My granddaughter Alyssa has a birthday in October. Heather asked her, "What she wanted to do for her birthday party this year?"  Heather was probably expecting the normal answers that kids give. I am not normal but here is what I would guess that kids would like. Bowling party, going to a movie, sleep over, video games, discovery zone, bonkers, World's of fun, going to a concert, etc. 

    Alyssa threw her Mom a curve ball. She wanted to bring her friends over to Grandpa's house  and record a song in my studio. Each girl could sing a song with an instrumental track and take home their own  cd. Today I spent some time recording and finding instrumental tracks on Spotify. I had a list of seven or eight songs that the girls liked. I was able to find three that would work. 

     Not all of the songs had instrumental tracks but maybe less will work out better. They can hear the other girls sing their songs and this will help them to learn their parts. It should be fun. Happy birthday, Alyssa!

     I played at church a couple weeks ago. I was planning on playing a new song that I wrote called, Broken Crayons. I started working on a new song called More Jesus and I decided that I liked it better. Here are the lyrics to More Jesus. It is a worship and praise, or maybe  a church camp song. 

                               More Jesus

Everybody wants more, everybody need more

Oh, the thing about more is there's never enough.

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More Jesus.

Everybody wants love, everybody needs love

Oh, the thing about love is there's never enough

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More Jesus.

Everybody wants faith, everybody needs faith

Oh, the thing about faith, is there's never enough

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More Jesus.

Everybody wants peace, everybody needs peace

Oh, the thing about peace, is there's never enough.

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More Jesus.

Everybody wants more, everybody needs more

Oh, the thing about more, is there's never enough

That's why I want more, that's why I need more

More, more, more Jesus.

More, more, more Jesus.

     A simple message that would solve a lot of my own personal problems and a lot of the world's problems.

     I remember when I was a kid and we drove over to Lakewood Hills. Lakewood Hills was a housing community that was built by Lake Perry. It had a community swimming pool and lots of new homes. New homes were different than the old farm houses that you drove by getting there. One of the most popular styles was one called the A frame. A frames looked like a capital A. The two side of the house were the roof. I bet this was a great way to save money on a home and it was the latest fad. 

     If an A frame were a song, "What type of song would it be?"  Bro country, disco, rap country, or whatever everybody is trying to do that is exactly like everybody else's. Their are lots of imitators in the songwriting world and very few originals. I believe Eric Church does a great job on being original. I read an article about him in American Songwriter this week. Kip Moore had a statement that I thought was great.

     "The artist community is kinda like housing communities to me," says Kip Moore, another independent masses. Then you  get those little shell houses (A frames in the seventies) that get thrown up super fast. They're the hot hip thing in an upcoming part of town, (Lakewood Hills) but usually have a questionable foundation and go out of style fast. Lastly, you got that house that is  separated from the others, out on a piece of land. It's built the right way, outta love, passion, and detail That house has a solid foundation and always holds its value. That's his house."  Eric Church's song are solid well built homes made to stand the test of time.

     I want to write songs like his. Songs with meaning that are different than the crowd. Songs that tell a story, where you can see the details of the song and smell the bacon cooking on the stove. I love a great song and the work that goes into it. Eric is one of my favorites. 

     I went to Winfield, KS to the Walnut Valley Bluegrass festival last week on vacation. I drove down from Topeka on Thursday and stayed through Saturday. Have I ever mentioned that I do not like to camp? Some people think that camping is fun. I was not in that camp. I had the brilliant idea that camping would be better if I slept in the back of my SUV instead of sleeping on the ground in a tent. Let me assure you that quality sleep and camping do not go together.  I know that some people will disagree with me. The campers  that disagree with me are sleeping in nice comfy RV's. I bet I could sleep good in a climate controlled RV with a comfy bed but I do not consider that camping. Some of those RV's are nicer than my home. The only difference between a nice RV and a home is that the RV is smaller and it has wheels.

      I played my song Linwood Café on Thursday at 4:30 pm on Stage 11. Stage eleven is the Songwriter Stage in the campground area of the festival. It is really a white 14'X14' shade tent for shade with microphones, speakers, lighting, etc. On Thursday night I got to play two songs on the stage. I played Big Hit and Picker's Paradise. Picker's Paradise is a song I wrote a few years back about Winfield. Big Hit is a song about being a songwriter and there were many songwriter's in the audience. I was trying to play to my crowd.

      Friday morning I had my first radio interview. All of the winners in the songwriting contest were granted an interview on  KC Café Radio.com. The website is www,kccaferadio.com .  Yes, it is internet radio and not AM or FM radio. Maybe next year I can get on AM or FM radio. (Another dream.)  They also made a video of the interview and of me playing my song Linwood Café. I will share it on this website when they send me a copy. 

      Friday night was Songwriter New Song night. Any songwriter could sign up to play there song but it had to be written in the last thirty days. I had one song that fit this category. My song is called More Jesus. I would call this song a praise song. Praise songs are different than a standard gospel song or a hymn. A praise song is a simple song where you only sing the chorus but you have many different versions of the chorus. The crowd didn't sing along to my tune like they sang along to Big Hit. It was still fun to get to play my latest song. (without a cheat sheet). Some songwriters had copies of their lyrics on music stands. The only reason I didn't was because I had played More Jesus last Sunday at church for the Night of Worship program.

     I had a good time at the festival and made some new friends. I got to play some songs on stage. I wrote a song with my friend James Sperman called, "Almost Cinderella". I also came home and took a three hour nap in my own bed. I slept like a rock. Well, maybe I didn't sleep like a rock because rocks don't snore. It was a good time. 

      The results are in. I won. I get to go to Winfield and play my song Linwood Café. I got second place. It's not a blue ribbon but it's a ribbon. Well, to be honest, I don't get a ribbon, I get a medal. A medal is better than a ribbon, and  better than a sticker, but not as good as a new guitar.                                                          

      Walnut Valley has more contests  than the song contest. They have flat pick guitar, fingerstyle guitar, ( I competed in this one.), fiddle, mandolin, etc. If you win one of the guitar playing competitions they give away really nice guitars as the prizes. The guitars they give away could be a Martin, a Collins, a Taylor, or something else fantastic. The value of the guitar would be worth two or three thousand dollars. That's okay, I get a medal. Priceless. 

      Have you ever heard Linwood Café?  Check it out. This is the demo that I sent in to the contest. I get to sing this song at the festival. I also, get to buy a ticket to get into the festival to sing my song. Lucky me. This doesn't sound right does it? There is something funny about this. If they are expecting me to sing like my Nashville buddy they will be disappointed.

       It will be fun and I am looking forward to it. Maybe, I'll meet some nice folks, play some good music, and maybe, write a great song with somebody I meet.