Jim,

One hundred percent of what I have had cut were collaborations. Five major label cuts probably a couple hundred independent cuts. And One hundred of what I pitch are collaborations. I do write a few things myself but they have very little interest to me. Since I am teaching by doing, it is the little light bulbs that go off over their heads showing them a way to do something they didn't think of before that is the reward to me. And then to see songs they write later with other people are what makes things work for me.

Nadia, I am pretty sure on here I was the one that said "Nashville is not about who you know. It is about WHO knows you and how they know you." But I didn't start that saying. As far as I can tell it came from the fifties in Nashville but one of the first people I knew about saying it was Kris Kristofferson, who said it in the seventies. Someone told me that Brian Epstein told the Beatles that in the 60's as well, but I have never seen that personally.

Not much has changed over the years. That is pretty much how music has always been, from the writers, to the artists, to the publishers, to the record companies, to the fans, it is always pretty much about who knows you and how they know you.

MAB