I took "That's Where We Belong" to my NSAI regional in Little Rock last Saturday and had some very, very different feedback on it than I have been getting from Lucky 13.  While I do consider their feedback important to listen to, I have spent my rework and rewrite time focusing on the things Lucky 13 has told me to work on and I'm finally ready for my third eval on the song.  I'll submit it tomorrow.

My dear girlfriend Carol Ann is a rhetoric and writing teacher.  She knows the same things songwriters know:  "re-writing is our life"  : )  So it is.

Lucky 13 had some complimentary things for the changes in the second version of "That's Where We Belong" and some more suggestion.  As has happened before, when the song gets tightened up in general, it exposes some more weaknesses that weren't apparent before.  I appreciate Lucky 13 because he takes the time to listen multiple times before forming an opinion.  So... back to rewriting!  : )

Still no "Rubbin' Off On Me" demo... patiently waiting.

I spent the evening finishing up a new version of "That's Where We Belong" as a followup to the eval I got from NSAI last week.  The evaluator recommended upping the tempo, which I did, as well as some lyric changes were focus was lost and particularly melodic changes.  Rather than take the song "heavier" or "darker" I took it down the Motown road ala Billy Currington.

I will be on the road again for most of the rest of the week, so I am glad I got to finish it up before the week gets much busier.

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.

I've been challenged to think about leadership this week.  It reminded me of the song I posted on 3/8/11 -- "Kingdoms Will Fall" based on Isaiah 2:2-5.

It really summarizes my theology:  Go out with the life God has given us, light up the world, be generous and feed others' bodies and souls, lead them to the Mountain of God.  Leadership is exercised in many ways.  One of my favorite leadership movies is U-571.  It's about a man rising up from just wanting to be one of the guys to being the one responsible in a crisis situation.  Gary North says "leadership always flows to those who take responsibility."  I adhere to that. 

More than anything, thinking about the song again, our exercise of leadership in every form or fashion should show facets of our heavenly Leader and lead others up to him.

It has been very busy the last seven days with a lot of out of town travel.  I got to do a little lyric development for a new song while I was away and missed getting to practice guitar and work on my audio workstation.  I did a little catchup on the new song after getting home last night while doing a mound of laundry.

Tomorrow I will be heading out again -- this time to Nashville for Spring Training.  I'm looking forward to that event -- two solid days of advice and how-to from hit songwriters hosted by NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International).

I've had the pleasure of making some new friends this week, suffered some heartbreak and gotten to enjoy my relationship with the Father of creativity.  Maybe I'll write a song about it.  Seems that's how some songs come to be.

I ran across an essay on a favorite commentator's site the other day.  This commentator was elaborating on the value of belonging to a community of craftsmen and he pointed to the last three paragraphs of this transcripted speech by C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) given a number of years ago.  It is of particular interest to me as a songwriter.The essence of the message is this.  Many of us want to be stars, to have notoriety -- to be in with the "in" crowd.

Problem -- the pursuit of fame, fortune or notoriety can take you places in your life that you never really wanted to go, effectively robbing you of what you wanted to begin with.

Solution -- if you focus on excellence in your craft, doing great work, you will eventually find yourself surrounded by others who are excellent in that craft.  You will find yourself in the "in" crowd for that craft almost by accident, because the great ones know who each other are and they seek to be together.

I always remind myself at my day job that it's about the work, not about the title.  The same applies in the songwriting craft.  Excellent work is what it's all about.  If that is there, the rest will take care of itself.