A combo pizza songwriting lesson

This lesson is like a combo pizza. It has meat, veggies, sauce and it is all thrown together. The reason I typed it up is because we are known to have computer, website, audio and other assorted problems getting our media to perform like it should.

I went to the NSAI website and watched a couple videos about Industry tips. There were two videos from two managers. One was Madelun Monchick and the other was Kristen Ashley. Madelyn talked about some of the characteristics that she likes to see in an artist. 

1. Be a hard worker. Don’t expect your manager to make you a success. It is ultimately your responsibility. Do your part.
2. Find an artist that knows his purpose. Your purpose is the core of who you are.  It is deeper than a cowboy hat. My favorite artists are ones that are true to the core. I can spot a fake cowboy and it is easy to spot a phony believer in the gospel field. Lady Gaga could be the best singer ever but I bet she isn’t going to win over the church  crowd singing Amazing Grace. 
3. Treat others right- This can be your fans, co-writers, fellow musician, acquaintances, etc. I  amazed at work how many adults that do not know how to get along with others. 

The second video was by Kristen Ashley. She is the artist manager for Mitchell Tenpenney.

1. Motive- Kristen was a friend of Mitchell Tenpenny. He had not presence on social media. She helped him out by setting up a twitter and face book account for him. Also she helped set up co-writes with other artists, helped book shows for him and helped book transportation and lodging for his shows.  She did this expecting nothing in return. Her motives were pure. She was trying to help out someone that she believed in. Here is a quote from her. (If you believe in someone, help people and in return, you will be taken care of.)
2. Write great songs. That was her answer on what she would look for if she was picking someone to work with. Great songs open doors. What makes a great song?  She had two answers.  Cry. If a song can make her cry, that is great. The second answer was if she could put herself into a song. It is even better if a guy and a girl can both relate to a song. She used a song by Kasey Ballerini as an example- Peter pan.
3. Help others succeed. Or try too. Yeah it might not always work out. James Sperman , NSAI member, organized a concert to give songwriters a venue to play at. The event didn’t draw as well as expected but he was trying to help others succeed. 

I want to talk a little about Mitchell Tenpenny. I few months ago I was listening to the top twenty songs in country music. I made a list of all the songwriters of each song. Nineteen of the songs had multiple songwriters. The only exception to the rule was Drunk Me. It was written by one songwriter. Mitchell Tenpenny. This song had 170 million streams. His album that the song was on went to number five on the country charts in 2018. This is a great example of how great songs can change a career. 

   I heard Bob Dylan talking in an interview the other day of social media. Somebody was asking him about some of his older songs. They were commenting on how great the lyrics were. Bob agreed and then quoted the lyrics of a song that he wrote. He said, Yeah, those were some great lyrics on that song. I don't know where that came from. I can't write like that now but I wish that I could. That was a phase that I went through . (That was totally, a Jim McCarter paraphase)  But I thought it was really interesting. I just assumed that he could go there and do that anytime he sat down to write. 

  I read another interesting Bob Dylan quote in a book called, How to make it in the music business by Ari Herstand. Bob said, “Critics have been giving me a hard time since day one. Critics say I can't sing. I croak. Sound like a frog. Why don't critics say that same thing about Tom Waits? Critics say my voice is shot. That I have no voice. Why don't they say those things about Leonard Cohen?  Why do I get special treatment?  Critics say I can't carry a tune and I talk my way through a song. Really? I've never heard that said about Lou Reed. Why does he get to go scot-free?   

   I remember years ago, I wrote a song and placed it out on a website for song feedback. I still remember the comment. “ You are a  no talent Bob Dylan. You're singing is terrible and it sounds like you made up the lyrics as you were singing the song. ”  He was especially right on the making up the lyric part. I had a lyric that I wrote. I liked  the way it sung so I sang it as my chorus. Yeah, it was a terrible song, but I was at the beginning of my journey. What did he expect or what did I expect? That was probably the best that I could do at the time. (but) I did have the guts to  put it out there. Not everybody can do that and take the criticism. (I'm not saying I enjoyed it.) lol

   I love Bob Dylan's reasoning. He was just pointing out the truth. He is not the only singer that has made millions singing that doesn't have the best singing voice. He is the one that gets picked on about it? Why ? Maybe because of jealousy. Other singers can sing better than him but they sure can't write lyrics like him. He has his limitations just like everybody else. He is human. (But) he has made the most out of the talent that he possessed. Can anyone agure with that?

