Louisa Branscomb is an acclaimed songwriter and pioneer in bluegrass music, having been referred to by Lance LeRoy, Lester Flatt’s manager, as “always 20 years ahead of her time.” A short list of her current accomplishments includes 4 songs on Dale Ann Bradley’s new release, Don’t Turn Your Back, including the title cut, having penned Alison Krauss’s breakout hit, Steel Rails, which still holds the honor of the longest running chart hit in bluegrass music, songs on Grammy’s by John Denver and Alison, approximately 85 songs recorded in bluegrass, and winning songs in songwriting contests that span decades. In addition, Louisa has a long career as a performer on guitar and banjo herself.

The International Bluegrass Music Awards have seen Louisa win honors on two recorded events of the year, including a project by Mark Newton celebrating women in bluegrass, and a song on the first Daughters of Bluegrass Recorded Event of the Year. Steel Rails, which received SPBGMA Song of the Year when released by Alison Krauss, is often credited with bringing a generation of young women into bluegrass music. At the present moment, her Dale Ann cut Don’t Turn Your Back is climbing bluegrass and roots charts, and Dale Ann’s CD by the same name is also climbing the charts, earning the #3 slot, so far, on Bluegrass Music Profiles.

Songwriting came early to Ms. Branscomb. Her parents recall her creating melodies on the piano at the age of four, and Louisa says that the first song she clearly remembers writing was at age six while at a Methodist summer camp in Alabama.

“It was a love song with one verse. Shows what I knew!”

At the age of 11 she won first place in the Alabama Student Music Composition Contest and performed with the Birmingham Symphony before an audience of 2000.

A country-music singing cousin in Texas gave Louisa her first guitar, a Martin 00-21.

“Ben was the real deal. He brought me into the real country music–Lefty Frizzell, Hank Snow, and Merle Haggard. From then on, folk and classical music took second place and bluegrass and country ruled.”

Sally Wingate, a banjo playing friend in college began playing with Louisa, and the two moved to Winston-Salem, where, at the age of 21, they co-founded the first, or one of the first modern all-female bluegrass bands, Bluegrass Liberation.

In 1972 Louisa became one of the first females to front a band, starting Boot Hill with Sam Sanger., making her one of the first females to front a band and play banjo in modern bluegrass. Ms. Branscomb’s pioneer spirit and song writing abilities continued to shape the landscape of bluegrass music throughout the decade as the band recorded three albums, and toured extensively until 1980.

A high-point in the Boot Hill’s time together was the success of their recording of Ms. Branscomb’s song Blue Ridge Memories, which, remarkably, became a chart hit in Japan in 1978. “Remarkably,” Louisa says, “because I sang it! and I am really just a baritone singer!!” Their gospel album also garnered the honor of second runner up for Gospel Album of the Year in bluegrass.

After the disbanding of Boot Hill, Ms. Branscomb played, briefly, with another all-female bluegrass band, Cherokee Rose, where she began her playing association with Missy Raines, Frances Mooney (Fontanna Sunset), and Mindy Rakestraw (Gary Waldrep Band). Louisa then moved to Atlanta, to pursue a doctoral degree. She relates that this was a difficult decision because she loved being on the road, but she felt it would allow her more freedom to be a songwriter and flexibility with her music.

Later she formed the band Gypsy Heart, with whom she recorded an all-original album. At this time, she was playing mandolin as well as banjo. In 1994, she recorded a solo CD enlisting the help of Randy Howard and Scott Vestal, It’s Time to Write a Song, an album that featured the broad spectrum of her material.

Subsequently, Louisa reunited with Frances Mooney and Mindy Rakestraw in the band Fontanna Sunset.

In November 2006 she was inducted into the Georgia Country Music Hall of Honor, taking a place with other notable musicians from Georgia.

Louisa now makes her home near Nashville, where she continues to pour herself into her songwriting. Though not in a formal band at this time, she is enjoying performing locally and regionally with friends including Pam Gadd, Becky Schlegel, and Jane Baxter (previously of Gary Waldrep Band).

Louisa claims cuts with Alison Krauss, John Denver, The New Coon Creek Girls, The McPeak Brothers, Janet McGarrah (Canada), Honeygrass (Canada),  Fontanna Sunset and Dale Ann Bradley.

Louisa relates that she hopes to go beyond her own songwriting to be a contributing part of the growing bluegrass songwriting community.  In 2005, she helped found the IBMA Bluegrass Songwriters Association, now named the Bluegrass Songwriter Committee, devoted to networking and educational opportunities for songwriters in IBMA.  During her career she has been a mentor to countless songwriters and young performers through songwriter workshops and retreats at her farm, Woodsong Farm.

Art Menius, in a Bluegrass Unlimited review, described Louisa Branscomb as “… a true pioneer for women in bluegrass.” Louisa’s songwriting roots reach deep into the past, and she shows no signs of stopping. Asked what her current plans are, Louisa said…

“Just keep going. I feel lucky to be a part of the best music community in the world. When someone has an interest in a song of mine, or I get to hear them sing it from their own heart and soul, that is always a highpoint of my life. I am also excited to see that Dale Ann’s CD and song, Don’t Turn Your Back are doing well. I am also planning another solo songwriter album with recent songs, which will be interesting since my writing is taking some new turns–becoming more about space around the words, and not just the words.  I just try to follow where it takes me and write as honestly as I can.”

Do you come from a musical family?

Yes. My Dad played stride piano (blues) and harmonica. He played all styles on the harp – Beethoven to blues! I grew up going hunting in South Alabama sitting around the campfire listening to Dad singing with his buddies. Mom played piano early on, and two grandparents sang amateur opera and American and British folk, and another Grandmother played guitar and sang old folk songs. My Dad would sit in anywhere we went where there was a live blues band and play boogie woogie, like if we went in some dive way down town on the seedy side of Birmingham, back in Steel Mill days, to get Bar-B-Que, because that’s where the best Bar-B-Que was. And there’d be an old piano in there; Dad would play it, or play harmonica with a blues player.

On Sundays, when the whole family was home, the record player alternated from Beethoven to Muddy Waters to the Smothers Brothers to flamenco to African-American blues. The other influence was Methodist Hymns. My first church memories are of West End Methodist, in Nashville. My family also sang in the car on trips, and sang the Doxology before meals. Another major influence was my cousin, Ben, from Austin. He taught me about soul. He played guitar and sang the real old country — Hank Snow, Jimmy Rogers; the old yodel songs. He saw I was playing this classical styled Mexican guitar and he said, “You can’t play country on that thing!” and bought me my first Martin, a 00-28.

What prompted you to write songs in the first place and which was the first song that you wrote?

I can’t remember what it’s like to not write… anything but being so excited about how to choose the words and figure out how to put them together to get a feeling inside you out in a poem or song; I do not know what it is like to not have that. I think it is the form of expression closest to my soul, more than conversation or playing music. Talking is harder.

I started writing poems about age five and my first song when I was six or seven. When I was a kid I was shy; I’d stay in at recess at school and write stories or poems or songs. I told the teacher my parents wanted me to work on my writing. Actually, I wanted to do that more than play dodgeball.

First song…..Do I have to answer this??? OK…. I was about six. It was called The Highest Mountain. Here’s the chorus: “I’d climb the highest mountain/ if I knew that when I climbed that mountain/ I’d find you.” Wrote it with ukulele — a girl in my cabin at camp had one and she’d gone canoeing. I “borrowed it” while she was out of the cabin. I was hooked. Wrote it with stair steps for the melody because I didn’t know notation. Went home and asked for a ukulele, and that was my first stringed instrument.

In terms of the lyrics, I don’t think I was in love. Except with a horse I rode called Shady Lady and I know it wasn’t about her! So I guess I was already learning to “channel,” to put myself in someone else’s shoes as a six or seven year old.

Who was the first bluegrass songwriter to make an impression on you and why?

Well I had been writing for many years when I first began playing bluegrass at 19, so I had listened to many singer-songwriters — Mickey Newbury, Leonard Cohen, Hank Snow, Kristofferson, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, Gail Davies, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, Bill Anderson, Tom T Hall… Then in bluegrass early on, this was 1971… I didn’t really know about bluegrass writers — except the first generation, the founders. I was just doing my own thing. The exception was that after a while (after I’d written Steel Rails and really quite a few songs) I met Randall Hylton and Paul Craft, the first people I knew in terms of dedicated songwriters. Later, I became aware of others. This was the 1970s and early on I didn’t know many people who thought of themselves primarily as songwriters. But I didn’t pay much attention because my bands (Boot Hill, later Cherokee Rose, then Gypsy Heart) were very busy on the road and/or playing a lot of gigs, and I was writing a whole lot. So I can’t say I was influenced by anyone that I’m aware of.

I loved traditional bluegrass, but our group did about half original songs on each album, then I have done five albums with all original material. My first band, Boot Hill, came along around the time of the second generation in bluegrass, and we were all bringing in new material. That was the time of innovative bands like Country Gazette, Seldom Scene, Newgrass Revival, Boone Creek, to name a few. I remember meeting Claire Lynch, also from Alabama, whose band came along around that time and being amazed at her writing. Very exciting era to be a part of the new style of music coming in and there was this incredible exhilaration about the new songs coming into bluegrass (and lots of arguing about what bluegrass “really” is! Some things never change!)

Then I remember being 28 and feeling like I’d had this chance to move to Nashville as a writer when I was 21, and it was “too late!” (if I knew then what I know now…). And Raymond McLain ( Sr.) said, “No, you are just the right age!” and that gave me confidence to keep stepping out there as a new writer. Then I realized writing is ageless. I think we should get braver as we go on writing because we have less to lose as we get older. And we also start to realize we have less to say.

I rarely listen much to writers, or much music of any kind. Occasionally, I am struck by a particular song and listen to that song a lot. Late in the Day, by Tim O’Brien, is an example. But I enjoy a variety of different writers, such as Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams, and a lot of alt-acoustic music. The Indigo Girls are drop dead talented lyricists and I knew them personally early on and played a little with them, when they were beginning to write really deep, spiritually-inspired stuff with a real emotional edge to it. Nashville is full of incredible writers. I listen more for the song than the writer.

Recently my approach has totally changed. I’ve turned writing inside out, writing silences. It is about architecture. Setting up the silences and building words, as few as possible, to support the silences. So the song is actually about the silences; where the words aren’t. I think this makes the words more powerful, if I can choose them right. In the same way as if you have a building with a few lines or borders framing a space, it is the window that is the beauty — the window gives you the freedom. People hear through silences as they see through windows — it is a space where the listener can bring their own image or feeling or memory. Playing an instrument is the same way. The notes are defined by silence, and the placement of the note in that space. The way that is done is what gives that note or that phrase it’s emotion or power. In the clutter of other notes, it’s just a note. Sometimes you want more notes or words, but not without contrast to having less of them around the corner.

You wrote Steel Rails the song with which Alison Krauss had so much success early in her career. How did the song come about and how did you manage to get it cut by Alison?

By staying out of the way of fate! Meaning, I didn’t have a whole lot to do with it! Wrote it at about age 21; it was a song written out of a feeling… letting time carry you forward, and an image — the tracks going round the bend. Alison heard it on my first album with Boot Hill. I didn’t know she’d done it.

I’d heard her at a the Station Inn when she was little – 10 or so – but not in a long time, and I walked into the Station Inn one night in 1991 on the way from Nashville to Atlanta, and was transported by Union Station, totally, who isn’t? I was awestruck. But I made myself speak to Alison Brown because I had a TB 6 like hers.

Then she said, “You’re Louisa Branscomb? We’ve been trying to find you for two years!” I was SO confused. Like I went from complete humility to confusion, then Alison Krauss said, “Did you like your song?” I hadn’t heard them do it, so I was still confused. I was hoping someone would tell me what was going on. Then they came back out and did the song and that was a moment I will never forget.

So I wrote Alison about 11 more songs between the Station and Atlanta that night. None of which she recorded! Actually, she said, write us another one like Steel Rails. So I did. Called Old Familiar Song. It’s a highway song, same feeling. Better structure, really. She listened to it and said, “Nah, that’s just like Steel Rails!!!” and I said, “I thought that was the point!”

Alison has always been so very generous with her support to songwriters and songs become magic when she touches them. But that is how it is to me with anyone who does a song of mine. It is the most meaningful thing to me as an artist — to hear a singer interpret a song with their feeling and phrasing; the words through another’s soul.

Thinking of Steel Rails it’s full circle in a way, because one of my latest cuts, Dale Ann (Bradley)’s title track on her new CD is a train song too. There is something symmetrical about Alison doing Steel Rails in 1991 and Dale Ann doing Don’t Turn Your Back now in 2009, just as I’ve moved to Nashville for the first time since I lived here age four to six. And also since Allison Brown was involved in both of them. She played on Steel Rails, the original cut (guitar) and she played banjo on Don’t Turn Your Back (and produced it).

