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Panel VIII
Dissecting the craft with a panel of experts.
By: Gina Kay Singerhouse
Jack Rosenquist
Once upon a time… These are the all too familiar words that initiate a story. Some storytellers delve right into their tale, while others waste time, sharing the background information, that will eventually lead to the tale.
As an avid reader, I am one that often thinks about the events leading up to the story that I am reading. Where did these characters come from? What was their childhood like? What events took place for them to come together to create the adventure I am reading?
Have you ever seen a movie where the storyline dragged on? A film, where three-quarters of it was spent on establishing a foundation to the last quarter of the movie? Once the movie ends, you are left dangling, while questioning why you wasted your time watching said movie?
One of the greatest actors was a man named Leslie Neilson. Mr. Neilson was a true entertainer who could give a simple facial expression that said a thousand words. Today’s actors lack this talent, therefore, the storyline must adapt through spoken word. This creates a longer and repulsive film.
This crosses over into music. No matter what genre of music that you listen to, we are hearing more songs that are destroyed through the over use of lyrics.
Too frequently, we are entertained by albums filled with songs that are over powered with rhyme and too many lyrics. As the years progress, we find that majority of the songs released by various entertainers often contain so much rhyme and too many lyrics that it compromises the meaning behind the lyrics. These dominating lyrical rhymes mixed with duplicate melodies have prompted us to turn to the experts on the process of songwriting. Almost two years ago, we started this extended expose` as we explored The Art of Songwriting.
So to help us all understand the songwriting and recording 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 issues in songwriting. 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 us introduce you to our panel of professionals...
The first to join this panel is Mark 'Brink' Brinkman. Brink is one of the most highly sought after songwriters in Bluegrass, Country and Gospel genres. His songs have been recorded by some of the music industries highly 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 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 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, with 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 1990s 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 named Songwriter of The Year by the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) in 2016. In January 2016, she earned The Spirit Award's 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-five 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 subject of the art of songwriting. In this segment, we address the issue of over use of lyrics. We have come across several albums and songs where it sounds like the songwriter had a great story to tell within the song, however, they used too many words that as a listener, we get lost in the song as we are trying to figure out what the meaning behind the song. The final question we asked our panel of experts is - as a songwriter, how do you address this issue as you write the song?
“Meter, I guess would be the word for that.” replies Rick Stanley.
“Edit…” Donna Ulisse chimed in. “Edit...I would think you’d just have to become more efficient. Rick can tell ya, I drive him crazy with the edit phase of anything we write. I go back through with a magnifying glass and any unnecessary word or any description that takes the whole line to describe when I can probably find a couple of really juicy adjectives or something to put in there and make that line more efficient. That’s what I am always looking for, is to cut and dice!”
“And she’s good at it!” laughs Rick.
“We’ll write something and he’ll go - It’s done!” continues Donna. “I mean, five days later I’m whittling on it because I just think there’s another way to say it.”
Language has a natural rhythm and all one has to do is focus on the rhythm of the lyric. Songs are a form of communication and words should sound natural when the song is being sung. Some songwriters begin with the natural sound of the lyrics to form the melody around them. Others, like Sylvia, begin with a melody. They will essentially live with that melody until the melody produces the lyrics or storyline. Some songs are collectively written with the melody and lyrics together.
“Songs need to breathe; you need to give time for the listener to digest what you’re saying. A lot of that can be accomplished… so many writers put in ands, buts and ifs and thats and thes - if you just take those out you gain all kinds of more space.” adds Brink Brinkman. “I do that all the time. Me and Paula [Breedlove] do that, because Paula doesn’t write music and a lot of the time she puts the ands and buts in there. But when I construct the melody, I change some things, I make it fit, and that’s the first thing I do.”
Instead of adding an ‘and’, a more accomplished songwriter would pause for effect. Brink’s songs are notorious for getting to the point. Within the short stanza, he is able to paint a broader description for the listener to picture and understand the message of the song.
