Hi Rob. Let me just start out with what I thought was fantastic! You have a splendid rich voice or one hell of a good sound engineer--I suspect both! The mix between your guitar and vocals sounded excellent. The country song fits very well in with today's country as well. You have a good basic song structure with a good melody that captures the listener. Musically, I'm curious to see what you want to add to your mix. From what I'm hearing I'll tell you what I'd like to see you entertain: A live violin that arrives at the 1st chorus with the base guitar as well. I like your rhythm guitar starting the song and carrying it alone with the first vs with drums. The violin or I should say fiddle with a country song, can be as dominant as you want or just here and there--experiment. I would use an accustic guitar for some rifts or fiddle or both. I love "Steel Guitar," but I wouldn't use it on this song--it would make it too "classic country" which is not a bad thing, but to me it would change the feel of what I've heard thus far. Every artist has there own picture in their mind with their art--I'm not saying I know what's best, just giving you my thoughts as I feel your song.

Now my thoughts on your lyrics. This is where I would be more critcal from a "composition perspective. The phrases all fit well, (except for the line after Elvis, "It was kind of the same thing." I don't like that line; although it says what you wish to express, but it just sounds like your forgot the real line an ad-libed that line. You can find something better there. LET ME SAY THIS--THERE ARE FAMOUS SONGS BY FAMOUS ARTISTS WITH LYRICS THAT ARE SUB-PAR, their fans or their record labels won't care if they're selling millions of records and packing the concert arenas. Ok, as one trying to climb the ladder, you will be scrutinized technically more than the "big boys." We all know that country music wouldn't be cool if all of the grammar was precise and correct, right? I'm not talking about that, I write country music myself and leave off the (ing) in talk'n or walk'n because that's how country music should be. But one thing I do very much believe is--a song's lyric structure from a compostion perspective does matter. I would recommend you trying to keep your subject matter within a verse or chorus more closely connected. Ex: Your chorus within the first four lines tells the listener about dad being a simple man that worked hard at the mill, has since died, we miss him. (let the verses tell the main story) The same chorus's ending four lines discuss the girl with big jugs and the boys are headed to "Cloud Nine." You need the second group of lines or something that works with "Morgana's dancing there." But they don't connect with the first four lines composition-wise. It's like having two subjects within one paragraph. Think of song verses as chapters in your story--they all need to relate. You can bring different sub-topics into your song as long as they connect fairly directly. We songwriters unlike novelists only have about 4 minutes of discussion to tell our story. Let your verses each have their own subject and tell the story, let the chorus dramatize and emphasize the story's main theme. Let the Bridge digress, yet relate and make a statement.

Sorry for such a long critique, the bottom line is I'm envious of your voice. I am really impressed and would be happy to help you with composition structure should you ever want that--or you can just tell me to go fly a kite, and that is cool too.

Very nice song, steady-eddie.

Last edited by E Swartz; 03/16/12 02:45 AM.