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The Art of Songwriting: Panel IV
Dissecting the craft with a panel of experts.
By: Gina Kay Singerhouse
Jack Rosenquist
The best part about living in the Northwoods is the fact that each year we get to enjoy four seasons. Summer brings fall, fall brings winter and winter brings spring. Each of the seasons deliver a song that very few take the time to discover and listen.
With spring we are entertained with the gentle sounds of raindrops as they land upon various surfaces. A drop of rain can echo as it hits steel upon the roof of a shed. A drop the same size hitting the ground will echo a new sound, the same goes if it hits a branch, a leaf or the petal of a flower. If one were to listen closely, one would hear the symphony that comes with the gentle spring rains.
Spring as a whole consists of a collection of melodies. There is the melody that the robin sings when it finally arrives. One can hear the melody of the bees as they begin their work of pollinating. Perhaps the best arrangement comes deep in the woods as nature begins to awake from a long winter’s nap.
Each year we, at Strictly Country, listen to thousands of songs. We are always looking for that one particular song that will touch your heart as it enters into your soul. The song can be a heartfelt ballad that may bring tears to your eyes or it can be a light hearted melody that encourages you to stand up and dance. Either way, it touches you in such a manner that you beg to listen to it over and over again.
Too frequently, we are entertained by albums filled with songs with the same melodies. As the years progress, we find that majority of the songs released by various entertainers often contain duplicate and identical melodies. It's these duplicate melodies mixed with substandard lyrics that have prompted us to turn to the experts on the process of songwriting. Just a year ago, we started this extended article as we explored The Art of Songwriting.
So to help us all understand the songwriting process we thought that we would open up this discussion to the professionals. I put the call out to some of our friends who happen to be entertainers, songwriters and teachers of songwriting to come together to help us understand and address these issues. In each issue of Strictly Country, we will continue to address another concern about songwriting and we will discuss each of these with our panel of professionals. Let me introduce you to our panel of professionals...
The first to join our panel is Mark 'Brink' Brinkman. Brink is one of the most sought after songwriters in Bluegrass, Country and Gospel genres. His songs have been recorded by some of the most notable entertainers including Larry Sparks, Grasstowne, Don Rigsby, Lou Reid & Carolina, Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road and Dave Adkins. He has won various awards including six Spirit Awards. Many of his songs have earned positions in Strictly Country’s list of Top Songs of the year, while earning nominations for the Spirit Award’s Song of The Year. Today, he continues to write songs and is also a songwriting instructor.
Our next expert is Judy Rodman. Judy hit the country music scene with her 1986 hit song "Until I Met You." Throughout her vocal career, she has sung background vocals for some of country music's most notorious entertainers like Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette. Prior to the release of her third album, her record label folded. Instead of being in the spotlight of the music industry, Rodman focused on the behind the scenes portion. She has earned a wide variety of awards including the 2016 Spirit Award - President Choice Award for Best Country Album for her album Here We Are, recorded with her husband John Rodman. Today, she is an award winning vocal coach, recording artist, stage and television performer, public speaker, author, multi-genre hit songwriter, studio producer and vocal consultant.
Joining our panel next is Rick Stanley. Rick is the second cousin of the infamous Stanley Brothers, Carter and Ralph Stanley. Growing up Rick spent many hours with his father, Carter and Ralph singing and enjoying time well spent through music. By the age of fifteen, Rick penned the very famous Bluegrass song "Home In The Mountains." The song was originally recorded by Ralph Stanley, however, it was recorded by many other great Bluegrass artists and even earned Rick a Grammy nomination. In the 1990's he held a major publishing deal with Maypop Music and enjoyed touring with Stonewall Jackson. Today, Rick tours with his wife Donna Ulisse as a member of The Poor Mountain Boys. He also continues to write songs and is an instructor for Donna's Songwriting Escape workshops.
Our final professional to join our panel is Donna Ulisse. Donna first emerged onto the music scene in the 1980's as a demo singer and background vocalist in Country music. In 1991, she released her debut album Trouble At The Door. Since then she has migrated over to Bluegrass and recorded nine more albums. Donna is another very highly sought after songwriter in Bluegrass. She has earned many numerous award nominations and was named Songwriter of The Year by the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) in 2016. In January 2016 she earned The Spirit Award's coveted President's Choice Award for Best Bluegrass Album for Hard Cry Moon. Her songs have been recorded by a variety of artists. In 2014, Donna wrote her first book, The Songwriter In Me, to earn great reviews. Today, she continues to demo, write songs and tour with her band The Poor Mountain Boys. She also is the owner and teacher of Songwriting Escape, a touring songwriting workshop.
Of course I have to add Jack and I to this panel as well. Jack is my co-host of Strictly Country's Friday night radio show Around The Campfire. Jack served in the United States Army, is a fan and a great aficionado of Rock, Country and Bluegrass music. As for myself, for over twenty-four years I have been the owner, operator and Editor in chief of Strictly Country magazine.
Now that you know our panel of experts, let's continue with the the subject of the art of songwriting. The next question we asked our panel was this - How do you feel about other songwriters using borrowed and or stolen melodies?
“That would be very hard to get cut.” shares Rick Stanley.
“Again if you are writing commercials [songs that radio seeks], that’s a real no, no…” chimes in Donna Ulisse.
“That’s just inviting a lawsuit,” tells Rick.
In my years I have come across this quite a bit. Especially, within the last five years.
In 2013, Gretchen Wilson released her album Right On Time. The album contained twelve songs including two songs that contained stolen or borrowed melodies. The first song, “The Gypsy In Me,” comprised of the same baseline melody of the Eagles 1975 hit song “Take It To The Limit.” Gretchen claims in the liner notes that she co-wrote “Still Rollin.” How could she have co-wrote that song as it comprises of a melody taken from Jackson Browne’s 1977 hit song “Running On Empty?” She would have been four years old, when that song was written.