“It’s not gonna matter as long as you hit on the meaning…” continues Brink. “People aren’t even going to know!”
A perfect example of overuse of words is found in any novel written by Stephen King. Although King is an accomplished author, a person can take any one of his books and subtract half of the storyline to create a much more entertaining tale.
Getting back to music, the overuse of lyrics is more commonly found in folk music than country. Nonetheless, there are those like Bob Dylan, who succeeded in creating songs that were concise and complementary to the listener’s intelligence.
Donna Ulisse once told me that the best thing that a writer, any writer can do is have a thesaurus near by. The use of a thesaurus can make or break any writing experience.
“The new country songs, if they got paid by the word, those guys really would be rich!” laughs Judy Rodman. “I made the mistake, a long time ago, of trying to correct an alt-Pop student of mine when I was writing with her towards a Pop project. I told her I said ‘Let’s just make these lines a little shorter. There’s way too many words in this song, we can shorten them.’ and She said ‘Yeah but, yeah but, listen to this artist that’s a hit artist right now. Listen to what she’s done…’ so she proceeded to give me an Alanis Morissette album. I was like dumbfounded! It’s like ‘oh my gosh - I can’t believe how many words are in that!’ So the bottom line is - you’ve got to be able to sing the thing. So, if you can sing that fast and make those words clear and it feels like it fits the genre that you want to be in and the commercial feel that you want to be in—then more power to ya! But every word better be for a reason.”
Throughout our twenty-five plus years in the music industry, we have only come across one song that contains a multitude of lyrics that actually sounds favorable. In 2004, Billy Gilman recorded what he classified as “the most difficult song to sing” with his song called “Awaken The Music.” During an interview in 2004, Gilman stated that he had a tough time learning how to sing the complex lyrics in such a flawless manner. The result was a classic performance that left the listener breathless.
On the other side, you can also have a song that does not have enough lyrics. These types of songs can be defective as well as they lack the creative wording to prompt the listener’s imagination.
“Many of the classic rock songs are long and have more instrumentals than lyrics.” chimes in Jack. “The thing is, they all follow one simple rule—K.I.S.S... Keep It Simple Stupid.”
Simplicity is the key to any great song. Simply write what you know; such as a story you heard or took part in. Compose your story in a natural, clear and concise manner. Naturally allow your story to flow into a melody and capture that melody within your song.
The simple reason behind our dislike in today’s music is that many of the songs written are considered and often called Frankenstein Songs. These types of songs contain too many lyrics, they have too much rhyme, and they lack the union between the lyric and the melody; but most of all they are devoid of heart and soul.
Are Frankenstein songs due to the lack of creative energy? Many entertainers today do not play a musical instrument, other than a computer. Is this because of apathy or negligence; or is it because of radio? Is radio’s equation the impetus of the downfall of modern day music? Whatever the reason, our music needs are being neglected.
For the past two years, Jack, I, and our panel of experts have delved into the Art of Songwriting. We have shared with you the ins and outs in this creative process. Yes, anyone can write a song! Even you… the reader.
As the leaves begin to change into their vibrant colors to create Mother Nature’s most artistic season - autumn, we escape into the musical world with this… what makes a good song, you ask.
According to the Spirit Awards, A good song is one that the listener can relate too. As it progress, it will capture and take the listener on a journey as it tells a story that they can see within their mind’s eye. The lyrics should be precise and to the point, without having the listener straining to understand their meaning or their story. The lyrics should flow with the melody and the melody should flow with the lyrics, while enhancing the storyline. In the recording process, the mix of instruments should not over power the vocals. The vocalist must be able to draw from his or her own pure emotions to breathe life into the song, so that the listener can also feel the song while listening.
This is what we look for in a good song. The songs that meet these requirements will always earn a nomination for The Spirit Award’s Song of The Year Award and hit our list of Top Songs of The Year.
Songwriting is a craft that you learn from action and experience…
This is the…
Art of Songwriting!
(This article was printed in the September / October 2018 issue of Strictly Country.)
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