Dale Ann Bradley said the other day, “Louisa, you’re the best friend a train ever had.” I hadn’t realized until she said that that I really have written a lot of train songs, probably because I grew up riding the L&N from Birmingham to Union Station (Nashville) to visit my grandparents.

Mom bought the cheap tickets on the train that went all night long and stopped at every fence post, and we’d lie on those red Naugahyde bench seats and I’d look out at the stars all night in those big old train windows, and imagine things — stories, songs, poems, all to the rhythm of the rails. I was always making up stories told in the voice of people I’d never met. I’d have my Harmony (Sears) guitar next to me on the floor in a cardboard case. It was eerie and enchanting to wake up in the middle of the night with the train broke down somewhere like Anniston or out in a field… completely quiet. Moon shining on the fields. Once a cow came up to my window.

Trains took me into the world of magic. And to my Grandmother and Grandfather, and Nashville.

Was Steel Rails the first song that you had recorded?

No. When I was about 21, in the days of Big Hair, Nashville, I went to Nashville at Mel Tillis’s request because he’d heard Steel Rails on a cassette. He met me at eight in the morning at Sawgrass, and I played him around 45 tunes of the 250 I’d written by then, one after another and he’d write down the ones he wanted to publish. I wanted to meet at nine and he wanted to meet at seven so we compromised. He demo’d five that day and he recorded Steel Rails but did not release it, and also pitched it to Johnny Cash.

He said I should move to Nashville. I was very intimidated by big hair — all the women had that 1970’s bouffant kind of hair style. I had long straight hair and was a hippie. I could not stand hair spray – not to mention I was painfully shy. So it took me about thirty more years to get back. Now I’m back and it’s OK because people have straight hair now.

About that same time, my band, Boot Hill (I was playing banjo then and writing for the band) recorded our first album and it had five or six originals of mine including Steel Rails (about 1973). We did it live with one mic, produced by Scotty Moore. In addition, the McPeak Brothers recorded it before Alison, and I believe so did Indian Summer, a Georgia band led by Frances Munde Mooney.

So by the time Alison recorded Steel Rails I had had four albums that were half to all original songs, plus a handful recorded by others.

Blue Ridge Memories, one of your songs that you recorded with Boot Hill, became a ‘hit’ song in Japan. How did that happen?

I guess they weren’t used to real vocalists! It wasn’t a huge sensation or anything, but was on a decent place on the charts. Japan was a great market for bluegrass, even back then, and for some reason that song did well there, maybe because of all the mountain images in the song–close to the heart of bluegrass.

Your song Fool’s Gold was on the Daughters Of Bluegrass album Back To The Well; how did that come about?

I have had many songs recorded by the wonderful Georgia band, Fontanna Sunset, led by Frances Mooney –probably seven or eight at least and they have easily performed 15 or more. I owe them a great debt of gratitude. I played banjo and also guitar with Fontanna Sunset during part of their history, as well.

Frances recorded Fool’s Gold, both for Fontanna Sunset, and sang it on my CD, Fool’s Gold. When she had the opportunity to choose one for that project, she chose Fool’s Gold.  Frances goes way back with my songs, since she sang Steel Rails back in the 1970s, years before I knew her. Then we did originals of mine in a band we were both in called Cherokee Rose in around 1979-80.

You have four songs on Dale Ann Bradley’s most recent album. How did those songs come to be written after a seemingly long spell without inspiration?

Shoot, and I thought I’d been writing some good tunes, Richard!

No, all seriousness aside, I’ve never stopped. I have 10 songs recorded in the last year. I had about 90 songs recorded in bluegrass in the last 25 years or so. John Denver recorded Steel Rails, on his last CD, which got a Grammy posthumously. Dale Ann had recorded Stormy Night years before; my bands have done quite a few; then there are the McPeak Brothers, Ladies’ Choice, Fontanna Sunset, Broadriver, Janet McGarry has done several, Honeygrass, Fontanna Sunset, Valerie Smith did one in her stage show that she would release in a live CD, and others. I also did a whole album of children’s music, which got a Parenting Award back in 1992, and a spiritual album designed to capture the spiritual life journey, which was marketed to therapists and child services agencies regionally. Typically, I write about three to six songs a month, sometimes more.

Those on Dale Ann’s project — the title track was inspired by Dale Ann herself. I didn’t tell her that, though, when I played her the song. Then she said, “You just wrote my life!” and that she was going to build the album around that song. So the CD is about the theme of courage, hanging in, facing things. I think it is so cool she did a CD with a theme like that, because that is different and kinda daring. But so is she!

She also loved Will I Be Good Enough, and that resonated for me to give her because she values her role as a mother so much and worked so hard as a musician to be a good mother at the same time, while on the road; I knew that was hard for her but she has a wonderful and talented son who is now a young man. Once in 2001 I interviewed her about being a musician and Mom while on the bus going to perform in D.C. when we were both part of Mark Newton’s CD that was Recorded Event of the Year, dedicated to women in bluegrass. I remembered what she’d said about the pain of leaving her son every time she went out on the road. It is also about my own daughter.

The other two — Ghostbound Train I’d written and she and I put the melody together. Music City Queen — she’d come up with the concept and a good bit of the lyrics, and the kick off riff. We finished the lyrics and flushed out the tune and arrangement. It was a pleasure to be brought in on a song so beautiful and poignant. And some of the lines came straight out of my childhood in Nashville… “the corner of Broadway and tomorrow” to name one.

Writing with Dale Ann flows very easily; I think we think alike with the music and the messages. I hand her a guitar and show her the song, maybe a tentative melody, and she has this amazing melody first out. She’s in tune with a universe of music somehow.

I had a song recently, called I’ll Take Love, about love being the only thing you take with you when you go. She put this magic touch on it that was 1970’s rock and backwoods Kentucky all at once. She is deeply gifted in every aspect of music and to hear her interpret a line is an amazing experience. And with singing Don’t Turn Your Back, like all her songs, she sings her heart out and every time she comes up with a new and powerful way to bend notes or add inflections on some word that she decides to sing the heck out of. She doesn’t think about it.

I was in the studio when she was recording them. If you say, “that was awesome, do that again…” she’d go, “Huh?? What did I do?” So may as well just forget it, she’s so in her heart, and by then she’s on to some other great musical idea anyway!

What inspires you to write?

Anything that touches me. Beauty, or something that means something to someone. Broken bicycle, scared child, leaning mailbox. A board fallen off a barn. Anything with a little bit of soul attached to it, which if you look closely, most things do. When I am moved by an experience of someone’s true emotion, whether sadness, or joy, or sacrifice or courage.

I write a lot about our veterans because they have learned about life stripped down to the essence and we can learn from them. I write about survivors of war, crime, Katrina, one about a black steel worker who tried to befriend a white co-worker in the 1950s, even taught his son to play the his music — the blues, but it was 1950s and he was fired for it. This gift — teaching his friend’s son to play his music despite the risk and cost — that was love.

There is beauty in the force of nature that destroys, and the contrast between that and the good that it brings out in people. Or sacrifice such as when a mother puts her a child first when she can barely go on. I am drawn to images and feelings — trying to capture a moment as bare and honest as possible — more than stories. I am drawn to things that have endured some history. I love old farmhouses and faded quilts. I love the Blue Ridge Mountains, and wrote a lot about the mountains early on, but I write more about relationship things now.

Which song that you have written gives you the most satisfaction and why?

Now that is a little like saying which old flame gave you the most satisfaction and why! But I did enjoy thinking about that! Do I have to change the subject now?

OK. Songs are like lovers or children – they all have a little piece of your soul, and all different. Steel Rails is still a curious thing to me, because after Alison did it, I would go to festivals and it was like overnight the world had dumped hundreds of little girls into bluegrass gatherings, singing Steel Rails and trying to be Alison Krauss. I would just listen. Sometimes if I sang it they’d tell me I was doing it wrong! It is still happening; went to Alabama a few weeks ago and an eight year old and her sister had just recorded Steel Rails. It is amazing every time I hear it but I’m still trying to figure out how songs take on a life of their own.

Don’t Turn Your Back feels very similar to Steel Rails in a way I can’t describe. It harks back to those long nights on the L&N, the magic of putting a penny on the track, the feeling that a train keeps you moving forward when you think you can’t move on your own. The idea that love is still there, waiting to be discovered. I have to see what the listeners say. But I can tell you that only a few songs I’ve written I’ve felt immediately they do “something” to me right out of the gate, by the second measure, like, they just “are,” and you “get them.” Steel Rails and Don’t Turn Your Back both felt like that writing them. Like somehow you “know” the song at a gut level within the first few notes and it settles in really quickly.

I have some new songs that are very different, where the idea is very stripped down and the silences are the main shape of the song. I’m demo-ing those right now. Where I am going farther out on a limb with the lyrics, the ideas, the melody, everything. Some have more flesh and blood and mysticism, all at once. I am never satisfied with my work. I keep moving. My grandmother said my favorite song was “Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Fun Tear”. She said it was “frontier.” I said no, it’s a song about fun and tears. She gave up.

I am drawn to frontiers. She said I liked to go to the edge even when I was learning to crawl. And she took me to the Ryman, and we were on the front row, and I remember looking up at Bill Monroe, and he seemed so tall. I mean, especially tall. And I am co-writing a lot for the first time and that is really making me grow a lot too.

In 2006 you told Marie Nesmith of the Cartersville Daily Tribune, “I have reached a point in my career where I still love to perform, but my emphasis has shifted to promoting song writing and giving back to the profession, mentoring others.” As part of that, you were one of those involved in starting the Bluegrass Songwriter Association, which is now the Songwriter Committee of IBMA.

What are the objectives of the Songwriter Committee?

We wanted to bring a sense of community to songwriters, since song writing is a solitary art for the most part, and share our work with each other, which is inspiring, and assist other IBMA groups with educational opportunities for songwriters. This has been a really fun project and has resulted in an increased sense of community among songwriters, new and seasoned. It’s been a lot of fun. As part of that we have a mentor program headed up by Tony Rackley, as well as assisting with various IBMA events.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to become a songwriter?

You are one.

Write down a sentence about something that matters. Then whittle it down to four to six strong words.

Or think of a feeling, like missing childhood, then think of an image that captures it. Like, “rusty barb-wire buried in a tree. Empty pasture, gone to weeds.” I mean, don’t censure. Just write. OK maybe I’ll use that line!

If there is one ingredient that characterizes your songs what would that be?

I should probably leave that to others! I just know that my ongoing goal is to write with more and more purity and courage. Fewer words, closer to the bone.

I would like to write some things that might need to be said that people are afraid to say, like I recently wrote a song about the effect of divorce on children, and one about a mother and child escaping in the night from an abusive father. Another one about moments when loving someone is just real damn hard.

I would like for love to come through, whether it is toward a train car (”that L& N is somewhere rusting/no silver rails to be my guide”*) or a combat veteran (”in his mind he’s in Iraq/ he just wants his best friend back/ he wishes it were him instead/ keeps hearing those last words he said” ** ), or about someone (”God put some extra blue in your eyes/ a down payment for the love you carry everywhere.” ***) But what’s really important is what listeners and the artists say.

Like once I had a song I thought was pretty good, and played it for Valerie Smith. It had a line with the word “cow” in it. She kept going, “cooooo-w, coo–ooow…” trying to say it all these different ways and finally said, “Louisa, I just can’t sing the word cow and make it sound good! Maybe somebody with a more delicate voice, like Alison!”

So I rewrote that line! Because I got it that most singers probably didn’t want to sing “coooowwww”. So I try to listen to the artists and anybody who will listen to the song.

It is wonderful now that I’ve moved to back to the Nashville area , because there are songwriters around, and that is also an amazing way to get feedback. But I just want to know what people hear in my songs, what touches them, and try to understand when that one occasional line or song takes on a life of its own. And learn from that.

The only thing I can think of that takes on a life of its own and keeps on touching others besides love is music and songs. It’s really a miracle every time, no matter how far a song goes. How could anyone want to do anything else?

* Grandma and Highway 65, by Louisa Branscomb © Millwheel Music 2008
** Surrender, by Louisa Branscomb and Dale Ann Bradley, © Millwheel Music 2007
*** Extra Blue, by Louisa Branscomb © Millwheel Music

Brink is also profiled this week on Music from Foggy Hollow, hosted each week on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country by Mike Kear. Mike plays some of Brink’s songs on this week’s show which have been recorded by artists like Don Rigsby, Grasstowne, Wildfire and Ryan Holladay.

