Polly,

I don't have to picture it. I hear it around 25-30 times a night every writer's night out there.

There is always another option. You could do a You Tube video. If it is as strong as you say it is, that could create a viral sensation.

I know this song is special to you and that is the best thing that any song can do,move us. But you have to have perspective and that is what I think you don't have. Just because you haven't heard them doesn't mean they are not everywhere.

About 5 years ago I had two women doing one of my tours.One was a performer who wanted live performance suggestions. The other was a non-performer. As I got into song critiques and went through what one had, the non-performer didn't say anything. After a while I said "Look you are paying me for this, don't you want play a song?" She said "No, my ideas are very unique and I hear people in Nashville steal them."

I said "Well, in my experience that is a myth and we are all writing the same stuff. So I'm willing to bet it has been done."

She argued with me quite a bit then agreed to play a song. It was one that she had never played "for anyone."

She did it and it was as cliched' and contrived as anything I had heard. and I told her so.
She got defensive and argued with me until I decided to discontinue that discussion. I worked with the other one.

The performer's goal was to cull down her songs to her best two and then perform them on a writers night. I had booked myself on one and will get the performers up with me so they don't have to wait in line.

As we went to the writer's night and sat down the host came over and asked when we wanted to go up. I said that they were from Lexington Ky. and needed to see something before they went back so to put a round up before us.

We sat down and ordered food and drinks. The first guy in the first round, started his first song. The opening line was virtually identical to the one the woman had. The second one was identical to her second one, the third, the fourth, getting into the chorus, the chorus and the pay off. The title was the same. it was the same song, and this woman had never played hers for anyone.

As she sat there open mouthed, and turned to me, I said "Welcome to Twang Town."

It happens almost every tour I do with someone.They have ideas and songs they think have never been done in just that way. And they have. If you write things in an emotional manner you are going to write something that has been done for years and thousands of times. There is no way to avoid it,like the shark in Jaws. We write the same emotions, the same settings. Most music is exactly the same, just twists on it. There are only 12 notes.

That is why this is so hard.

But for anyone that has that one song that they believe in, there are always recording studios, You Tube,My Space,Facebook,
web sites,etc. That is what the Internet is for. To get songs, poetry, books, creative endeavors out there.

MAB

Last edited by Marc Barnette; 08/03/10 10:55 AM.