Where does the time go? I’ve been back in Toronto for six weeks after Nashville Trip Numero Uno and have clearly not held up my end of the blog bargain. High time for some catch-up.
You already know about Sunday and Monday, so moving right along…
Tuesday morning
I had a great meeting with the SOCAN rep. We sat around in a café and had a nice long talk about Nashville, what I wanted to do, and how that fit in with how things generally worked there. It was a great orientation session; I got to ask questions and soak up some wisdom and enjoy the nice warm welcome to Music City from a guy who’s had just a wee bit of success in the business, in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles. Very cool experience indeed.
We didn’t listen to any songs, but I left him with a CD. He complimented my song titles, which he said were really an important part of the puzzle that a lot of unknown writers don’t pay enough attention to. He said I had some really unique and creative ones that made him curious about the songs, which he said was half the battle right there if your CD’s sitting on the desk of someone who’s looking for a song.
We talked about a lot of the things I’ve rambled about in other posts, so there’s no need to get too deep into it here. But one really cool thing he said in the end was “Sure, there’s a certain way things work here, but there’s also room to move within them. Whatever’s different about you and your writing can be an advantage. Don’t think about what you can’t bring that Nashville has. Think about what you do bring that Nashville doesn’t have.” Well, that’s about as close as I can get to a perfect quote after all these weeks, but certainly a good perspective.
Tuesday afternoon
My meeting at ASCAP was a bit of a train wreck. We started out getting acquainted, he asked where I was from and what I wanted to do, etc. Nice, friendly guy. Tons of experience and success in various genres as a writer and producer in Canada, the US and UK. After a while, he said, “Okay, let me hear what you’ve got.”
I handed him the CD and he popped it into his stereo. Nothing. Tried the computer. Nothing.
“No problem,” I said. “I’ve got it all on my website for times just like this.” “Great,” he said and gave me the helm. But I’m a bit frazzled and can’t remember the password to the secure page on my website with all the demos! In between sweated bullets, I manage to find the password in my email and get the song rolling before long. It felt like a lifetime.
I few bars into the song, I notice his foot tapping and that he’s grooving to the beat. Phew.
“Got a lyric sheet?” he asked. Of course not. Why would I have a lyric sheet? It’s only common sense. Truth is that I did print lyric sheets, and they were sitting perfectly safe and sound back on the table at SOCAN House. Very smrt.
Luckily I’ve got lyric sheets on my website too! Ten seconds later he’s reading along.
“Ok, make it stop.”
Now, that is a phrase I think I’d be more comfortable hearing in bed with a woman than while having a song reviewed in Nashville.
Then the schoolin’ began. In the moment, it felt like he was tearing the song to shreds but, looking back, it wasn’t really all that bad. He had two key criticisms:
1. The vocal wasn’t clear enough for a demo. “You’ve got to articulate so every word is understood.” Between my accent and vocal style, he couldn’t make out the words. In hindsight, I think we also overproduced the music which also made it harder to hear the vocal. This may sound like a little thing but, if you're pitching a song and the song can't be heard, 'tis a rather large obstacle.
2. “You started with the 2nd verse. I see it all the time. You can’t assume the listener knows what you know. You have to explain everything.”
He went into more details and made similar comments about the second song. We never played a third. Instead I got a condensed version of his blog and book about how to write a hit song. After all, that's the business he's in – finding and promoting #1 singles. He’s not looking for a lovely track #9. So I took plenty of notes.
Then he sent me on my way with a pat on the back, some compliments about structure and melody to ease the sting, and an invite to show him new songs in six months.
Lone survivor miraculously walks away from train wreck.
Tuesday evening
Open mic at Douglas Corner. The night is organized in rounds. Each set had four writers on stage together taking turns playing songs until everybody’s played two.
Number 26 again! Same as at the Bluebird. Can you believe it? My Bluebird friend Paula was kind enough to keep me company again, and I chat a bit off and on with Will, the writer at the next table.
Wednesday morning
Off to the Nashville Songwriters Association office for my first of two song-evaluation meetings. The evaluator, like everyone else so far in this town, was amazingly warm and friendly. She has over three decades of radio experience under her belt, in everything from DJing to regional program direction. She knows what makes for popular songs.
We reviewed four songs and the feedback was amazing. It was the first time I sat down with someone and really picked apart my lyrics. It reminded me of a creative prose course I took in university.
Two of the songs we reviewed were the ones from my train wreck the day before. But today’s work-shopping approach quickly put the ASCAP criticism in context. The songs didn’t have to be abandoned, they just needed some focused editing here and there.
This session also reminded me of something I’d read in preparing for the trip: that you’re going to get a lot of different feedback about each song, so you have to take it all in and considering everything… and then decide what to do.