Music from Foggy Hollow originates in Sydney Australia on Hawkesbury Radio 89.9FM, and is heard six times a week on Bluegrass Country. You can catch the Brinkman show on Tuesday (9/22) at 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., Thursday (9/24) at 10:00 p.m., and Friday (9/25) at 12:00 p.m. All times eastern US.

As Mike related to us in a recent email…

“Also on this week’s show I’m playing new music from Sam Bush, Adam Steffey, Becky Schlegel, Ricky Skaggs, Claire Lynch and plenty more of the latest bluegrass. As usual I don’t take the show too seriously – there’s time for goofing off too. It’s another show oozing with bluegrass goodness, so you’d be a wombat to miss it!”

Bluegrass Country’s 24/7 bluegrass music feed can be heard worldwide on www.bluegrasscountry.org and in the Washington area on HD Radio WAMU-88.5 Channel Two, and on 105FiveFM.

Mark Brinkman has been around music all his life. He grew up in Wisconsin playing classical piano at the age of four. Like so many kids of the 1960s he was heavily influenced by the folk and rock groups of the era. He took up guitar and played everything from Kingston Trio stuff to Doobie Brothers to Jethro Tull. Brink could never have prepared for the change his life would take in 1974 when he attended Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Festival at Bean Blossom Indiana. It was there he heard groups such at Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys, Lester Flatt & the Nashville Grass, Jimmy Martin among others. It was a life changing experience that continues to influence him today as he continues to write bluegrass, Americana, country and Acoustic songs.

About the same time “Brink,” as all his friends call him, began writing songs, folks songs for acoustic guitar mainly. He performed these songs at many local clubs around Madison, Wisconsin, while attending college there. Over the following  25 and more years he has continued to write music and perform around the country.

He spent a few fruitless years in Nashville, going from publisher to publisher, trying to get his songs published. Discouraged, he gave up song writing for about 10 years.

Bluestone Mountain was the first Brinkman song to be recorded, cut by Don Rigsby and released on his acclaimed Empty Old Mailbox album, released in 2000. Rigsby’s version of this haunting song was awarded the West Virginia Governor’s Award.

Since then Brinkman has not looked back. Going from strength to strength, his songs have been widely recorded. A sample of those that he had had recorded includes She’s a Stranger In His Mind, a song about Alzheimer’s disease recorded by Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain;  I Can’t Bear the Thought of Losing You recorded by The Larry Stephenson Band; Prisoner of the Highway, by Don Rigsby & Midnight Call; The Legend of Jonas Willingham recorded by the Lonesome River Band; Alone In The Still Of The Night by Valerie Smith; The Ghost of Silas Jordan, Can’t Be Anything But Love and  Hobo’s Lament all by The Boohers; The Old Coal Mine recorded by Larry Sparks; Before Your First Tear Hits the Ground and Tennessee Backroads by Lou Reid & Carolina; When You’re Looking Up by Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road; and Devil’s Road recorded by Grasstowne.

Brinkman has been a Merlefest Chris Austin Songwriting Contest finalist five times and his song Beyond the Rain was nominated and voted Best Bluegrass Gospel Song at the 2007 National Gospel Quartet Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.

He has his own publishing company, Brinksongs, online at www.brinksongs.com.

Brinkman says, “Writing music is like breathing, something I just have to do to live. I can’t see ever getting away from the process of creating music from a blank page.”

Were you born into a musical family?

We always had music in the house growing up in Wisconsin. Of course there wasn’t any bluegrass but my Grandfather played “big band” music and even did a short tour with Tommy Dorsey. My Mother sang soprano and played violin in a symphony orchestra. Everyone seemed to sing and hours were spent evenings singing and playing music.

When did you take an interest in music and what were the circumstances?

I started piano lessons at age 4 and continued classical training on piano for the next 17 years. During the mid 60’s I started playing guitar and singing folk music. People like The Kingston Trio, Chad Mitchell Trio, Peter Paul & Mary, etc influenced my singing and playing and it was then I started to take an interest in writing my own  music. I spent the early 70’s working in Glacier National Park and my roommate was from Ashville, NC and he played bluegrass and knew Doc Watson tunes note for note. I was hooked. I then went to Bean Blossom and heard Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin, Bill Monroe and I was hooked!!  There is no cure for this disease!

When did you take an interest in songwriting and what were the circumstances?

In High School I started writing songs. In the 70’s I started writing country songs and my first years in song writing were spent trying to write “commercial” country songs. I realize now that I wasn’t being true to my own heart and was writing what everyone else “thought” I should write and not writing what was in me deep down. Because of that the songs just always seemed to lack “something.” I go back and listen to those old songs and many times cringe as I compromised my writing. About 7 years ago I stepped down from a corporate mid-management position to concentrate heavily on my song writing. Finally, to follow my passion and my dreams of getting a song or two recorded by an artist or band. I made a business plan and committed to following through with my song writing.

Which songwriters did you first become aware of and what were the circumstances?

My first real big time influences were from the 70’s. People like Steve Goodman, John Prine, Dan Fogelburg, Jim Croce. As I was mostly a solo performer it fit me to a T. I ended up opening shows for many of my heroes and actually got to talk to them about music and song writing. Later on as I got into bluegrass I got into writers like Pete Goble, Jake Landers, Bill Monroe, and then later on Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle, Jerry Salley, Harley Allen. I feel very fortunate to have become friends with many of my song writing heroes and they push me to try set the bar higher and higher for my writing. I’ve been fortunate to have some wonderful co-writers as well. Folks like Louisa Branscomb, Mike Evans, Tony Rackley, Dave Maggard, Bill Castle.

Which songwriters have influenced you and in what ways?

I writing with imagery and writing songs that really “touch” your heart. Make you laugh‚Ķmake you cry. People like Jerry Salley, Carl Jackson, Harley Allen, Tom T. and Dixie Hall, all influence me all the time. They push me to continue to write from the heart and not compromise my songs. I try to write the best song I can. I don’t write for one style or genre or one band or artist. I just try and write the very best song I can and then let the chips fall where they may. I’ve been so fortunate to have over 100 “cuts” now of my songs by many of my musical heroes. It is humbling and rewarding at the same time. Every time I hear one of my songs played live or on the radio it always gives me the chill bumps. I don’t care if it is a local band or a major artist‚ĶIt is an honor that musicians would consider choosing and doing a song that I have created. I plan on doing this for the rest of my life.

When did you first begin to take an interest in bluegrass music and why?

I worked out in Glacier National Park in Montana in the 70’s and I had a room mate from Ashville, NC that played a lot of Doc Watson on his guitar.  I fell in love with Doc Watson and started to learn many of Doc’s songs on the guitar. I wanted to find out more about bluegrass music and a friend of mine said, “You’ve got to go to Bean Blossom if you like bluegrass music.” So that is what I did. I packed up my Volkswagon Microbus and had a pup tent and a D-28 and camped up on Hippy Hill. I can remember the first band I heard at Bean Blossom was Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass.  Marty Stuart was on the mandolin, but what got me was Kenny Ingram on the banjo.  They took off with Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms at about warp 30 and my jaw dropped.  I was hooked!!!!  Since the beginning I’ve loved the pure sound of those wooden boxes. The songs come from way down deep in your gut and it is almost “primal” with me. It was like a disease that has no cure‚Ķ..but you don’t care!!!

I understand that you play several instruments and play(ed) in bands.

I studied classical piano for many years, but picked up guitar at church camp in 8th grade. I played a lot of the old folk music and then while I was working out West I met up with some friends who wanted me to be in a bluegrass band. They didn’t have a banjo picker so I volunteered to learn. I picked up an old Gibson RB-150 and set out to learn every song in the Scruggs “Bible”, I call it. Pretty soon I had a banjo lick that at least didn’t do any damage to the music. I love the banjo and still play quite a bit, but not nearly enough. From being at Bean Blossom I also fell in love with Monroe and his mandolin. I immersed myself in the Monroe style of mandolin and tried to learn every instrumental that Monroe ever wrote. I just love the power and raw emotion that Bill Monroe put into his music. Later on I picked up the bass, a little Dobro, pedal steel’ etc. In my teens I played in rock bands, playing  both the organ and electric guitar. I was in a bluegrass band in Wyoming called the Togwotee Mountain Bluegrass Band and more recently played with a central Ohio band called Common Ground and then Ridgeview. These bands made up of some fine pickers, but it was for fun and we never made any recordings.

What was the first song that you had recorded?

I had a song I wrote called Sunrise recorded by a band from Texas named Texas Rose back in the 1970s, but I didn’t know much about song writing or publishing and never did see any money from that recording. My first major bluegrass recording came when Don Rigsby included my song Bluestone Mountain on his award winning Empty Old Mailbox project. I had give a tape of the song to Ryan Holladay’s dad, Mark Holladay, and asked him to pitch it to Don (as they were friends) in exchange for having to pay me for sitting in on mandolin with the Ryan Holladay Band at Milton Harkey’s festival at Advance, NC. It was a barter that turned out pretty good for me. I know I got the better part of that deal.

I understand that you took a break of about 10 years from song writing; why was that?

It was funny. I wanted to write commercial country songs and in the early 1980s I walked the streets of Nashville pitching songs. It was fun but you sure needed thick skin and had to be able to take rejection. But it was a learning experience for me. I realize now that the songs I wrote back then were songs that I “thought” people wanted to hear. I wasn’t writing from the “HEART.”  I was NOT being true to myself and my songs just did not sound “genuine.” To me if a song is not “genuine” there is no hope for it. After years of music and pitching I was moving up in the corporate world with a large insurance company and starting a family and something had to “give.” Unfortunately, it was the music. I still picked some here and there but basically put my music away for many years. About 2000 the corporate world was taking a toll on my health, my family and my well being. I made the decision to step down from my corporate upper management job and go back to a first level employee adjusting claims basing out of my home. Now once a gain my time was my own. I had a renewed energy and sense of purpose as I re-energized my love for music and bluegrass/Americana music in general. I began to write again and just writing from the heart. Not caring if I got a “cut” or not, just trying to write the BEST song that I knew how. I’m still passionate about the music, maybe even more so than I’ve ever been!!!! I LOVE IT!!! It is like breathing for me.

Story songs are your forte; which particular story song tells the best story, do you think and why?

I wrote a story song that ended up being a tribute to troops around the world keeping our freedom. It is called With Love from Normandy.  It is a story about a person that goes up into their grandma’s attic and finds a cigar box laying on an old army uniform and some old brown army socks.  When they open the cigar box they find an letter postmarked Normandy 1944.  It is a letter that was from their grandpa, sent the day before he died at Normandy. The chorus is the entire letter. I like this one because it pulls the listener into the story and really hits deep down emotionally. Whenever I play the song I see the tissues come out and sometimes I have a hard time getting through it as well.

Which of your songs gives you most satisfaction and why?

Songs that impact people’s lives give me the most satisfaction. This many times ends up being one of my gospel songs. In particular my song Beyond the Rain continues to touch peoples lives all over the world. Not a week goes by where I don’t get and e-mail or a phone call telling my how the song has helped them through a tough time. How it has given them hope. It has been played at many funerals. One man told me that Beyond the Rain was his Dad’s favorite song. They blew up the words on a poster next to his casket and had the words on a leaflet in the bulletin. He told me they put the words in his hands before they closed the casket. NOW‚Ķ.that still moves me to tears reading his story. There is NO money in the world that could pay me for that kind of comment. It is a feeling inside that I can’t explain. Both joyful, thankful, exciting and humbling all at the same time!!!!

Have any of your songs won an award or topped any chart? If so, which?

Beyond the Rain was #1 on the gospel charts for several months and was voted “Bluegrass Gospel Song of the Year” by Singing News Magazine at the 2007 National Quartet Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The Old Coal Mine that Larry Sparks recorded got to #3 on the Bluegrass Unlimited Charts. She’s a Stranger In His Mind, recorded by Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain, won the “Spirit Award” when it was voted by fans the “Country Song of the Year” by “Strictly Country Magazine. I’ve been fortunate to have several in the top 10 like Devil’s Road by Grasstowne and Bluestone Mountain by Don Rigsby.

What particularly inspires you to write?

I try to write every day!  Listening to great music motivates me to write.  Being around other great writers.  I love developing an idea and working with it, watching it all come together at the end.  With me it is as natural as breathing.  I feel I was born to write songs.  It is a gift and one that I try not to take for granted.  I try to dig deep down and say things that others might be too afraid to say or too hurt to just come out and say how they feel.  When they hear a song of mine, maybe they can say‚Ķ”THAT songs says exactly what I’m feeling”, and it is therapeutic in a way.  Letters and encouragement from folks around the world keeps me going.  Also, my wife, Jan, and my three children are very supportive of my passion.  It ain’t always a “picnic” being married to a songwriter.

