MAB Q&A

Oh yes MAB, about the bar area. I had posted earlier that some of the hit writers/performers used the main room afternoon open mic to practice their songs. As a matter of fact, there were some of the hit writers that just enjoyed doing the open mic there. So if you were just in the main bar, you would be able to meet those guys. There were several occasions where i would see a crowd of foks, mostly non-writers, congregating around one of the hit writers when he/she got off the stage. It s just such a great laid back, relaxed atmosphere there during the day.

phil g.

Even if you are not scheduled to play and you show up as a songwriter you are given a badge. Unscheduled people are asked to donate $5 toward the cost of lunch where you can sit with and learn a lot from the other songwriters. The most I ever learned was when my brother and I sat at MABs table. And of course MAB is one of if not the best performers there. My older brother who generally shows no emotion laughed his ass off at MABs humor songs and performance. Life is like a box of chocolates and that's all I have to say about that.

Eddie R

MAB,

I think maybe I started the band in the box conversation by telling KevMo I did indeed like the sounds he comes up with on his BIAB.  Sadly before bragging on KevMo I gave him my grumpy old man's opinion about lyrics and open mic songs.  I sometimes forget the purpose of the open mic is to both showcase  finished material, as well as post a song in the works for opinions and suggestions.  So you and KevMo are correct in that regard.

Also; I have to apologize to KevMo for bashing his lyrics because he writes in a different style than myself.  KevMo likes his pop/alternative music and his lyrics reflect that type of style.  Nothing wrong with that at all; and I do enjoy his melodies; so KevMo the Old Dog is sorry for being such a pain in the a** again.  I'm glad know your read along but never take my comments to heart.

While the Old Dog is in the 'apologetic' mood,  I have to reach out to my buddy The Kid.  Kid, I hope you know if OD picks on you and tells a story about you,  I am only showing my affection in a weird, twisted way.  I actually love being your friend and I find teasing you as a sign of my affection.  I truly do care about your feelings; but not as much as you may think.   Ha!!! (just teasin).

Speaking of alologetic moods,  I recently called one of my old workmates to apologize for my behavior the last few years of my work career.  The Old Dog had some personal issues I was not man enough to deal with, and it effected my work and my attitude.   I accidently  got the wrong number and apologized in detail to The MAB before he got a chance to speak.  Talk about embarassing.  Anyway, I traveled 2 1/2 hours to the home of a former work buddy to attend a party he was having.

It all started 15 years ago before most of us were of retirement age.  My friend Steve Taylor had just bought 70 acres in southern Ohio to build a new home and prepare for his dream retirement spot.  The first building he built was a small cabin for him to stay in while he spent weekends building a driveway (about a 1/4 of a mile through trees and hills to the spot he eventually built a home.  It's pretty hard to find the driveway; so forget about seeing the house from the road.  Steve and his lovely wife Sheila have a paradise to wake up to every morning.  They tell stories about multiple deer and once saw about 30 wild turkeys in their yard.

Steve and his buddy Donny Hoover (a really good banjo picker) played a lot of bluegrass over the years and in the first year at the cabin (of what became an annual party), it was all bluegrass with the Old Dog recruited to play bass along with them.  Steve soon began inviting friends, family, and the public to attend and it became quite a night of food, friendship, and music.  A neighbor soon started attending that was a great singer that played rhythm guitar and knew a ton of country songs.  We soon became a (once a year only) band that included my Brother Blake on drums, and several musicians that wanted to play  along.  

Last Friday night we were happy to have Whey Jennings, the grandson of Waylon Jennings join us from Cincinnati Ohio. Whey is the son of the oldest child of a previous marriage before Waylon and Jessie Coltter.  Scooter Jennings is the only child from Waylon's marriage to Jessie, and I have to admit Whey is a much better singer that Scooter.  However that is just my opinion.  Neither of them are ever going to make it in the modern country scene; however Scooter has some limited success and Whey is way behind him.  

So the Old Dog had a nice weekend; but wonders if I'll make the trip next year.  I'm getting way to comfy at home in my jammies and further away from what The MAB teaches.  I hope the rest of you pay attention and follow everything The MAB talks about.

OD

 

 

Eddie, I dn't recall songwriters that weren't performing being given a badge, but I do recall something about some folks were askred to give a $5.00 donation. I do remember 2 such guys here that weren't performing, but did go to the lunch. They were songwriter from Nashville. MAB knows them; Gary Cavanaugh and his buddy AJ Bigler. I don't remember if they had a badge though? I will be going to the FBISF volunteer meetings as soon as they start and will get my facts together.

phil g.