   I say Bob performing at a festival in front of a big crowd as a young man. He was playing his guitar, playin a harmonica, and singing. No backup singers, no other musicians, no, just Bob alone, doing what he does. It was great. Do you know how intimidating that would feel? My hats off to Bob Dylan. Way to go my friend. That takes real courage that alot of us don't have and will never have. 

   So if you ever want to learn about writing better songs. take some time and listed to Bob. 

      Friday morning, I got up early and started getting ready to go to the Kansas Prairie Picker's bluegrass festival by Holton. I decided to update my notebook with some new songs that I had written. I placed about twenty songs in my notebook so I would have lyrics. (sometimes I forget my own lyrics) 

      I stopped by McDonald's and got two McDoubles and a small tea for the forty-five minute drive to the festival. I arrived at the festival around one o'clock and set up my music stand, and aqua green four legged stool. The same stool that I sit on when I play in my music room. I opened up my notebook and started playing my originals. After playing for about twenty minutes I saw Ron and said, “Hi '”

      He is one of the main organizers of the three day festival. He asked, “ If I would want to play the five o'clock show on the main stage? ” I told him, “ I would love to.”  I asked, “How long of a set are you looking for? “He said, ”Forty five minutes." I said, ”I can do that." He told me that his five o'clock band had backed out at the last minute. 

      He said, “ You can bring up other musicians to play with you if you want.”  I said, “ It will be just me. I will be doing my own material and nobody else knows my songs” He was good with that answer and it was time for me to start preparing for my next gig inabout  three hours. 

      So I spent the time going over my songs, getting a set list together, and rememorizing a few lines I couldn't recall. Also, I played some of my songs with three fiddle players. We also played Soldiers Joy and another bluegrass classic that I don't remember or know the title. 

      Why am I telling you my story? Maybe you are songwriter, singer songwriter, artist, baseball player, or your goal could be anything. It doesn't matter. Here are the steps in my journey that could help you on your journey.

     1. Know what you want to do. - I wanted to play on stage at the Prairie Lake Bluegrass Festival.That was the goal.

     A) I wanted to play my music. Originals. Songs I had written. I didn't want to play somebody else's songs. 

     B) I wanted to play solo. Why solo? I don't have the free time to be in a band and practice. If I did, it would take away from my songwriting. Writing my own songs is what I want to do. Playing my own songs is what I want to do. You need to be specific and what you want to do.

     2. Be prepared. What would of happened if I was asked to play and I said, I can't because I don't know the songs, I can't play the guitar, or any other number of excuses. Nothing! Nothing would of happened. I would not have a story to tell about playing on stage at a bluegrass festival. 

     3. Enjoy the journey. It was great to see all of this play out. Let me be more specific. It was great to see God work all of this out. I'm not taking credit for all that he did. All I did was my little part. I knew what I wanted to do. (Play on the main stage) I knew what music I wanted to play. (Originals. My songs.) I knew how I wanted to do it. (Solo) I knew if I wanted to do all the things I wanted to do that I had to do my part. My part is to be prepared. God provided the opportunity. My part is to be prepared.

     I don't know what goal or dream you are chasing or hoping to achieve. You need to know that but you need to be prepared. So go get your guitar, learn how to play that B minor chord that you struggle with, memorized your lyrics, go to the festival you want to play at, or ask to play. 

     Would I have gotten the chance if I wasn't sitting at the entrance playing my songs? No. Do you think the promoter asked other people? What was their excuse? I haven't practiced, I'm not ready. I need more time. Who do they have to blame for not being prepared? Themselves. 

      I was so blessed to get this opportunity. I thank God for giving me this opportunity. I enjoyed every minute of it. I hope there is something in this that helps you on your journey. Enjoy the ride. 

    The middle is the long part of the story. It covers about thirty years. I will give a Reader's Digest version  of the story. (Some reader may not be familiar with what Reader's digest is) It was a magazine that was started in1922 that was filled with short stories.

