Nashville, TN is the stomping ground of some of the best songwriters in the world. If there were graduate degrees awarded in songwriting, no doubt Music Row could sprout universities with top-notch professors as quick as major labels lose money. Because of the little big town feel, affordable living, and high quality of craftspeople living and breathing songwriting, I felt Nashville was the obvious place to go to hone my craft. That was 10 years ago now, and in that time, I’ve had the pleasure of learning from some of the most incredible craftspeople I know.
Unless you regularly skim the liner notes of country records, you may not be aware of some of the lesser-publicized names in the industry. To listen only to the singles released on the radio limits our view to those middle-of-the-road tunes that may or may not be representative of the songwriter’s style and I’ll say it - quality. Take some time out for an afternoon, and scour the internet for the song titles and writers that grace the tracks on the album you’re not as familiar with. It may help you to think differently about your own songs, the ones you write inbetween the big hits that seem to come much too infrequently.
There are a few writers I’d like to share with you here, directing you to their myspace pages or elsewhere for some listening fun. Each one has had a single on the radio. These are the folks who are writing 2-3 if not more songs a week, because they love it, and because they know to write a hit, you’ve got to write the hundred songs that came before it.