For those having issues with  font sizes .

While waiting  to see what Ed and the developers  come up with

If you are  on a Mac  hit  >    command +  and this will increase the size of the  window and thus the apparent size of the font. To reduce  hit  command -

 

Try it  on your Pc . My Pc  is in the repair shop at the moment so I cant  test at the moment . .

As I have just read it, messing about with the actual fonts  on a PC is a regular PITA.

 

I do have  a supply  of 2.0 reading glases  tho  

Jdub

From Ed  re  command +

"That does work on PC.  I always keep mine expanded in that manner. 

 

That said, I've asked the devs to make sure the default is set to 12pt"

 

john

Hey guys,

Had a meeting with the folks from the Smokey Mountain songwriter's festival tonight, getting some plans for next year. Looks like I'll be doing a couple of workshops in addition to performing. One of my friends and co-writers, john Condrone, was the link to them and me, and is really a great guy. they were all on the Music Row show tonight talking about the festival and about the "jam session" we video taped for their television show they do. It is on a different network but will find out when it will air. you can go to www.musicrowshow.com and find where it will be. 

Then I did a set at the Commodore. Tried to do some new songs tonight, but I get tied up trying to get them out. Even had to use GASP, LYRIC SHEETS!!! I hate that but even I need help sometimes. I felt I was off my game quite a bit, but Tina said it turned out fine. Sometimes I don't really know how it goes.

Phil, I think they have different badges and designations on songwriters, the main thing is the food. It is donated by local resturants and they want to make sure the artists and volunteers get fed first. I often have brought people in to hang out but not eat. It just kind of depends on what your overall focus is.

MAB 

 

                                          HOW I WOULD APPROACH THE FRANK BROWN SONGWRITER'S FESTIVAL

I thought I would address the upcoming Frank Brown festival and talk about ways to approach it to get the most bang for the buck. The actual purpose for the festival is to put a 'human face" to the process and business of songwriting and feature the songwriter's themselves. The majority of the general public, never realize that there are people "behind the songs" and the artists are not always the only thing behind a song. It also allows writers to be featured in an educational way, in order to combat illegal downloading, peer to peer file sharing, copyright and other issues involved in the modern songwriting world.
The main features are the "hit writers" with previous or current hit songs on the charts, Hall of Fame members, new and upcoming writers and artists, "hot writers" (those without huge hits but are very well adjusted to songwriting) local and regional writers and artists. There are two shows a night in multiple venues. Many shows are free or with a "multi purpose badge."

 

There are opportunities to volunteer, or work shows, be involved with merchandising, seating, hospitality room, or runners for venues for the individual shows. If not volunteering, I would suggest:

 

Finding new co-writers and interested parties.
Most of the open mics and other activities, hospitality room, etc. centers around the FLORABAMA LOUNGE AND PACKAGE STORE, in the middle of the festival. While meals are served for the participants and the volunteers, there are opportunities to meet writers, interact and get information. 

Dialogue with hit writers. If you attend shows, you can meet the artists. Most are very open to meetings, coffee, drinks, etc. during their 'downtimes" away from shows.

Co-writing. I would attempt to find local or regional writers to spend a couple of hours during the day doing co-writes. I would try to leave with at least one or two songs started or finished. Many of these can be found at the open mics.

DO NOT ASK HIT WRITERS TO WRITE OR GIVE OUT CD'S.
Aside from being etticate issues, there are legal issues as well. UNSOLICITED MATERIAL (unasked for CD's) can lead to lawsuits and legal ramifications with artists and writers. That priveledge has not been earned yet. Those relationships take years to develop, and your NEW RELATIONSHIPS start here and NOW.

Feel free to give or collect, business cards, CD's, from unsigned and newer artists and writers.  

 Attend shows. There are multiple shows of all types of music, all ages and styles of artists and writers. Hearing them in their purest environments, with just an instrument and the song, is the best way to find out how the rubber meets the road. And hearing hit writers show where the bar is set.

Hang outs. There are often late night guitar pulls, afternoon mixers. Keep your eyes and ears open. They are not always broadcast among the populace. But creating one good friend will lead to opportunities with many more.  

Having a breakfast or lunch meeting, writing in the afternoon, attending an open mic and then shows at night can be done if paced carefully. But this is where you set up for your future. Collect business cards, be polite and support others. They will then support you.

