GOOOOOOODDDDD MOOOOORRRRNNNNIINNGGGGG SOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGRAAAAAAAMMMMMMPPPPPP!!!!!!!!
OD, I can't believe you would say that about Gerald not being an entirely new writer and everyone wanting to write with him, ONE TIME after meeting with me!!!! Why, after your first time, you had increased your following among women from 97 year olds all the way up to the 98 and 99 year olds!!! You became the HOTTEST MAN AROUND THE RETIREMENT HOME!!!!
Look, I don't mean he is suddenly going to be Gary Burr, but he will be LOOKING at music differently. You have to remember one of his first posts. Talking about having been asked to custom write songs for his town. He also talked about being around the area, hosting writers nights, etc, but not getting anyone to want to writing with him. My thoughts are that the reason probably is that what he has now is an older sounding type of song. So he is going to have to update the way he looks at music. And it is not always painful.
With you, yourself, you claimed to have a "great dislike for today's music." And I agree, there is MUCH about today's music I don't care for. The entire 'Rap invasion" is something I could totally do without in life, much less country. but it is here, with it's rapid fire delivery, inane Dr. Seuss Rhymes, boring redundant drum loops and insestantly boring messages. I could have said "That's it, if that is where music is going I'M DONE!!!!"
But ALL country music or music in general, is not going to do that. A lot will, but not all. And I don't have to like it, listen to it or certainly not participate in it. I don't particularly care for music that sounds written by five year olds. So I just don't do that. I focus on other things.
The same thing happened with you. When you came to me, we talked about a lot of things then I sat you down and made you watch some country videos. You decided there was music you actually liked. After that we found different avenues,and you got some music happening that was really cool. Remember, one of your songs stopped a hooker from leaving a show in backwoods Alabama.
And that is what we do. My thoughts are that the first tour with Gerald will be looking at his music in a different way. He will look at aspects he thought has been right and realize that it is very average. And that is the main thing that people always have to first understand. How difficult it is to come up with the right approach, the right twist, and how common most ideas and songs are.
I had a 68 year old guy come to me once. He handed me a sheet of paper with 168 song titles on it. There were three collumns of these things. I looked it over for about two minutes, didn't say a word. Then I handed it back to him and said "Okay, now show me ONE title on here that is NOT NEGATIVE!". He looked at it and suddenly his eyes got the size of saucers. EVERY SINGLE ONE WAS ABOUT BEING DUMPED, BROKEN HEARTS, PAIN, SUFFERING, ANGER, BITTERNESS, ANGST, CRYING, WRIST SLITTING. Every single ONE. He never realized it. And when we went through his catalogue, yep, every single song.
When we went out that night, he heard an entire writers night with about 98% of the songs and writers doing the exact same thing. He was doing three days with me and came back the second day like the light bulb had come on.He had to start looking at all his music totally differently. He never wrote another negative song.
And you want to know what happened? This year I got a royalty check from ASCAP for about $200. There was no listing of where it came from. I still get a little money from that Shelby Lynne movie that gets rented and bought over and over,mostly overseas. And through other little cuts and things, you recieve a little bit here and there. Welcome to the music business. But they usually won't issue checks for under $50. I got another accounting later and it had this radio airplay in SWEDEN. It turns out that that guy, who is probably 72 or 73 now, is PERFORMING. He is doing things all over Europe and Sweden. He even got radio airplay in Sweden! And the song is not some depression laden stuff. It is called COMMON GROUND and about an older guy and younger guy who dissagree on the state of country music, but can find common ground in things they like.
So OD, maybe you need to get out your Liederhosen, and mountain climbing gear and head to the MOUNTAINS of Sweden!!!!!
The point, is that what I do, is go through multiple songs, and attempt to show how you can update your understanding of all this. Tonight I am hosting the "RISING STAR' competition at 360 BURGER. There will be about 20 people trying to compete for the $100. And I will assure you they will all be various shades of hugely mediocre. I will also bet you that over half of them won't listen to ONE WORD their contemporaries are saying. They will sit with their heads bowed over their phones, texting, playing games, and not paying attention to a damn thing! Those very same people will be the ones who have moved home in 6 months to a year, realizing that Nashville doesn't give a crap about them, and they don't need to let the doorknob hit them in the butt on the way out of town.
Do you know what separates great writers from everyone else?
Great writers LISTEN.
They listen to everything. They listen to what other people write, because most people suck and they don't want to do that. They listen to all the average rhymes, the inane concepts, the titles that just lay there, the stuctures that are laughable, they droning on four and five verse songs that say NOTHING at all.
They listen to what people say in general conversation and find a way to say that in a song that other people hear and go "I have never thought of it like that before!"
They listen to the current market enough to not be swayed by trends. They know that when certain trends start arriving, they are going to abandon any semblance of that and move to something else because if they are hearing it on radio, members of the industry have been listening to it for months and are sick to death of it. So they "shift at the line of scrimmage."
They listen to their inner voice,and are able to guide what they write past the average and find the twist or turn that is going to bring a special life to their songs, that other people hear and say "I want THAT!"
They attract the younger, hipper artists that may be able to pull off the big deal, because they have a style of writing that those artists can't do themselves. They have ways to engage their audiences and industry people that rises above all the mediocrity.
They find a way to make the ordinary EXTRODINARY!!!!
Most writers DON'T DO ANY OF THAT. That is what separates the average from the exceptional.
So when I see a lot of people NOT LISTENING, I know where they are going to end up. And I don't waste my time on them. You are judged 85% of your career OFF THE PLAYING FIELD. Away from writing, peforming, recording. How you deal with others, how you listen. How well you understand the politics of the game. After tonight there will be a whole bunch of people who will set their course to fail in this town. You watch em come and watch em go.
The only thing about Nashville that never changes is that most people GO.
Gerald will at least come to understand that on the first day. How he processes it and moves forward is a different deal. But he has already shown common sense by coming here and participating. Going to give him a big leg up wouldn't you say?
MAB