BE FAIR MAB!!!!!
Okay, before Phil and Peggy ask, let me go ahead and ask their question for them:
"GOOD GOD MAB!!!! CAN YOU BE ANY MORE DEPRESSING? HOW WOULD ANYONE EVEN TRY TO COME TO NASHVILLE IF THAT IS THE WAY IT'S GOING TO BE?"
Well, first of all, that is kind of the point. just like sports teams who have elaborate, farm teams, junior varsity, training camps, summer conditioning camps, then tryouts, eliminations, power drills, and finally "CUT DAYS", that is what Nashville does. It weeds out the undedicated, it gets rid of people who are just in there to "Make it." Here, we LIVE IT. WE DON'T JUST TRY TO MAKE IT.
The people who end up doing this, LOVE IT. They love being in the game. They love writing songs.They love to perform. They will do it for anybody any time anywhere. They will work four jobs and never complain once just to stick around. They find a way. It takes a long time no matter what you do, but some relish in it. Most will quit. They people who end up doing this never do. They always SHOW UP and they NEVER QUIT.
So how can you approach this?
You develop writer's circles in YOUR OWN AREA. I know, I know, I know, THERE IS NO ONE AROUND ME!!!! Right. I have heard that in every town, hamlet, country back water, towns that can't even be called a town (LAVA HOT SPRING IDAHO, population 324. 55 plus, writers showing up THREE DIFFFERNT TIMES.)
THEY ARE OUT THERE. You just have not found them yet.
You find a way.
You develop a regular system of playing open mics and writers nights. With each one you find, you will find more. There are THIRTY MILLION ARTISTS, POETS, WRITERS out there. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.
MAKING TRIPS.
With every trip to Nashville or another major music center, you meet people. You build relationships. You write all the time. You write online with Skype. YOU FIND A WAY.
If you are not making progress, you need to look IN THE MIRROR. It might be that the songs you have right now or your performance or what you have online ARE NOT INTERESTING PEOPLE ENOUGH TO WORK WITH YOU. That means you have to GET BETTER. Practice, perform. Write. Practice, perform write. It never changes.
AND SINCE YOU HAVE TO WRITE WITH OTHER PEOPLE, NOW YOU HAVE TO DO IT EVERN MORE TO GET STARTED!
Trips. You perform out. You get INVITED to perform with others, to write with others. If you DO NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE INVITED. WORK ON YOUR POLITICAL SKILLS. If it takes working out in a mirror, shaking hands, kissing babies, you have to do that. You are judged 85% OFF THE FIELD. Away from recording performing, writing. If you don't have a great personality, NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO YOUR SONGS IN THE FIRST PLACE! And if you don't have songs and recordings that KILL them, THEY ARE NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU AGAIN.
The people who successfully do this, make trips for sometimes two or three years BEFORE they move. Some never move. Some come to town, do business, write, perform, meet people, do music related projects, stay involved. Then they go home.
It is about WHAT YOU DO WHILE YOU ARE HERE THAT COUNTS.
It used to be MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN. Now I find that less and less. Among the professionals in town, they seem to be MORE IMPRESSED by people making trips than people who move there. It shows intellegence, drive, determination, and common sense by UNDERSTANDING THE MARKETPLACE.
I know a half dozen hit writers and artists who NEVER MOVED until they already had their deals and sometimes even had songs on the radio.
Phil, did you say your friend runs a mail route?
A very good friend of mine and early hit writer I wrote with is JIM MCBRIDE. Jim was a Mail carrier in Muscle Shoals Alabama. He got to know people in the studios and music scene there in the 70's and early 80's. Many of the Shoals guys either had publishing or other businesses in Nashville or made trips. jim got to know several and wrote with many of them. All the time he drove his mail truck.Went to Nashville sometimes after work,driving 2 hours both ways and back to work the next day. He made trips on weekends. He met and wrote with many Nashville writers and artists.
He started getting some minor cuts, then got a couple of big ones in the early 80's with Joe Stamply and others. He had developed relationships with BUDDY KILLIAN AT TREE PUBLISHING, at that time the biggest publisher in Nashville. He was part of a couple of writers groups at Combine and a couple of other publishers. he finally got a deal but DID NOT QUIT HIS MAIL ROUTE UNTIL HE HEARD HIS SONG ON THE RADIO. And then it was not until some money came in BEFORE he actually completely quit. Before then, he took "an extended leave of abscence." He never lost a dime, and never missed a chance.
He had not been in town long before he met this tall lanky guy from Georgia. That guy was working in the "tape room" at Tree, which was about to be sold to SONY. The "tape room" was where writers would go to get cassette copies (before CD's) of their upcoming cuts, or get blank tapes to record on. These were collected from the thousands of pitches the company would get from outside writers. They would have these expensive labels and demos with singers like Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, who were doing demos to stay alive, and guys like the tall Georgian would be going over those with a magnetic eraser, erasing the songs. Then they would give the blank tapes to their writers for new demos. Was a cheap way to get a lot of tapes out there.
The lanky Georgia guy wanted to be an artist and Jim wrote with him about once a week. I met the lanky guy when I got my first cut on Shelby Lynne. He made me the tape copy. That guy and Jim became quite the couple around town all the time. He was turned down by about 10 labels before finally getting signed. Finally, he got a song on the charts. It was called "HERE IN THE REAL WORLD." The tall, lanky singer from GEORGIA was named ALAN JACKSON.
The follow up song to that one was called WAY DOWN YONDER ON THE CHATTAHOOCHIE. That was the one he wrote with Jim.
They never looked back.
Is there a way to do Nashville? Absolutely.
Is there a way NOT to do NASHVILLE?
ABSOFREAKINGLUTLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A lot MORE WAYS NOT TO DO IT THAN TO DO IT.
MAB