Hey Arty, good to see you posting. And glad you and John are talking about trying to invigorate your respective scenes. I know it is difficult, and a lot of the places I work with are far away from Nashville, LA, New York or Sidney. But there are things that are going on. One of my more interesting experiences this past summer was a four day tour with a guy from Queensland, Andrew Cavanah. He is an internet networking guy, who had taken about three months and was touring America, partially to speak at some Internet trade shows and partially to investigate Nashville and songwriting. I learned a good deal over a few days, and took he and his girlfriend around, introduced him to some people here. We ended up in the studio with Christine Parri, the Aussie singer who lives here, doing two songs with her and then two, that were STRAIGHT AC/DC heavy rock songs. One was a "football anthem" sort of thing called "MADE IN AUSTRALIA" and the other was called "I'M A QUEENSLANDER."
I felt a little odd singing those since I am no where near Aussie, but they turned out well and he has gotten a bit of radio airplay over there and is searching for a regional artist to record it. Claims it is "easier to get songs to artists" over there. I don't know. I don't think anything is easy, but we'll see. I have worked with quite a few people from down under over the years and they have expressed the difficulties of distance, time and attitudes when trying to put some form of group together. Also about the proclivity for artists to do covers. As we hear from Phil, that is a pretty universal problem.
I never can tell anyone what THEY need to do. I can only explain what other people have done and see what applies to any individual situation.
If you guys are interested, you can contact me privately and I can give you Andrew's contact info. He is quite a go getter and might be a good person for you both to know. Putting some form of songwriters resource service or group, takes many forms. Some people can do it online if he has to be that way. Like music itself, never know until you try.
On Charities. Like everything it is a tricky thing. Charities are usually concerned only with raising money and contributing to the cause they support. And there are all kinds of issues "behind the organization" Once I was doing a series of benefits for the local YMCA, purely charity fundraising. At the same time I had a girlfriend who....shall I say became an embarrasing problem with her behavior. Because of the questionable nature of her, the YMCA asked me not to be involved with them, at least till she was gone. I've done things since and there was no problem.
For the chartities themselves, they are always wary of being used, so it is not as simple as just getting a song to them. You kind of have to do it all. You need to contact the person who is involved in the publicity for the charity. And of course, seeing the people closest to the top or if possible, the director's of the organization. You just have to start at the top and work your way into the organization. If there is an advertising agency involved in a charity, you are going to have to go through them in any way. And be prepared to stand in line. If it is a viable charity, they usually have other people with the same idea as well.
In a town like Nashville, where everyone has a cause and songs, it is pretty normal. Right now, myself and Big Ed Moore, from here are involved in our song 24 NOTES, which is about the song "TAPS." Ed contacted a person who has an organization, BUGLES ACROSS AMERICA, which organizes buglers and trumpet players to perform at military funerals. It features the song, which he and I wrote, and the band he is promoting. Great win win. Hopefully he might read this and give you some information on how he got that developed.
In most places people have charities and do theme songs, or organize methods to raise awareness or funds for that. The songs WE ARE THE WORLD and DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS were huge in the 80's to bring the world together for hunger. It has worked quite well throughout time. Even today, a friend of mine, Rob Crosby, has a National theme going, "SAY A PRAYER FOR PEACE" which is recorded by country superstar TRACE ATKINS. It is on commercials about every ten minutes here. It benefits the "Wounded Warriors" charity for victims of Iraq and Afganistan, America's most recent wars. Works great.
Another friend of mine, GARY HANNAN, who is a hit writer with hits by MONTGOMERY GENTRY and JOE NICHOLS, is himself a veteran from the Rodesian Civil War. He was an Army Special forces Vet from South Africa. He has done an entire CD of Veteran themed songs and travels around on his motorcycle, visiting Vet's groups, and his brothers/sisters in arms. HE does it on Facebook and is really active on that.
The California group, OC9, are picking a charity also. I think it is a very viable idea and a good way to bring community spirit together. But there are many levels to it. When you deal with charities, you deal with BEUACRACIES. That means a LOT of people making decisions, and a lot of things going on within the organization. So that means a lot of delays, missed meetings, and red tape. So if you are going to do something along those lines, bring your patience, because you need it. You would think that if someone wanted to give someone something for nothing, it would be a no brainer. But in this day and age, NOTHING is EASY or SIMPLE.
The last thing I can think of that you can do (which may end up being the primary way) is you can write and record your song, develop a web site and promotional campaign around it, put it on the net and give money that it generates to the charity, unasked. That may generate it's own publicity.
Getting a well known artist to record a song is always the best way. But that has it's own problems as they generally have their own agendas, their own causes and they are besiged by people asking them to be involved in THEIR charities. One of the reasons most celebritities form their own organizations just for fundraising.
Like everything, it is trial and error. If your heart is in the right place, that is always the first place to start.
MAB
