Kathy Kallick On Songwriting

February 28, 2009

Since 1975, Kathy Kallick has released 14 albums and recorded over 100 of her original songs, including four “solo” albums for Sugar Hill and Copper Creek Records. She has won a Grammy and two IBMA Awards for her part on True Life Blues: The Songs Of Bill Monroe and was recently recognized with a “Lifetime [...]

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Problem Solving

February 17, 2009

Sometimes it can be helpful to look at one creative pursuit through the lens of another.
What can shopping for fresh ingredients and then prepping and cooking a wonderful meal teach you about songwriting? How does your knowledge of, say, storytelling or literature inform your efforts in an adjacent area of interest?
I’ve come to believe that [...]

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Jim Hurst On Songwriting

February 9, 2009

I had the pleasure and privilege of listening to Jim Hurst perform his special brand of musical magic this weekend. Performing with the totally awesome Claire Lynch Band (in my former home town of Sebastopol no less), Jim presented a delectable, bottomless cornucopia of melody, tones, percussion and brilliant phrases song after song, each one [...]

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Creativity Anxiety

February 4, 2009

Have you ever written a song only to wonder 1) where it came from and
2) if you’ll ever be able to write another good one again?
Songwriting is not a formula or a recipe. If it were, you could simply document the process and repeat it over and over again. Kind of like the scientific method, [...]

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Valerie Jay On Songwriting

January 26, 2009

Valerie Jay was born and raised in Hull, county of Yorkshire, England. The youngest of five children, she picked up the guitar at age 15 and founded her first band, Skyline, performing her own material. Valerie relocated to San Francisco in 2001 where she formed Valerie Jay & the Americanos, a country-based roots-rock band that [...]

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The Community Decides

January 20, 2009

Congratulations Barack Obama on this, your first day as President of the United States.
One of the mantras of social media and the blogosphere is “The Community Decides,” which simply means that the interaction between people enabled by the Internet has the power to override the starmakers, the record labels, the gatekeepers and [...]

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Kevin Russell On Songwriting

January 12, 2009

Kevin Russell is a singer, songwriter and talented multi-instrumentalist who has performed extensively with various bands and backed up many a singer/songwriter on stage. Joe Falletta once wrote in Bluegrass Now that “It always amazes me that Kevin Russell is still self-produced. Kevin is one commanding talent; that he hasn’t yet been picked up by [...]

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Fast Fingers

January 5, 2009

Got fast fingers?
…and an insatiable urge to razzle dazzle?
Well here’s an idea for the New Year: be selective and think variety.
When you listen to others perform music, how long do you stay interested and engaged when you’re presented with a wall of sound?
There have been many times when I’ve been initially impressed with someone’s dexterity [...]

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Amy Wigton On Songwriting

December 1, 2008

Amy Wigton is a singer/songwriter with a “voice as big as all outdoors.” She plays a solid rhythm guitar heavily laced with tasty picking as her voice soars from a beefy wail to a soft whisper. Audiences are moved by the dynamic roller-coaster ride of emotions that her songs convey.
Rick: As a performer, you [...]

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Equal Time?

November 25, 2008

Is your every song extraordinary, every performance brilliant?
Long before the first well-meaning “other” helps you understand what you could have done better, there’s probably a voice in your own head that has already noticed many of the ways you need or want to improve.
For some of us the “inner critic” can be a helpful consultant, [...]

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