Polly,

You are always looking at things from your own personal perspective. You have got to look at them from the other side. imagine what you do for a living. How long you have worked at it, to build your skills, how hard you have worked, making sacrifices for your kids, your own life. And how hard you have to work all the time just to stay there. Now imagine someone saying to you, "I hate my job, I want to do what you do, but I don't want to do the same things, I don't want to work as hard, I don't want to move, I want you to accomodate me, give me your money, your contacts. " Now how would you feel?

You are competeing with us. All those guys you met, Danny Wells, Chris Wallin, David Lee, Wynne Varble, etc. you are trying for THEIR jobs. You are competing with me. Why am I supposed to roll over to accomodate you? Life doesn't work that way. I have to do those demos, write those songs, make those contacts, work with artists, every day. I actually piss a lot of those people off because I do sites like this because they feel you should have to earn it your own way they way they did.

People on the outside are saying "I really want to catch the big fish but I don't own a boat, fishing tackle, or live near a lake. But I do want to catch those fish.

Collin, I am glad you got to work with those girls. They are all very good and at one time or another all have come to me for advice. Lorna was having to move back to England and sat down with me for a consult to ask if she should stick it out. I said yes and she got a deal right after that. That deal ended not long after that and she did have to go back to Britian for a while where she owns a house. but did come back. When she had breast cancer two years ago, this entire town came together to help her out. We did tons of benefits and every day I look at an autographed guitar my girlfriend bid on with a silent auction for her.

Julie Forrester was my song plugger for a while. She worked for Sharp Objects. I met Kirstie Manna right after she moved to town and heard she was about to write with a friend of mine David Kent.The first song they wrote was "Austin", Blake Shelton's first number one. That came from a message on another friend of mine's Ash Underwood's answering machine. I don't know Brigette that well but she and Kristi are actually the only one's with hit songs.

We actually don't differ on the guitar vocal/full demos. I think you should get good guitar or piano vocals on everthing you do as a first step and getting feedback, talking to publishers, etc. I talk about when you are actually pitching to artists, producers, the industry, the end result on a pitch, you better have competitive full demos because your competition does.

One thing that I found out about hit writers from the beginning of my run in this town. First of all there are never more than about 50 people that actually make a total living from writing songs. and the majority of those are the artists. There are about 25 of the actual writers, Steele, Wiseman, Dipero, Rutherford, Berg, Neil Thrasher, Brett James, Brett Jones, Wynne Varble, Chris Wallin, Tony Lane, Danny Wells, and about 10 more that actually get enough cuts to maintain a career by writing alone. Staff deals rarely pay enough for a living, about $125-$250 a week until you actually have some success.

Almost everyone have other careers. They invest in real estate, have studios, run publishing companies, production companies,development companies, are producers themselves, (if you are Jeffery Steele and you write the songs, produce the acts, and have a cut of their product, you make ALL the money) and of course, many like myself, Lorna,Barbara Cloyd, Jason Blume, Rand Bishop, are teachers. And even if they get hot and have a lot of cuts, they continue those businesses. They are just able to put more money into them, sign more writers. Again, you are in competition with them everytime you try to play them anything.

So are the powers that be inclusive? Yes, but not to those who don't do the same thing they have to do. i have told you the story of Julie Moriva, who has a deal with Big Machine. She is staying in Green Bay and making trips.That is why I say you "don't have to be "PRESENT to WIN" but have to have a "PRESENCE" to win. That is at least making trips and developing relationships. Yes, Polly you can pitch songs from somewhere else. but no one has to listen to them and with 48,000 writers in town, 310 staff deals and less than 3,600 people employed by the ENTIRE music industry, you are competing with all of them. And there are less than about 300 actual singles released per year out of about 250,000 songs written, demoed and produced. Those are on major labels or independent labels with major distribution.

Songs take longer on the charts and radio plays less songs. So only about 200 are going to achieve any significant airplay a year. BMI and ASCAP monitor 200 songs a year. That is it. So there are less opportunities for songs. Period.

The things you can do is write and promote people in YOUR area who might be shooting for a career in Nashville. Get with up and coming artists, promote your own My Space and Facebook sites. Promote with every person you come into contact with. Polly, you should be out there performing other people's material and writing with the people you are relating to here and other places. There is a GREAT NSAI group in your neighborhood. Have you contacted them? If you want to perform on next year's Taste of Clermont festival with all the hit writers, now is the time to start working toward that. You should be working with Bob Cummings. Hell, take all my songs. I'm not using them.

I never tell ANYONE what they should or should not do. I tell them what they have to do if they want to interact with the industry here. I tell you all what the real people that are involved in this business have to do. If you want to make inroads you have to do the same thing. This has not changed since 1955 when Nashville started as a recording center.
If you go to New York, LA, Toronto, Scotland, England, etc. you will have to find the rules they go though.

But understand, you are COMPETEING with all the same people. That doesn't change. You have to decide how much you are up for the task.

MAB