Today was my day off. I decided I would get a cd ready to sell today. I went to CD Baby and did almost all of the work. I am going to do a digital album. It is called Linwood Café. Linwood Café is the title of the first song on the album. If you have been to my website you have probably heard some of these songs. Here is a list of the songs that are on the new cd. Linwood café, Puddles of Pain, Man in the Mirror, Little Black Dress, How to Fish,  Long live the King, Lucky One, That's what crazy does, Walmart Bargain Bin, and Something you can See. All of these are original songs.     

      It has been an all day project. I had to pick ten songs, Pick a picture for the cover. Upload all of the songs in wav. files. This would all be easy if I was more organized with my music. It is on my computer somewhere, it just takes time to find it. 

       I haven't decided if I should do a traditional cd. I thought about doing fifty but they are kinda pricey. My pricey may not be your pricey. CD's are pretty cheap if you buy three hundred to a thousand. If you only get fifty, the price is about 4 times as high. Let me know if you would like a cd. If enough people are interested I will spend the money.

        I will be releasing my album in the next couple weeks if everything goes smooth. You will be able to buy downloads on my website, CD Baby, Amazon, and iTunes. I will make one real cheap for my friends and family to get a bargain. I will let you know where to get the deal on  Facebook and my website. 

           What is it like to pitch a song to a publisher? I am going to share my latest song pitch with you. This song pitch was done through NSAI. Nashville Songwriting Association International. Every member is allowed to do two song pitches a year. This is one of the benefits of being a NSAI member.

       Lisa Johnson works for Rhome Phrey (Pronounced Roam Free) Publishing. Rhome Phrey is a new start up publishing company. On this pitch she listened to fifty songs. Out of the fifty songs she did not pick any but she did provide good feedback on every song that she listened to. Lisa has worked for Sony records in the 90's, Columbia records as a A & R, and with Barbara Orbison. One of the writers that she worked with was Chris Tompkins. Chris is the writer of Carrie Underwood's big hit- Before he Cheats. 

       It is kind of a neat process to go through. Of course, I am always disappointed when they don't pick my song to be the next radio hit. It is still fun and this is all part of the process to be a songwriter. 

'     I love questions like this. Would you give up half of your songwriter's share to a big star?  That is a tough question. First of all, let's pick the big star. If you are a girl in your teens or twenties, I would say the star is Taylor Swift. Taylor has had great success. Would you take the half and smile all the way to the bank? Or would it be a sore that never heals? Would you lay awake at night and be mad at yourself? Mad because you wrote all of the song and just because she is (Taylor Swift) she is allowed to steal half of your song. (If you let her.)

      I am not saying that Taylor has or ever would do this? I read a story about a similar incident that happened. The star in the story was Elvis Presley. At the time this happened Elvis was the big cheese. Nobody was bigger and yielded more power. Elvis had a streak of number one hits. At this time he had nineteen number one hits and thought that this song could be another number one for him.

       The song was written by Dolly Partron. The name of the song was "I will always love you." Did you notice Dolly didn't need a co-writer to write a hit? It was her song and she owned the whole enchilada. I will always love you was a number one hit for Dolly twice. It was a hit in 1974 and she re-released it in 1982 and it was a #1 country hit a second time. 

     Dolly heard that Elvis wanted to record her song. Colonel Tom Parker, (Elvis's manager) contacted Dolly and told her, it was a regular practice by Elvis to have songwriters sign over half of their publishing rights to any song the King was going to record. This was giving Elvis credit and money from future royalties on not only his version but also on anybody else's version of this song. Colonel Parker had met his match when he met Dolly.

     She told Parker, " Well, now, it's already been a hit. I wrote it, and I've already published it. And this is the stuff I'm leaving for my family when I'm dead and gone." And he said. " I can't record it. Dolly looked at him and said, "I'm real sorry." 

      Twenty years later Whitney Houston recorded Dolly's song. I will Always Love you went to number one on the charts and stayed there for fourteen weeks. Dolly was later asked about her foresight of not giving half of her publishing rights to Elvis. She said, "When Whitney version came out. I made enough money to buy Graceland. I love stories where the underdog wins. Dolly was the underdog who was being bullied in this story and she came out like a big dog. This makes me smile.

     Today was my day to get those little  things done that I keep putting off. The first thing on my list was to get the oil changed on my SUV. It is amazing how fast three months or three thousand miles rolls around. I was exactly three months to the day but I was over on the mileage. Oops! I get my oil changed at a place that sells tires and the workers speak better Spanish than English. I had a light on my dash that said, Low tire pressure. I had the shop check out my tire. It has a  bad valve stem that was leaking air. I. I am glad that they were able to fix it. I was not looking forward to adding air to my tire in the cold Kansas winter days that are coming. Oh yeah, It snowed today. 

       The next thing on my list was my annual flu shot. I went over to the grocery store on the other side of town to get my shot. I used to work at that store and still go over there to get my prescriptions filled. Julie, the pharmacist, told me this story as she was giving me my shot. She said, " I still remember what you said. "  I was kinda shocked and flattered at the same time. Words of wisdom is probably not my specialty. I do think I have a knack for witty sarcasm but that tends to get me in trouble and is not memorable. 

       She started telling a story about receiving an email from upper management. It was one of those emails that we have all received. She did not go into the specifics but basically it was a confronting email. Sometimes these email lump everybody together. An example might be- We need more sales, You are using to many hours, too much over time, working too fast, working too slow, and the list could go on and on. We have all received emails like this. I happened to be in the pharmacy shortly after she had read her email.

         Julie said, "Her normal response would be to fire back an email and defend herself."  She said, " Jim you asked me one question. Did they ask you a question? " and I said, No." And this is what you said that I still remember, "If they don't ask you a question then don't give them an answer." She said, "I still follow your advice. Those are words of wisdom from a wise man."  That was a very nice statement even though most of the time I would disagree with it. 

        We never know the impact of our words. Sometimes we can share wisdom, encourage others, uplift other or sometimes we hurt others. Julie made my day a little brighter when she shared this story. I now have a story that I can share about Julie, I can say, I remember what you said. 

     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!