     I continued to play and practice my guitar. Most of my guitar playing took place in church during this period. I would play my guitar for kid's church, an occasional Sunday night music special and eventuall I was part of the praise team. I did this for years until i went to a church that had way to many guitar players. I still wanted to play guitar. So I went to a local coffee shop and requested an opportunity to play there. They agreed and that was the start of my singer songwriter journey. 

    I would go up to the bluegrass festival, north of Holton. It was held at Prairie Lake. This was the same group of musicians that I had played with in Topeka years earlier. They would have a three day, camping, guitar picking and concerts at night. They had a stage, a sound system and shade trees to sit under and listen to the music. I wanted to play of the stage and have people listen to me. 

     I would attend the festival and take my guitar. I would sit under a tree by the entrance and play. I would sing songs I had wrote, or songs I knew, and occasionally I would even play a bluegrass tune. I met other musicians who would stop by and talk and play songs with me, But mostly it was just me, Being me, playing songs I loved or songs I wrote. 

      I carried on this tradition for ten years. Oh , I would miss a year, here or there, but the next year I'd be back in my normal spot entertaining people was they walked by. I played songs I loved that didn't fit the audience. I played Stairway to Heaven, Layla, and lots of current country songs. Mostly, I played songs that I wrote. 

     It was about five years ago, (pre-covid) I sent an email expressing interest in playing on stage at the festival. I explained that I was a singer songwriter and I would love to perform at their event. I received a nice email back. It explained that they only used bands. ( Bluegrass bands to be more specific.)  It didn't hurt to try. You never know if you don't ask. So I continued to got each year, sit by the entrance, Say Hi, and play for people coming to hear bluegrass music. 

     Last year I was doing my normal routine on Saturday. A guy with the organization came up and asked me if I wanted to play in the Open mic. They had twenty minutes of space that they needed to fill. I told him that I didn't have a band and it would be only me playing. He said, That is fine. and he signed me up. 

     I got up and played all orginal music that I had written. It was a great time and I was so glad to get to do it. I was getting to play on a stage with an audience that wasn't walking by as they listened. (to be continued)

     There is always a story to tell and usually there are many stories that blend together to make up a story.  Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. So I'll go ahead and start this at the beginning.

     The time frame is late eighties or early nineties.  I am  almost thiry, married, three kids, with a job at the grocery store. I am also a guitar player. Not a good guitar player but I have taken a few lessons and I really love playing the guitar. I want to get better. I want to play in a band or at least play with other musicians. 

     I read in the paper about a bluegrass event at 45th and Shawnee Heights Road. Bring your instrument and come out and play. It was on Sunday afternoon from 1-6. So I take my guitar and off I go. It was in an old one room school house. It had a stage at the front  and the rest was just a big room. This was where the bands would get up and play songs for a small crowd of other musicians and their wives and families. That was great, it was an audience. 

     This one room school house also had a basement. There would be different groups of musicians playing in each group. Usually they had a couple guitar player, a fiddle player, maybe a banjo player and if you were lucky you might even have a bass player. 

      They would go around the circle and when it was your turn, you got to pick the song that you were going to sing and play. You would also get to pick the key that you would be playing the song in. I wasn't very good so mostly I just played along with others and also I knew that I wasn't and didn't want to be the singer. 

      The basement was loud and confusing. You had three or four different bands playing different songs in different keys as the music echoed off the concrete walls. It was not pretty to listen to. If you were lucky and the weather was nice you could go outside and play. In Kansas, in the late fall and winter, that wasn't the way it worked out.

       I never became a member of a bluegrass band from this experience. I knew that I didn't quite fit in. Bluegrass and banjos was not my perferred music. I was more into the Eagles, CCR, a little country and some rock. 

      I did get up one time and play a song that I wrote. It was an Alabama song called Feels so Right. I had changed the lyrics, but not the title. I wrote my own lyrics. It was a song about going through my divorce and how I felt bad to feel good. That didn't make sense to me. I got closer to the Lord during this time of hardship. And even though it was difficult, I was okay with it.

      Other folks from the group would go on to form bands, play together and go out and play events. This small group was the beginning of the Kansas Prairie Pickers Association. It was a group that promoted bluegrass music in the north east part of Kansas. 

       I knew that I wanted to be on stage and play but it never worked out for me at this stage in my musical journey.  (to be continued)