Droptine,

It is not so much what attracts me as what repels me. I have been here 21 years. In that time I proabably have done 10,000 writer's nights, thousands of shows in Nashville and other areas. It amazes me how mediocre most people are simply because they DON'T LISTEN to ANYTHING.

You sit in a writer's night and see the first writer in a round of four. The first one, after tuning for five minutes, will tell a three minute story about the song. Then launch into the song.Eight minutes later when he has gotten to the second verse, it just drones on and on. Then the next person, sitting three feet from that one, does a song that is almost the EXACT song as the one before it. Same key, same subject, sometimes the same lines.

I have to admit, I am a bit spoiled. When I moved here in 88's we would have writer's nights where everyone got their own little set. There would be 7=8 people doing 25 minutes. Chuck Cannon would get up and do "I Love the Way You Love me" a future Toby Keith number one. Stephony Smith would do "It's Your Love' a future Faith and Tim number one. Jimmy Stewart would do "Brotherly Love" a posthumeous hit for Keith Whitley and Earl Thomas Conley. In the audience, would be Pam Tillis, Deana Carter, Tanya Tucker, Mike Reid. It would be future hit after future hit. And you could tell it.
21 years later and you have 30 people doing three songs each. If one keeps your attention through the second verse you are amazed. There is no sense of story, the rhymes are so bad every thing is cliched' and so trite.
And Negative. It is as if they have emptied out every depression group, every angry chick singer, every bad attitude talking about how backward Nashville is and how they don't know any "Real songs" like the one he is doing. Of course eight minutes later, he gets to the second verse, you have already found your place to go to the bathroom.

It is common sense. Who wants to hear all this negative poor poor pitiful me ballads? Where do they think music ends up? Well, actually, their music doesn't end up anywhere.

What attracts me? Real stories with a rope of hope or something positive in it. Something that inspires without being syrupy. Something that has some touch of humor or light feel that doesn't make you want to shoot the entire round to put them out of your misery.

A common thread on this and many other forums are the dearth of a lot of material out there right now. Well, you haven't seen anything yet. Every really bad amatuer is in the game, clogging up the works. Some will find their way through. Might as well get the airsickness bags out.

There is always a really huge difference in professional writers and amatuer writers:

The amatuers write what they want to say.
The professionals write what other people want to hear.

In the words of my mentor, ASCAP's Ralph Murphy, "people need to GET OVER THEMSELVES" and quit writing and performing, ego filled crap.

That would impress me.

MAB

Last edited by Marc Barnette; 08/12/09 12:21 AM.