Which comes first; the melody or the lyrics?

Actually, when I write they tend to both come at the same time. I tend to get more of an “idea” than a “hook.” I sometimes have an entire story in my head and just have to figure out how to tell the entire story in three minutes. Even when you speak a sentence it has a natural melody and meter to it. I try to take that natural meter and melody and let it fall where it will.  I try to fit the “feel” of the song around the chords, speed, mood etc. So, I tend to build the lyrics and the melody and my goal is that they fit together like a glove.

What are the secrets to writing a successful bluegrass song?

It has to come from the heart and be genuine!!! Listeners can see right through a song that is not “real.” It has to have something that every listener can relate to. When you sing about a home place you want EACH listener to be seeing THEIR own home place in their head. If you get too detailed you might lose people but if you not detailed enough it won’t paint a picture for people. It is a fine line. When you are writing about someone dying or losing a loved one there are NO words that can do it justice. There is nothing you can say that wraps up the feeling in a situation like that. BUT‚Ķ..what I try to do is “paint a picture” for the listener. It is NOT the words that cause the emotions to come rushing out‚Ķ..IT IS THE PICTURE that you have painted in the listener’s head. It is the “picture” that evokes the emotion‚ĶNOT THE WORDS!!!!!

What has experience taught you about bluegrass song writing?

Experience has taught me that you need to believe in yourself. There are many “nay-sayers,” people willing to critique and cut you down. You have to be able to dig deep into your soul, deeper than most are willing to go to write a great song. Song writing is a craft. Yes you have to have “the gift” but it is also like building a guitar. The first one might be “ok” and then you build 100 guitars and they look really good and sound really good. You look back at your 50th guitar and you thought it was “great” at the time but now you see the flaws in it. You think your 100th guitar is wonderful‚Ķuntil‚Ķdown the road after you built you 500th guitar and now you see the flaws in the 100th guitar. You just keep getting better the more you work at it. When you put a great song together you can feel it. I get the chill bumps right after I write it‚ĶI KNOW it is a good one. Then I have learned to watch people’s reaction to songs. Peoples eyes will tell you everything you need to know whether a song is great or not Song writing has taught me patience‚Ķwell I’m still learning that!!!!

Tell me about The Ghost of Silas Jordan.

The Ghost of Silas Jordan came to me as a story about a man that was wrongfully accused of a murder back probably around the civil war days.  It takes place in Tennessee. I took out a map and saw the name of a town, Caney Springs. I liked the sound and flow of those words “Caney Springs.” I noticed on the map it was just south of Franklin, Tennessee. So the story started:  “In the hills just south of Franklin and north of Caney Springs‚Ķthat’s where Silas Jordan made his home.”  I love the sound of names too. “Silas Jordan” just sounds like a kewl name. It says something about his ethnicity and to me names just have a certain cool sound.  I wrote a song that is called The Ballad of Horton Stubbs.  I saw the name “Horton Stubbs” painted on a piece of plywood next to the road in Southern Ohio. I have know idea what it was for or who Horton Stubbs is, but I built him a personality and a story.

Anyway, Silas Jordan is wrongfully accused of shooting and killing Becky Taylor. The men don’t wait for justice and they form a posse and go out to Silas’ home. They burn down his home with him in it. When the posse gets back to town they find an anonymous note that tells them they killed the wrong man because “HE” killed Becky. The valley to this day is haunted and if you go into the valley you can feel the heat of a fire on your chest. It is just “Silas Jordan comin’ home.”  It was just a matter of finding a way to tell the story and adding a good chorus to bring everything together.  I love the spooky aspect which brings the story forward to the present day.

Mark can be contacted through Brinksongs online.

Jon Weisberger became serious about writing songs in 1998, having taken up the bass in his early teen-age years. Born in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and trained as a classical musician, the first songs that he wrote were recorded by Union Springs, a band that he helped to form in April 1992. A fellow member of the band at that time was Dwight McCall, who later recorded Weisberger’s song The Pathway Of My Savior (on Never Say Never Again, McCall’s 2007 album on the Rural Rhythm record label).

Subsequently, he has worked with the Comet All-Stars, Prospect Hill, Katie Laur Band and The La-Z Boys. More recently Weisberger has played bass in the Wildwood Valley Boys; Chris Jones and the Night Drivers; Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time; The Lonesome Heirs; the Roland White Band; the Harley Allen Band; and Sally Jones & The Sidewinders.

Also he has done some touring with the Tony Trischka Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular and spent a couple of years touring with April Verch.

Weisberger has also worked on the air and behind the scenes in bluegrass radio, hosting shows in the Cincinnati area and producing several after his move to Nashville in 2002.

His songs have been recorded by a wide range of top bluegrass acts including The Chapmans (Losing Again), Jim Van Cleve (Grey Afternoon and Way It Always Seems to Go), the Infamous Stringdusters (Three Days In July), Doyle Lawson (Yesterday’s Songs) and Blue Highway (Blues on Blues).

Other cuts include My Heart’s Bouquet (The Chapmans, on the same album as Losing Again), Blown Away And Gone (Del McCoury Band on The Company We Keep), Help Me, Lord (Dwight McCall, Kentucky Peace Of Mind), Lonely Road Back Home (April Verch, Steal The Blue) and Every Shade Of Blue (Cages Bend, Now I’m Lonely).

Unreleased songs that Weisberger has written or co-written include one on the forthcoming album by The Dixie Bee-Liners, Susanville, due out in October, and one on an album by Cincinnati area artist Missy Werner, whose Dwight McCall-produced album will appear around the same time.

He occasionally writes for the Nashville Scene.

Did you grow up in a musical family?

Both my parents enjoyed listening to music – classical and folk, mostly – and my father got me started playing the recorder when I was just three or four years old.

At what age did music register with you and what were the circumstances?

I’ve been interested in music for literally longer than I can remember – I have a photo of myself holding a recorder taken when I was three. I was very absorbed in classical music as a child, taking up the oboe when I was in the 3rd grade and playing it until I graduated from high school. My father bought a guitar when I was 13 – he intended to learn to play, but lost interest in fairly short order and passed it along to me. I taught myself some chords out of a book, but took up the (electric) bass soon after, playing in local rock and blues bands through high school. After a year or so of “general purpose” collegiate studies, I transferred to the California Institute of the Arts as a music major, and graduated with a BFA degree in 1975.

You are classically trained; how did that training affect your bluegrass song writing?

As near as I can tell, very little! I think it might have sharpened my analytical skills in terms of being able to understand the structure of songs, but that’s about all. Going through a bluegrass “apprenticeship” – working with local and regional, then national bands and trying to pay attention to what I could learn from folks who had been in the music longer than I – counted for a lot more.

What prompted you to start song writing?

Back in 1992, when Dwight McCall, Randy Pollard and I formed Union Springs, we approached Lou Ukelson at Vetco Records about doing an album. He was receptive to the idea, but said he wanted some original songs, and that was incentive enough for me to start writing. I came up with what I thought would make a great ballad called A Faded Picture, but when I pitched it to Dwight to sing, he thought it would sound better up-tempo, and that’s how we recorded it. For the next few years, I wrote a couple of songs each time we went to record, and wound up with three on our second, all-gospel album (Dwight’s since recorded two of those on solo projects), and two on our third and final one.

One of those was a ballad called My Heart’s Bouquet, which Chris Davis (now with Marty Raybon) learned when he was a member of the band in 1998. He continued to sing it with other groups, and in 2000, while I was at Bean Blossom with the Wildwood Valley Boys, I suggested to John Chapman that he listen to Chris sing it there, because it might be a good one for The Chapmans. He did, liked it (and subsequently recorded it), and asked if I had anything else. I had exactly one other song, which Chris had sung with Union Springs but which we hadn’t recorded, and it took me about a week to find a rehearsal tape and send it to John. The Chapmans cut that one, too – Losing Again – and it did well for them at bluegrass radio. After that I started taking songwriting more seriously and got into co-writing in a big way.

When did you move to Nashville and why?

I moved to Nashville at the very end of 2002 – in fact, my first gig as a Nashville resident was as a member of the Sidemen at the New Year’s Eve Station Inn show welcoming in 2003. I had wanted to really pursue a career as a professional musician, and while the Cincinnati area (where I was living at the time) had many things to recommend it, it had become clear to me that the ability to support very many professionals – at least in bluegrass – wasn’t among them. As Eddie Stubbs told me shortly after my arrival, if you want groceries, you need to go to the grocery store, and for me that was Nashville.

Who has influenced your song writing and in what ways?

I don’t think many people who write for bluegrass artists can escape the influence of greats like Lester Flatt and Carter Stanley; I certainly haven’t. I also have an immense appreciation for some later bluegrass writers, like Pete Goble, Paul Craft, Randall Hylton and especially Aubrey Holt, who did and do so well at writing straightforward, satisfying melodies and plain-spoken yet vivid lyrics. Tom T. Hall and Harley Allen are two more whose work I’ve appreciated greatly. I’ve also been influenced, of course, by folks I’ve written with. My most frequent writing partner has been Mark Simos, and I’ve gotten a lot from him with respect to being precise about melodies, and how to balance distinctive language with everyday speech.

You are most often noted as a bass player; what instrument(s) do you use in your song writing sessions?

On my own, I often work on songs in my head; when writing with others, the guitar.

Tell me about the writing of Three Days In July, which you co-wrote; from where did the inspiration for that song come?

Mark (Simos) and I wrote that in the spring of 2003; I don’t remember whether the invasion of Iraq was already under way, but it was on our minds, and we wanted to write a song that would address the tragedy of war but also offer some reminder of common humanity. Our thoughts naturally turned to the Civil War, as several bluegrass songs have used that as a setting to touch on similar themes, and we thought it would be neat to turn the usual bluegrass identification with the southern side on its head – and that led us to think of Gettysburg, one of the few major battlefields in the north. I think Mark already had some melodic fragments in mind, and as the son of an historian, I was familiar with the proposition that the Confederate army had moved on Gettysburg because there was a shoe factory or two there – and once we put those two things together, the song was written in a couple of hours.

About a year after that, Mark and I organized a demo recording session with Jeremy Garrett, Ned Luberecki and Stephen Mougin. Jeremy really took a liking to Three Days In July, and I thought he did a great job singing it, so although we pitched the song to a few artists, we also turned down a couple of requests by others for permission to record it because of his interest. (That turned out to be an excellent demo session, by the way, as the Del McCoury Band recorded two other songs from the same batch – Blown Away And Gone, which Mark and I wrote together, and Mark’s Eyes That Won’t Meet Mine.)

Yesterday’s Songs on the new Doyle Lawson CD sounds as though it had interesting origins.

About a year before I left the Cincinnati area, I met a young singer there named Lisa Shaffer, who was getting ready to graduate from Northern Kentucky University. We took a stab at putting a band together, but it didn’t work out, and she moved to Nashville about 6 months before I did. Lisa’s a great songwriter who’s had cuts with Dailey & Vincent and Rhonda Vincent, among others; we kept in touch occasionally, and at one point I introduced her to Mark Simos, and the two of them did a little writing together. At the 2008 World of Bluegrass, Mark wanted to write with each of us, and it wound up being most convenient to all get together at the same time. As we were casting around for an idea, Lisa talked about singing with her family as a youngster, and from there we moved along pretty quickly with the first verse, the chorus and part of the second verse. We finished the song the next day in the 4th floor lobby of the Renaissance Hotel, as Mark had already checked out of his room, and on the work tape we made, you can hear people getting in and out of elevators in the background.

A few weeks later, when I ran into Brandon Godman (then playing fiddle for Doyle Lawson) and learned that they were in the studio, I gave him a copy of the worktape on the spur of the moment – and he called from the studio a couple of days later asking me to email him the lyrics. I think Doyle’s cut turned out wonderfully, and the fact that it marks the first time he’s played the banjo on one of his records is a really cool bonus.

Which of your songs have charted or won you an award?

To date, only Losing Again has charted, reaching #5 on the Bluegrass Unlimited airplay chart; it got me a nomination for Song (or maybe Songwriter) of the Year from SPBGMA, an award I was happy to lose to Tom T. and Dixie Hall.

Which of your songs give you most satisfaction and why?

That’s a tough question to answer. Losing Again is one I’m pretty proud of; it was not only my first cut, but has been picked up by a number of bands around the country and continent, and that’s certainly a rewarding experience. Generally speaking, the ones I tend to feel best about are either written within pretty traditional bounds, like My Turn To Laugh, or pretty much completely outside of the bluegrass framework, like The Very Next Hello (both are on my album). I’m also particularly proud of Lonely Road Back Home, which April Verch recorded, and a song I wrote with Stephen Mougin called Cold Lonesome Night, which appears on a forthcoming Chris Jones & The Nightdrivers album – in both cases because pitching to an artist you’re working for or have worked for is a tough proposition!

