I spent this week in Nashville, Tennessee. I went to an NSAI (Nashville Songwriting Association International) event. The event is called Tin Pan South. On Monday and Tuesday I attended a workshop at the Maxwell House Millennium Hotel. The main speaker was Tom Douglas. Tom is a great songwriter. He played two of his biggest hits for us. He played a keyboard and sang his own songs. The first song that he performed was Little Rock. Little Rock was his first song that became a number one hit. This happened in 1994. Do you remember the song? Here are some of the lyrics to the chorus to help refresh your memory. 

Little Rock

I think I'm on a roll , here in Little rock

I'm solid as a stone, wait and see

I got just one small problem

Here in Little Rock

Without you, Baby I'm not me

Without you, Baby, I'm not me. 

     I love that song. He also, performed another song that he wrote. The house that built me. This is a number one hit that was sung by Miranda Lambert. Tom wrote this song with his friend Allen Shamblin. Tom and Allen wrote this song and did not get it finished. Something about the song was not right. Seven years later they finally found the correct direction to take the song and it became a hit. That is a long time to have a song and to come back to it. I would struggle to fine the lyrics and the demo after that long. 

     Tom did something in his speech that I thought was great. He told that it can be very discouraging being a songwriter. He has been there. He said, "If there is anyone here who is ready to quit, I want to encourage you to not quit. I want you to write down my phone number and call me. He then proceeded to tell his phone number to three hundred songwriters. I was so shocked. In today world, who would give out their phone number to a room full of strangers? This is the time frame in life where we try to protect our identity and our personal life from others. This simple act of kindness and his caring attitude was the most impactful thing about the entire conference. 

      Tom did ask all of us to make a commitment. The commitment was to write two song a month from April until December. In December he wanted us to take our five best songs and make a CD and give it away to our family and friends. So many times songwriters will write songs and they will live in notebooks or may be get burned to a cd and never listened to. 

     I decided I might do something a little different. I thought I could take advantage of my website. I have songs that I have written and only a handful of people have every heard them. I decided that I will share them. The first song that I decided to share is Puddles of Pain. I recorded this song in Nashville at a Pitch Perfect recording studio. Originally I had this song sung by a professional demo singer and he sounded great. I always wanted to hear what one of my songs would sound like if I went to a professional studio and if they used auto tune to make my vocals sound better. The professional singer is so much better but I wanted to try this. You can download a copy of this if you want to. 

    Twice a year we have an event called Night of Worship at Topeka Baptist. I was excited to get to play. I wrote a song called Make it Rain. I shared a few words about why I had written the song. Have you ever had a bad day at work? A bad week? A bad month? We all have. I am an assistant manager at Dillons and we have had lots of sickness and reasons that people have missed work. We have seven full time grocery associates and we were down to two. It was a very stressful time. During the rough times in life it is great to know that God is in control. All I have to do is trust him. I don't have to understand what he is doing or even why he is doing it. I need to trust him. Here are the lyrics to the song. 

Make it Rain

No matter how hard I try, I can't see past the clouds

the sun might be bright but  I can't see it now.

I hear the thunder roll, the lightning scares me

The pain I feel, it's you changing me.

Chorus- Oh, Lord, Oh Oh, make it rain

Oh, Oh, make it rain,

Oh, I feel the pain,

Oh Lord, make it rain. 

Yes, Jesus see's my rough edges, he sands them smooth

I trust in his greatness, that's what I do

Chorus- Oh, Lord, Oh, Oh, make it rain

Oh, Oh, make it rain,

Oh, I feel the pain,

Oh, Lord, make it rain.

The joy I receive will outlast the hurt.

I'll give you praise as I watch you work. 

Chorus- Oh, Lord, Oh, Oh, make it rain

Oh, Oh, make it rain,

Oh, I feel the pain.

Oh Lord, make it rain.

     This can be an easy song to sing but a hard song to live. It is me saying to God, I am going through this rough time and I am good with it. If you want to bring difficulties into my life, I am willing to accept it and trust in you.  

     There is something about turning forty. You have proven yourself to be a survivor. You have survived your teenage years and all the learning experiences that you had to learn on your own. Yes, it would have been easier to listen to your parent, but what did they know? Other than everything. It is great when you see a teenager that has success at a young age but it doesn't ruin their lives or the lives of people around them. A good example of this is Taylor Swift.  

      There are many people in life that have success when they are young.  They have made lots of money and life is good. Taylor Swift achieved success by the age of sixteen. She became a hit songwriter and  has made a connection to her fans through her music. When Taylor sings about getting her heart broken by her boyfriend, her fans understand and have felt her pain. When Taylor sings about castles and white horses and fairy tales coming true and love saving the day. Her fans understand and sing along with the words to her songs. Taylor knows how to relate to her fans. To Taylor's fans, she is not a star, she is a girl with a guitar,  who understands who they are and what they want, They want  to be like her. 

