any country songwriters?

[pink floyd cramer]

I am a keyboard player who is into MMW, Chick Corea and funk/blues but for songwriting I find myself increasingly drawn to country music. IMO even the the quality of contemporary country songs has improved- watch CMT with subtitles and you'll see what I mean. Of course, noone writes like Waylon or Kristofferson.

 

Maybe it's not so much country/non-country as it is an atmospheric, non-literal kind of songwriting vs a more linear but still evocative story-telling kind of songwriting. It seems that more on this forum lean towards the first category but I don't care- I salute anyone who will get off their ass and be creative, and who has the balls to put it out there before the world.

 

So, any country songwriters?

[Aaron Cheney]

Howdy!

 

I grew up in the '80's and was an EVH wannabe like every other kid playing guitar then.

 

THese days writing country tunes is my main focus. I like to write songs that tell stories, and I find the wordcraft of country music very appealing.

 

Go to my site you can check out a few of my tunes.

 

A

[rocknrao]

It goes

 

well you can blaaaaaaaaaaaaame it all on me

oh you can blaaaaaaaaaaaaame it all on me

its not my fault, why can't you see

but still you blaaaaaaaaaaame it all on me

 

and the word blame is yodelled.

 

Also I wrote one a while ago called "Who can blame her?".

 

So you see, I've got kind of a theme going.

[pink floyd cramer]

and to you, sir - May Hank Williams kick your ass in HELL! :mad:

[rocknrao]

Um...

 

I'm not really sure I understand that comment.

 

Did I just inadvertently write a Hank Williams song?

 

If so...cool! Its better than inadvertently writing a Toby Keith song...or is that more where you're coming from?

 

I'm digging myself a hole now, ain't I?

[pink floyd cramer]

uh,sorry for the outburst.

 

- but people who use big words like "inadvertently" just don't write country songs.

 

Just another pathetic country songwriter wanna-be:rolleyes:

 

Maybe we could form a club?

[rocknrao]

no offense taken.

 

However, who exactly does write "real" country songs? Do you have to wear a trucker hat or a jean jacket?

 

I seem to recall a Steve Earle quote where he says something like, I always thought of myself as writing for middle America and the common man, but it turns out my audience is mostly pseudo-intellectuals in big cities...

[pink floyd cramer]

Aaron- excellent site! Got tech problems so I can't listen to the music- but the lyrics are great. I especially like "Intimate Strangers" because it describes my situation pretty well.

 

I play in a country house band in Jackson, MS- PM me if you ever come this way, come sit in with us. My gig is every Thurs. thru Sun. nite.

 

My band will be going to Nashville in Feb. (unsure of the exact date) to record 3 original songs at Jerry Cupit's studio. We already made the trip about 3 weeks ago, to do 2 originals and had a great time. Did our own picking except for bringing in a steel player, don't remember his name but he tours with Don McLean. Our guitar god does great at acoustic fingerpicking but he is not really a country lead player- getting there though.

 

Just wondered if you had ever played/ recorded with:

 

Dallas Pierce- gtr

Walt Houston- gtr

Ken Card- bass

Jeff Boone- fiddle

Steve Anderson- bass

James Shelton- steel

 

long shot, I know, just some of my old road buds and all of them bad MOFO's.

[pink floyd cramer]

I have taken the liberty of deleting my last post as it seems to have knocked my thread off track.

 

So a grand total of one country songwriter? (Not counting my pathetic self).

 

And to repeat the only real point of my deleted post, no, Rocknmao, I don't think you have to fit any kind of stereotype to be a country songwriter.

[pink floyd cramer]

DAMN if I didn't just kill my thread- I kilt the whole f*ing forum!

[Aaron Cheney]

 

Originally posted by pink floyd cramer Aaron- excellent site! Got tech problems so I can't listen to the music- but the lyrics are great. I especially like "Intimate Strangers" because it describes my situation pretty well.

 

 

THanks! Tech problems on your end or mine? I'd love for you to hear it.

 

 

Originally posted by pink floyd cramer I play in a country house band in Jackson, MS- PM me if you ever come this way, come sit in with us. My gig is every Thurs. thru Sun. nite.

