Click on Each Writer's Name to go to Their Page
The Time has come to Document
these Treasures we call Hit Songwriters!
and that is what we've committed ourselves to do
one Photo Shoot/interview at a time
these Treasures we call Hit Songwriters!
and that is what we've committed ourselves to do
one Photo Shoot/interview at a time
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By Photographers Dak Alley and LA Marie
The Songwriter
A songwriter’s day starts out with a cup of hot coffee maybe a cigarette maybe something stronger either in a home office or a publishing company anywhere in the world or maybe even down on The Row (Music Row) in Music City USA, then looking in the appointment book to see if we’re writing by ourselves or with a co-write today. Some days we may even have booked an outside studio or if we’re a bit more successful our own studio to lay the tracks on our latest work to do a full blown recording or maybe just lay it down on a voice recorder in our phone. We might be working with a guitar, keyboard or a box with beats.
We might be in a band working on songs for our next project, or a solo artist working on our next record, or maybe, just maybe, we might be that songwriter that just gets up on faith, that doesn’t have a record deal or a singing career at all. A songwriter that is totally dependent on someone else recording their works with no way of knowing what the vehicle for that song will be. Now that is the songwriter that had better be at the top of his or her game, because it’s a miracle any of us get a cut on recording artists, when you consider how many of us there are, let alone the artists that write their own songs, the publishing companies that have their own writers and who knows who owes favors to whom. But still the best way to get through all of the smoke and mirrors is to write an undeniable, certifiable hit Song!
If today’s the day we’re writing by ourselves, we may look at some of the Ideas we’ve come up with by listening to people talk, yah listening to people talk you can get some great ideas for songs. They just keep talking and don’t even realize they’ve just uttered an idea for the next big hit, or maybe we might read the paper, peruse the internet, read a book or just watch TV, I guess what I’m saying is we don’t know where the next idea is coming from so we just keep feeding the brain and see what trips us. You're only as good as your last song. Some of us need to write a song alone now and then just to make sure we can still do it. If you live in Nashville it gets so easy to just keep co-writing. Always believe what you know to be true and don't be swayed by a self proclaimed expert there are none and that includes me.
Sometimes the songs flow though us and other times we have to struggle just to make it rhyme. And what I have found is the ones that flow through us after years of learning the craft seem to be the ones that get cut. But there is no certain formula; the only thing for sure is being diligent pays off. Treating the art of songwriting as a job that you need to show up for ever day seems to work for the most successful writers. Some like to call it the parking lot wars. The last one that leaves is the winner, usually participated in by music row writers, and those are the guys usually winning the awards.
We might be in a band working on songs for our next project, or a solo artist working on our next record, or maybe, just maybe, we might be that songwriter that just gets up on faith, that doesn’t have a record deal or a singing career at all. A songwriter that is totally dependent on someone else recording their works with no way of knowing what the vehicle for that song will be. Now that is the songwriter that had better be at the top of his or her game, because it’s a miracle any of us get a cut on recording artists, when you consider how many of us there are, let alone the artists that write their own songs, the publishing companies that have their own writers and who knows who owes favors to whom. But still the best way to get through all of the smoke and mirrors is to write an undeniable, certifiable hit Song!
If today’s the day we’re writing by ourselves, we may look at some of the Ideas we’ve come up with by listening to people talk, yah listening to people talk you can get some great ideas for songs. They just keep talking and don’t even realize they’ve just uttered an idea for the next big hit, or maybe we might read the paper, peruse the internet, read a book or just watch TV, I guess what I’m saying is we don’t know where the next idea is coming from so we just keep feeding the brain and see what trips us. You're only as good as your last song. Some of us need to write a song alone now and then just to make sure we can still do it. If you live in Nashville it gets so easy to just keep co-writing. Always believe what you know to be true and don't be swayed by a self proclaimed expert there are none and that includes me.
Sometimes the songs flow though us and other times we have to struggle just to make it rhyme. And what I have found is the ones that flow through us after years of learning the craft seem to be the ones that get cut. But there is no certain formula; the only thing for sure is being diligent pays off. Treating the art of songwriting as a job that you need to show up for ever day seems to work for the most successful writers. Some like to call it the parking lot wars. The last one that leaves is the winner, usually participated in by music row writers, and those are the guys usually winning the awards.
Documenting Songwriter
History
History
One Hit Songwriter At A Time
All Photographs by Ladak Productions except Archive "Tin Pan Alley"
Music Row
Songwriters
Click on Some Writer's Photographs to go to Their Page
Allen Shamblin
Jan Buckingham
RL Castleman
Marv Green
Even Stevens
Paul Craft
Phil O'Donnell
Mary Ann Kennedy
tim Nichols
Tin Pan Alley
Music Row