Have you written any songs with a particular singer in mind? If so, what examples are there of that and what particular song writing techniques did you employ?

I’ve never spent much time trying to write for a particular artist. I’m not opposed to it in theory, but most of the time I’ve been writing, the song has kind of dictated its own direction, and the idea of bending it to fit one artist has tended to run counter to that. I’m a pretty strong believer in the idea of writing the song and then seeing who (or what style of music) it might fit.

What inspires you to write? Do you write from 9am to 5pm [office hours]?

I don’t have fixed hours for writing as such, but since most of my work these days is with other writers, there are definitely prime appointment times, typically 10 or 11 a.m. and going for a couple of hours. Co-writing imposes a certain kind of discipline in that regard that I find very helpful. Normally, when I get an idea, or a line, or a musical idea, I make note of it, and then when I get with a co-writer, I can pull out those notes and see what might be inspirational with that person at that time.

As you have become more experienced how has your song writing evolved?

I’ve certainly become more open-minded and adventurous as a songwriter, and have become a lot more comfortable with the process of following a song in the direction that it seems to want to go, rather than trying to force it to fit a preconceived idea of what it should be. At the same time, I think I’ve gained a better sense of how things work – balancing unusual verses with more straightforward choruses, for instance, or having a clearer sense of when a song needs (or doesn’t need) a bridge. And perhaps most importantly, I’ve become a lot more confident that a session will produce something useful!

What advice would you give for someone just starting to write bluegrass songs?

First, to listen analytically to favorite songs, and to try to find common elements among them that can serve as models for one’s own writing. Second, to keep track of ideas, lines, melodies; don’t rely on your memory to hang onto them indefinitely. Third, at least consider the idea of co-writing, especially with someone more experienced; quite a few writers are open to the idea of co-writing, even with folks they don’t know very well, and you can learn a tremendous amount from the experience. Fourth, seek out critiques from people whose opinions you respect; it can be an humbling experience, but the benefits far outweigh the discomforts. Lastly, don’t be afraid to get “out there” if a song seems logically to be heading that way; there’s more variety than ever in bluegrass, and more artists open to recording less obviously conventional material.

You took the unusual (unique?) step of putting out a CD of your own songs that were effectively demo-ed by other singers, but it was at the same time a bona fide release.

Though it’s a stylistically broader album, John Pennell did something similar about 10 years ago, and I hadn’t forgotten about it when I set out to do mine. The idea made a lot of sense to me, since I’m not in any respect a lead singer, and I have a lot of great singers among my friends. Hardly any of the songs existed in any form other than a rough work tape, and as I thought about it, I realized that I could come up with quality recordings for not much more than it would cost to make full-band demos – so that’s what I did!

Since then have you written more songs in which artists have shown interest?

Most of the songs on the project were at least a year old at the time it was recorded, and I’ve written quite a bit since then – in fact, as noted, Yesterday’s Songs was written after the project was done, and there are a couple of others written since then in which artists have shown an interest. I don’t want to provide details, because as Ronnie Bowman once told me, it’s best not to say anything about getting a cut until it’s on a CD shrink-wrapped and in the racks at Wal-Mart (!), but it looks likely that I’ll have a few more cuts out this year – and, I hope, more to come after that.

You can hear all 10 tracks from Jon’s CD on his MySpace page.

The interview takes the form of a question and answer session. Some attention is given to songwriting, but much of the discussion concerned Sara’s music background and influences, her experiences with Nickel Creek, and of course, her new CD. One interesting exchange concerned the transition from being a band member to a solo artist.

Having played with Nickel Creek for most of your life, what was it like transitioning to life as a solo artist?

It has been interesting and really exciting, empowering and also frustrating. And I want to learn how to do it better‚Äì “it” meaning I want to learn to manage myself better. I have a manager but I want to learn to be more self-sufficient and to be more capable and to just be able to handle more, like multi-tasking. I don’t want to be so overwhelmed with details about travel and logistics. I want to be able to handle all of that and still be able to put everything into a show.

Check out American Songwriter for the entire interview.

This project had been released as a self-produced CD last year, available only from the band, and Rebel picked it up when Scott signed with them in November of ‘08. Unless you may have picked up a copy from the band at a live show, this Rebel release will probably be your first exposure to the CD.

Barry performed as a member of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver for almost 10 years, leaving at the end of 2005. At the time, he said that he needed to get away from the road life for a while, but like most artists with the music in their blood, it wasn’t long before he was back at it with his own band.

In God’s Time is a sort of hybrid album – part solo project and part band record. Barry said that it wasn’t planned that way…

“The last year I was with Doyle, I was going to cut a solo project. Dale Perry was with us at the time, and I started working on the solo CD at Dale’s studio. When I started putting together the band, I wasn’t sure whether I should do a solo project or a band CD, and we ended up with a little of both.”

The band has been together for the past two years, and consists of Jason Leek on bass, Travis Houck on resonator guitar, Matthew Munsey on mandolin,and 14 year old Zane Petty on banjo. Scott is on guitar and all the band members but Petty share in the vocals.

“I’ve known Jason Leek for a long time, and had always said that if I ever left Doyle, I would want him singing with me. When I did leave I wasn’t even sure if I would start a band, but knew I would be singing somewhere, and wanted Jason with me.

All of these guys had been playing together for some time and it worked out great when we started playing together as Second Wind.

We played in Gatlinburg, TN a good bit last summer and met a lot of new fans and friends, plus it helped us tighten up as a group. It was the best practicing we could have done – playing 5 days a week for several hours each night. We also got a lot of bookings from our shows there.”

As the title suggests, In God’s Time is an all-Gospel CD, and one standout is their a cappella version of Glorified Body.

Glorified Body -  Listen now:   

“That’s a song I had heard my mom and dad sing when I was a boy. I started playing it one day at rehearsal, and thought ‘this is one we need to learn.’ The lyrics are so powerful, and I wanted to give it an a cappella arrangement to really showcase the message.

We had to hunt to find the writer’s info since the song was so old. It has become one of most requested songs already when we do church shows.”

Another one of the tracks will be familiar to longtime Quicksilver fans, one that Barry wrote and recorded with Doyle on his Gospel Parade CD in 2001.

Have You Met My Friend -  Listen now:   

“I wanted to recut this in a different way. It just seemed like the logical thing to do, to show my own personal take on one that folks would recognize.”

Seven of the fourteen tracks are songs that Barry wrote, and the closing track, Daddy’s Dream, is the one that hits closest to home. The song is dedicated to his father, Floyd, and based on his mom telling Barry that by being out on the road singing and playing music for a living, he was “living his daddy’s dream.”

The track begins with a piece of audio of a very young Barry singing with his dad, and also features Vince Gill on tenor vocal and fingerstyle guitar.

Daddy’s Dream -  Listen now:   

“Vince is one of my heroes – an amazing talent. We got to be friends when I was with Doyle. I met him several times and picked with him backstage at The Opry. One day I mentioned to him that if I ever got to record a solo project, I would be honored to have him come and sing on it, and he reached in his pocket and handed me his card saying, ‘Just give me a call when you’re ready.’

I thought it might be a card for his management – but it was his personal cell phone number. When we were working on this CD, I gave him a call and he was happy to be a part of it.”

In addition to his regular bandmates, In God’s Time features Kenny Smith on guitar, Ronald Inscore on mandolin, Aaron Till on fiddle, and Joe Dean and Jason Davis on banjo.

Barry and the guys are currently finishing up an all a cappella Gospel project, which they will release themselves in August, and a new secular project for Rebel.

You can hear more audio samples and follow their tour schedule on the official Barry Scott & Second Wind web site.

I’m Kate Lee with No Strings Attached and this is my story, or at least some of it. It is better described as a small chapter from a book being written as I navigate this world of music. I will try to keep it brief, but it will be difficult, as there are already many great stories to tell. I say already because I have only been involved in music since I was nine in Fourth Grade, about seven years. It feels much longer because there have been so many rehearsals, performances, television and radio concerts, music and music writing contests, touring and uncounted hours of individual practicing. My stories will, I hope, be interesting as they are told through the eyes and memories of a teenager.

Chapter 1 – The Holy Grail

Actually it’s more like chapter 3 or 4 (I know I always have to be different) because I am going to start my story with some fairly recent events.

My friend and first guitarist, Jack Metzger once told my dad and I, after hearing we were going to write our own songs, that original material is the “Holy Grail” within the music industry. That has proven to be the truest, most valuable statement that anyone has ever told my dad and me.

Musically, everything changed in a very positive way the day after we wrote our first song. 20 Paces was written three years ago, and in a round about way it propelled Kate Lee with No Strings Attached into the “Big Leagues.” Soon we would be opening and sharing the stage with the likes of Rhonda Vincent, Nothin’ Fancy, Jay Unger, and The Grascals, as well as meetings with Gordon Lightfoot, Charlie Daniels, Ricky Skaggs, and ultimately Alison Krauss. The rest of this chapter or story will be devoted to how I got to meet and spend an evening with Ms. Alison Krauss.

In April, I traveled to Nashville with my family to play a few writers nights and visit area colleges. I was honored to play at the Bluebird Cafe and the Commodore Grill, two of Nashville’s most revered music hot spots. During the Commodore gig, I was very excited to see two producers and an A& R from a record label come out to see me perform. The excitement didn’t end there.

Minutes before I was to perform, I noticed Ms. Alison Krauss enter the room. I thought that she coincidentally came out to see the show or meet a friend, but to my amazement she waved to me to come to her table. I was shocked to find out that she came out to see me perform! She explained that she was a fan of my music and that she really liked my song, Sarah Sing.

Imagine, my favorite artist saying that she liked my music. I had dreamed of meeting her and having her sign my fiddle for years.  Now it was really happening and at my performance! She stayed for my songs and then spent the evening talking to my parents and me. She told me to keep writing and performing my own music. It was a night I will remember the rest of my life. I’m quite sure that writing and performing original songs helped make that night a reality.

I couldn’t wait to tell my friend Jack about our meeting and how true his words were. I know that I have much to learn, and hopefully with a lot of hard work my songs and my performances will grow right along with me. I’m so glad that my dad decided that we should give writing a try. It’s like they say, you just have to hold your breath and “jump in.” Now I am writing songs on my own as well as co-writing.

Lastly, I’m so happy to note that Ms. Krauss was as nice as I had envisioned her to be. Maybe she could see a bit of herself in me and remembered the days when she was just starting her career, or maybe she just wanted to make a kid’s dream come true. Either way, it was a night of inspiration for me, and I now look forward to my summer gigs more than ever.

I hope you enjoyed my story. Please check in with The Bluegrass Blog from time to time to follow along with me in my music journey. I have much more to see, do, and say about it all. Next time I will tell you about how I, as a young girl from Upstate New York, got into writing and performing bluegrass music, and about my latest song written about the battle between old and new bluegrass. It asks the question, “What’s your shade of blue?”

Stop out to see me at one of my shows. Bye for now!

The focus of the piece is a new song of Brink’s, With Love from Normandy, which he had performed at a Memorial Day celebration this past weekend. The song is written from the perspective of a young boy who discovers a letter his grandfather had written to his grandmother the day before he died on the beaches of Normandy.

The article also touches on Brink’s decision to pursue his muse as a songwriter in mid-life.

“Seven years ago, I stepped down from the corporate life,” Brinkman said. “I’d been the state manager for American Family Insurance for 10 years. But the travel, the meetings; my kids were growing up without me, my music was suffering. . .” It was a sentence fragment that needed no end.

Brinkman, who still free-lances as a claims adjuster, has been playing with notes and rhymes for 40 years.

“I like performing,” he said, “but I don’t need to perform. On the other hand, I need to write.”

You can read the full piece online.

Recording started last week at Gulley’s Curve Studio in Cumberland Gap, TN where they cut 10 bluegrass tracks. Ron Stewart was on banjo and fiddle, Adam Steffey on mandolin, Justin Moses on fiddle and resonator guitar, with Stafford on guitar and Gulley on bass.

All of the songs will be previously unreleased with the exception of Hurt Me All Over Again, which was included on April Verch’s current release, Steal The Blue.

Gulley offered a glimpse into what they are trying to capture…

“It’s a true singer/songwriter collaboration between two really close friends and writing buddies and I think that will show on the finished project. This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. Tim and I have written so many tunes together… I’m not sure how many but I’d say between 50 – 60 songs.

We’ve been lucky enough to have a bunch of them recorded by other artists and we’re really proud of that, but it feels good to let folks hear some different tunes and fresh music. It’s like letting go of some of your children.

