Co-Writing: Not For Sissies or Wood-Nymphs

If you hang out with other songwriters, sooner or later the suggestion to co-write will come up. This fascination with co-writing used to completely mystify me, and repel me all at once. My friends would take on a soft, rosy glow as they spoke of it. They would get all dewy-eyed and clutch their hearts and speak of how it changed their lives. But it felt contrary to my process and my instincts. I wanted nothing to do with it!

I’ve co-written a couple of times at workshops, and it was hard for me. I’m stubborn and I always want to use the lines I write. I am not the queen of compromise. But I’ve been feeling like maybe I should try it more, because I think trying things that are outside of my comfort zone can help me grow as an artist.

My process for writing is normally very unstructured.  Picture someone sitting in their jammies, guitar in hand, laptop open. When I’m working on a song lyric, I usually get to a point where I am stuck. I might have to get up and walk around for a while, and disconnect from it until a line mystically travels through several distant galaxies and breaks through the ozone to trickle down into my head. YES!  I have always been willing to wait days, weeks, months – YEARS for the right word or line to take its rightful place in a song.

But when you co-write, such a process will not do. It will not do at all. Instead, one must employ discipline (ugh, hateful word). Discipline! Pah! I am a gypsy! A wood nymph! A forest sprite! I dance through the woods, gathering my words on gossamer pages! I cannot be shackled or fettered, or tied down to such a restricting practice!

Co-writing – I have discovered – is not for sissies. In addition to discipline, it requires immense courage. You’re vulnerable. It’s scary to go out on a limb with a line, knowing that someone can whip out their chainsaw and cut it off, sending you crashing to the ground. And for me, it’s hard to be diplomatic and nice and not grab my own chainsaw too often.

More importantly, it takes practice. If you want to get better at it, you have to keep working at it, keep trying. I just completed a co-write on one of the songs for my CD project.  It didn’t feel natural. I had to struggle. I had to wear my regular clothes and not my pajamas. But I hung in there, and the song is going to be better for it – a stronger song. And THAT is the best reason to consider a co-write.

GO TIME!

You can think about it, talk about it, dream about it. In the end, you just have to go do it.

GO time in Nashville.

With input from Gary Beard, my producer,  I chose to record at Kenny Royster's studio --  it’s a small, intimate setting and I felt I would be comfortable there. Plus, Gary had worked with Kenny before, and that brought a certain comfort level from the start.

Our first session-  recording the tracks (music) that would go along with the vocals-  started at 10 am. I allowed myself one final round of nerves at breakfast. Who would love my children? My little songs – my babies – would these guys take them and love them and make them something I could still recognize afterward?

I was counting on Gary to bring his knowledge and his ear to the project, and help keep this train from derailing, sending car after car plummeting over the cliff, along with me and all my "children."

Okay,  that’s an extreme analogy. I wasn’t that worried. I didn't foresee disaster. I just really wanted the best for my songs, the hour was at hand, and I had one shot to get what I wanted. It made me jittery.

The basic process goes like this:

Everyone listens to the work tape (the songwriter’s rendition of the song, very basic version – in my case, a recording of guitar and vocal).

Everyone talks about what they are going to play, what they think would sound right, etc.

Everyone disappears into a booth or room at this point (including me)

Everybody can hear everyone else thru headphones

They start playing and I sing the song to record a vocal (I would record the final version later).

Everyone listens, and we see what works and what doesn’t and  go from there.

Repeat until as close to perfectly awesome as possible

In this case, I’m happy to say that we came away with 3 stunning tracks and 3 great vocal recordings. Oh, but we weren’t finished. That was only Day 1.  


At the beginning of the session - Jon, Dennis & Dennis: Guitar, Drums, Keyboard




Kenny Royster





Big pile of guitars

Pretending to have a clue

Gary Beard - Producer




 

Sunday Night in Crashville: Everybody Plays, Everybody Sings

It wasn't long after arrival and check-in at the hotel in Nashville that it was time to find dinner and then catch some kind of live music. Gary told me that in Nashville, "everybody sings, everybody plays" - and it surely is true. Due to the fact that the lines at the historic Bluebird Cafe were out the door, we opted for the songwriter showcase at the Holiday Inn.  

I found the sound system to be outstanding. The songwriters had varying degrees of fabulosity. In the first set were 3 very talented songwriters - a younger guy with a trendy, touseled hairdo ( I call it "The Nashville Look" because I have observed it with some frequency here), a Taylor Swift-ette, and  a seasoned songwriter who obviously felt he was beyond introductions, since he wore his hat low so that it mostly hid his face. He was more of a "this-is-a-song-I-wrote-back-when-with-billy-bob-jim-john-jones-that-was-cut-by-merle-haggard-right-before-he-decided-to-disinclude-it-from-his-historic-award-winning-record-but-I-forgive-anyway"  kind of guy.

In the next set, the songwriting sort of tapered off. One guy sang a sort of redneck song about a knife carrying gal who was just apparently really tough, with the chorus ending "She's hell's bells."  The next guy had a song that went something like, "Yadda yadda yadda - I don't know what to do-o-o-o, Yadda yadda yadda - I'm in love with you-u-uu." Or something like that.  God knows I celebrate creativity wherever I find it! GOD knows this! You may not know it, but I tell you, it is known -- so let's say the writing prompted a religious moment, in that context.

Making the evening interesting (for me) was a dude who was walking around looking like a pirate, complete with tricorn hat. Does this happen to anyone besides me? I decided I wanted to take a picture but - like a phantom clipper ship - he kept drifting in and out of sight. Finally, I asked him to take a picture with me, because it's just not every day that you get a photo op with a free agent pirate. 

It should be noted here that HE said he was dressed as a Civil War soldier.  "Uh, no. I don't think so. Not so much." That's what I wanted to say, but you just don't argue with a stranger dressed like a pirate. I mean......would you?

And anyway, I needed to get ready for a full day of recording on Monday. So while Nashville played and sang... I slept.