 

MAB 

 

 

 

 

 

Marc,

Had first (of many  I hope ) meeting with Simone that lasted jus  over 3 hours. She is avery positive and upbeat lady  with a  good  voice. This was a really a show me  yours and  Ill show you mine  kinda  meeting and we talked about where we were both and  our aspirations in the music business.

Followed up with a task list.

 We will see what develops fromt that  considering she is  looking  for work at the moment  and we live about 1.5hrs apart. I think Skype or Facetime will be the main contact method

Thanks for the contact

 John

 

 

John,

Great you were able to do that. She is a sweetie.

MAB 

 

Just  followed up from the Sunday meeting  to see what , if anything, has been  done.

John ( in parent/teacher  Mode )  

Working with someone is gonna keep  my  fired up too!

 

Well, It "looks like" fbisf.com is the official website for the Frank Brown Festival. It has a list of performers, INCLUDING our own MAB, and his protege Dani Jamerson. There is no schedule yet, and I'm not even sure the list of performers is complete or correct.

Good Phil thanks. I hope it is right.

Next weekend Tina and I are going to the MISSISSIPPI SONGWRITER'S FESTIVAL in Ocean Springs Miss. This is one that is in it's third year and supposedly a REALLY COOL one. They put all the writers in the same hotel, feed and give them drinks all the time, and transport them back to and forth the venues. I am not 'officially" involved this year but know a lot of people going to be there so I hope to hook up with the festival orginizers while I am there.  Hopefully they might invite me the next year. That is the way most of this goes, you go for the first year and earn your way in.

But the interesting thing is that it is NEXT WEEKEND and THEIR SCHEDULE IS STILL NOT UP!!! None of them are. It is just too hard to nail everything down in an endeavor that has so many weird schedules, details, elements involved. You just kind of put it up there and hope it all works out fine.

But looking forward to it. Thanks for the update on the Frank Brown.

MAB 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your trip to Ocean Springs. I went to their web site to see who was going to be there. Great line up! (Well, IF it's the correct line up LOL) According to google maps, it's only a day drive for me. But, I'm spending all my money, plus a LOT I took out of retirement to pay off credit cards. Just don't have the $$ to make the trip this month. Still trying to find extra money for Oct. FBISF volunteer meetings and Nov. festival. Got my RV spot paid for already, but still need probably over $500.00 for gas and entertainment. But, I WILL be there! Even if I have to add charges to my Visa to do it.

phil g.

Phil,

I think the line up so far is people who have been there in the past. Probably don't know who is going to be there right now.

MAB 

 

OD,

I LOL'd at your entire post, i have fallen a few pages back so had to play catch up, you had me cracking up laughing. But I PROMISE I have a twelve hour leftover rule in my home, you leave it, you lose it. Next time you come down, guard your leftovers!!!

Eddie,

Glad we all can provide some comic relief LOL

Brother MAB,

Lately in my writing songs sans cowriter, I feel like I've had a huge slump in "second verse hell" not the kind that applies to any song, I mean just each "good idea" I have seeing as with time and experience i'm a harsher critic on myself, I feel i'll nail down a solid V1 and Ch, the BOOM i'm like what the heck, I want to "move the story forward" but as of late I've been in a permanent V2 hell... any little tidbits or tips you could provide on how you push through a V2??? I mean you personally? What thoughts you have, where your focus is, what you try to think of next, any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Write verse 2 first!

Justin, Kevin makes a great point. Look at the verse you finished and see if it can be V2. Also remember, depending on the visual of your V1, V2 does not HAVE TO move the story FORWARD. Maybe V2 can provide back story to explain how you got to the situation in V1.

phil g.

Kid,

I agree with Phil and Kevin, make your first verse the second verse then write a new first verse - simple.

Eddie R

                                          AVOIDING SECOND VERSE HELL

 

Don't write second verses.

You're welcome. 

 

Have a good day.

MAB
 

Brothers Eddie, Kevin, Phil,

I've never tried that, I've got a song that hit me today that is a pretty solid idea, writing the first verse I thought to myself "should this be second" because I was going into great detail... thanks for that tip, I'm going to try it.

MAB,

I got no clue what you meant? LOL

Well unless MAB you meant the same as the other three, then I get it...

Justin,

I was just messing with you. I was in the middle of a pretty long post today when RiDawn came over and we had a pretty long rehearsal of songs today, so I never got back to it. Will do it in a minute.

