Have you ever lived in a bad neighborhood? I have. Our family has lots of stories about our experiences that we love to share. I wrote a song with my friend Dave about living in central Topeka. The first verse is about when Heather's bike got stolen when she was about eleven year old. She was so sad. The good news is that we did get the bike back. The police found a grown man riding it down Topeka Boulevard at 2am with bolt cutters strapped onto the bike. 

     The second verse is about a drive by shooting that took place as Jeremy was getting his homework out of the  car. The shooters were letting the bullets fly at a house that was two doors down. This was when we realized it was a drug house. Sometimes we need hints. Fortunately, the neighbors moved out pretty soon after this incident. 

      Samantha's pillow cries

Her birthday gift's chained to the porch rail

The purple streamer shine in the light

She feels free when she's riding

one last glimpse through the hole in the blinds.

 

A broken chain is all that's left now

Shadow stole her heart of joy. 

She sighs, "Oh, no! It's gone!

only God hears her voice.

 

Chorus- There's no home sweet home in our neighborhood

Lives shatter like windows, banshee curtains blowing in the wind.

Somebody lock the doors, somebodies gonna cry

Nobodies sleeping sound tonight, as Samantha's pillow cries.

 

Daddy's cars parked by the curb

As an SUV rolls by

Pistols brandished out the window

Hear the bullets fly.

 

Chorus, There's no home sweet home in our neighborhood

Lives shatter like windows, banshee curtains blowing in the wind

Somebody lock the doors tonight, somebodies coulda died

Nobodies sleeping sound tonight as Samantha's pillow cries.

 

Time heals the scars, the scars nobody sees

Hopes the medicine, Samantha really needs.

 

Chorus- There's no home sweet home in our neighborhood

Lives shatter like windows, banshee curtains blowing in the wind

Somebody lock the door tonight, Nobodies gonna die

Nobodies sleeping sound tonight as Samantha's pillow cries.

 

 

     Do what you say and say what you do. I posted on face book that I was going to enter a music contest. The music contest that I was going to enter is the Frank Brown International Songwriter's Festival. It is a big contest with prizes and the chance to perform you winning song on stage. You can also win money. Five hundred dollars. I would need to use the five hundred dollars to go to the festival. The song I entered is, Something You Can See. 

     This is the same song that I sent to a Steve Rutledge at Groove House Recording today. You can listen to my song if you're interested. Thanks, Jim

     It is a challenge to find Publishers that will listen to your songs. It is more difficult when you write country songs and don't live in Nashville. Why would I want to live in Nashville when I can live in Topeka? (Sarcasm)  Nashville really would be a great place to live if all my family was living there with me. Or if writing songs was my full time, high paying career.

    My full time, high paying career is as an assistant manager at a grocery store. Okay, we can scratch out the high paying part. My full time job gives me resources (money) that I can spend on my musical pursuits.(buying guitars, musical equipment, getting demo's made, etc.) If I was a full time musician I would probably not have health insurance, I would be playing an old beat up pawn shop guitar and driving a thousand dollar car. Trust me I have already been in that boat before. 

    On facebook, one of my contacts is Sandy Ramos. Her website is The Song Tuner. She posted that Steve Rutledge at the Groove House Recording is looking for songs for three projects. Here is the list of what he was looking for. 

1. Tracy Lawrence/Trace Adkins

2. Johnny and June

3. Carry Underwood/Miranda Lambert

Wow! Those are some big names in the industry. The next thing you have to ask yourself as a songwriter is, Do any of my songs fit these artists? I decided that my best fit was Tracy Lawrence/Trace Adkins.  The song I sent in was Something you can See. You can't pitch a song once and quit, you gotta keep on pitching. Here is a track of the song if you would like to hear it. Have a great day. 

     I am better at starting projects than I am at finishing projects. This is a fact of life. I really learned this lesson when I took shop in high school. I had a whole semester to finish my project. My project was going to be a book shelf. Nothing fancy. A basic bookshelf made out of cherry wood. It had three shelves and a top shelf and was about four feet tall and two feet wide. (Approximate  guess.) 

     I was excited when I started the project. It was going to be great. The worst part about shop was having to share the equipment. If I needed to use the saw to cut the shelves, I had to wait. Or if I needed to use the plainer, again, I had to wait. This waiting was really no the problem, it was more of an inconvenience. It slowed me down but it was not the real problem.                                                                                                                                                                                     

    The real problem was, I hate sanding. Sanding is manual labor and it is slow and tedious. Slow and tedious are words that I would use to describe learning how to be patient. Patience and fifteen year old boys are not compatible.. I am still learning how to be patient. it is a life long process and I still struggle with it.   

     How did my book shelf turn out? Terrible. I had to rush to get it finished before the semester was over. I was adding the finish to it just before school was out for the summer. I don't know what I did wrong, but the finish never dried. It was always sticky. Books and papers would stick to the shelf. Needless to say, my book shelf was not on display in the living room. It was hidden upstairs in a hallway where no one would notice it. Mom asked me if I wanted it? I told her I would pass. I think it got sold when they sold the farm at the auction. I bet it is still sticky. 

    I have lots of songs that I have started. Some of them might be a title, or a couple lines of a verse to go along with the title. Others might be a chorus that I really like but no verse. Or maybe lyrics that I co-wrote with a friend that I never added a melody or music to it. Last month I finished a song that Captain Dave and I wrote the lyrics to. It was called Samantha's pillow cries. 

     This month, I worked on adding music and melody to another song we wrote together. It is called Four more years. I sent both songs to NSAI to get them evaluated. Both of them need tweaking to make them more commercial. So I am still not finished with them but at least, they are now finished songs that need tweaking instead of lyrics on a page without a melody. 

      Maybe you are like me also. The hardest part is getting started the second time. The enthusiasm has faded and it is time to go to work. As you work on it, you get excited about where it is going. Hopefully, this excitement will carry you through till the end of the project, if not finish it anyway. My new motto is Finish what you start. I hope this helps you to finish some of your projects too. 

      

     Do you ever notice how we make life more difficult than it really is? We accomplish a goal and then we downplay it. I have done it and you have done it also. I say to myself, I want to be on the basketball team. I practice and practice, learn to dribble, shoot free throws, run wind sprints, run more wind springs and guess what? I make the basketball team. This was back in the day.before everybody made the team. We only had so many jerseys (12) and the school district had a budget. 

     Okay, what do I say after I make the team? Yeah, I made the team but I sit on the bench. Or I'm not a starter. It's only a 2A school. Or my role is to play good defense and pass the ball. What I should be doing is celebrating. Yee! Haw! I made the team. I am a basketball player. 

     I am celebrating today. I had my first song (that I co-wrote) recorded on an artist's cd. This was one of my goals as a songwriter. The song is called- Gonna be a Good day. The artist's name  is Skep Pascoe and the album is called American Dream. 

     I could do, what I (we) always do and tell you why this isn't a big deal but instead,  I am going to celebrate the small victories. Today is like my song title, It's Gonna be a Good Day