      Let's be honest. Not everyone is going to have a success story like Taylor Swift. Taylor is not alone.  Some people will achieve success in their twenties and thirties and then  there are the rest of us. The people who go to work on Monday's and on days when we don't feel good because come Friday we are going to need every dollar of that paycheck to pay the rent. We are the people who get paid weekly but know which months have five paydays in it. May would be a great month. That is the month that car insurance is due.   September is also a good month for an extra paycheck to get the kids enrolled in school and buy school supplies and book bags.Hopefully one of those will be December so we can buy presents for our kids. This was my life. 

     Forty is a wake up call. What have you done with your life? At the age of forty, I was working at Dillon's grocery store. I had been at Dillon's for twelve years. I was divorced with three kids. Driving a used car that was worth less than a thousand dollars but  I was thankful  it was paid for. Yes my life didn't have the ring of success to it. I am not complaining. I did and still do feel very blessed by God. I am thankful for all of my blessings and I am content with my life. Would I like a better car, a bigger house, more money in savings, sure you bet. Sign me up, but that would just be more icing on the cake. 

    I was reading the story of Moses yesterday.  Moses was an Israelite who was born during a difficult time. Pharaoh, the King of Egypt had made a decree that all baby boys had to be killed. Moses parents could not kill their beautiful baby boy. They hid him for as long as they could. They were able to hide him for three months. They took Moses and placed him in a basket that would float and set it in the river. Pharaoh's daughter, the princess, came by and saw the baby. Moses was like a puppy to her. She took Moses home and begged her Daddy to let her keep him. How could he say no to his little princess?

     That is an interesting story. Pharaoh, a ruler that hated Israelites, has a Jewish son/grandson living in his home. I would bet Pharaoh felt exactly like me when my son Jordan asked if we could keep a stray kitten. We didn't need a kitten but because I loved Jordan and wanted to make him to be happy, we were now the proud owners of a cat.

      I wonder if Moses was like my stray cat. That cat really liked me. He wanted to play with me, sit by me, and purr when I held him. Moses was probably the same way. He probably loved to sit on Pharaoh's lap and listen to him read stories to him. He may have played catch with a ball in the backyard of the palace. Moses might of painted pictures for Pharaoh to hang on the kitchen walls. Moses had a very gifted life. He was an Israelite living in a mansion. Going to the best schools with the best teachers. His friends were the smartest and brightest kids around. What a life! Isn't it amazing how God works?  

      At the age of forty, Moses went to visit some of his relatives. While he was there he saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. I believe Moses had a deep  compassion for the Israelites. He truly loved them and wanted the best for them. I am sure that Moses had seen the Israelites mistreated all of his life. I bet it broke his heart when this happened. Moses might of assumed that being a member of Pharaoh's home would help him to be a leader for the Israelites.  Moses stood up to the Egyptian and killed him. Moses probably thought that the Israelites would accept him as their leader but they didn't want him to be their leader. Moses decided the thing to do was to run for safety. 

     Moses would wait another forty years before God decided to use him to lead his people out of Egypt. God let Moses know that he was the leader when he spoke to Moses from a burning bush. God didn't want Moses to lead his people at forty. He wanted him to do it at the age of eighty. 

     This story reminds me of a lady who had the nickname Grandma Moses. Grandma Moses's real name was  Anna Mary Robertson Moses. Grandma Moses worked hard all of her life. She worked on other folks farms and that was where she met her husband. She was always a creative and artistic person. Moses like to create embroidered pictures of yarn. She did this until the age of seventy six when her arthritis started acting up. Her sister suggested that she take up painting. This would be easier on her arthritis and cause less pain in her hands.

      Grandma Moses started painting. She loved to paint. She started out selling her paintings for three to five dollars depending on the size of the picture. As her paintings became more popular she sold them for eight to ten thousand dollars. When she was asked, " What she would of done for a living if she wasn't selling paintings? " She replied, " I would of raised chickens."

       This is the favorite part of this story. As Grandma Moses painted the arthritis in her right hand started hurting. What would most people do at this point in life? Probably quit painting would be the answer most of us would expect. What did Grandma Moses do? She switched hands. She painted with her left hand. I love this story. 

      To wrap up this story. Grandma Moses went on to become one the most successful painters ever. A career that she started up at the age of seventy-six. One of Grandma Moses's pictures that she painted and sold was later sold for 1.2 million dollars. After hearing this story how could anyone ever stop trying? Age doesn't matter. After reading this story I might have to start practicing playing a left handed guitar in case I ever get arthritis in my right hand.  What a story!

