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James,

I understand where you are coming from regarding TAXI, but I have also received input from paid critiques and A&R people who have listened to this song and they tell me the same thing TAXI does - good melody, good lyric but not 'country enough', an album cut but not a hit. This was a very good song with the original lyrics but that is the problem. There are lots and lots of very good songs out there, but publishers, artists, and A&R people are looking for hits, and not just hits, but 'Smash Hits'. I believe that I could have gotten an album cut with this song (original lyric) if I had a track record and was known writer working as a staff writer or had a top ten hit or two under my belt. Having listened to a number of country songs, I now realize that they were right about the original lyric. There is a formula in Nashville and if you don't use it, you have a snowball's chance in Hell of getting your song heard by the right people.

As an artist, the reality of the industry doesn't make me too happy. But if you aren't willing to write what the industry wants, you will keep running into rejections. Writing commercial stuff can be just as rewarding artistically as writing the experimental or exotic stuff. I try to do both kinds of writing, but I harbor no illusions that my non-commercial stuff will ever get cut unless I form my own band and get a record deal.