I have hundreds of songs sitting on shelves collecting dust—instead of royalties. Many of them were written decades ago and they were in sync, lyrically and melodically, to the eras in which they were composed. But as Larry Beaird, top session guitarist and owner of Beaird Music Group, stated, “Times… Read more...
To grab our listeners’ attention we need to separate our songs from the competition, and one way to accomplish this is by including an unexpected twist—an element of surprise. This article examines various ways to incorporate twists into lyrics and melodies. Story Songs With Surprise Endings “Ol’ Red” (written by… Read more...
In the eight years that Joss Stone has been in the international spotlight, you’d have to believe she’s fielded questions on just about every topic under the sun at least twice. And yet she sounds pleasantly surprised to find her songwriting the focus of an interview: “Oh, cool! That’s really… Read more...
A good bit of contemporary country lyric-writing hinges on tangible detail. A song might, say, paint a picture of how the characters in it are dressed, what they’re driving, where they’re headed, what they’re going to do once they get there and what the weather’s like, all of which helps… Read more...
Big Lonesome, Marshall Chapman’s first album since 2006’s Mellowlicious, is not the record she had planned to make. Chapman had been hoping to record an album of duets with fellow BMI singer/songwriter Tim Krekel, but those plans ended with Krekel’s death in June 2009. His passing was an enormous personal… Read more...
Nashville music writer and singer/songwriter Peter Cooper recently compiled “50 Country Songs Every Songwriter Should Know,” and the majority of ranking honky-tonk prototypes are BMI classics. Featured in the current issue of American Songwriter, the list kicks off with “Lost Highway,” penned by BMI songwriter Leon Payne and inimitably recorded… Read more...
When British troupe One Eskimo shot to the top of AAA charts, present and past collided. The band’s “Kandi” is a combination of freewheeling cover, inspired original, and DJ-sampling savvy: As One Eskimo frontman Kristian Leontiou’s lilting vocals launch into the familiar refrain of “He Called Me Baby,” he is… Read more...
With a voice like a wrecking ball made of honey, Patty Loveless tears into the opening lines of Harlan Howard’s 1962 classic “Busted,” the first song on Mountain Soul II, the long-awaited continuation of the critically acclaimed 2001 album that laid bare the Kentucky coal mining roots of the gold-selling,… Read more...
BMI hosted a spirited celebration to toast Music Row’s Chicks with Hits’ ten years of success Wednesday, October 8. The songplugging coalition invited their closest allies and friends from the past decade, and guests enjoyed good company, hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and a video cataloging the Chicks’ triumphs. Joe Nichols’ “Tequila… Read more...
BMI Sponsors Stage for Fifth Consecutive Year BMI, the leading performing right organization, is proud to present and sponsor a stage at the Austin City Limits Music Festival September 14-16, in Austin, Texas. The namesake of the long-running PBS series, ACL fittingly invades the Live Music Capital of the… Read more...