I’m really excited about the way things turned out on the full band bluegrass stuff we just cut. The remaining 4 tunes will be more ‘middle of the road’ or Americana acoustic music. A couple will feature piano and some light percussion. One will just be my vocal and Tim’s guitar and one song will be Tim and I and our guitars. So, as you can see, the project will run the full spectrum of the kind of songs Tim and I write.

I really think it will show a little bit of all of our musical tastes and influences while still having a majority of the project be straight ahead bluegrass. That’s our first love anyway.”

Stafford and Gulley are jointly producing and hope to be finished with the recording soon, though the finished CD isn’t likely to be released until early in 2010.

Most bluegrass fans know Tim from his many years with Blue Highway, and Steve from Mountain Heart and now Grasstowne. I’ve enjoyed their work with these groups for years of course, but I have always been especially fond of their two solo projects, Stafford’s Endless Line and Gulley’s Sounds Like Home.

If this new album compares favorably with either of those – as I’m sure it will – it will be a sure fire winner.

The subject is songwriting. More specifically, it’s the naming of songs. Craig discusses the value of a compelling song title, and the disappointment of a bland one. He argues that far too many songs these days lack compelling titles.

Let’s agree on one thing: the charts (not just country) for the most part look pretty boring these days whether they sound boring or not.

…

I’m not being cynical here– I’d still only write an idea I believed in and connected with from the heart, but some words and phrases are just more alluring than others, aren’t they? When it comes to evoking the mysterious, the romantic, the playful, the profound, it’s all (almost) in a name.

With the myriad of choices the fan faces these days, first impression are important. Bickhardt’s argument is basically that the song title is your first impression. When a fan is looking for new music on iTunes, the title is the first thing they see. If they’re listening on the radio though, his theory begins to break down, because the title isn’t so important then. I suppose that’s why he includes the (Almost) in his opening statement.

I decided to try a little experiment to test his theory. I opened my iTunes and set the view to List mode. I sorted by genre and scrolled down to the bluegrass section. Then I just quickly went through it thinking to see if interesting song titles would compel me to listen to one song over another.

My experiment failed. I think it was because I was too familiar with the melodies of the songs I was seeing. As soon as I saw “On and On” I sang it in my head, which kind of defeated the idea of judging my inclination to listen to the song based solely on the title.

Nonetheless, I think he may be on to something. As with any craft, paying attention to details can separate good from great. If two instruments sound equally good, but the finish work on one is clearly superior, guess which one most people will buy. So, should songwriters pay careful attention to the title? Sure. But I’m not convinced the title is a make-it-or-break-it detail.

Read It’s All (Almost) In A Name and decide for yourself.

The Gibson Brothers – Eric on banjo, Leigh on guitar – began their musical journey at the age of 11 and 10 respectively. Eric began playing saxophone in the 5th grade, as did Leigh. A year later they started taking banjo and guitar lessons at Dick’s Country Store in Churubusco, New York.

They were raised on a dairy farm – a farm that had been in their family since 1865 – in the most north-eastern section of New York, in the foothills of the Adirondacks in the Champlain Valley two miles from the Canadian border.

Their parents listened to bluegrass on the radio on Saturdays. They also liked Irish music and the brothers heard a lot of the Chieftains, Ryan’s Fancy, the Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, and the Irish Rovers. They listened to lots of different stuff and still do. This variety is something that shapes both their writing and performing.

Eric and Leigh listened to country radio a lot in the 1970s and early 1980s. Their favorites were Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Don Williams, Tom T. Hall, Ricky Skaggs. Their cosmopolitan tastes meant that they heard Tom Petty, Credence Clearwater Revival, the Eagles, the Everly Brothers and Willie Nelson as well as folks like Gordon Lightfoot.

Eric Gibson was really ‚Äòturned on’ to bluegrass when their teacher, Eric O’Hara, gave him a tape of Flatt and Scruggs at Carnegie Hall.

Their education was further enhanced by listening to a tape of Ricky Skaggs’ Sweet Temptation, and then the brothers became familiar with some of the great duo singers of the past; firstly great favourites Buck Owens and Don Rich, and then the sibling harmonies of the Louvin Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, the Blue Sky Boys, the Everly Brothers and the Stanley Brothers. After the prompting of their minister, the Gibson brothers began singing themselves. With their singing of songs like Lonely Me, Lonely You, Satan’s Jewelled Crown and Gone Home, one of the many Gospel songs that they used to sing in church, the Gibson Brothers have joined that glorious pantheon.

In the early 1990s, they formed a bluegrass band with Junior Barber on resonator guitar, and Junior’s son, Mike, on bass. The quartet recorded three albums for Hay Holler Records and earned the recognition of their peers when they won the 1998 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year award.

The brothers then had an abortive attempt at breaking into country music. With the aid of Ricky Skaggs they tried to get some major label interest in a traditional-sounding country record. However nothing materialized. "The timing wasn’t right,” they kept hearing.

So Eric and Leigh signed for Sugar Hill Records, who let the brothers make the records they wanted to make. They are very proud of their Sugar Hill years, recording four albums that all went to No.1 on the Bluegrass Unlimited chart.

Now they are signed to Compass Records and have a new album, Ring The Bell, on release today (May 5). It features six originals (including a co-write with Bob DiPiero). Staying true to their upstate New York farm boy roots, the Gibson Brothers recorded two agricultural-themed songs for this record, one written by Leigh (Bottomland) and one by Eric (Farm Of Yesterday). The former, originally recorded for the unreleased country record, is given an old-timey treatment here and touches on the lives of sharecroppers. Farm of Yesterday was written as a tribute to their parents and the family farm.

The interview that follows was conducted with Eric Gibson.

When did you first start writing songs and why?

I started writing just for the fun of it in my teens. I wrote about love before I knew a thing about it, a lot of horrible songs early on. I got them out of the way though.

Which other songwriters have influenced you and in what ways?

I love so many writers. I love the simplicity of Harlan Howard — so many perfect country songs. Merle Haggard might be my favorite. his songs just seem so honest — like they needed to be written. I hope can write songs i that vein. I don’t want to write just to fill up a record. I want to write songs that sound like they needed to be written.

Gordon Lightfoot. Who is better? Nobody that I can think of. Tom Petty is a GREAT writer. I love the imagery in his songs. If he’d written only Southern Accent, I’d still call him a great writer. Tom T. Hall. He’s so intelligent.

What was the first song that you wrote and what prompted you to write that particular song?

I wrote a terrible song called The Echo Of The Slamming Of The Door when I was fifteen trying to impress an 18 year-old girl. It didn’t work.

As far as I can tell, you have written most of your songs independently of your brother. Is that correct? Why did you work that way?

I’m stubborn and don’t like being told what to do. However, we’ve started to write together more. I had to admit to myself that most of Leigh’s suggestions are right on the money. It’s hard taking advice from a llittle brother, but he’s really, really good.

However, for your most previous album, Iron & Diamonds, you were writing together. Is this correct and what prompted this new way of writing?

I think we’ve grown up a lot and have sunk a lot of years into this together. We’re a good team and we SHOULD write together as much as possible. Really, I think a lot of our independent writing had to do with the fact that Leigh moved 3 hours south of me about 10 years ago. We’ve been trying to write together more on the road the last couple of years. Writing on the road is a bear. It’s hard to get in the right frame of mind. I love putting on a pot of coffee and sitting in my kitchen with my guitar, all by myself. I can’t do that on the road.

Did writing with a partner mean that you had to make changes to the way in which you wrote?

Yes, you have to learn to compromise. A lot of my songs are so personal that I hate giving up anything. However, I think I’ve learned that there’s a fine line between being independent and bull-headed. I’m not a know-it-all, because the moment I think I’m getting somewhere as a writer, I’ll hear a Lightfoot song or something by Rodney Crowell. Then I’ll think, ‘They’re songwriters. I’m a hack.’ But I keep writing. I think Leigh and I are getting pretty good at it and part of it is our willingness to listen to each other without taking a suggestion too personally. We’re in this business together.

Tell me about the songs that you have written for your first album for Compass Records.

Leigh wrote one of the best songs I’ve ever heard (I mean it completely, and not because he’s my brother) called Bottomland. We recorded it originally for the Skaggs record, and Ricky did such a masterful job producing it that we never wanted to touch it. I think we held it on a pedestal since 2000! Every time I’d suggest it, Leigh would back away from it. The original recording was big and lush with a lot of instrumentation that we wouldn’t use on a bluegrass recording.

I finally said, ‘Let’s go more old-timey with it. What would Tim O’ do?’ I think that’s a great question to ask if you’re a roots artist! I love how it turned out, this song about a sharecropper’s son. We weren’t sharecroppers, but this song has imagery that I surely recognize.

I wrote one called Farm Of Yesterday that may be hard to sing if I think about it too much. That farm had such an impact on who we are, whatever that is. I still wake up and think I’m there after all this time. Crazy, isn’t it?

We wrote a Everly-flavored thing called Forever Has no End. My wife told me we needed to write more love songs. I love the chorus.

We dusted off an old one of ours from the 90s called I Can’t Like Myself. We re-wrote it with Mike Barber and Joe Walsh on our way to Nashville. We hit a real good groove on it in the studio.

We wrote What Can I Do? with hit-maker Bob DiPiero a few years back. He’s so fun to write with. Leigh had the melody and we all put our heads together and came up with this. Clayton Campbell put twin fiddles on it. Is there a better sound than twin fiddles?

Leigh and I wrote a hard-driving song called That’s What I Get For Lovin’ You. My son Kelley said, ‘That sounds like a Del McCoury song.’ there’s nothing wrong with that.

Have you had any of your songs recorded by other bands? Who has recorded you songs and what are the titles of those songs?

We haven’t had any kind of major success in that vein. We’re starting to get quite a few local and regional acts cut our songs. I’m always thrilled when anyone picks one of our songs for a record.

The Crowe Brothers have one of your songs, Holdin’ On When You’ve Let Go ‚Ķ this was written by you and Miss Dixie Hall. How did that come about? What was it like to write with Miss Dixie?

That was a pleasant surprise. I love that cut. After I heard it, I thought, ‘Why didn’t we cut that one?’ I like the Crowe Brothers a lot. They sound old school, and if you know me, you know that’s a compliment.

I love Miss Dixie. I wrote a version of that song when I was in my teens and my sister used to sing it. We were staying with Tom T. and Miss Dixie when we were working on the country record. I showed her that song, and she thought it needed to be changed. I wasn’t completely in love with the song and felt it needed improvement. She asked if I’d let her take a stab at it. We went to the Opry as Ricky’s guest, and when we returned the song was waiting on the dining room table. While we were having fun backstage at the Opry, Miss Dixie was working! She made that song into something worthwhile. I love her.

Which of your songs have charted/won you an award?

She Paints A Picture, Picture In The Moonlight, That Bluegrass Music, The Open Road, Iron & Diamonds, Picker’s Blues. We’ve had several others chart, but they weren’t originals. We haven’t won any awards, but That Bluegrass Music was nominated in 2003 by IBMA for Song of the Year.

You’re not from the bluegrass heartland; how does your environment colour what you write about?

We try to write about things we know. We know the North Country quite well.

From all the songs that you have written which gives you most satisfaction and why?

Arleigh is probably my favorite. I think I wrote a song about my grandfather that wasn’t over-the-top sentimental but was accurate. I bet choked up sometimes still, even though he’s been gone since 1988.

How do you feel about being described as the "bluegrass Everly Brothers"?

Well, I’d be honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as those guys. I don’t think we sound that much like them, but I’ve heard that comparison more than any other brother comparison.

John Pennell started playing bluegrass in Arizona while he was in school at Arizona State University. He grew up surrounded by music. His father played upright bass – the instrument that John himself now plays – in square dance bands and his uncle played fiddle and guitar.

When he was about 12 years old he started playing trumpet and continued that through his high school years. He started playing guitar during his junior year in high school.

Pennell got more involved in bluegrass when he returned to Illinois for graduate school. Paul Zonn (Andrea’s father) invited him to play with them and they played a lot around the Champaign, Illinois area. Paul Zonn acquired a bass fiddle that Pennell played through the music school. While Pennell was a composition student at the University of Illinois he wrote songs for their little ensemble.

He met Alison Krauss during this period and the duo, along with Nelson Mandrell and John Gantz, started a band (Silver Rail). She was very good about wanting to do original material and Pennell was able to get a number of songs placed on her first Rounder album. This got him started as a songwriter.

He moved to Nashville in April 1996.

As a bluegrass performer Pennell has played with Chris Jones, Harley Allen and, currently, Charlie Sizemore, in addition to Alison Krauss.

When did you begin writing songs and why?

