American Songwriter » Country

From The Archive: Neil Diamond In Nashville

Chip Flippo — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:00:34 +0000

This story originally ran in American Songwriter in 1996. After spending the last year in some of this town's famed recording studios with the cream of the Nashville cats and getting over his writer's block, Neil Diamond is back with his first album of original material in four years, a TV special, and a world tour. And while it's not exactly true to say that he's gone country, Diamond says that he's adding a steel guitar and fiddle to his road band to accommodate the material on his new 18-cut album, "Tennessee Moon." Amid a flurry of activity, the Columbia album was released Feb. 6, domestically and internationally. Diamond then taped an ABC-TV special at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium which aired Feb. 24. Now he will begin a two-year world tour March 26 in Australia. Columbia plans a big push for the album, according to Peter Fletcher, VP for marketing, West Coat. "This is Neil's best record in a decade." He says. "And our main job is to let Neil's fans know it's available. They're incredibly loyal, but they're not average radio listeners, so we have to find other ways to reach them. The cornerstone of our initial setup will be co-promotion of the TV special with ABC during their (ratings) sweeps. After the album release date, we'll target Valentine's Day sales to his fans, and then we'll kick into high gear the rest of the month, leading up to the TV show." Fletcher says plans include a promotion with Target, including a special Diamond CD sampler with seven love songs. "Neil will be the featured musical artist in Target for February and March. We'll also have a major national contest through Handleman and Kmart, with a chance to win a Harley-Davidson motorcycle (Diamond's ride of choice) and Harley apparel. We'll have special in-store displays and end-cap main aisle space in both Target and Kmart." Fletcher says a radio promotion strategy is still being finalized, but initial plans are to take the entire record to country and AC, with focus tracks for each format. The album covers the musical spectrum---from traditional, lush Diamond epics to straight country, with some surprises in between (including funny talking blues). Except for a revamped country version of "Kentucky Woman" and two other songs, all the songs were co-written by Diamond with Nashville songwriters (one with son Jesse). Diamond says his Nashville stay has re-invigorated his writing chops. "Nashville is something every artist thinks about at some point, because of the pool of talent here," Diamond says. "Bob Gaudio (his producer) pushed me over the edge and told me it would be good for me and my music." Diamond ended up writing with Harlan Howard, Gary Burr, Raul Malo, and Hal Ketchum, among others and recording duets with such artists as Malo and Waylon Jennings. "We ran down a list of potential writers," he says, "and then got realistic about how many writers I could work with and came down to a list of 20-25. Then I met with them at least once before the writing sessions. I hit it off with just about everyone. Then we set a writing everyone. Then we set a writing schedule, where I would do two writing sessions a day, and I would start a song that we would be excited enough about to continue and finish. We started every song pretty much at this kitchen here (in his house outside Nashville), sitting face to face with two guitars, my DAT machine and a stereo mike pinned to the window curtains here." Diamond says that before coming to Nashville, he had not written a song for three or four years. "I have not been able to get myself to complete songs. I had started songs that I really liked, but had not been really motivated. Columbia had given me the easy way out by letting me do Christmas albums. I felt a definite need to write again and express myself about my life and add new repertoire to Neil Diamond's catalog, or life's work, or whatever I've done. I hope some of these songs will stand among my best." "This is American music in a way I've never really conceived of before," he says. "Just listen to Mark O'Connor's fiddle, the way he lays around my voice. Steel guitar and fiddle are soulful instruments that I've never used before---great discovery. I feel good about what we've come up with here. I've got Chet Atkins on here, which was one of my fantasies." Diamond says that as the writing went on, the material became more and more autobiographical. "It's probably a milestone album for me, in that it proved to me that I can write my own heart and my own feelings after all these years. I can still get down to the nub of the truth. It's nice for me to know I can still do that." Songs like "Prison Doors" and "Win the World," he says, are very much the story of his life. "I've lost two marriages now to my career, without any question, and that song "in The World" is the answer t it. So maybe I won't do it again." Diamond is considering keeping a home in Nashville. "I like the writers' community here. I had never been out to the clubs before to see the songwriters nights, which are amazing. Even in the Brill Building days the songwriter didn't have that kind of focus or forum. I like that a lot. The Brill Building was star-driven. This is writer-driven, and the city itself is creatively focused on the writer. The Brill Building, writers had no freedom. They were forced to write for very specific reasons, for very specific artists." Diamond, who was a paid house writer in those days, says e appreciates the difference. "There certainly was no golden age back then if you were just another writer. You were just another piece of chattel at 50 bucks a week against future royalties. There was very little respect for the writer then. You were just a hired hand, kept in servitude. I was just lucky. It was just plain dumb luck that I was able to break out of that vicious cycle that writers were caught up in. This album reminds me of that era, except back then I was in the basement. Now, I'm in the penthouse. It makes a big difference." Diamond is managed by Gallin-Morey Associates. He has no booking agent. His publishing company is DiamondSongs, administered by Sony Music Publishing and SESAC (except for "Kentucky Woman," which is Talleyrand Music, Inc).

Bubba An Underlying Current In Steve Earle’s Songs (1989)

