Big Jim,

We all actually agree much more than we dissagree. We all believe that the song is the most important thing. It is the intracacies on songs that we dissagree with mostly. And the business things we talk about are all from our individual tastes and experiences. That is why there is no really right or wrong answers, just opinions.
and since none of us own record labels or are big publishers, artists, or even monster can't miss writers (in the eyes of the industry) we often see things out there that don't meet our personal standards, but who the Hell are WE? Most of us don't even buy today's music, so it doesn't make differences.

Ray, my suggestion to you and anyone is to use resources around you to make up for geographic, age, or whatever that might challenge you. My principal business is working with people who DON'T live in Nashville, and some that don't even make trips. But they do connect through various ways, the Internet being chief among them, that helps them bridge those gaps.

In the example I have given on the school teacher from Wisonsin, she now has a writing deal, and is being paid to write and make her trips by a major company while still living in Wisconsin. It is because she made the best of her trips, connected with quite literally hundreds of people who are now representing her while she is not there.

And at the end of the day I want to stress one thing I say over and over. I am NEVER interested in someone getting hit songs, becoming stars, making lots of money. Those are all by products that happen sometimes but is not a prerequesent. I am interested in people interacting with each other, make cool music, make more friends and finding the best way on their respective journeys. I just think that all of that is easier done the more you work with other people,get outside of yourself, and the more you build your friends, your catalogues and your knowledge, and then share that with others passing it forward.

That is my total intention. Because of things like this, I know a guy in Scotland, who I might not always agree with, but feel I am better for knowing him and always makes me think of all sides of an equation.
I know a guy from Denmark who seems to know more about Nashville and the industry than many people who run publishing companies and always has an interesting way of saying things.
I meet people out who come to Nashville and might have picked up a tip or two from something I said and they make a point to contact me and invite me to their shows.

And through me I would like to think people know they have a friend more than an adversary. I am never pollyanna, "everything is beautiful" about the industry, the people in it, or a lot of the material that passes for songs that are out there. I hate a lot of it, consider it amateur and agree with most of you on a lot of things in society as a whole that have brought so many things down. I know it first hand. My overall point is that I can't do anything about that. So I try to focus on things I think can make a difference and will help.

At the end of the day, sometimes I may sound like a "one note horse" about nashville and country, but I am actually just talking about the entire process of writing and the struggle to get heard.

That is all that I ever ask that people keep in mind when I say things.
MAB