I started when I was about 20 (1970). I was doing solo gigs on guitar and wanted to include some songs that I had written. I’m a fan of the Beatles and I study their song writing all the time and it always inspires me. When I got into bluegrass, initially, I wrote songs that showed a lot of their influence as well as James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell. As I became more involved in bluegrass I started writing songs more specifically influenced by bluegrass or country. It’s an ongoing synthesis. The first songs I wrote were “acoustic” and more in the James Taylor, and Simon and Garfunkel thing, but they could be adapted to bluegrass.

Many of your songs have been recorded by Alison Krauss; who else has recorded your songs?

Alan Jackson (Meat and Potato Man, As Lovely As You), Eva Cassidy (If I Give My Heart), Jeff White, Chris Jones, The Infamous Stringdusters (Fork In The Road, I Wonder), Cadillac Sky (Blind Man Walking), Sam Bush (Riding That Bluegrass Train, The Wizard Of Oz, Bless His Heart), Gina Jeffries (Never Mine) Charlie Sizemore (Devil On A Plow).

Is there a particular art to writing songs for Alison Krauss?

Well, I think the songs have to come from some sort of genuine inspiration. And from that you get the elements she likes, i.e., good melodies, chord progressions and lyrical content. I try to take the approach I learned in music school, which was to search out a unique approach. The only difference is that I also wanted to make it accessible. The stuff I wrote for music composition classes was very inaccessible. Initially, I wrote songs with different chord progressions so that the melodies would always sound different and I tried to be a little adventurous in searching for the chord progressions I came up with. She can be very difficult to write for, but she has high standards, so when you get a song recorded by her you feel really good knowing she loved it. And her performance of it, well, enough said. Right?

Is there a song of yours which there is a background story?

Well, I suppose they all have a background story, to some extent, especially if it’s a broken heart song. But, a couple, Carry Me Across The Mountain, the basis of which was relayed to us by Hazel Dickens about a illness she had as a child and her mother’s determination to find a doctor in spite of her clans’ forbearance, and Jacob’s Dream (co-written with Julie Lee). The song itself pretty much tells the story except for the chorus, which we wrote trying to imagine what the boys would be thinking or doing to get out of their predicament. But, the song has its origin in a legend that comes from the area in Pennsylvania where Julie grew up. You can look it up online for a complete telling of the story; type in The Lost Children of The Alleghenies. The main thrust of the story is that two boys became separated from their parents early in the day in the spring of 1856. They were not found for two weeks after their disappearance and it was a dream that a man named Jacob Dibert had that led them to the place where they were discovered.

Several hundred men had searched in vain for the boys. Word was spread through church gatherings and newspapers about their disappearance, but, it was only after Jacob had his dreams that they were found. And, it was only Jacob and his wife’s brother who did the search, with many of the details of the dream reappearing as they looked for the boys. (a boy’s shoe, a dead deer and the tree under which they were found). A very chilling and sad story, but one of hope, I think, if you believe in a life after death. A very spiritual song, I believe.

Which of your songs give you the most satisfaction and why?

I dunno, different ones give me some satisfaction for different reasons. I guess as a songwriter, your always hoping to find the perfect blend of all the elements, i.e., melody, rhythm, harmony and lyrical continuity. And, you hope, a tight synthesis of all those elements. I like Every Time You Say Goodbye, Carry Me Across The Mountain and Jacob’s Dream for these reasons. But, I also like Dark Skies and Foolish Heart even though, technically, they are not perfect.

The most important thing to go for is to bring out the emotion of the idea you are writing about and that requires inspiration. Sometimes inspirational ideas overrule technique. I remember writing the chorus to Every Time You Say Goodbye. I played the song, as I had it written for Alison, over the phone. She loved it, but I said I didn’t like the bridge (some call it a chorus, but technically, it’s a bridge) and I’ll make it better. It just didn’t feel right. When I sat down the next day to work on it and it came in five minutes and I was very happy with it. It was the inside of the outside, if that makes sense. The verses were metaphors of rain and tears and arrows and coldness and the bridge was the internal emotional impact of those things, cause and effect, I guess.

Tell me about your own CD. Have songs from that CD been recorded by others?

I put this CD together towards the end of 1999. (guess I should think about doing another one) I had a bunch of really good demos that I had done myself with some great, great singers and musicians performing them, so, I thought, why not put out a CD of some of the ones you like the best, so, I did. It covers a wide range of styles that fall under the umbrella of country music; i.e. traditional country, somewhat progressive country, rockabilly, bluegrass, western swing, Nashville sound swing, country rock and so forth. My good friend and one of the best singer/songwriters I know, Harley Allen, sang a few of these for me. A couple were ones we wrote together, Devil On A Plow, and Half Mile Down The Road, and three that I wrote that he sang for me, very appreciative of that. Also, Mandy Barnette sang one, what an incredible voice, Kim Parent, one of my favorite singers ever, Jeff White, Jeff Allen (no relation to Harley) and Chris Jones; all are superb vocalists.

Several of these songs have been covered; Heartaches To Forget recorded by Chris Jones on Rebel Records, I Wonder by Jeff White on Rounder and The Infamous Stringdusters on Sugar Hill, Devil On A Plow by Charlie Sizemore on Rounder, Carry Me Across The Mountain by Dan Tyminski on Rounder, Half Mile Down The Road, by Troubled Waters, Lost And Found by Sally Jones on Pinecastle.

Your website indicates that Alecia Nugent, Sam Bush, and Gina Jeffries have recorded your songs, What are the respective titles?

Alecia recorded a song I co-wrote with Jerry Salley titled You’ve Still Got It, Gina recorded Never Mine (one of my favorite songs) co-written with Julie Lee and Sam has recorded three that he and I have co-written, Bless His Heart, Ridin’ That Bluegrass Train and The Wizard Of Oz.

The Wizard song is about St. Louis Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith. It was written to commemorate his induction into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 2002. Bob Dylan played it on his XM Radio Hour and the resulting sound track was packaged and given to the Hall Of Fame. Pete Rose may not be in the Hall but Sam and I are. Sam and I really appreciate Bob selecting and playing our song. He’s a big baseball fan (obviously). The resulting album is a very eclectic collection of songs having to do with baseball; a couple blues, a jazz instrumental by Sonny Rollins for Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe, a lament by Ry Cooder , a real diverse and socially challenging collection as you might expect from Bob Dylan.

Who else has recorded your songs?

Well, I think I’ve mentioned about everyone, but here’s a list; Alison Krauss, Alan Jackson, Eva Cassidy, Gina Jeffries, Sam Bush, Charlie Sizemore, Alecia Nugent, Chris Jones The Infamous Stringdusters, Jeremy Garrett, Chris Jones, Sally Jones, Dan Tyminski, Katie Penn, Cadillac Sky.

What inspires you to write? Do you write from 9-5 (office hours)?

That’s a difficult question to answer. I write or like to write when an idea either comes to me or is presented to me (by a co-writer) that just takes over and won’t let go ‚Äòtil it’s done. Sometimes you have to wait for the inspiration to come, sometimes it just hits you. No set plan, just keep your antenna up and follow the muse. I write when I’m inspired, which could be any time day or night and I write by appointment with co-writers.

With whom have you written songs and what are the songs in question?

Too numerous to mention. But some of my favorite co-writers are Harley Allen:(Meat And Potato Man, Devil On A Plow), Sam Bush: (Wizard Of Oz, Ridin’ That Bluegrass Train), Julie Lee (Jacob’s Dream, Never Mine), Jeff White (Carry Me Across The Mountain, I Wonder, End Of The Line) and Chris Jones (Fork In The Road, Heartaches To Forget).

Founder and banjo player Greg Cahill will be interviewed online today on WorldWideBluegrass.com, where he’ll talk about the songs and surely spin a few tracks with Tim Cahall, who is sitting in for Gracie Muldoon today (3/20) at 1:00 p.m. (EDT).

We were in touch with Greg a few days ago ourselves, and he shared a few words about three of the songs from Signs, which we present here, along with audio samples.

Footprints – Listen now:   

Having the song Footprints on this recording is what we might call a “‘triple whammy:’ it is a beautiful gospel song, it was written by some of Nashville’s finest songwriters (Ronnie Bowman, Don Cook and Curly Putman) and it features the fantastic harmony singing of Sonya Isaacs (the first ever ‘guest’ female vocalist on a Special C recording). Ashby asked Ronnie if he had any songs he might consider letting us include on the recording and Ronnie graciously gave us this top-notch selection. We feel privileged to have the song on our recording.

Leaving This Old Town – Listen now:   

Justin, Ryan Roberts and Special C alum Ron Spears co-authored Leaving This Old Town and we all liked the song and the story it tells. We felt that it has a good traditional song feel to it with lyrics about dealing with the decision to leave ‘this old (home)town’ that many listeners may encounter at some point in their lives.

I’ll Go To My Grave Lovin You – Listen now:   

We always include a quartet selection on Special C recordings, usually a gospel song. But this time we decided to try something a bit different and Ashby brought the Statler Brothers I’ll Go To My Grave Lovin You (written by Don Reid) to the table. Justin was a bit skeptical at first (he has a new nickname as the result of singing the bass part ‘bums’) but he now agrees with the rest of us that this was fun to sing and record and we already receive requests for the song at our live performances.

Look for Signs next week wherever you find bluegrass CDs or downloads for sale.

An abridged version of the story will appear in a forthcoming edition of British Bluegrass News magazine.

On this date (1 March) 60 years ago the Stanley Brothers recorded the now classic The White Dove for Columbia Records.

It was a song that Carter Stanley wrote while on the road according to what he told Mike Seeger, shortly before he passed away,

"I have done the most songs that I have written at night. A lot of times travelling; you know, nobody saying much, your mind wanders, one thing to another. I guess  you’d call it imagination. I remember very well when I wrote ‘The White Dove’. We was coming home from Ashville, North Carolina, to Bristol, Tennessee, and I had the light on because I wanted to write it down and Ralph was fussing at me for having the light on. He was driving and he said the light bothered him, but he hasn’t fused any more about that."

About 10 years later Ralph confirmed that, when speaking to Bob Cantwell,

"It was one of his first songs. He was in the back seat of the car writing that and by the time we got to the radio station near home we had a verse and chorus worked out. I don’t know what caused him to think of the white dove except that he was studying on it, how it could affect you‚Ķ"

The White Dove was the second song recorded, among eight that they did that day during a session at Castle Studio, in the Tulane Hotel, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Three out of the four, including The White Dove, were given different treatment from the normal Stanley Brothers’ approach to their trio arrangement.  At the suggestion of Art Wooten, they introduced a high baritone vocal, with Pee Wee Lambert and Ralph Stanley singing above Carter Stanley’s lead.

The White Dove was paired with Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet on a Columbia 78, No. 20577, released on 4 April, 1949. In addition to Carter Stanley (guitar), Ralph Stanley (banjo) and Lambert (mandolin), the recording featured ‚ÄòJay’ Hughes (bass) and Bobby Sumner (fiddle).

We know from symbolic traditions that white doves are associated with love and devotion, peace and unity. They mate for life and strive to return home. Although we’re not sure exactly what Biblical reference Crarer Stanley may have had in mind in writing the White Dove, there are several connections with scripture from the Holy Bible.

We learn in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 8, that after forty days of the great flood, Noah was still on the ark when he first released a raven to search for land.  Then Noah sent forth a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set her foot and returned to the ark.  Noah waited another seven days and again sent out the dove.  This time the dove returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf, a sign the waters were receding.  Noah waited another seven days and sent forth the dove again and she did not return, an indication of having found land.

In the New Testament, the book of Mark, Chapter 1, we are told John the Baptizer met Jesus in the Jordan river and baptized Jesus.  When Jesus came up out of the water the heavens opened and the Spirit descended upon him like a dove.  This image is contained in the lyrics of Sweet Holy Spirit by Joe Isaacs and recorded by the Isaacs on their project Heroes.

Joe writes:

From newadvent.org we find reference to two doves on a funeral monument sometimes signifying the conjugal love and affection of the parties buried there.  Perhaps Carter Stanley was thinking of that symbol when he wrote:

The New Advent website noted above also reflects that doves on a sarcophagus signify the peace of the departed soul, especially if it bears an olive branch in its beak.  In the "White Dove" perhaps Carter Stanley was mourning in sorrow, as the white dove, since mother and daddy are dead, an image associated with home and family in the Clinch Mountains where the brothers were born and raised.

Jeanie Stanley, Carter’s ‚Äòbaby girl’ shared her thoughts about The White Dove  ‚Ķ..

"My father wrote this particular song one night while he and Ralph were travelling. Ralph was aggravated because my father had the light on and it was bothering him. Then Ralph got miffed because my Dad had killed off their mother and father in the song when he heard it.  Needless to say, it became one of my father’s most well-known songs. The words just touch your very soul and are like darts to the heart.  It is probably Carter Stanley’s ’signature song’ so to speak. I think it tells of a mournful yearning for what becomes lost to some in their quest to find themselves. The person my father refers to in this song has come full circle. It is basically autobiographical in nature.  It was always one of my favorites."

