MAB Q&A

MAB,

I have lost my desire to write songs but I have not lost my appreciation for the information you have shared with us over the years on SongRamp.  I've been around SongRamp long enough to realize some have ignored you because they feel you were only using SongRamp as a tool to invite new customers.  Well, what is wrong with that, I believe today they call it networking. 

However, I'd like to challenge everyone to go back to the nearly two thousand pages and read every post you made giving valuable information to all of us for free; without ever asking for any kind of compensation.  Oh sure, you may have hoped to appeal to a small few that wanted to up their game and advance their songwriting skills to another level and I proudly confess to being one of those.  I was happy to find some one like you that was willing to work with an amateur like me because I truly wanted to learn and improve my songwriting skills but there weren't that many at that time willing to teach a beginner like me.  Now there seem to be many more trying to do what you do and that is fine but where were they then??? 

It's just my personal opinion that if we want to become good at something and learn a craft, we have to learn from a teacher that is qualified to teach us and help us along on our journey.  Some of us learn a trade by learning on the job (OJT) they call it (on the job training).  That is how I learned the carpentry trade and the millwright trade but I took a cut in pay to learn it until I gained the skills to warrent the higher wages.  Some pay to attend college to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, or whatever; but they had to learn from someone with the knowledge they didn't have and they understood they had to pay those teachers (through a university) for their services.  To me, paying for the help of a professional is a 'no-brainer' .   

I only know I have paid teachers for guitar lessons that went no where, and some people pay for golf lessons, tennis lessons, attend night school to learn how to work on electronis like repairing TV's, stereo's, computers or you name it.  I never expected to learn from a Pro like you without paying a fee for a service and I found out the cost of paying you was pennies on the dollar compared to what I had already spent trying to learn on my own the hard way.   

At any rate, I was able to improve my songwriting skills thanks to you and I have a catalogue of songs that I am proud to have been a co-writer on.  That leads to another point.  You don't claim to make everyone a hit writer, just a much better writer and if they stick with it long enough and improve to the point they can write to a level of the Nashville bar (of course I never worked hard enough to get to that point).  We both know it's difficult for any songwriter to get a major cut whether it's an amateur making all the steps to do things right; or an established hit songwriter who was once established with all the connections yet trying to remain relevant in the music business,  You never sugar coated anything; in fact you were sometimes accused of making it sound so bleak why should we bother; but you were only telling it like it is.  The only guarantee you would offer is by working with you we would become a better songwriter and that was always my main goal.  The fact remains all of us amateurs need a teacher to help us learn the craft of songwriting. 

I could go on and tell my stories of how you showed more interest and personal attention to all of us on your Forum, to include inviting us (visiting Nashville) into your home for a cook out and personal living room guitar pull with your songwriting friends; but I've told that story many times, I would guess most have already heard it.

I just want to say MAB, as SongRamp seems to be slowing down and there is no telling how long it may last, and while we don't enjoy the post's and traffic on this site we once did a few years ago.  I just wanted to personally Thank-You for all you have done to help us whether we sought you out for a personal MAB Tour or not.  You have supplied us with a ton of free information over your years on SongRamp and I miss hearing from you as we once did.

The Old Dog is still sitting in the back of your class with a cooler of champagne for the Girls waiting for one of them to stop by and talk about old times.  I hope it isn't over quite yet.

Take care and Thank-You again,

OD

Hey MAB,  I was curious about the newer clients you have been working with recently.  If your first challenge was to undo the influences from music of their past and mostely writing on their own.  Whether they leaned towards negative, angry chick/male type songs; or maybe trying to write Bro Country or Talyor Swift sounding songs.

I know when I began to work with you several years ago my biggest problem was writing dated lyrics and sounding too much like the older traditional country style I had grown up with.  I remember well the Saturday afternoon you made me watch CMT video's and suggested I do that at home as well to get a better feel for modern country.  I admit I didn't work at it hard enough and I never really got the feel of it totally.   That is the biggest reason the last several songs I have co-written with you, I allowed you to help with the lyrics and come up with the melody.  You are so much better at that than I will ever be.

Hey also;  I spoke with Philboy (PhilG) the other day and he told me someone was going to remodel the old Broken Spoke and get it opened again.  Maybe Philboy will come on and elaborate.

OD

Oh!!!  Fast Eddie, I didn't mean to suggest SongRamp was going to shut down anytime soon.  I was just commenting on how slow some of the Threads had become.  I sure hope folks come back on and make it what it once was. 

Hey OD. I don't have much to add about the Spoke. Other than; they are not "going to remodel"; They were actually in the beginning stages of working on it when I was there just after Thanksgiving. HOWEVER, to be clear, the clerk did not say it would be a music venue of any kind, let a lone a writers room. He did say they wanted to reopen early this year. To me that means, Jan, Feb. time frame.

Also, the original Spoke (I remember), was 2 rooms. The front room was a sports bar with pool tables and TV's. The back room, at that time, was a true LISTENING room. More like the Bluebird than any of the other "writers nights" venues in town these days. Not quite as quiet as the Bird, but a LOT more quiet than today's venues.

Hey, I'm headed over to Flora-Bama on the 30th. There will be a volunteer appreciation dinner at the Old River Grill. That also happens to be a Monday, and Cathy will have her open mic that [afternoon]. The open mic has been moved to 3pm, and Pace and Petty have a show starting, I think, at 7pm. I plan on playing the open mic and doing at least one MAB co-write; "Missing Link". Will also do my Melissa co-write, "Fast", and probably 2 or 3 other songs.

Speaking of mine and M's song, "Fast", Luke Bryan has a new song on the radio called, "Fast". And, just like our song, it is about contemplating the speed of life. Even has the same theme and approach as our song, but with totally different visuals. Turns out, Luke co-wrote the song with Luke Laird and Rodney Clawson. Just solidifies how Nashville works these days. If you want to be a songwriter, you better find some artist who likes your writing to work with. OR at a minimum, you need to find a songwriter co-writer who is connected to an artist.

phil g.