This young lady is not bluegrass oriented in her songwriting, however, it’s really nice to hear how she is putting together a very pretty song. Her voice is very nice. I think it’s very important as a songwriter of any genre to hear how other people write and create. Enjoy this nice little insight into the mind of a songwriter!

Oh yes, and Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Keep writing!!!!

Walt Aldridge Workshop Announced
NSAI Kalamazoo/Battle Creek chapter to host a workshop with Pro-Writer Walt Aldridge!
Saturday, August 22, 2009

About Walt:
Billboard magazine named Aldridge one of the Top Ten Country Songwriters of the year twice on the strength of such songs as Ricky Van Shelton’s “I Am A Simple Man”. His song “No Getting Over Me” was named one of ASCAP’s most performed country songs. “Holding Her and Loving You” was named Song of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International.

A partial listing of Top Ten hits written or co-written by Aldridge includes:
“I Loved Her First” Heartland
“The Fear of Being Alone” Reba McEntire
“Holding Her and Loving You” Earl Thomas Conley
“No Getting Over Me” Ronnie Milsap
“I Am A Simple Man” Ricky Van Shelton
“Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde” Travis Tritt

Walt will present the workshop from 10:00am- 2:00pm (including song evaluations) in the Kalamazoo area.
There will also be a concert that evening @ 8pm.
The fee for NSAI members :$40 (includes a ticket to the show)
Non-members pay $50 for the workshop and $10.00 for the concert.
You do not have to participate in the evaluation to attend the workshop.

Please contact Kalamazoo coordinators listed below for more information on how to register for the event.
James Leo Oliver- zorozero@sbcglobal.net
Susan Harrison- palamazoo@yahoo.com

More information about Walt can be found on his website www.waltaldridge.com
Don’t miss a great opportunity to network with a Pro-Writer and our songwriting friends in Kalamazoo!
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Believe it or not… your songs don’t have to rhyme to be a good bluegrass song!  Many new contempory bluegrass songs don’t ryhme…  and so do many of the old standards.   You want to have a good sense of “singability” however, especially in the chorus, if you want your song to be easy on the memory…  “like” or “close” rhymes often work nicely in a chorus while the main verses of a song can be absolutely not rhyming…  give it a try!

The Bluegrass and acoustic music industries have a plethora of great recording and marketing services for musicians to utilize.  New to the market is Nashville based,Unplugged demos, that offers songwriters the opportunity to produce quality, and affordable demos.  Unplugged Demos was started by Troy Engle and Justin Carbone when they realized the opportunity that existed in the bluegrass market to provide this service for the growing number of songwriters looking for ways to better market their music.  Carbone and Engle both have many years of experience in bluegrass and acoustic music, having recorded and played with artists such asTom T. Hall, Patty Loveless, The Isaacs, Rob and Ronnie McCoury, Dale Ann Bradley, Special Consensus, and The Mark Newton Band. So, if you need quality demos for your music, don’t hesitate to give these folks a call at (615) 336-1157, or email them at troy@unpluggeddemos.com.

Bluegrass lyrics are well known for their references to things close to the heart of sentimental people.   My own family comes from East Tennessee, and I can attest to the fact that these themes are a part of my ancestry.

My Great Grandfather, Jim Gamble, who people referred to as “Daddy Jim,” was Deputy Sheriff of Blount County, and lived in a Hollow east of Knoxville.  He and his family lived in a tin-roofed shack, and farmed corn and tobacco in addition to his services as a Deputy.  There are stories about how Daddy Jim used to hunt down moonshine stills in the foothills of the Smokies, and how his best friend nearly shot him as he walked up on his still.  You can’t get any better fodder for a bluegrass songs than the real life stories I’ve heard from my relatives in Tennessee.

Those songs will always be fun and nostalgic to sing, but let’s face it, the overwhelming majority of us have never lived in abject poverty, run barefoot through hollows, and backwood trails, or hunt raccoons at three o’clock in the morning. Let’s not forget the fact that most of have never seen the inside of a coal mine, nor have we run moonshine.  We all love to sing these tunes, but ultimately we cannot sing them with the kind of soulful hurt and feel I remember hearing Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, and Jimmy Martin sing.

The bottom line is that we need new subject matter for bluegrass songs, and happily we are seeing more of it.  There are newer bands writing songs with themes that would fit equally with people who live in Detroit or Knoxville.  They don’t all have to be about outdated themes like the log home crashing down after the twister hits, or little sister taking sick and dying before the community doctor shows up on a pack mule.  These are great tunes, and heaven knows I love history, yet the music MUST evolve and grow with themes people can relate to in this day and age.

If you are interested in having your song listed here on the Bluegrass Songwriter blog, then please consider sending us an email here…. SONG CRITIQUE and we’l be happy to consider adding it to the blog. We look forward to helping other songwriters find their voice!

Please consider giving these songwriters some feedback on a song that they wrote…   it’s called  Back Home in West Virginia.  We have given you a YOUTUBE video to listen to, as well as a MP3 link.

We find that many people really enjoy this song, and it’s gotten the most attention of all of our videos uploaded.

Written by: Sherri Chekal and Jeff Birdwell
Performed by: The Deepwater Bluegrass Band

Back Home in West Virginia by Deepwater Bluegrass

BGSW.com CRITIQUE GUIDELINES:

Please understand that this for positive, encouraging songwriting assistance.  Unnecessarily harsh, rude or flaming comments will be deleted.  Please consider your comments before posting.  The music benefits when we help and encourage each other.

If you have a song you would like BGSW.com to critique, please contact us at:  songs@westvon.com

It’s always hard to get a new blog going.  We hope that you will enjoy this offering of a place where you can have your songs critiqued…   learn some news about songwriting or share some advice, success or ideas.

If you have something that you would like to have included here… please feel free to email me: sherri@westvon.com

We’ll try and get this up and running and useful for your songwriting needs!

-sherri