Here’s an example of the kind of feedback that I got in this session:
One song is a male-female duet where the couple is relating how they sometimes fight but always realize how precious they are to each other and then make up. A pretty simple notion, I thought, but the idea of the conflict wasn’t coming across clearly. To an objective listener, it seemed like the information about “the fight” came from out of the blue in the bridge and didn’t seem to naturally follow everything that had been said so far in the song. This is what the ASCAP fellow called “writer’s assumption.”
We also talked about some specific word choices here and there. Overall, she really liked the melody and most of the lyrics. The story just needed to be shaped a bit more. This was the song with the unclear vocal from the day before, so I asked about that. She said she understood the lyrics easily enough and thought she would have even without a lyric sheet (I remembered to bring them to this meeting!), although it was hard to say for sure. She did say that the production of the song really wasn’t necessary and, even if I wanted to keep it as a full band demo, there was no need to keep the guitar solo. That was purely a matter of artistic performance and added no value to the song as a writer’s demo.
We reviewed three other songs in similar detail. One appeared to need about the same amount of work and the other two just needed little tweaks. I learned that a few phrases I used would never be used in southern speech and were therefore stumbling blocks for a Nashville publishing audience. I would never have known this talking to people back in Toronto. This lead into a discussion about the value of co-writing, particularly the possibility of finding a local writer who would instinctively know things like that.
Overall, I got a much better review than I’d expected. If yesterday was a train wreck, then today was just a pause at the railway crossing.
Wednesday night
One of my SOCAN House hosts was playing in a pro round at Douglas Corner, so they invited me to join them for the show.
Daryl Burgess and AJ Masters were the main writers for the night and played in both of the evening’s rounds. Two other pairs of younger writers took stools 2 and 4 for each round, though I didn’t make a note of their names at the time, sorry.
What great songs! All night. Amazing.
Thursday
My second NSAI meet was with a fella who's had several cuts and top ten hits. We talked for a half hour or more before turning on a song. Lots of great insight and things to consider. Co-writing was a big one. For instance, this guy only writes lyrics. He said he doesn't even think about the music side of it. Turns out most songs in Nashville are co-writes between at least two people, sometimes three or more people.
So we managed to squeeze two songs in and holy cow, the things he instantly sees in a lyric. We talked about things like tone, plot, narrator… again, like a creative writing course, though with broader strokes than the day before.
As I was leaving, I bumped into Will from the night before at Douglas Corner and he told me about an open mic at Fiddle & Steel.
I spent the afternoon working on some edits, met Paula for a bite to eat and then it was off to Fiddle & Steel. This wasn’t so much a writer’s night as it was no holds barred open mic. So there was a mix of originals and covers and even a bit of celtic fiddling. One fella was an amazing writer. I wish I could remember his name now… it may be in my journal… I’ll have a look-see and post later if I find it. I think he was from Texas.
It’s been a while since I was in a bar with smoking. When I got home, I smelled like cigarettes and beer, which got me thinking on a song… so I burned the midnight oil on that.
Friday
Spent a couple hours finishing off the new song and recording a rough demo. Then went off in search of breakfast and had a relaxing stroll downtown.
Got an email from the SOCAN rep saying he really liked two of the songs I gave him and that, while the could use some tightening up, he thought they were strong enough that he’d try to set me up with a more experienced local co-writer! Awesome.
That night, I was just a hair too late to sign up for the Commodore’s writer’s night, but I stuck around for the show. I think they’ve got one every night of the week, so I’ll be playing there next visit for sure.
Saturday
I spent the afternoon with Will and his buddy Rocky. We played at Broaster’s Chicken (there are writers rounds everywhere in this town!) and Ri’chard’s and, in between, we hung out at Rocky’s jamming and shootin’ the breeze.
After saying so-long to the boys, it was back to the Bluebird in hope of catching the feature act. I had no idea who it was, but I knew it would be good. And boy was it ever. Skip Ewing with Barry Walsh on piano and Vinnie Santoro on drums. There were only a few tickets left at the door and the fine folks at the BB managed to squeeze me in and find a chair – right next to Skip! He had a video crew there, so I'm in a lot of the shots, trying to blend into the background.
They played one of the most beautiful songs ever: Something That We Do. Skip co-wrote it with Clint Black and, while Clint obviously recorded a great version of it, there was something magical about the way Skip played it at the Bluebird this particular night. There were tears in my eyes.
And that was my last day in Nashville. Sunday, I was on a plane back to YYZ.
So... what the heck have I been up to since? I promise it won’t take nearly so long to fill you in on that.
Cheers,
ML