Steve Morley — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:00:29 +0000

The following article originally appeared in the March/April 1989 edition of American Songwriter. Click here to purchase this issue. I got a job but it ain't nearly enough A twenty thousand dollar pickup truck Belongs to me and the bank and some funny talkin' man from Iran I left the service, got a G.I. loan I got married, bought myself a home Now I hang around this one-horse town and do the best that I can. -from "Good Ol' Boy (Getting' Tough)" With these words, Bubba was born. More correctly, it was with these words that Bubba was consciously given an identity. He's existed for generations in small towns where there's little to do but "drive down to the lake and turn back around." Bubba may not be worldly, but he isn't stupid, and it's important to Steve Earle for people to realize that. Why should Steve care? Because Bubba's a close buddy of his. He's taken the heat for the controversial singer/songwriter more than once, when lines like "some funny talkin' man from Iran," and "you can't get far on thirty-seven dollars and a Jap guitar," resulted in accusations of bigotry. "Giving Bubba a name and a face," Earle explains, "started with me having to defend charges of jingoism, because of songs I've written. If you write in the first person, like I do, you have to develop characters. Otherwise the songs become very one-dimensional." The fact that critical listeners hurled such accusations at Earle is a testament to the realism of his characters. Speaking in the first person, Steve-as-Bubba was so convincing that Steve appeared to be his characters rather than simply being their mouthpiece. Earle is the first to admit that Bubba's opinions are somewhat uninformed, but he prefers not to settle for an easy stereotype when it comes to describing Bubba and his ilk. "When Northerners call us rednecks," he says, "I get irritated. People make quick stereotypes about other people without understanding why they think the way they do. Writing conversationally, I have to know what sounds right for a given character. Bubba was born out of trying to get inside a character and understand why they make the statements they make," says Earle. Earle perhaps described Bubba best in an interview for Music Row magazine, while discussing the character's importance as a songwriting tool. "Bubba works for a living. His world is thirty minutes of TV news that he watches when he's very tired, and he doesn't understand why everything that's happening is happening to him. So he lashes out at the first thing that's convenient. Bubba's probably a little prejudiced and narrow-minded about some things, but not everybody has time to drink wine and talk about politics," Earle says in defense of Bubba's limited perceptions. While Steve has proven his ability to breathe life into his characters on the page, they didn't just appear from up a nowhere road. They came in part from Earle's astute observation of people he's known. If he seems defensive about Bubba's short-comings, it isn't solely to protect the products of his imagination. It's also out of respect for the real individuals who have contributed significant portions to the rural hero of exit zero. While Steve's well-worn hitching thumb pointed him toward a lot of characters in his time, Bubba's most significant influences nonetheless come from the stomping grounds of Earle's youth --Jacksonville, Texas. "If Bubba's from anywhere, he's from Jacksonville, a deep South culture," Earle affirms. "Jacksonville has a population of about 10,000 --too small for anything to happen, but just big enough to hold you all your life," says Earle, summing up one of the major themes in his writing. "The people my dad grew up with there [in Jacksonville] are rednecks, but they're real smart. You can't imagine what they'd be like if they'd been born in a bigger town." One man Earle acknowledges as "a big part of Bubba" is his father's friend, Bill Willis. "He was a pipeliner, and he always managed to get laid off three days before deer hunting season. My dad used to say Bill Willis was his hero. Bill had a lot of control over his life. He had a little land, raised a few cattle, always had a nice truck...he made ends meet without a real job. "He and my dad hunted in a place south of Jacksonville called The Big Thicket. It was dense, like a rain forest. There were a lot of great storytellers out there, like Body George," Steve recalls. "He came from a poor, poor family --literally lived in a shack. By the time I was old enough to hunt, he was too old, so he just sat around and lied a lot. He used to swear there was a man in The Big Thicket that lived in the pine tops and ambushed deer with a knife. Later, when I got involved in folk music, I saw the parallels to that kind of storytelling. "That's the kind of storytelling I'm best at --straight-ahead narrative. It was much easier to write "Copperhead Road" than "My Old Friend the Blues," Steve admits, affirming the seemingly universal writer's fear of revealing too much of one's own self. It wasn't just a reluctance to lay open his own soul that gave Earle difficulty during his fledgling days as a songwriter --it was also the realization that "being middle class, I didn't have a damn thing to say." Taking his cue from Bob Dylan, who hid his own background behind an enigmatic persona patterned after folk legend Woody Guthrie, Earle set out to create an alter-ego of sorts. "In order to have something to write about, I'm guilty of intentionally creating some of the tension in my life," Earle says candidly. "My accent was picked up from hitchhiking around the South." With a knapsack full of experiences and potential characters derived from his travels--both past and present--Earle need not dig into his personal life for song ideas unless he wants to, as he did on the seemingly autobiographical "Hillbilly Highway" and "Guitar Town." "Highway" traces three generations and tells the story of how his father escaped what had formerly been his family's small-town legacy, giving Steve a shot at a formal education. Ironically, Steve turned it down in an attempt to de-program his middle-class mentality, preferring to get his education on the road. Not surprising, coming from a man whose strongest personal statement to date might well be contained in "I Ain't Ever Satisfied." "That song was written for medicinal purposes," says Earle in typically dry fashion. "I had written songs about other people for Exit 0, but it was missing me, so I felt I had to do that." Earle's presence in "Satisfied" however, doesn't make itself conspicuous --the song could easily be a typical Earle character study, suggesting that there's a bit of Steve Earle in most, if not all, the individuals which people his detailed, real-life lyrics. While it's unmistakable Bubba whose newfound freedom in "The Week Of Living Dangerously" begins with him tossing his kid's car seat in a nearby dumpster, it isn't that big a stretch to imagine a workaday-filled Earle getting a similar wild hair. In "Angry Young Man," only the final verse--in which the son's protagonist escapes the small town syndrome--separates Steve from Bubba. Meanwhile, more tender songs like "I Love You Too Much" and "You Belong To Me" might lead the listener to assume it couldn't be hard-headed Bubba. However, Earle insists that "the whole idea of Bubba is that he does have a sensitive side. He was tough, and had football pals, but he was different when he was with me. I really do treat him like someone I know. Bubba can talk to me about things he can't talk to anyone else about. That's why he hangs out with me. "He probably is more sensitive than he admits. In that sense, there isn't that much difference between us. I'm just more open about it." But whether it's fact or fiction or a combination of the two, Earle's songs are distinguished by a sense of disciplined craftsmanship that one might not expect from a writer with Earle's unconventional tendencies. "I don't take anything away from craftsmanship," Earle says. "Nashville is the last Tin Pan Alley. I encourage writers to learn from it, but also to find a way not to get caught up in it, to find their own thing. "My songs," Steve continues, "are more powerful and concise because I learned craftsmanship." While Earle's pen is as powerful as ever on his latest Uni LP, Copperhead Road, he admits that he "wasn't as conscious of Bubba on this album. The characters on Copperhead Road aren't as everyday. But Bubba's still alive. John Lee Pettimore (the pot-dealing Vietnam vet who kicks off the disc) is a version of Bubba. "Like Bubba on bad speed," Earle says with a slightly dark chuckle. Indeed, all of Earle's characters are related in one way or another, through their similarities to Earle himself and well as in the traits that he admires in them. "I'd rather be like them--this is, the real people they're based on--than like any archetypical intellectual I can think of," Earle admits. "They're still having to deal with stuff on a day-to-day basis, living in the real world. I have a lot of respect for that."

