Hey my dog walking neighbor DAVE UNDIS checked in. Hey Dave. Dave lives two doors up from me and we see each other regularly when we walk our dogs around the neighborhood. Although Dixie Dawg, doesn't feel that much like getting around anymore. She is 14 and arthritis is getting to her.
With Dave on here it reminded me of a subject I wanted to mention. It kind of touches on a situation Gerald mentioned and I wanted to give another "MAB perspective on it." It goes like this:
A few months ago, Dave contacted me and we got together to write one. We actually have not known each other that well. He had been reading things I wrote here and other places, and finally we got to spend some time around. Again, Gerald, sometimes you just have to get to know people before you can dive into the writing thing. Dave is very respectful and finally I had to ask HIM if he wanted to write.
We did, and the song turned out really well. Called "MAKING UP', it is a pretty cool idea of his about a couple that have everything really great in their lives, but feel they need to do some fighting and create some crap so they can "GET TO MAKING UP."
Not long ago, Dave did a great demo on it and I sang it. Was really cool, and I enjoy it very much. A few weeks ago, I was playing the Commodore and he came out. So I did it live. But even with rehearsing it and trying very hard AND the words being in FRONT of me, I still wanked a few lyrics.
The next day he asked me if there was anything wrong and if I would do it again. I said "nothing wrong, I just have a lot of songs and can't always work them all in, and still forget a lot of them.
The question is "How do you get artists to do the songs? Just because they write it with you, and even if they like the song, doesn't always mean they are going to cut it or perform it. There are a lot of reasons for this. I can't speak for the major artists, but I know a little about this, and you can extropilate from there to most artists out there.
I have two, (about to be three) CD's. That is about 50 songs. I have between 5 and 9 songs that a lot of people want to hear EVERY TIME. These are songs I had cut, songs that are favorites of people in the crowd, etc. A lot of the time, there is a co-writer out in the audience. Back in July, I had a guy I had written a song with TEN years ago, show up at the Bluebird. Yeah, I had to do that song that night. Worked well, but I totally forgot the bridge.
I have songs that demonstrate the WRITE UP, paid teaching sessions I do. I have artists I work with, some of which are hot right now like Frankie Ballard. (He is Number 14 on the charts this week). I have songs written with hit writers that are known quantities in the area. I have certain songs that FIT what I need in the set. There might be a need for the comedy song, or the romantic big power ballad. Or a "life lessons" song that needs to go in a certain slot. and then we are ALWAYS writing NEW STUFF.
So you have to do what you can. Most of the shows I do are between the 6 song featured writer set, or at the most, like this weekend, a two one hour show. So that cuts down your songs. On this week's 360 BURGER show, there will be space for about 25 songs. And five of those are going to be RiDawn Raylett's because she is doing a few that we wrote together, and THEN Jarrod is coming up, so he'll get three. So that cuts me down to about 18 to 20 songs. And all of those have to fit the AUDIENCE I have, which may change as I go.
Now if you look at most artists, with their CD's, the songs they write themselves, the songs that are pitched to them, songs from former CD's, "favor" songs they have done from other artists or producers, labels, etc. and you see why it is so difficult to get cuts. There is a lot of pressure on artists of any stripe.
And now, it gets even difficult for me, because I may have to drop a couple of songs for this upcoming CD that I really like. Just don't have enough room.
So that is kind of "The other side of the desk" look at things. Just keep trying to get them out there. All you can do.
MAB