“When we write here at home together,” continues Rick. “sometimes she’ll [Donna] come and say ‘does this sound familiar, this melody?’ and I’ll say ‘yes’ or I’ll say ‘no’ and if I say ‘yes’ I’ll say ‘give me a minute and let’s go down and re-work it to where it don’t sound familiar.”
“So we’re very conscious of it…” chimes in Donna. “As a writer, we’re responsible. That’s our responsibility is to stay conscious of that for all writers. To get back to your question, I don’t agree with that. If you’re steppin’ on some body’s melody, it’s so easy to go in there and tweak it a little. Get away from that melody. So that’s part of our responsibility.”
In 2006, Big & Rich released their ever popular song for soldiers “The 8th of November.” Very few people know that the original version of this song had an identical melody of Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 hit song, “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald.” Knowing that Strictly Country features these types of songs in our annual Memorial Day Honors special issue, Warner Bros. Records sent us the single with the video. When asked if we would feature the song, I responded “No.” I then went on to explain the similarities including the fact that the physical wreck of the ship happened on November 11th, while the song talks about November 8th. The label’s response was “What the heck is the ‘Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald?” Well it’s only the most infamous ship wreck in Lake Superior. The label then withdrew the song and demanded that Big & Rich re-write the melody to what you hear today.
“I don’t know if people do it on purpose…” shares Mark ‘Brink’ Brinkman. “I’ve done it to the fact that I wrote a song a long time...in fact it was recorded by Dave Adkins. ‘Laura Mae,’ it’s on his Republik Steele [That’s Just The Way I Roll album]. When I originally wrote it, I had a melody and I just wrote it. I played it for a couple of friends and they go ‘well that’s the old Stanley Brothers’ song ‘Think of What You’ve Done.’ I said, ‘no way!’ I went back and listened to it and God it is—it’s note for note! ‘Think of What You’ve Done—The Stanley Brothers.’ I said ‘crap! Now I’ve got to go back and change the melody!’ So I changed the chord structure and I changed the melody. I worked at it, but I got it to where it was unique and then Dave recorded it. Sometimes you don’t do it on purpose, but we hear so much music and its in your subconscious when you writing.
A lot of times I don’t like to listen to other...songwriters will say ‘can you listen to this song and critique it?’ It’s not that I don’t want too. I’m not big on critiquing anyway, but on the other hand its like…” shares Brink. “I don’t want to hear a melody, you send me that and all of a sudden it gets into my subconscious and then six months down the road I heard that melody somewhere and I put it in one of my songs. Then all of a sudden you hear it on the radio and you say ’well heck, I sent that melody to that guy like six months ago. You don’t do it on purpose, but there’s only an eight note scale and thirteen total notes. With black notes and white notes, that’s all there is! There’s no more notes!”
If you Google “famous copyright infringement cases” you will see an endless list of plagiarism cases. Nonetheless, it is hard to sue someone for plagiarism as the person filing the lawsuit must have hard evidence of the theft.
In 2013, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood were sued by a Dallas songwriter. Amy Bowen, claimed that the country duo’s 2011 platinum hit “Remind” was of her own creation. Bowen claimed that she had performed the song at various bars, restaurants and even a songwriting workshop in Nashville. Nonetheless, Amy could not prove the substantial similarity to win the case.
Perhaps the entertainer who walks a very thin line on plagiarism is Phil Vassar. In 2004, a new entertainer by the name of Glenn Cummings appeared on the country music scene with his debut album Big. The opening song on this album was a song called “Good Old Days,” written by Tim Mathews, Dave Brainard and Dustin Evans. During an interview with us, Glenn had talked about going into the offices of a major record label and singing that song in front of various label executives and Phil Vassar. Glenn was seeking to sign a record contract with that label. On September 28, 2004, Phil Vassar released his album Shaken Not Stirred. The album opened with his song “Good Ole Days,” in which Vassar claims he wrote it with Craig Wiseman. Less than a month later Glenn released his debut album that included his song “Good Old Days.” The two songs are nearly identical in melodies and lyrics.
Today, Glenn continues to perform but only for his hometown crowd in Florida. If you take a look into Phil Vassar’s repertoire, you will find many of his songs contain riffs, melodies and lyrics that were once recorded by well known entertainers in rock-n-roll.
“If you want to borrow from a song all you have to do is ask.” shares Jack. “Take a look at Sugarloaf’s 1974 song ‘Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You.’ It uses a guitar riff from the Beatles hit song ‘I Feel Fine.’ They asked permission from the Beatles and the Beatles gave them permission to use it. Most songwriters would be flattered to have a part of their song with another song. You just have to add their name to the credits in the jewel case!”
The most recent piece of borderline plagiarism comes with Sara Petite’s album Road Less Traveled. Four of the twelve songs on the album are opened to infringement. None more so than her song “Patchwork Quilt” as it is best described as a thesaurus version of Dolly Parton’s iconic song “Coat of Many Colors.”
So where do you draw the line when it comes to plagiarism? What once took us approximately two hours to review an album, now takes us four to six hours as we have to verify that each of the songs are original works of art.
Is the method of borrowing and or stealing melodies considered creative? In our eyes, and especially in our ears, we consider this pure laziness. Sure there are only twelve notes, but there are endless possibilities to incorporate and integrate those notes into a song.
“There maybe only twelve notes, but there’s about a million chords!” adds Jack.
Soon spring will arrive here in the Northwoods. With its arrival comes a melody of it’s own. Perhaps, songwriters need to connect with Mother nature to get inspired.
Tune in next issue when we delve more into the Art of Songwriting.
(This article was printed in the March / April 2017 issue of Strictly Country Magazine.)
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