Originally Posted by Mike Caro Substudio
[/quote]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.

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Ah! Great to see somebody "Get It"

RB, you totally get what's going on and how to look at it. Adjust or do something else for a living. Plain & Simple. I wish it could be different where anything we wanted to do could be a hit.

As for the song, "Liberty" I know it well as I mixed it lol... It would be very cool done by a band. And NO BANDS! do other peoples songs anymore, that is the main musical reason I'm starving!

Every conclusion that you have come to is SPOT ON! Great work!

All the best! [/quote]

Sub,

Thanks for the input. Try not to get too discouraged. Think of it this way. The writers on the inside were once starving writers on the outside knocking at the door just like we are. They got their break. Everybody starts off as a nobody. It just takes one 'yes', one song to make the charts, and you will open a lot of doors. It isn't impossible. You just need to have a great song and the determination not to take 'no' for an answer.

I think your stuff is awesome. The only problem I see with your songs is that they are in the wrong genre. You have to go where the opportunity is and that is in the Country market. The best thing I can say about my recent financial problems is that the depression they have caused has inspired me to write some of my best stuff to date, stuff I truly think is twice as good as the song in this thread. I will post some as soon as I can find the money to get them demoed.

Fisherman hook fish; songwriters fish for hooks

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