Alan Jackson Follows Dream To Nashville

Vernell Hackett — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:37:15 +0000

This article originally appeared in the May/June 1992 issue of American Songwriter. Despite the fact that he's written some of the biggest hits in country music in recent months - "Don't Rock The Jukebox" with Roger Murrah and Keith Stegall; "Someday" with Jim McBride; and "Better Class of Losers," recorded by and written with Randy Travis - Alan Jackson maintains the same demeanor about his writing that he projects onstage...a demeanor that implies that he isn't sure just how it is that he is able to write these hit songs that keep flowing from his pen onto paper. It's that "aw shucks" and boy-next-door style that has endeared Jackson to the many fans who have started listening to him since his first hit, "Here In The Real World" (which he also wrote, this one with Mark Irwin). In fact, Jackson's name is on all the songs on his first album, and on all but one of his second recording. Jackson isn't one of those songwriters who knew from the beginning that he would be a writer. Early on, he never paid much attention to the names listed as writers on the records he bought. He was more interested in the singing aspect of the business, and it wasn't until a musician who played in a rock band around Atlanta advised him that if he intended to come to Nashville, he'd better have some original material, that Jackson even considered sitting down to write a song. The fact of the matter was, Jackson really hadn't considered that a career in music was possible; he felt it more of a dream until one day, a friend who grew up in the little town of Newnan, Georgia with him followed his dream and became an airline pilot. That set Jackson to thinking that maybe dreams can come true, and put him on a course that eventually would lead him to Nashville. The dream became reality for his friend right out of high school, but it was a few years later before Jackson would pursue his own dream. It just happened that about the same time he was thinking that he should do this, his wife Denise changed jobs and he found himself alone one summer while she worked out of Charlotte, N.C. Since there wasn't much else to do after he got home from work, he started to write songs. "I don't know, I didn't really study anybody's songs, but I had heard and sang enough to know the basic structure of a song, so I just sat down and started writing," Jackson said of his first venture into songwriting. He quickly admitted, however, that none of those songs made it onto either of his albums; in fact, he would just as soon not show them to anyone in Nashville. "Some of them were fair, I guess, but I wouldn't want to play them for anyone now," he said with a laugh. Once in Nashville, Jackson went to work at The Nashville Network in the mailroom, continuing to write because now that he was actually in town, he quickly found that not only was it not going to be an easy task to make music his career, he still had to write songs because it was hard for a newcomer such as himself to get songs pitched to him. Ironically, it was his wife who made the initial contact with a publishing company which brought him his first salaried job as a songwriter. Going though an airport one day, Denice saw Glen Campbell, and because of Alan she went up to him, introduced herself, and said she and her husband were getting ready to move to Nashville and did he have any advice to offer? Campbell gave her a business card from his publishing company, and Jackson made contact with personnel at the company as soon as he could after moving to Nashville. Though they didn't hear a hit song right away, they encouraged the young man to keep in touch, and a year later the publishing company signed Jackson to a publishing agreement. He was still without a recording contract, however, and with his songs improving, Jackson was hesitant to let any of them go to other artists, and the publishing company was very patient about that. However, "Here In The Real World" did get pitched, and cut, by a new artist on Warner Brothers Records. Something happened, the song was never released, and Jackson got it back, just in time to record it on a session for his new label, Arista Records. "I still don't pitch many of my songs," Jackson said. "I might pitch something every now and then, if there's something in the catalog that I just don't think would be something I would cut." Of course Jackson has had a cut by another artist, namely Randy Travis, with whom he wrote when the two were touring together last year. "I was touring with Randy and he wanted to write, so we just did it," Jackson recalled how the two of them started writing together. Now that their schedules are so totally different, and the two no longer travel together, "it's really hard to get together to write now." Nevertheless, the collaboration yielded the aforementioned "Better Class Of Losers" as well as "Allergic To The Blues," "I'd Surrender All" and "Forever Together," all on Travis' latest album. Jackson managed to snag one for himself, "From A Distance," which is on his "Don't Rock The Jukebox" album, and he has been quoted as saying he'd like to have a little better timing on the duo's next writing sessions. "It was close to time for Randy to record, so he got first choice on the songs we wrote," explained Jackson. "Maybe next time it'll be the other way around." Jackson said he likes to co-write, but he also likes to write by himself. One thing co-writing taught him, he emphasized, is that you don't always take the first line that comes along. "I'm real impatient, and co-writing helped me learn not to take that first line, to always strive to write one a little better, one phrased a little differently," Jackson said. "I learned you have to work at getting the line just right so they all will flow into each other throughout the song." One of the hardest things about writing along, Jackson admits, is the discipline of sitting down and actually writing. He writes about real things, and said those songs which come from heart are the songs that come across better when they are recorded and an audience finally gets to hear them. "When I write, I just sit down and write for myself, something I might like with no one in particular in mind," Jackson said his writing sessions. "I try to write things that sound good for what I enjoy singing." While Jackson said he gets ides from everywhere, he said a song is usually not worth pursuing if you can't get the hook right away, or if you can't come up with any really good lines. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. "Jim McBride and I were writing and we had this idea, "Short Sweet Ride," that we were kicking around. He played me a piece of melody and a couple of lines. It sounded like a part of a chorus but without a hook. Within a couple of sessions we had written three verses and the chorus, but we still lacked what I consider the most important line, the hook. Then we spent one whole day looking for that line which came to be "It's a short sweet ride on a runaway train." When asked how he knows when to stop writing on a song, Jackson said he takes a song and lives with it a couple days, then goes back to listen to it and see if it flows and makes sense. If it does, he considers it finished. If not, he goes back to work to make it into a better song. Because he is so busy, Jackson finds time to write more on the road than he does when he's home, due in part to the fact that he wants to spend time with his 20-month old daughter, Mattie Denise. "I like to spend time with my family when I'm off the road, so it's really hard to write then," Jackson said. "there is more time on the road, but you still have to make yourself write, you still have to have that discipline, to sit down and write a song. " Citing Merle Haggard, Bob McDill, Hank Williams Sr. and Max D. Barnes among his favorite writers, Jackson said he would like to get cuts by Jones of Haggard. "Actually, I have a couple songs that I should send to them," he conceded. Jackson's advice to new writers is simple: "Write what you believe in," he advised. "Some of my number one songs were songs that other people didn't believe in. It (success) will come if you are where you are supposed to be."

