KIDS
Hey folks. Yesterday was one of those days that can make you feel both OLD AS HELL and totally out of touch, and a bit proud at the same time. Trying to write with three women and coming up with NOTHING, shows the humanity we all deal with from time to time, and then watching several of my "students/friends" on display, one even winning a contest, was a long but interesting day. And just the overall aspect of living in this town, the cool the strange, all made for an interesting day.
The writing session was between three of the girl's I work with, Alice Bargeron, Shelagh Brown and of course, our little maiden here, RiDawn Rae. Was an interesting day.
There is a saying here I like to call "Who gets the coffee?"
It actually comes from Ralph Murphy and it speaks to the things that happen sometimes in co-writing. Sometimes, no matter how experienced, or talented a writer or artist might be, they just come up BLANK when it comes to working on a song. They don't seem to get any ideas, have any inspiration, they just come up dry. That person "GOES AND GETS THE COFFEE." The other writer or writers do the "Heavy lifting."
Sometimes in that same situation the same writer is ON FIRE, hitting on all cylinders, coming up with lyrics, music, brilliance all over the place. The other people barely get anything in. They go "GET THE COFFEE."
It happens to all of us. Even the MAB. Yesterday was one of those days. The three girls did very well, which in fact I was really hoping for. The main reason for the session, aside from me enjoying being around my peeps, was Shelagh coming into town. It has been about three years since she was able to make a trip, her Father's unfortunate passing, dealing with jobs, school, family, and of course, the inevitable BOYFRIEND, and life just got in the way. So with her coming down, I wanted to get her around some other writers and I did.
Alice happened to be on this day, she and Shelagh hit a really good groove and then doggone if RiDawn didn't start jumping in there at just the right time with just the right word. It is funny how that works.
Not only did I "get the coffee' but I spent most of my time getting the lunch! I'd love to take credit and say I did it all on purpose to "let them work', but I really just didn't have anything. They were in the zone and I didn't want to get in the way. But I have to say I did enjoy watching them work. They did very well. And with a time limit coming down on them, they FINISHED the song just in time. Very good job womenzes!!!! Was a pleasure to be there.
All three of them liked the song and so I hope they will want to perform it.
After that, I had to rehearse a few things with RiDawn and Shelagh for the next part of the adventure. Alice is hosting a Monday night song contest at 360 Burger. Now, you all know my opinion of contests, I am not a particular fan, but do enjoy the fact that they force people to be on top of their game. I was playing guitar for Shelagh and RiDawn to get them out performing and to support Alice. They were doing three of the songs I had written with them and one of Shelagh's. Had to be on my stuff as well. Hard to remember all these things.
The contest was a pretty big one. About 14 participants, all doing two songs each. Pretty much all of them young kids. Of course, everyone is young now. But it was pretty cool. So many of the artists are just copies of other artists. It is terrible to do, but you almost catagorize people when they get up. The "Emo" Halloween costumed pair from West Tennessee, trying to be a new Johnny and June, and missing pretty tremendously. The 16 and 17 year old girls, with their parents, grandparents, all trying to find their way, doing songs about... well, I don't really know what they were about. The kind of'off kilter" New Yorkers, doing some kind of music that you really can't identify, a lot of "Americana" type stuff, that doesn't really have a catagory, a couple of interesting girl's here and there, an older guy from California, who sounds... a little older, a "backward cap act' doing songs about trucks, surprised there wasn't more of those.
There were actually two winners. One from the judge, who is an industry bass player and producer named "Brotherman" (his actual last name) who has been around for many years, and has cut a couple of my songs over the years, and the crowd, which could judge also, writing down their favorites. The "crowd" winner, was another student of mine, Beth Anderson, from Canada, who I have not seen for a while. Good voice, and did some good songs.
And the judge favorite was a 17 year old cute girl, who just moved here from Orlando, with her Mom in tow. Nice folks. I couldn't exactly place who that girl sounded like but it was some artist out there, you could tell she was influenced by.
My girls both did very well if they had had a decent guitar player. They weren't so much "competing" as showcasing. I wanted Shelagh to keep performing when she is in town, and RiDawn is now starting play out. We will play there again tomorrow night. I was very proud of both of them. Especially RiDawn, who was very nervous because JIMBEAU showed up! He had just gotten back from Miami where his movie was shown, and the whole crew, Susie, Tommy, Brenda and Jimbeau showed up. RiDawn was really on edge, but having her husband Tom, there, and me pushing her got her up there. She is getting much better with ennunciation. And being comfortable on stage.
Shelagh has a great range, and kicked butt. I was a bit on edge backing her up with a song I had only heard yesterday, but it came together fine. I was tickled with both of them. You have to be able to sit back and let the songs and their presentation take over and see how it affects people. I felt they did great jobs, and I of course would have voted for those two. But I was not a judge.
Beth ended up doing one that she wrote with me and Alice and it is funny hearing these things a few years after writing them. Takes a minute to realize that you were a writer on the song, but it all comes back. Good to hear it.
Then, of course, I got Jimbeau up and we did a couple. I think we were both pretty tired and did less than stellar performances, but we managed to get through it okay.
I'll tell you how hard it is to get and keep attention these days, this group of younger people, don't pay a lot of attention. A few glow songs and conversations going on even during me and Jimbeau. We are pretty hard to ignore. I kind of hate it because they all could do with a few lessons here and there. One of the things I see missing from so many people who come into this town is they don't LISTEN. Are only interested in themselves. But when you know what it is about and expect it, it makes sense. I don't want to get into a "back in my day' thing, but I do wish they would take advantage of having a monster writer like Jimbeau in their midst. Oh well.
The overall experience was interesting. Interesting to see new people in town, interesting to see interaction, interesting to be able to take a back seat and just kind of watch everyone else. A lot of songs in there.
Maybe I can actually get back to writing those sometimes.
MAB