MAB 

 

 

                                                  AVOIDING SECOND VERSE HELL

One of the main things I do is watch a LOT of television. Now while a lot of people would say I am just lazy as hell and that would be correct. there is actually a method to my madness. I watch everything. Movies, documetary's, biographies, television shows, pretty much everything. I watch movies several times, in fact, I am watching THE MISFITS right now, the last movie of Clark Gable and Marylin Monroe, from 1961. I often will watch DVD's and listen to the "director's commentary, going, which narrates what is going on in the movie from the director or actor's point of view.

I do this for STORYTELLING purposes. I look at scope, character development, dialogue, camera angles, lighting, background in scenes, composition, etc. I study a lot of things. This helps me a lot in developing narratives, which is what we are doing in songwriting. We are just doing it in a very quick time frame. I often watch new shows or movies and try to think how I would take this.

The way I avoid second verse hell is in always directing scenes in my mind. I am Steven Speilberg when it comes to my mind videos. And I use many things that are around me in the structure of the story lines. I use real experiences of people I know, and have been known to "borrow' from other mediums. 

You can do "a flip" where you have the second verse actually fitting better as a first verse, or backstory on how you got there. Phil had that right. To me, if you are getting stuck, you are probably using too much emotion and not enough visual furniture. Emotions can tie us up in knots, because there are not that many ways to take emotions. Where as if you have ACTION, you can always take the story somewhere.

Then the trick is in finding a "different way" to take the story. That is the twist.

Most of this is just donig it for a long time. Might as well get used to the fact that it takes a while. One of the things about writing is that just when we think we have got it, we run into walls, write the same song over and over, or really are just not as good or as far along as we think we are. Humility is one of the things this all teaches you.

A kind of funny thing is that a few weeks ago when I was in Gatlinburg, and was hanging out and talking to my good friend and co-writer, Kim Williams. We were both talking about how new writers never seem to be humble when they are coming to this town. They all think they know it all. And they are usually just not very good.

This town and craft will always teach you lessons. And always keep you humble.

MAB 

 

 

 

 

I figured you were teasin' MAB, thanks for the info. I do see your point: If I may post a lyric, here's where I feel that advice may come in handy, you guys let me know if i'm on the right track with what you're teaching...

Long story short,

My mom told me a story once about when her and my dad didn't have ANY money, well my dad built a couple houses and worked a second job at a grocery store, and they thought they were "making it" LOL well that was in the early eighties before the residential building market took a hard drop, she said she used to sweep the house and if there was a penny on the kittchen floor she would simply sweep it out the back door onto the porch as if it had no value, they were both in their early twenties and thought they were on their way up, so she said it wasn't she was "uppity" or anything (my mom is as humble as they come) she just said "I just swept out the pennies if I saw one on the floor, like it was trash, dont know why I just never reached down to pick up a single penny" Well one day they fell on hard times shortly after starting their insurance agency and she said she literally needed three things, bread, milk, and eggs (i wasn't born yet) only my sister was alive at this time. She said she'll never forget "I was picking up the couch looking for change, in the cushions, everything... I was in tears, we needed groceries, and we had no money right then" She said she promised the Good Lord if he would carry them through, she promised to NEVER step over or ignore a penny or "sweep it away" ever again, a promise she still holds to this day!

Well I decided the other day that would make a neat song to write, so I penned down the first "rough" lines that came to mind for a start... here's how it came out...

V1

Mama raised up the cushions, on that old dusty couch, she was searching for spare change, to put food in our mouths.

A gallon of milk, one dozen eggs, and a single loaf of bread, ______________  (here i was going to insert a bit about her promise to never pass up a penny)

Then that's what begged my question, cause I was going to write one more line then "Get to the chorus" but I thought "I've just given away the ENTIRE context of the song or the "reason for the song" in the opening lines, "how am I going to get a sensable V2 out of this??? So that begged my question...

Now you guys please tell me if I'm on the right track and if you agree, would it be better (since i've give you the backstory) to set up V1 as the times "when she thought she WAS ABLE to sweep up a penny and not miss it?) If I'm reading and understand you guys right this may be a fine example, I could set the scene and V1 as when "times were good" then write my chorus, and use my original V1 "true story" inspiration to bring into V2??? then bridge it with the twist on the tale? the lesson she learned???

Thus i'd be doing exactly what y'all said, realizing my eagerness to make my v1 start the story cause I liked the "truth" behind the line I could switch it to a V2 a really CREATE a story... then I'd be avoiding V2 hell???? Trying not to let the truth get in the way of a good story??? LOL

Am I on the right track but what y'all mean switch my original idea for a v1 to a v2 often helps???

before I go on writing i wanna be sure I'm understanding you guys, and taking the advice right?