Q&A: DON WILLIAMS

Kelly Delaney — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:00:59 +0000

This article originally appeared in the January/February 1988 issue of American Songwriter.

Few artists ever achieve the level of quality and consistency that is reflected in the music Don Williams has chosen to record. One might say he has one of the highest all-time slugging percentages in the history of country music. He's released more than 20 albums, five of which are certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Williams has racked up more than 40 hit singles and some 20 of them have reached the top of the national charts. It's not talent alone that has made Williams one of the giants of country music. As he readily admits, much of the credit is due the songwriters and the songs upon which his career has been built. "The entire weight of everything I do is in the songs," he says. He has recorded some bonafide masterpieces. Among the list of gems are such shining examples as "Amanda" (Bob McDill), "I Believe In You" (Roger Cook/Sam Hogin), "Tulsa Time" (Danny Flowers), "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend" (Wayland Holyfield), "The Ties That Bind" (Vin Corso/Clyde Otis), "Good Ole Boys Like Me" (Bob McDill), "Walkin' A Broken Heart" (Alan Rush/Dennis Linde) and "Maggie's Dream" (Dave Loggins/Lisa Silver). Although Williams' longtime co-producer, Garth Fundis, screens much of the material submitted for consideration, Williams has the final say in what eventually gets recorded. No one can argue with the results of this method, either. And surprisingly, the songs Williams has selected haven't always been the safe bets, songs that are commercially in the pocket. He's taken some chances. "I've said lots of time, thank God for left field - songs like "Maggie's Dream," "Good Ole Boys Like Me" and "Amanda", he notes. "Those things that just come to me from left field." One has to wonder if "Good Ole Boys Like Me" would have every gotten recorded were it not for Williams' convictions about quality songs. One of the finest songs ever written might still be wound around a reel on a publisher's shelf if Williams hadn't believed the song deserved a chance to be heard. As more than one songwriter has observed, "Thank God for singers like Don Williams." How would you compare the quality of songs today to that of when you started recording? I think one of the biggest problems that we always have is tat you’ll go along for a period of time and songs kind of get into certain feels, making statements a certain way. At first they’re real fresh because it’s a little different approach. But then we have so many people that get in that vein that after a while they start sounding slick. It’s not that they’re not good songs. At least for me – let me qualify this whole thing – they start feeling kind of slick and I start looking for something else that I feel is a little more direct and fresher. “Maggie’s Dream” came out of just such a search I imagine. I’m always thankful for songs like that. To me it’s a universal observation of some aspect of life. Do you ask writers to make little changes in their songs so that they might be better suited for you? I have to do that fairly often and I’m always real concerned that it’s acceptable to the writer. I never want to change someone’s song, but I have to make it to where it fits me at the same time, or I can’t do it. Have you ever had someone object to making some changes? I’ve been real fortunate; I’ve never had that happen yet. What’s the old saying, songs being like children? I think most writers when they start, they can’t stand the thought of someone else being involved in their thoughts. They’re such a personal thing with them. It is kind of like kids in a way. You go through a stage where your kids are perfect. There’s just nobody who could ever say a thing about how they look or act. Then after you get a little older and they get a little older, you begin to realize – if you’re realistic about it – they’re people and nobody’s perfect. I think songs are the same way. There are a lot of times when a writer won’t see in a song what someone else may see. It may be a better song than the writer thought, or it may not be as good as they thought. Are there any types of songs that you simply would not record? I really don’t know what kind of song it would be – if it was the old triangle song or a boozer song, I don’t know what it would take for me to be interested in it. I’m not going to say I wouldn’t ever be interested in a song that was dealing with that, but it would really have to be an unusual observation, something that I felt like would benefit someone. (Editor’s Note: On his latest album, Traces, Williams recorded a song, “Another Place, Another Time,” written by Bob McDill and Paul Harrison, which is exactly the kind of song that makes an unusual observation). So you feel the artist has some responsibility not to endorse potentially harmful ideas through his or her music? I feel very responsible to that. I don’t know of anything that’s as small an industry as entertainment that affects as many lives. I think it’s a sad situation when people totally take an attitude that they shouldn’t be responsible, that they don’t need to be responsible for what they talk about or how they act. It shouldn’t be a crippling kind of weight; I think it’s just an awareness. How do you go about listening to songs when you’re looking for material to record? I have one of those Walkman type deals that I listen on. I listen at home, going down the road, or whatever. Basically, I listen when I’m alone. If I’m heavy into it I get off by myself at home and do some serious listening. Do you listen to the songs all the way through? It depends. There are some that I don’t listen to all the way through because there are already so many things that have happened that are a little objectionable to me. Or, it’s an interest level that isn’t there; it’s nothing objectionable, it just doesn’t do anything to me. But if it’s even marginal I’ll listen to the whole song. Do you look to see who wrote the song? I’m not really that interested in who wrote it when I’m initially listening to it. There are a lot of times when I do know who wrote it before I listen, but it’s not an issue. What common mistake do you see in songs submitted to you? For me, I think one of the biggest mistakes that I see people make is that part of writing where they’re really plugged into a community. From each community of writers there emerges kind of an overview that is very successful. So, they all, whether they consciously realize it or not, they all start adjusting to this overview. I think it gets to a point where the overview is really dictating the terms of what a song is going to say or its basic structure. So, you prefer songs that aren’t contrived or formula patterned? I like songs the best that are not a constructed effort in that arena. I like songs people write that they sit down, and it’s a real personal statement because that’s the way they felt at that moment and they don’t care if anyone ever records it. It’s that intense of a statement from a person – those are the songs I love the best. It’s true that trends develop and hit sounds become kind of cookie-cutter patterned after each other. It’s not that they’re not exemplifying their control of the craft. It’s the same thing in the studio because you have at your disposal such an incredible array of electronics that you can lose the emotion of it all by becoming so technical. I guess that’s what I’m saying about writing – when it becomes that technical, I hear very few songs like that that I care anything about. It feels contrived; it may be the cleverest thing and wonderfully, slickly put together, but it somehow or another loses the emotion of the thing. Have you ever recorded any songs that were written expressly for you? I could be wrong, but I don’t think I ever cut a song that somebody sat down and wrote for me. Most of the ones people sit down and write for me, it’s a reflection of something I’ve already done. I’m not interested in doing what I’ve already done again if I can help it. I guess that’s why it turns me off. Do you like to be pitched full demos? A lot of times I would prefer that it was not a demo – just the writer and a guitar or piano. Demos can go one of two ways for you. If it’s a demo that helps, sometimes it’ll help a lot. But by the same token, I think there are demos that close the door because it takes you in a direction that maybe you don’t want to go in. It’ll color the attitude you might have about the song. Without the demo you might have viewed it another way. Do you like to look at a lyric sheet while listening? The only way I’ll look at a lyric sheet is if I absolutely cannot understand the words. I prefer not to. I would rather sit there and listen to it because that’s much more the way the average person is going to hear it. Everybody doesn’t sit there with a lyric sheet when they’re driving down the road. Comment on song lyrics, what should they do for you? If a thought’s not clear or if a word is used out of context in some cleverish way to be where Joe Blow out in Kansas is not going to understand it, then it serves no purpose. I like for the statement to feel real and direct, but in some way fresh. I don’t want to have to figure it out. I like it right out front. So for you it really does all begin with a song. Without the songs, you can be the best artist in the world, have the best production, but if you cut a bad song it’s just a bad song with an incredible production. That’s what it all boils down to. That’s not to say that a good production can’t help, but it’s all the songs. I mean for every really fine song there are any number or artists that could have a hit with it. It sounds like what you want writers to do is pitch you their best songs whether or not they think it’s for you. That’s exactly right.

