Tammy,

As Bobbie Gallup says, it's not who you know, it's who knows you. And, I'd add: it's what they know you as.

I know a fellow, he'll remain nameless. He's a wonderful songwriter, well known by a lot of stars. When he plays in Nashville, there will always be famous folks in the audience. But this guy doesn't get cuts. Why? He doesn't follow the rules. Sometimes they're the business rules: he won't split publishing, won't allow holds on his songs, won't co-write. Sometimes it's the writing rules: a lot of his songs will have one or two lines that are squirrelly...they'll be uncleaar, or a little hard to sing, maybe a little controversial, or simply out of the genre, but he won't change them.

He knows a lot of the right folks. A lot of the right folks know him. But, they don't know him as someone who is easy to work with. He's thought of as a "clueless" genius.

So, when folks mention rules here at JPF, everybody jumps in and yells "THERE AIN'T NO STINKING RULES!" When I was teaching music, that's what I heard from the kids day in and day out. The truth is, there are rules, a rule is not a law, a rule is a direction, a recipe. If you want to be a chef at a world class restuarant, you've got to show the boss that you can follow a recipe AND that you can improvise. Back to music, if the producer wants a certain kind of song for Tim McGraw, almost like your song, but the publisher is afraid you won't or can't fix the song, you won't get pitched. At some point, if you want to get good cuts, you've got to show that you can play by the rules, that you can break the rules, you know the difference, and you can control it.

Now, of course, there are songwriters here who are totally free-form and almost "wild" in their ideas, but savvy biz folks will usually get them co-writing with good "structure" writers. The wild ones who won't co write end up...well...they end up like my friend, the "clueless" genius.

Nothing wrong with breaking the rules, but don't expect to play at someone else's table.

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music