JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum "Nashville style and process" is everywhere.

Bob Dylan is indeed a lone writer. But he is an artist and performer. He didn't pitch songs or make demos, he waded right into the New York City folk scene and played all the clubs where he caught the attention of manager John Hammond of CBS records, who, if I recall right, paired him with Albert Grossman, ex-owner of Chicago's jazz and later folk club, the Gate of Horn.

Mr. Grossman was already the manager for my late friend Bob Gibson, who was one of the biggest folk stars at that time. Grossman had this idea that Gibson should start a trio with another fellow and a girl, first he paired him with Hamilton Camp, which resulted in the great live album, Gibson and Camp at the Gate of Horn. Gibson didn't want to add someone else, so Grossman found Peter, Paul and Mary.

The point is, the folk scene has always been personality and image driven, rather than song driven. Some of the songs were old traditional tunes that might have been "tweaked" by the singers so they could make more money from the mechanicals. It was the legacy of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger that got the ball rolling for songwriters, but it was an image of the lone troubador that kept most of it as solo writing. Most of those songs were faux "folk" songs or what I call "folklike" songs. Trying to sound like they jumped off the pages of the Lomax book, but more often sounding like something from a Broadway musical (Paint Your Wagon, Finian's Rainbow, or more like "A Mighty Wind" LOL).

Still, the whole thing was, and is, serious business. It's more "indie" now since the sales numbers dropped after the Beatles, but still business, replete with its own convention, the Folk Alliance. So, just like gangsta rap doesn't have singers, or bluegrass doesn't have drums, "Folk" often has solo writers, but by and large, all the other music biz quirks apply. It still boils down to personal relationships, building a fan base, and working like crazy.