BMI partnered recently (08/27/22) with Federated Media’s WBYT B100 country station for the 2nd Annual BMI Songwriters in-the-round held at the rooftop bar of Four Winds Field in South Bend, IN. Headlining the sold-out show were BMI Nashville singer-songwriters Elvie Shane, Adam James, and Shelby Darrall. BMI Singer/Songwriter Elvie Shane… Read more...
I was recently asked how the tools and techniques I teach today differ from those I have taught in the past. Have I noticed any recent changes in successful songs and in the processes of writing them? I looked back over the thirty years that I have been teaching songwriting,… Read more...
At my BMI Nashville Songwriters’ Workshops, I screen and critique songs from each attendee. When I find songs that I believe are competitive with those being written by today’s top hitmakers, I forward them to ten music publishers who have agreed to listen. After the last BMI Workshop, I forwarded… Read more...
When I worked in the A & R Department at a major record label, and later, as production coordinator for albums by hit artists, in many cases, my ears were the first barrier that had to be crossed when a song was submitted for those acts. Almost all the songs… 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...
Your title and concept are the foundations upon which your entire lyric will be built. The strongest lyrics deliver listeners to the title, and the title is the logical conclusion of the lines that precede it. If you build on a weak foundation you’ll be facing an uphill battle to… Read more...
Music industry guests assembled at the Pour House February 2, 2015, to celebrate BMI songwriter Brantley Gilbert’s #1 hit song “Bottoms Up.” The double platinum-certified hit was penned with Brett James and Justin Weaver. “Bottoms Up” marks the fifth chart-topper for Brantley as a songwriter and third as an artist… Read more...
Lauren Alaina isn’t the first precocious teenager to set her sights on Nashville. As the 16-year-old prepares for an October 11 launch of her debut, Wildflower, she walks a path traveled by stars like Taylor Swift, Leann Rimes, Tanya Tucker, and Brenda Lee. But Alaina is the rare teen prodigy… Read more...
When Tim McGraw first arrived in Nashville 20 years ago, he was just one more gung-ho foot soldier in the city’s perpetually teeming ranks of country music aspirants, battling it out on nightclub stages and facing tremendous odds against ever making any headway. Yet within several years, the Louisiana-born singer-guitarist… Read more...
BMI will head south with a slew of Music City’s ace songwriters in tow for the 12th annual Key West Songwriters’ Festival in Key West, Florida, May 2-6. Designed to thrust the writers behind today’s country hits into a deserved spotlight, the festival boasts intimate live performances in… Read more...
