Magne,

I am fine. Thank you for asking. I try every day in every way I can to bring something good and positive to the world in the way of writing, conversations, teaching, critiques, whatever. That is my personality. I could die tomorrow and I have had a pretty good life. My personal feelings are not so much about myself as it is the future. Future for our industry, for our kids, for people who come after us. And of course I am sure that there are people out there who might be reading things we say here and it could have either a positive or negative affect on us and that could lead to a financial or career move that could be great.

So from time to time I see a culmination of things converge that lead me to want to throw up my hands and say "What the hell?" It doesn't last long, I am usually ready to up and go the next day. And I do. I keep moving forward.

But what I do mostly on these threads and others is respond to what other people say or thoughts that are put out there. And my opinions and information are not just made up or read in an Internet piece, but are straight from either personal experience or from the actual people who are involved in these issues, such as television producers, major artists or industry people. I sometimes know about these issues before they become public and know at least some of the people involved.

Does that make me know everything? Of course not. I just have some specific information from specific sources. It is not the only side, but at times the only side that makes sense for me.

We all have opinions here and that is why I come out. I simply want to be able to insert my own when it seems relevant. For the most part it is best for me when people are talking about things I deal with every day, demos, writing, co-writing situations, networking, business areas, that I try to impart some specific knowledge. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it is irrelevant to the situations some people are in.It is an opinion but often a somewhat educated one.

We saw over the past few days someone getting into some weirdness regarding a critique. Fine. If that person has a problem with the critique, that is part of it. And why you get multiple critiqes. If several people independently say the same thing, you might want to listen. But these are JUST SONGS! There is no reason to get in a snit about it. And this same kind of attitude, defensive, angry, bitter, are EXACTLY what we see in the music industry all the time.

It is why I have said over and over that you are judged 85% "off the field when it comes to music. The people who come in to Nashville from out of town and then get mad because their songs may be with overdone subject matter, trite rhymes or cliched' titles, or weak sounding demos. That does not mean anything toward them, just that they need to understand the market better.But they don't take it like that and it creates unnessasary friction. That leads to bad feelings and terrible reputations.

So that is what it is. Every once in a while I get kind of tired of some of the same things over and over here that I see in my regular life. When I am being paid to consult and guide people, I have to take that into consideration. I have their overall career welfare in mind, not just one or two songs.

Here I just respond to what other people say. They can take it or leave it. And once in a while you may hear that from me. I try to keep it to a minimum and stay mostly on subject.

Thanks for the comments and always thanks for your opinions. You are very insightful. I hope to meet you face to face someday.

MAB

Last edited by Marc Barnette; 09/16/09 12:59 PM.