Good day yesterday with a new client. It was my first one as a result of advertising I am doing on the MUSIC ROW SHOW, my friend Scott Southworth's show on WSM radio. Pretty cool because we have only been doing it about three weeks and that was the first time he had listened to that show. So very cool.
It was him, Robert, with his Father, an older (talking 70's here) who is a musician as well, and Robert's 11 year old son. We set the son up in the spare room to watch TV, but the Grandfather and Robert and I had quite the day.
Robert had been coming to town for many years recording songs, but he was recording in one of the "really older' studios in town. There are a bunch of studios, musicians,etc. that are "very old school" and sound very dated in what they are doing. As terrible as it sounds, when someone tells me they are doing something in certain areas, you can almost tell what the results are going to be. And I was right.
It is not always the fault of the musicians or studio. They can only work on what they are brought. If someone brings dated, out of place songs, they have no choice but to record what they are given.
In this case, he has never co-written, so there you go. I hate to be so broad brushed, but I have just never heard anyone that only writes alone have anything really worth bringing into the marketplace. Fine for themselves in their own world, but when you are wanting to "get into publishers" or "find out what to bring to the industry" you have to look at songs in a much different way. That is what we had to do.
One of the things that happened very quickly is that he realized how dated his songs sounded and was hesitant to play things. Even before we got started he was apologizing for them. Talking to him and his Father was pretty cool because his Dad has been a musician from the 50's and 60's. So you get that perspective from all over.
We went through about 10 songs, then onto a lunch at Noshville, drive around the town, and then back to the house for the writing session. The song was pretty cool, about LeBron James and the current situation of him going back where he came from. Was a nice song and I think will give Robert a template for what he should be focusing on in the future. He is also from New Jersey, so I hope he will come over here and possibly meet Melissa up there.
But one thing he needs to do is STOP writing songs, recording them and doing it in a dated studio. I don't like to go through Negative stuff on anyone entity, but sometimes you have to get them to STEP AWAY FROM THE SONG!!! They need to concentrate on WRITING WITH ARTISTS, getting MORE songs, and being judicitious in what they record. Pretty much the same in all cases.
I hope that he will end up over here before too long. But it is nice to hear that my ad has worked.
Onward and upward. Tonight, Janice has three of the Canadians she works with in town. They are playing the very prestigious BILLY BLOCK showcase, which is a very big deal in town. Hopefully they will get a lot of milage out of it. There are two brothers, the Petric brothers and a female singer as well. Should be a goodie. Tomorrow is a Douglas Corner show. A benefit for lung Cancer, with Allen Shervelle, and some other happening writers. Always good to play Douglas.
All of you take care.
MAB