Hey Phil,
Absolutely you should continue on. Become a co-host or coordinator for the NSAI group. It is just getting like minded people to gather once in a while. Anything to keep you active. There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Unless you are scared to get around people like yourselves. That might be terrifying!
As far as co-writers, you should ask her about that. That sounds like more than an excercise and a teacher or instructor element than really co-writer. I know I talk about 'creative energy in the room" and am one who always gives credit even if they don't really want or deserve it, but that is mostly when I sit down with someone specifically to write songs and as a co-write. I have that one situation where a writer had mentioned a title and I included her just to keep the peace between all participants. But in reality I was kind of blindsided by that since I knew nothing of her until after we had written the song. She had mentioned the title to my co-writers, who also did very little on the song. So I was faced with having to add two people who really didn't write a word or a note on the song. I then had to cut in the artist who is involved in the song. So I share a three way co-write with people who really didn't do anything on it. Oh well.
These are things you do in songwriting. Each situation is going to be different. But something to remember is that people don't always WANT to be on a song. Let's face it, a lot of songs are not that good, or that bad, just average. Some people might throw out something to get a conversation or excercise going and I don't know if they would want to be considered on some songs. I have been in that one before as well. I offered some suggestions on songs that ended up being in there, but the songs were really not that good. So I didn't want to be any where near it. I also have sung demos for people on songs that were very substandard. They wanted to include me as a writer thinking I would want to put it on a CD or be on their CD. I declined.
People don't always do what you wish they would even if it would be good for them. I went to see some singers last night. I had worked with all of them. One of them, I didn't expect to be there. She is one of the writers on "There Was a Guy", which is a killer song, and getting a lot of attention in town. As a matter of fact, a song plugger who is working the song right now was there. That song would have really worked with her in that situation because the other songs she did were pretty non-memorable. With all due humility, that one would have kicked the same amount of butt it did last Friday when Dani did it. But she didn't do it and doesn't do it around town. Too bad, would be nice if she would. But it does make you re-think who you include on songs in the future. If they are not going to do them, why involve them? It affects your "availibility' for future writing appointments. Might just be busy next time.
On that subject, congratulations to Janice, and her three singers, Petric and Riah, from Canada. They played the Billy Block Western Beat showcase last night, and did good jobs all around. That is a very prestigious show to be involved in and they did very well on it. Good to see them continuing their journey in Nashville.
Thanks to Tina for posting those pictures. I don';t post a lot of things here, either songs or pictures or anything. I have computer blind sides and trouble getting things up there, and well... I don't take a whole lot of pictures to begin with. Not a "selfie" kind of guy. I don't post a lot of songs either. For a few reasons, mostly because my songs are usually involved with other people, primarily artists, who don't need a lot of things out there that are not in their finished forms or might be involved in publishing, recording or management deals. This site is mostly for you guys to put your stuff out there. Mine are getting around.
Thanks to Fast Eddie, for changing the name of this thread. I really wanted it to be the simple "MAB Q&A". I put that long silly name on there as a joke because we were changing the forum over and was being silly. But as I am bringing new people over here it gets a little difficult for them to understand my sense of humor or finding where we are on the pages. So thanks for doing that.
Good to hear from all of you and we are getting ready for our trip to Michigan this weekend. Look out Chili Peppers, Dani and Shelagh Brown. Should be a good weekend.
MAB