip home. It was about midnight when I finally arrived and I didn't waste much time hitting the sack. In all, I enjoyed my time in Nashville and learned a lot. Looking forward to the next time. I had a very busy day with late start (since I had nothing in my 9:00 am slot). After breakfast, I went on over to NSAI to print some lyrics for a 1-on-1 with Brent Baxter. While there, I met John Braheny who was preparing to teach a session on songwriting for the film industry.
Next up at 11:00 was a class with Rick Beresf0rd on Powerful Melody and Chords, after which I hustled back to NSAI for my 1:00 1-on-1 with Brent Braxter. This was a very enjoyable opportunity with a talented young writer and he had some great advice for some of my current projects. Sandwiched between the 1-on-1 and my 3:30 class was a vocal coaching session with Shelby over at Brett Manning Studios. Again, a very productive time helping me get my head around things to work on for improving my singing. The last class at 3:30 was with Susan Anders, which again focused on singing. Her classtime dealt largely with techniques common to country music vocals and it was great to help me start to get some help in this area. Back at the hotel, I went down again for a Songwriter Night at the Commodore and heard some very outstanding singer/songwriters. Lance Carpenter shared one round and the most entertaining time of the evening was a round with Harley Lameraux and friends. All very enjoyable. Had a long drive up from Louisiana today and arrived Nashville just after 4 pm. I took the Church Street exit from I-40 to wind up at Music Row. It took a few drive-stop-mapcheck cycles to find my way (the streets in the Music Row area run at angles and have weird angular intersections -- whew!) such that I ended up at NSAI around 4:30.
Whitnei Jeffcoat showed me around the main area of NSAI and talked to me and -- thank you, Lord -- set me up a one-on-one with Brent Baxter at 1:00 tomorrow. I had tried to contact Brent on my own, but was unsuccessful. This is more than I could ask or think! I left NSAI and got checked into the Holiday Inn which is right across the parking lot from the Vanderbilt stadium. I went downstairs for dinner in the Commodore just as their songwriter rounds were starting. I heard about 18-20 fine singer/songwriters doing their songs in the approximately 2.5 hours I spent there. I was starting to fade, so I came up instead of staying for more (there was still a couple of hours worth of writers left to go). It's been a good learning experience so far and I look forward to more tomorrow. Oh, by the way, one of the later performers was a young guy from Sheridan AR (I drove through there on the way today). Also, one of the writers mentioned that Lance Carpenter was the co-writer of one of his tunes. A shout out to Lance! I will get to the title of my post in a minute. First...
- Follow-up to my fishing adventure. After the first evening and next morning in Poudre, I didn't have a single bite (!) until the last morning when we fished our way out of the canyon. There was a man fishing at one of our holes along the way who was just leaving and had caught a number of very nice browns. This kind stranger gave Sid and I each a lure that he was having success with and we proceeded to land about a half-dozen each of very, very nice browns. That was a pleasant ending to this year's fishing excursion. - I have to make another comment about the LefsetzLetter. I have really appreciated his observations about changes in the music industry. If you are interested, Google it and sign up. Very interesting reads. - I will be working Monday and Tuesday this week then driving to Nashville for the annual Songposium event. I signed up for 5 classes that fall on Thursday and Friday -- three of them with songwriter Pat Pattison from Berklee College of Music. Looking forward to that. I will be staying upstairs from the Commodore, so Wednesday and Thursday evenings I will get to listen in on a number of songwriter performances. I will also get an hour at Brett Manning Studios to get some vocal coaching. An action packed three days. - On that note, the post title, like I promised. I am standing up a new site called SongsAboutUs (thank you, Trace Adkins) that will deal with how a believer in Jesus can interface with the arts world -- with a specific focus on music. It is barely in its infancy but I hope to be providing some good content and things to think about. Oh, yes, the post title. A few years ago I wrote a ballad called "Stranger on Mars Hill" which was a retelling of the apostle Paul's visit to Athens found in Acts 17. You could say that SongsAboutUs is a re-visit to the same idea. Even though God is a staple in country music, sometimes I wonder if it is not like Athens, where the "Unknown God" is where Paul had to start with telling God's story anew. Tomorrow I head to Little Rock for a flight to Denver and trip to the Cache la Poudre canyon west of Fort Collins, Colorado. My brother Sid and I will spend a few days together trout fishing.
We did the same last year at this time. After Cindy's funeral just before the 4th of July followed by a business trip to Houston and a hot summer, it was a very refreshing getaway. I'm happy to be doing it again this year. It is beautiful country and invigorating to be out in the mountain streams. I didn't reach the bar on the Christmas in July pitch CD for NSAI, but I still believe in the song (Tonight and Forever) and am thankful to have been recommended by one of the evaluators. Another time. In the meantime I keep writing. |
AuthorI'm John Rowland, a country songwriter, working man and father from East Texas. Archives
December 2015
Categories
All
|