 

 

Will do.

 

 

Originally posted by pink floyd cramer My band will be going to Nashville in Feb. (unsure of the exact date) to record 3 original songs at Jerry Cupit's studio. We already made the trip about 3 weeks ago, to do 2 originals and had a great time. Did our own picking except for bringing in a steel player, don't remember his name but he tours with Don McLean. Our guitar god does great at acoustic fingerpicking but he is not really a country lead player- getting there though. Just wondered if you had ever played/ recorded with: Dallas Pierce- gtr Walt Houston- gtr Ken Card- bass Jeff Boone- fiddle Steve Anderson- bass James Shelton- steel long shot, I know, just some of my old road buds and all of them bad MOFO's.

 

 

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, and ....mmmmm, nope. You'll have to post your tunes so I can check 'em out!

 

A

[pink floyd cramer]

Hey Aaron- got my audio working on the computer (bought a new Klipsch speaker system) and I finally got to hear your songs- they sound great! Looking forward to hearing them on the radio.

 

Unfortunately I can't return the favor right now, other than running some lyrics by you (preferably in a PM) so you can tell me how bad they suck.

 

BTW, about a year ago I was talking on the phone to a friend on one of those lazy Saturdays, he was checking to see if I could cover his gig and asked what I had going on that day. I said that I had nowhere to go and all day to get there. Recently I heard those same words in the current hit "Some beach, some where" but they were just a throw-away line on one of the choruses, the line wasn't a very important part of his song. Would that particular artist (don't remember his name) be able to sue someone who built a song around that line? I am just curious- it is highly unlikely I will ever show up on his radar.

[Aaron Cheney]

No lawsuit there, I'm afraid.

 

Funny how many great tunes come from a random throw-away phrase.

 

Like: Intimate Strangers - I was reading an account of a trial, and the defense lawyer was making the case the witnesses for the prosecution weren't as familiar with the defendant as they claimed to be, and therefore their testimony held no weight. He called them intimate strangers. When I read that I knew I'd struck gold! (Now if only the song would.....)

 

A

[chrisgraff]

I'm not a country songwriter, but I've played on a few demos here and there (I play guitar).

 

Interestingly enough, my Father-In-Law was a pretty successfull songwriter in the 70's/80's. He had a Johnny Cash cut, as well as another song he's lived off of for 30 years. Gotta respect that....

 

Funny thing is, he wants a cut now more than anything. The music business is fickle, and it sure isn't fair!

[pink floyd cramer]

Chris- musta been a pretty big hit to be able to live off it for 30 yrs .

 

I wonder what kind of $$ someone could expect from a top-ten hit? You and Aaron are the Nashville insiders here, maybe you can get us all talking about filthy lucre (a subject which seems sadly absent on this forum).

 

My country road band was based out of Nashville and had management on Music Row, did a couple showcases but it didn't work out. An artist with our manager co-wrote a top ten song with about 3 others, and purportedly made enough $$ off it to buy a new truck. I guess if he had been the sole writer he could have bought a house. I don't really know, though.

 

(Successful) songwriters IMO have it made. They don't have to live out of a suitcase unless they just want to, they get to hang out together and collaborate, party, etc. I am curious BTW as to how this "collaboration" thing works, if anyone would care to enlighten me.

[chrisgraff]

It was a big hit back for Charlie Pride back then. A reggae band re-cut it in the '80's. In 2000, a techno-band re-cut it; that version made it onto a "NOW" compilation.

 

My father-in-law didn't know until a check for $100,000 showed up! Talk about an early Xmas!

 

As far as your other questions:

 

I'd guess a top ten hit, staying on the charts for an average amount of time, would generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000 in the first year! That isn't counting mechanical royalties, which would be considerably less.

 

I heard a rumour that the three guys who wrote "Change the World" for Eric Clapton split around $1,000,000 that first year. That's what I heard anyway....

[pink floyd cramer]

I feel like i am playing "music trivia" (at which i kick just about anybody's ass BTW:D ) and I would guess that the Charlie Pride song that would have the most crossover appeal would be "High On a Mountain of Love".