      Yesterday I was watching Audience music. It is one of my Direct TV channels. The group that was featured was the band Hanson. In the early nineties they were called the Hanson Brothers. I didn't realize how popular of a band that they were. They have sold 6 million records worldwide, had eight top 40 albums, and six top forty singles. There first big hit was a song called MMBOP.

     I thought they were just another boy band. They were so young when they started out. They were so young that they couldn't get gigs because they were too young to play in bars so they played lots of festivals.The ages of the boys around this time frame, (my best guess) was ten, eleven and twelve. They were from Tulsa, OK. and built a following around the Midwest by playing as many shows as they could. They attended the SXSW music festival in Austin and busked on the sidewalk. It was there that they met there manager who was an attorney who believed in them. 

     I was listening to the interview and they were asked about the big moment. What was the big moment that happened that took them to the next level. We all like to think of these big moments as being earth changing. When I think of a big moment this is how I imagine it.  This is a big moment from the Bible.

     The shepherds  were watching their sheep when Jesus was born. An angel appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior -yes, the Messiah, the Lord-- has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!" Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others-- the armies of heaven --- praising God: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors." Then the angels returned to heaven. 

    That is a moment.  I bet that being a shepherd was not the most exciting job. No cell phones, no tv, no video games, etc. An angel shows up and announces that the Messiah is born and they are invited to go see him. The angel choir is belting out the latest praise song to God. That is incredible. We all want moments like this in our life when we go WOW! That is a story to tell. 

     The Hanson's big moment and Jesus's big moment don't compare. There big moment happened when they were playing a show in Coffeyville, KS. I don't know about you but I have been to Coffeyville, KS. It is a very ordinary small town. They were playing at a festival and they were the opening band for a karaoke singer singing a Garth Brooks tune. The small crowd loved her but the crowd was less than thrilled with the Hanson's music. 

     In the crowd that day was the head A&R (Artist and Repertoire) guy for Mercury Records. His name was Steve Greenberg. He had traveled to Coffeyville, KS to hear them play and ended up offering them a record deal. No bright lights from heaven. No angels singing. It was an ordinary day in a small Kansas town but for the Hanson's it was the big moment that they had been waiting on.

    Sometimes life is a lot of small moments. Think about it. You meet a girl. You learn her name. You remember the first time you talked to her.  You remember what you said when you asked her out and she says, "Yes." (hopefully)  We all have a lot of small moments with a few big moments sprinkled in. The big moments are weddings, birth of children, new jobs, promotions, etc. Don't over look the ordinary waiting for the big moment. Enjoy the ordinary.  The big moment could be today or tomorrow, or next month.  We don't know when but we keep on hoping. 

     There are upsides and downsides to being a songwriter. The upside is when you can write a song that people can connect with. I have had people come up to me after playing a song and tell me how much they enjoyed a song. I have been told how they loved my song and how they could feel the emotion behind the song. That is a great feeling. This is definitely the upside of the songwriting journey. 

     Let's swing over to the downside. If you are a songwriter you should be able to write a great love song. That is how my wife feels. This is how every girlfriend, wife, lover, of any songwriter feels. If you love me as much as you say, Prove it. Write me a song that makes me feel something. A song that moves me. 

     This is pressure. Their are two ways to look at this. Number one- You are a terrible songwriter. You say that you love me so much but you can't write a song to back it up. Number two- Maybe you are a good songwriter and the reason you can't write a moving love song is because you don't love me. I did write a love song that I used to perform at the coffee shop. It was called, Why don't you write me a love song? It was a light hearted song about this situation. 

     Valentines Day is the day after tomorrow. I wrote a love song. It has an old fashioned feel to it, maybe a Chris Stapleton feel. The name of the song is I'll be. 

You're a sunrise after a storm

a double bed, soft and warm. 

Will you be my girl, fix my shattered world?

Teach me to rope and ride again?

Chorus- I'll be a cowboy in your rodeo

a love song on your radio. 

Kisses you taste, memories you chase

I'll be anything you want me to be, That's what I'll be. 

You're a cold drink from a mountain stream

sunshine that makes a sparrow sing.

A lake that's still, a cabin on a hill

I gotta tell you how I feel. 

Chorus- I'll be a cowboy in your rodeo.

a love song on your radio.

Kisses you taste, memories you chase

I'll be anything you want me to be, That's what I'll be. 

     My wife's gift for Valentine's day could be me singing this song to her. She would probably rather have Russell Stover Brown Ribbon box of chocolates. I have a question for the ladies reading this. I wonder, which of these two gifts would you prefer? A love song or a box of chocolates? I would really like to know. Please comment. Your vote counts.