NEIL DIAMOND: Collaboration Works on “Moon”

Vernell Hackett — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:25:39 +0000

This article was originally published in the May/June 1996 issue of American Songwriter. It's not often that a songwriter gets to write with the person who influenced his being in the music business, but such was the case for several of the songwriters who wrote with Neil Diamond for his latest album, Tennessee Moon. Aside from that, the most often made comment on all sides was how comfortable it was when the people go together to write. "Neil Diamond and James Taylor were the two biggest influences on my music early on," acknowledges Stewart Harris, who is the co-writer on "Open Wide These Prison Doors." He met Neil at a luncheon in Nashville, and as soon as the formalities of the event were over, he went to Neil and said, "I want to get booked with you right away to write...I think it was three weeks from that time (that they wrote). I had some ideas floating around in my head. I didn't want to go in there dry because opportunities like that don't come along every day. I went out to his house...we were just sitting around his kitchen table and it was so comfortable." The two go together again to "dust the lyrics," as Harris puts it. "Even in the studio we looked at the lyrics again before he did the final version. Neil will go back again and again and again until he's certain it's right. As a writer I'm not one for re-writing a lot, but we had a couple of optional lines and we looked at them and were real tickled with the end product." Bob DiPiero and Neil were together in several social situations before they actually sat down to write. "The first day we wrote he came downstairs with this beautiful old classical nylon string guitar, and he said, ‘Why don't you write on it?' After we wrote "Gold Don't Rust" he said ‘I've had that guitar since 1964 and you just wrote a great song on it, why don't you just keep it.' That night I brought the guitar home and showed it to Pam (Tillis, his wife), and told her about it, and we wrote "It's Lonely Out There" on that guitar." DiPiero said he psyched himself up not to be intimidated when writing with Neil. "I was intimidated as much as honored. Like a lot of people. I'm a big fan of many of his songs. Especially when he's sitting there, and you're hearing his voice warming up, and when he started really singing, it's pretty shocking to hear that voice coming across the table from you." DiPiero says the fact that the two didn't really know each other before they sat down to write didn't bother him. "Personally, for me it's not so hard to write with someone that I don't really know. If we both want to do it, it's like a kindred spirit," he explains. "There's always the initial part of kibitzing and shooting the breeze - you're always dancing around the actual mechanics of writing the songs, but somehow you just kind of fall into it. It really helps if the person you are writing with is a nice guy. "I wasn't really sure what he was going for, and I had reservations that he was just jumping on the bandwagon. But writing with Neil Diamond was like writing with any great writer. He's as good as any of the folks I write with, and all in all it was a very natural experience in a very unnatural setting." Bill LaBounty only lived a mile from the house that Neil rented while he was in Nashville, so he went over and picked the singer up one morning and they went to LaBounty's home studio where they wrote "Can Anybody Hear Me." "Writing with Neil I knew would be a learning experience," LaBounty admits. "There are those flashes when you work with a real performing songwriter like Neil - you will see a performance, you see the song being created by this artist, and it was a fun thing. "A lot of times, especially collaboratively, both writers are pensive in their thinking and there's dead air and dead space when people are trying to form their thoughts into words. There was that with Neil, but there were points when you could see him performing the song in his mind. "We started with music that we both liked. I was hesitant at first to say maybe this is the way the lyric ought to go. I really didn't understand what he was doing with the lyric until we had finished the song and he was performing it. He truly is a performing songwriter. From the beginning he was someone I respected, but by the end of it I really became a Neil Diamond fan." Dennis Morgan landed the title cut on the album. He says he had the chorus of the song written the day before their scheduled writing session because he had been thinking about why Neil was in Nashville and about the overall concept of the project. Once they got together, they wrote the song in less than an hour. Neil says the song was very much autobiographical. "The first verse lays it out pretty clearly that I wasn't finding stimulation or the incentive to write in Los Angeles that I had had at one time." "The text of the verse was more his story," Morgan says. "It was a beautiful combination - what a great guy to work with. I know that he's a true songwriter, and true songwriters never quit learning. They're antenna is always up. If you're gonna do it, you've go to keep expanding, and if you get in a slump, others will help you get out of it. I think he was ready to respond to a group of songwriters like he met in Nashville, and he rose to the occasion. I think we all did too; it was a mutual thing." Tom Shapiro says he had the melody for "Marry Me," and Neil says it was an idea he'd had for 15 years but couldn't find the right melody and the right setting for it. "Neil and I got together before we actually sat down to write to just get to know each other. But when I went over for the first writing session I was too nervous to write because he was such a hero of mine. So we just talked about the album and what he was doing, about his life, and then a month later we got together again to write. I'm used to writing with someone I don't know, but in this case he was bigger than