[chrisgraff]

Actually, the song was a little more obscure than that. The title is "Someone Loves You Honey".

 

It's unfortunate that older songwriters are often written off as younger writers become successful. My father-in-law is 69 years old, and still has his chops. He played me a song today that just slayed me. It would've been perfect for Johnny Cash.

 

It's so true what they say: You're only as good as the last thing you did.

[pink floyd cramer]

Originally posted by chrisgraff

My father-in-law is 69 years old, and still has his chops. He played me a song today that just slayed me. It would've been perfect for Johnny Cash.

 

 

 

Thats awesome- hopefully it is just a cliche that aging dries up your creative abilities- I think the reason so many older artists

quit putting out good work, is that they are no longer hungry and they lose touch with the real world (maybe thats a cliche too.)

 

I don't know if Harlan Howard is still alive, but I think he never quit writing good songs when he got older, whether or not he wrote another one like "Heartaches by the Number".

 

I think songwriters train their brain to stay on the alert for new ideas. Aaron's last post being a case in point.

[spinman]

Originally posted by chrisgraff It's unfortunate that older songwriters are often written off as younger writers become successful. My father-in-law is 69 years old, and still has his chops. He played me a song today that just slayed me. It would've been perfect for Johnny Cash.

 

Ain't it true? Still, at least he got a chance to have at least one hit. So many great songwriters never get a chance at all.

[145]

 

Originally posted by pink floyd cramer I am a keyboard player who is into MMW, Chick Corea and funk/blues but for songwriting I find myself increasingly drawn to country music. IMO even the the quality of contemporary country songs has improved- watch CMT with subtitles and you'll see what I mean. Of course, noone writes like Waylon or Kristofferson. Maybe it's not so much country/non-country as it is an atmospheric, non-literal kind of songwriting vs a more linear but still evocative story-telling kind of songwriting. It seems that more on this forum lean towards the first category but I don't care- I salute anyone who will get off their ass and be creative, and who has the balls to put it out there before the world. So, any country songwriters?

 

 

Michael McDonald, Larry Carlton, Peter Frampton, Steve Winwood, Steve Cropper to mention a few all have homes around Nashville.

 

Nashville is literally Music City USA for all types of music now and we have some of the best songwriters, producers and musicians in the World here.

[pink floyd cramer]

I talked to a local guy yesterday who has had some album cuts by country artists, he says that a songwriter really needs to be in Nashville. But I gig for a living and my connects there tell me that Nashville is not a good place for that, if you can't be on the road.

[145]

 

Originally posted by pink floyd cramer I talked to a local guy yesterday who has had some album cuts by country artists, he says that a songwriter really needs to be in Nashville. But I gig for a living and my connects there tell me that Nashville is not a good place for that, if you can't be on the road.

 

 

Don't understand that at all. There are thousands of gigging musicians in all music genres working out of Nashville. The point is that there is no City on Earth with more working musicians, producers, record companies, music publishing companies per capital than Nashville, TN.

 

Btw, I was born & raised in Mississippi as are lots of successful musicians, producers and songwriters.

[pink floyd cramer]

145 I based my comment on doing gigs in Nashville itself and the immediate area, AFAIK it is kind of similar to New Orleans in that he market is so saturated with musicians that they make little money per gig. I have met alot of bands who work out of Nashville so I guess it is a great place to hook up with other pickers.

 

I don't know that an aspiring writer would want to be on the road but I guess if they are based out of Nashville they still have an advantage over writers who never go there.

 

I regret that I have never given myself the opportunity to starve (or succeed) in Nashville, I'm getting old (43) but maybe one day...

I do know that my friends absolutely love living there.

[Jumpy]

Originally posted by pink floyd cramer My band will be going to Nashville in Feb. (unsure of the exact date) to record 3 original songs at Jerry Cupit's studio.

 

Thats where my last band recorded our demo back in 99.Our guitar play did an internship at Jerrys so we got a good deal.A guy named Ron Treet did the recording.I dont do country music though.But I am starting to lean more towards it and songwriteing VS preformance . I recently went to a NSAI meeting and it was neat.