Looking for the next “Garth Brooks”

I’m looking for someone to cut the song: “Me and My Heart”. Per BMI.com on “how to find someone to sing your song” (http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/7_ways_to_get_an_artist_to_cut_your_song):

7. Consider collaborating with an up-and-coming artist.
A widely known “secret” in the industry is that you’ve got a much better chance of getting your song cut if you write it with the artist. What you might not have considered is that before Garth Brooks was “Garth Brooks,” he was just another artist-hopeful, singing demos around town. Given that the likelihood of Garth Brooks writing with an unknown songwriter is next to zero, why not find the next Garth Brooks and write with them early on in their career? I can’t tell you how many songwriting success stories have started that way.

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. Writing a song is a victory in and of itself. It’s something you can - and should - be very proud of. However, if your ultimate goal is to get your songs recorded by others, keeping the above considerations in mind might be worth your while.

Good luck!

I’m looking for someone out there who will cut my song: “Me and My Heart”; a country song and melody I wrote to honor the late Johnny Cash and his guitar picker and legend Luther Perkins.

It’s doing well on and published on YouTube.

If any reader knows of an up and coming country artist or has contacts with Josh Turner or Dierks Bentley, let me know!

PS. Please go to YouTube and listen to Me and My Heart (You can Google Johnny Cash Me and My Heart any you might find it elsewhere too). Leave your comments there as to which artist you think would be better suited to sing it: either Josh Turner or Direrks Bentley. Then come back here and take the poll on this page. 

Ter Scott

COUNTRY SongWriter to the Stars

CASH Ring of Fire Performance (Duluth Minnesota) wows Friends of Luther Perkins wife.

Well I finally got to see the “Cash, Ring of Fire”
performance tonight at The Underground in Duluth Minnesota. Though it was
entertaining, it wasn’t what I expected depicted by the design of the poster which shows
a railroad track and CASH in the big letters that symbolizes the “biggest”
county icon who ever lived.

The music of Johnny Cash was indeed presented with some narration between
the characters telling a bit about the songs in a “I am Johnny Cash/he was
Johnny Cash/you are Johnny Cash/this is about Johnny Cash” type of theme threaded
through approximately 90 minutes.  It was certainly worth going to if you like Johnny Cash songs and can appreciate them presented in a different style; like a cross between something heard in a coffee shop and the vaudeville comedy of the early Grand Ole Opry.

With this being the second to the last night of the performance, I would have liked to have heard the musicians a bit more “together” and hitting the correct notes more of the time. They were all versatile and each could play a little bit on several instruments, including the standup
bass, lap steel guitar, banjo, and guitar of course and fiddle. (One even played the “jaw harp” which I’ve not heard since the 70’s!)

See the cast by clicking here:

I did appreciate the way each performer altered the Man in
Black’s songs to fit their style, and add interest to the selected hits from
the library of this prolific writer which, probably made them easier to perform.
For all the simplicity of Johnny’s songs, they are not necessarily easy to sing
or play. Anyone who has sung some of Cash’s songs will testify that his singing
of some song lyrics is on the offbeat and his inflections so naturally fit
right “in the cracks” of the beats; and this is not easy. All of which was “just
Johnny” and would later become the elements of early and subsequent rock and
roll.

A wonderful serendipity for me was meeting the two people in
the audience seated next to me. Ed and Karen Jennings (no relation to Waylon;
and with her maiden name being Nelson was not related to Willie) live in Nashville and are
good friends with the wife of Johnny’s original guitar picker Luther Perkins. Meeting them both and conversing about Luther was a treat for me and now I have a place to stay when I visit Nashville! I told them about the song I wrote in tribute to both Johnny and Luther and told them to search YouTube for “Johnny Cash Me and My Heart” to find it. They said that Luther’s wife (who has
remarried and now widowed a second time) will get a real kick out of it.

Ed and Karen, you’ll remember that I said I would mention you in this blog. If you can’t
find the video, here it is:



Back to the Cash Ring of Fire play, performance or what you’d
call it. Even though this was not what I expected when I saw the poster publicizing
the event, it’s hard to find better entertainment for $16 (times two as I took
a guest). It appeared that the audience liked it and for sure the cast enjoyed doing it.

Johnny Cash " How High is The Water Momma " and about his first guitar

Wow, here's a rare video where J C talks a bit about how he got his first guitar and wrote this song. As a songwriter myself (and a big fan of Johnny's work) I'm always interested in how one puts words to music. I think you'll like this. Also, I have to say, Johnny does pretty well despite the fact that (it sure looks and sounds like) he's playing a "cheap" guitar.