life, and I just wasn't prepared. Once we started writing, it was natural - very give and take, very much like any other writing processes. I enjoyed writing with him. He was great to write with - he's a great writer." Though an acknowledged great writer, Neil doesn't take his talent for granted. "First of all, writing is the hardest thing that I do - a lot harder than concerts, a lot harder than recording - and so it's not something that I can take on half-heartedly. You have to throw yourself into it fully," Neil says. Because his last couple of albums didn't require any new songs from him, he says it gave him time to relax and pull back from writing for awhile. "I was able to enter into this project with the enthusiasm for the writing process again. And the fact that I was writing with so many new and talented people kept me on my toes. I think the chemistry of it all worked well." Neil admits that the way he wrote in Nashville, with scheduled writing sessions planned weeks in advance, was a bit different for him. But, he says, "I've written songs everywhere, from the back of limos to hotel rooms and buses and planes. I've written some of my biggest songs knowing that I had to have the lyrics finished when I landed. I started one flight with nothing and landed with "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" - and it's not that long a flight from New York to Memphis, so you have to write pretty quick! "I think one of the reasons this worked out so well was that these writers and I were somehow able to cast aside any fear, which is the first thing you have to cast aside when you're beginning to write and create something, (that) fear of it not being any good. They had enough confidence, and I had enough confidence, to go with our instincts and pretty much in each case there was the beginning idea and eventually a song written between the combination co-writer and myself. Part of that had to do with experience. They were all very experienced writers, with the exception of my son Jesse, which was an interesting experience in itself, and maybe someday I'll write a book about it! "But the methods don't change. There is no method. Any way you can do it, that's how you do it. This way worked this time, and thank God it did because we had no idea whether it would and whether we'd come up with anything worthwhile at all." This was the first time Neil had written with Jesse, and he says any problems the two might have had were "attributable to his newness as a writer and the fact that he had to learn very quickly in writing with me that he had to accept criticism of his work. That is one of the things a writer must do. He must learn to be very critical of his work. I think Jesse learned a little bit about that in his experience of writing with me. "His innocence and his music really inspired this song. He is innocent and pure as a youngster; he's my age when I had "Solitary Man." The combination of father and son - and then you throw in the great depth of love and affection between us - it turned out to be one of the most wonderful experiences in my creative life. I don't know if I can put words to it, but there was something very spiritual about it, some kind of rite of passage, me having the opportunity to pass along my own knowledge and be open about learning from his innocence and his purity and his sensibility. It was a wonderful experience." It was also interesting for Neil to watch how other writers approached their craft. "You can pick up little things from other writers. Every writer has their own little thing, their own little idiosyncrasies. I found it interesting to write with 20 writers over a period of months to see how they approached a song. Harlan Howard came to the session with a bunch of cocktail napkins with bunches of song titles, ideas and verses written on them. "I can't say I picked up any new techniques in writing, but I am a songwriter and have been since I was 17 - I feel a special kinship with other writers - I enjoy the experience of seeing how these other people get this music out of them. It's so individual, there are no rules, you know. You do it any way you can." The reason Neil came to Nashville was the talent and the writers, plus the fact that he has always wanted to experience that city. "Now was the time. I had the year, I had no concert commitments, and I just jumped in with both feet and tried to swim as fast as I could and hope for the best. It was one of the great experiences for me as a writer and as an artist. I learned a lot from these people."

Stream The Townes Van Zandt Doc Be Here To Love Me

Drew Litowitz — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:31:35 +0000

Be Here To Love Me" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/TOWNES_VAN_ZANDT_POSTER_FINAL.jpg" alt="Stream The Townes Van Zandt Doc Be Here To Love Me" width="135" height="200" />
“Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that." – Steve Earle By now, the name Townes Van Zandt stands as a relic of the past; a reminder of the gloriously gritty, cigarette smoking, whiskey-fueled days of country and folk music. Though never achieving much commercial success, while alive he developed a cult following and wrote some of the best songs the genre has ever seen. In death, his stature has risen immensely. He and his work are the stuff of legend. In the beautifully directed 2004 documentary Be Here To Love Me, interviews with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Kris Kristofferson, and yes, Steve Earle, tell a tale of a man who was gone too soon, but certainly not forgotten. The whole thing is up for streaming over at Pitchfork for “One Week Only.” Combining rare archival footage and intimate interviews with friends and family, the film provides great insight into just how important the man was to his songwriting peers, and how great of a loss his passing was. Check it out: Stream the rest here

LARRY JON WILSON > Larry Jon Wilson

Brian T. Atkinson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:37:17 +0000

Larry Jon Wilson" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/larry-jon-300x300.jpg" alt="LARRY JON WILSON > Larry Jon Wilson" width="200" height="200" />
Wilson's first collection in a quarter century falters. LARRY JON WILSON Larry Jon Wilson (DRAG CITY) Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars Thirty-five years ago, Larry Jon Wilson ("Ohoopee River Bottomland") nearly measured flush against Guy Clark ("Desperadoes Waiting for a Train") in Heartworn Highways. Tauter storytellers rarely emerge north of Billy Joe Shaver. Unfortunately, paths diverge. Wilson quit recording. Today, Clark's newest vignettes ("Hemingway's Whiskey," "The Guitar") redouble standard, but Wilson's first collection in a quarter century falters. While his glorious voice-a gruff weapon, equally forceful and forgiving-still fills the echo chamber between Vince Bell and Johnny Cash, too many songs ("Throw My Hands Up," "Where From") ring hollow with cheat and cliché. Notable exception: the timely "Heartland." "There's a big empty hole in my chest now, where my heart was," Wilson rasps on the Dylan/Nelson cover. "A hole in the sky now where God used to be/because my American dream fell apart at the seams." The epic "Whore's Trilogy" buoys interest, but shallow ballads ("Me With No You," "Rocking With You") ultimately anchor discontent.

25 Of Our Favorite Songs From 1984-2009

americansongwriter — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:34:55 +0000

The older one gets, the more one looks back at those years now gone. American Songwriter's reached the ripe age of 25 and the best years are ahead. But as happy as turning 25 makes us, we decided to look back at all the songs we've found and loved since 1984, the year the magazine started.25 OF OUR FAVORITE SONGS FROM 1984-2009 Selected by the American Songwriter Staff
The older one gets, the more one looks back at those years now gone. American Songwriter's reached the ripe age of 25 and the best years are ahead. But as happy as turning 25 makes us, we decided to look back at all the songs we've found and loved since 1984, the year the magazine started. Coming up with a list of favorite songs spanning a 25-year spectrum is far from easy, but it's also a lot of fun. Thinking about songs we listened to on the radio (when we turned 16, before CD players were standard and before satellite radio), songs we danced to (sometimes with someone special, sometimes completely solo), learned how to play on guitar (not deftly by any means) and songs we sang along to (words memorized and belted way out of tune) ushered in countless memories. The process brought us together as a staff, just sitting around talking about the songs we love, while at the same time it affirmed the amazing songwriting that's taken place between 1984 and the present. 25 "The Dance" Garth Brooks Garth Brooks (1989) Written by Tony Arata Brooks' delicate vocals match the tone of the poignant lyrics. The song's got love, dreams, loss, pain, hope and life in one tight package; it can leave you crying for all the right reasons.

24 "Fast Car" Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman (1988) Written by Tracy Chapman The song that put Ms. Chapman on the map blends the hard-knocks realities of poverty in America with a timeless sense of urgency and hope.

23 "Sweet Child O' Mine" Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction (1987) Written by W. Axl Rose, Michael McKagan, Steven Adler, Saul Hudson and Jeffrey Isbell What started as a joke, with Slash noodling on his guitar, turned out to be ‘80s rock songwriting gold. Axl's ear-splitting vocals put "Sweet Child" over the top.

22 "When Doves Cry" Prince Purple Rain (1984) Written by Prince A dance-pop masterpiece that's spurred a generation of awkward white kids to attempt to dance and sing falsetto-don't go off to college without it.

21 "Wagon Wheel" Old Crow Medicine Show O.C.M.S. (2004) Written by Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor The best way to co-write with Dylan: find the scrap of an unreleased song and turn it into something wholly your own...well, Dylan still owns 50 percent, but you get the picture. Secor and Old Crow created a classic song that never gathers dust in our office.

20 "Sticks that Made Thunder" The SteelDrivers The SteelDrivers (2008) Written by Mike Henderson and Chris Stapleton A somber, chilling bluegrass number about...well...a tree. To be specific, a tree observing a Civil War battle-not many folks can pull a song like this off.

19 "Loser" Beck Mellow Gold (1994) Written by Beck Michael Hanson and Carl F. Stephenson Remember trying to memorize the words to this? Remember trying to figure out the chorus when the song first came out? If Beck is a loser, we don't want to win.

18 "First Day of My Life" Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (2005) Written by Conor Oberst Oberst's song is a wonderful, plain-spoken poetic statement on modern love. It's simple, delicate and feels new every time you play it for that special someone.

17 "Karma Police" Radiohead OK Computer (1997) Written by Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway and Thom Yorke Radiohead bring the paranoia and chaos in this creepy classic. But the song's life-affirming coda ("for a minute there, I lost myself") is like a shot of adrenaline.

16 "Mr. Jones" Counting Crows August and Everything After (1993) Written by Steve Bowman, David Bryson, Adam Duritz, Charlie Gillingham, Matt Malley We all wanted to be big stars, and who among us doesn't want to be Bob Dylan? An inescapable hook and chorus just never lets this song grow stale. Sha-la-la-la-la indeed.

15 "Flume" Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago (2007) Written by Justin Vernon An eerie, lyrically vague number that swept us off our feet and dropped us in the Wisconsin wilderness. Vernon's DIY recordings from his cabin in the woods resonate and inspire.
14 "Independence Day" Martina McBride The Way That I Am (1993) Written by Gretchen Peters Our kind of patriotic song! It gets you all fired up about standing up for yourself in the face of something wrong-behind closed doors or in the streets. It's a must for any jukebox.

13 "Armchairs" Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha (2007) Written by Andrew Bird Not only does he whistle and play the violin like a mofo-Bird writes beautiful, endlessly unfolding tunes that make your soul ache with their loveliness.

12 "Mississippi" Bob Dylan Love and Theft (2001) Written by Bob Dylan Leave it to Bob Dylan to stay in Mississippi a day too long, write a song about it, and have said song be as deep and as powerful as the river it shares a name with.

11 "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Nirvana Nevermind (1991) Written by Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic Whether it's a lightning rod anthem for apathetic youth or one the best frickin' rock songs ever (or both), this tune will forever be one of our faves. Cobain ushered in the Grunge era with these contradictory lyrics, howling screams and potent guitar fuzz.

10 "Free Fallin'" Tom Petty Full Moon Fever (1989) Written by Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty The early dreams of westward expansion meet the not-so-happy reality of the present in Petty's tune, which namedrops L.A. streets and landmarks while echoing an urgency to flee. Doubt and heartbreak chased with a new dream of escape.

9 "Chattahoochee" Alan Jackson A Lot About Livin' (and a Little ‘Bout Love) (1992) Written by Alan Jackson and Jim McBride This devilishly straightforward song preaches the gospel of learnin', lovin' and livin' in the South. It's one of those songs in which lines unsaid are as important as those sung. It remains one of our favorites to crank up on a summer Friday afternoon.

8 "Forever and Ever, Amen" Randy Travis Always and Forever (1987) Written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz Travis' singing can't be beat, while the songwriting team of Overstreet and Schlitz nail the earnest down-home sentimentality of a country boy on this one.

7 "Golden" My Morning Jacket It Still Moves (2003) Written by Jim James The guitar rambles and trots while James' vocals softly glide over. The lyrics about bars, concerts, and rock stars, delivered by James' alpine falsetto carry you off to a better place like a folk-rock lullaby.

6 "It's a Great Day to be Alive" Travis Tritt Down the Road I Go (2000) Written by Darrell Scott An American anthem about taking things day by day and enjoying the simple, offbeat things in life. The optimism lifts us up, gets us thinking about going to get new tattoos, and growing facial hair.

5 "Copperhead Road" Steve Earle Copperhead Road (1988) Written by Steve Earle Earle's song is a country-rock storytelling gem that'll always shine through. His musing on a descendant of bootleggers turned dope-grower in the Tennessee hills after two tours in Vietnam is bittersweet and blood-boiling-and butt-kickin' good.

4 "Revelator" Gillian Welch Time (The Revelator) (2002) Written by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch Sparse and elegant, "Revelator" has been hailed by some as one of greatest folk songs written in this century-we cannot disagree. The desperation, the wandering, and the abandonment found within are reminiscent of the mood and setting of a William Gay or Cormac McCarthy novel. Rawlings' picking on his archtop adds to the stumbling visions of moving westward, leaving the world behind. And here, especially, Gil and Dave's subtle vocal harmonies never fail to shiver spines and lift neck hairs.

3 "Ashes of American Flags" Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) Written by Jay Bennett and Jeff Tweedy Wilco are like an ATM machine of good songs. This one is filled with hundreds and twenties. For a small service fee, you too will come back new.

2 "Born in the U.S.A." Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A. (1984) Written by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen's career reached critical mass with the Born in the U.S.A. album. The title song, deceptively simple yet decidedly complex, lodged him into our national consciousness for good, and helped turn the man from New Jersey into an American folk hero and protector of the people. Ronald Reagan famously misunderstood the intentions behind the Boss's lyrics. But just because the chorus wasn't meant to be patriotic doesn't mean you can't sing it with pride. As an electric rave-up or an acoustic blues, "Born in the U.S.A." resonates almost as deeply as the American Dream.

1 "Graceland' Paul Simon Graceland (1986) Written by Paul Simon Paul Simon considers this the greatest song he's ever written, and he's written a lot of great songs. Dealing in divorce, the holy road trip, and the ghost of Elvis, "Graceland" is based on a real journey Simon took with his young son, Harper. The song's sad center anchors its optimistic exterior, and the music blends different cultures (South African, American) into a joyous cappuccino of sound. "There is a girl in New York City, who calls herself the human trampoline. And sometimes when I am bouncing, falling, and tumbling in turmoil, I say oh, so this is what she means. She means we are bouncing into Graceland."

PATTERSON HOOD > Murdering Oscar (and Other Love Songs)

Jay Steele — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:11:11 +0000

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With the help of friends such as David Barbe, Centro-Matic's Will Johnson, his father, David Hood, Don Chambers and members of Drive-By Truckers, Hood has created a dynamic record that features the rich songwriting we've come to expect from him.

Label: Ruth St.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Murdering Oscar (and Other Love Songs) is an album that's been in the works for 15 years. The wait has been worthwhile. With the help of friends such as David Barbe, Centro-Matic's Will Johnson, his father, David Hood, Don Chambers and members of Drive-By Truckers, Hood has created a dynamic record that features the rich songwriting we've come to expect from him. Oscar is highlighted by some of his finest numbers, such as the piano-driven worldview, "Pride of the Yankees," the barroom shuffle, "She's A Little Randy," and the heartbreaking lament, "Back of A Bible." Don't sleep on this solo effort.

SON VOLT > American Central Dust

Will Levith — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:59:08 +0000

American Central Dust" src="http://www.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/american-central-dust-300x300.jpg" alt="SON VOLT > American Central Dust" width="200" height="200" />
American Central Dust is subdued and plaintive compared to the sonic eclecticism of their previous set (2007's The Search) but finds Farrar at his absolute songwriting peak.

SON VOLT American Central Dust (ROUNDER) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Jay Farrar has established himself as the poet laureate of country rock, his collected work a revelation amidst a crowded genre. Certainly, since Son Volt broke onto the scene in 1995, the lineup has bent, broken and mended, but with each new phase, what remains is Farrar's songwriting and untested vision. American Central Dust, the band's sixth studio album, is subdued and plaintive compared to the sonic eclecticism of their previous set (2007's The Search) but finds Farrar at his absolute songwriting peak. Opener "Dynamite" is wittily ambiguous: "This love is like celebrating the Fourth of July with dynamite," sings Farrar in his trademark baritone. "Cocaine and Ashes," a tribute to Keith Richards, is Farrar's best piano ballad ever, with an unforgettable chorus you have to hear for yourself. And album closer "Jukebox of Steel" is the cousin of 2005's "Gramaphone," easily the closest you'll ever hear Son Volt get to FM radio.