It has been a song, as Ralph Stanley noted, that is “the backbone of the Stanley sound”. [Gary B Reid]

Recorded Sources -

• Columbia Master CO 40507 The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys 1949-52 (Bear Family BCD 15564 AH)
• The Stanley Brothers – Clinch Mountain Bluegrass (Vanguard 77018-2) Recorded at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival
• The Stanley Brothers Stanley Series Volume 4 Number 1 (Copper Creek CCCD 5513) Recorded at New River Ranch, Rising Sun, Maryland – July 29, 1956
• The Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys The Essential Gospel Masters (Varese Sarabande 302 066 669 2) includes the 1959 King version of  White Dove [King single 5233]

The organization – and the June event – are focused on intellectual property rights for works of art regardless of genre, including music, drama, written word, multimedia and the visual arts.

This event debuted in Brussels in 2007 and an even larger contingent of international attendees are expected in ‘09. According to the Summit’s web site, registrants will include:

• Creators and artists: authors, composers, film directors, screenwriters, photographers, visual artists, painters, writers‚Ķ
• Creative content industry: music, audiovisual, book publishing, visual arts
• Delivery and access industry: broadcasters, ISPs, content service providers, telecom operators, cable and satellite operators, media platforms‚Ķ
• IT, consumer goods and equipment industry: technology providers, consumer electronics, video games producers, software developers‚Ķ
• Intellectual Property and copyright lawyers and law firms
• Policy and legal decision makers in Europe and North America
• Copyright societies worldwide
• Trade press and globally influential media

More details about the 2009 World Copyright Summit can be found online.

Craig Bickhardt at Ninety Mile Wind thinks so.

…distraction and e-living have damaged the music. There’s so little music out there that moves us because we’re all moving too fast to create it. It turns out that being moved requires a thrill greater than the adrenaline rush of a Tweet or an email. In a sense, we are being moved in the opposite direction by the song. The Internet and multi-tasking pulls us outwards (or at least sideways), but the song pushes us inwards, ever deeper inwards.

In his post, Bickhardt suggests songwriters may need to unplug for extended periods of time in order to connect with their deep inner wells of creativity.

I would guess musicians could benefit from the same practice, especially during times of required creativity such as the recording of a new CD.

Of course, no one could rightly consider The Bluegrass Blog a distraction!

Connie Leigh is what might be called the songwriter’s songwriter. So many fellow writers have great things to say about her; Mark Brinkman describes her songs as “genuine, heartfelt and powerful;” Larry Cordle says this about her song writing abilities, “She has plenty to say and I love how she goes about saying it. Her songs reflect the things she has lived and observed in this life & her way of communicating them to us is absolutely wonderful to me”; and Larry Shell describes her contributions to a songwriter session that the duo had with Larry Cordle, “She had wonderful ideas and a fresh approach to some old themes in bluegrass and country music.”

She writes from the heart and isn’t ashamed to do so and as Jerry Salley comments, “Her songs are real, the characters in them are real and they connect with ‘real’ people.” The listener can easily understand and appreciate her words.

Leigh has been intrigued by music as far back as she can remember. At the age of 10 she was writing poetry and rhyming words. When 12 she began learning to play the guitar and by 15 she was beginning to write songs.

She has always had a desire to listen to music with a mountain sound. When her family relocated from Ohio to the hills of east Kentucky, she found an album of Flatt and Scruggs at the house they moved into. Connie would play it over and over and sing along with it. It was bluegrass music that she could best relate to and it has always remained deep in her soul.

However, she devoted many years to singing and recording Gospel music and believing that to stay true to the church she should limit herself to that style of music. Two life-changing events led to Connie realizing that the church could sometimes be unpardonable and she vowed to pour her heart into new bluegrass songs.

After finding that the album of bluegrass songs wasn’t going to earn her a recording contract, Connie was persuaded to focus on song writing and pitch her songs to other artists. A handful of top bluegrass artists liked her material so much that they recorded some of her songs. That was in 2005 and since then her songs have become even more highly sought-after.

That said, Connie remains very much down to earth, literally, helping her husband on their farm at Swifton in northeast Arkansas, from where she spoke to me about her song writing ……..

Who was the first bluegrass songwriter to make an impression on you and why?

I don’t know if Hank Sr. is considered a bluegrass writer or just country, but he has a profound effect on my song writing. I haven’t really studied his life story as far as how he grew up, but there was something about his writing that lets me know he had a dark, lonesome ole soul just like me. Things happened in my life that left me with a lot of emotion, and it comes out in a lot of my songs. Other writers who I admire are Larry Cordle, Larry Shell, Jerry Salley, and Carl Jackson. When I listen to a song, if it can touch the depths of my soul with a moral that is strong enough to catch my attention and strong enough to make me stop and think, then that writer has served their purpose in writing that song.

When did you start writing songs?

As a young teenager, I liked to enter local contests such as the 4-H competitions and beauty pageants. I was always so skinny and plain; I tried to have a better chance with the contests by writing my own songs. I wrote my first song at the age of 14.

When did you start writing bluegrass songs?

Although I only sang gospel music for quite a few years, I would have to say that my songs have always been classified as bluegrass. In 2002, I had major life changes occurring, and in my anguish, I began pouring my feelings into secular bluegrass songs. Attending the churches that I did in east Kentucky, it seemed that everything you did was judged one way or the other. Secular bluegrass music would have been considered a sin by many, so if it hadn’t been for pastors refusing to let me sing because of the word divorce, I probably would have never felt it was okay to write anything than gospel music. I am not saying I think divorce is great, but God knew my circumstances, and I didn’t do anything wrong. So I finally figured out that if people were going to judge me, they would do it no matter what I did. So I began combining writing secular music along with my gospel songs in the early 2000’s.

It is said that your song writing is an “emotional release”; is it cathartic also? Can you give examples please?

Yes, many of my songs would be derived from my own life and personal experiences. It has already been told that the song Behind Those Big Closed Doors contains events from my childhood in it. I wanted that song to have a strong moral and it does. People seem focused on the part that says she lost her innocence at four. The real moral of the story is about never judging other people; because honestly, only God knows what each of us have encountered in this life. We are unique individuals, and each of us handle life’s experiences in different ways.

Another of my songs that is cathartic would be I’ll Be Here Waiting for You. I recorded it on the Hillbilly Girl CD, and probably anyone listening to it would assume that it is about a woman in love with a married man. It is actually about my mother and sister. A few years ago, my mother informed me she didn’t want a relationship with me, yet she was extremely close with my sister. In my heart, I kept asking myself why she couldn’t love me as well as my sister. So I wrote that song with them in my mind and changed the characters as in a man and woman scenario. I write a lot of my songs like that. You would think it is a love song, but it isn’t at all.

What inspires you to write?

I am inspired by life, people, movies and just many things. I got the idea of Sadie’s Got Her New Dress On from the movie Scarlet O’Hara. There’s a scene that she had gotten so poor she couldn’t buy material to have a dress made and she used her expensive draperies. I love watching movies about how people struggled during that time and I got to thinking about how people used to consider you an old maid if you hadn’t married at an early age back then. Somehow, in my mind, I created the idea of Sadie.

You have three CD releases of your own; what was the first of your songs that was recorded by someone else and how did that happen?

I have actually recorded five recordings and the first song anyone ever recorded of mine was the gospel group Kevin Spencer and Friends. I had written a song called Let’s Feel That Spirit Again and while going to hear him in a concert, I handed him one of my cassettes and told him I had written all the songs on it. He called me about a month later and told me he would like to record that song. The next song I had cut was by another gospel group The Singing Cookes. It was a song I had written in the late 1990s called The Soldier and the Blind Boy. It talks of how the blind boy can see the soldier’s pain, who has lost both legs due to war.

Who else has recorded songs written by you?

Since adding secular songs to my writing catalog in 2005, I have had cuts by Larry Stephenson, Rhonda Vincent, Larry Sparks, Doyle Lawson, Dale Ann Bradley and others.

What have been the most successful songs that you have written and who recorded them?

Sadie’s Got Her New Dress On was recorded by Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, and stayed at the number one spot on the Bluegrass Unlimited charts for five consecutive months in 2007. Rita Mae which was recorded by Dale Ann Bradley; it also reached the number one position and in September of 2007, Sadie was at number one and Rita Mae was at number two. A song that Rhonda Vincent recorded on her last album also reached the number one spot on the Sirius Count Down Yonder chart for the most requested song of the week. That song was about my ex husband and the title was Who’s Cryin’ Baby? I wrote it the day I left him to file for divorce.

Which song that you have written gives you the most satisfaction and why?

Well, it takes a whole lot to make me cry. There have been a couple of songs I have written that were so powerful while writing, that I had to walk away from and come back to them because they made me cry trying to write them. One was the song Casualty of War, recorded by Larry Sparks, and another is going to be released on The Circuit Riders new album shortly called Four Yellow Roses. I feel they are two of my best songs ever put together. The Four Yellow Roses is about a woman trying to drink his memory away and although you will be led to think it is a man she is mourning. It shockingly tells of the tragic accident that took her little four year old boy away from her. So each Sunday she takes four yellow roses to his grave; one for each year he lived. It is a haunting song.

You have written songs with others. Who are they and what were the songs concerned?

I have written several songs with Larry Shell and Larry Cordle. We always have such fun writing together. We wrote a song called Don’t Take me Tonight that we all three love. It is about a woman who traded her red velvet church pew for a seat on a lonely old bar stool and it has a very strong message. We also wrote a great song called America, Where Have you Gone. It has some things in it that I am sure some might disagree with, but it is our beliefs, and I feel like, if you are afraid to stand up for what you believe, you are never true to yourself.

There is a young woman named Eirka Chambers that I co-wrote a song with while I was in Nashville one night. We had talked of going out to sing karaoke, but instead, I asked that we stay in. We ended up writing one of the most moving, beautiful songs I have ever felt inside me. It is called Sweet Willow Tree. It has the Cox Family sound to it. Other writers I have written with include Buddy Cannon, Ronnie Bowman, Jerry Salley, Tom T and Dixie Hall, and Rhonda Vincent.

What are the most recent songs that you have written and by whom are they being recorded?

Lately, I have been writing more by myself instead of co-writing. I have plans to release a recording of all new original songs hopefully this fall. There will be some of bluegrass music’s best pickers and artists on it with me. I am excited about that.

The Lonesome River Band has a new release with a song that I co-wrote with Larry Cordle called Mollie. Rhonda Vincent is releasing a song that we co-wrote on her upcoming album. Balsam Range is releasing the song I mentioned earlier that Shell, Cordle and I wrote, Don’t Take me Tonight. The Circuit Riders are releasing a gospel song I wrote called When I Bid This World Adieu as well as the sad song Four Yellow Roses. Larry Stephenson is also releasing two fun, upbeat songs I wrote called The Legend of Rhodie Mae and Holler Girl Thrills. I think he is a great bluegrass singer and his voice will do such justice to those songs. They both kind of have the Sadie feel to them.

Another new song is The Writing’s All Over the Wall, that Cordle and I wrote. It’s a duet on Alecia Nugent’s new album.

Josh will also start work soon on the debut album from The Josh Williams Band, and is currently selecting the material. His booking agent, Jim Roe, said that Josh is accepting song submissions, so all you writers out there, if you have something you would like him to hear, it can be sent to:

Josh also sent along a photo of a very special show he did back in early December. He had been invited to perform as a trio with Alison Krauss and Ron Block at the Successful Christian Living Ministries retreat in Talladega, AL.

“I have admired both of these people for years, as great musicians, singers, and writers, but getting to work closely with them was quite a thrill for me. I had admired Ron for his musicianship, and song writing, but this past weekend I also realized that he is one of the finest Christian gentlemen I’ve ever met. Where Alison is concerned, I’ve loved her playing and singing for years, and have always agreed with the many writers and commentators when they referred to her beautiful voice as angelic. But I don’t think I really ever understood the full depth of that statement until I was standing next to her singing the hymns we sang in Alabama. I actually felt like I was singing with a genuine Angel.”

You can follow Josh’s tour schedule on his web site.

What do Money in the Bank, Union Man, Snapshots and Souvenirs and Always Never Enough have in common? All of these songs, recorded by Lonesome River Band, Blue Highway, Mountain Heart and the Kenny and Amanda Smith Band were written or co-written by Tim Stafford, one of the creative forces in Blue Highway, one of the most popular of the modern-day bluegrass bands. Stafford’s songs have also been recorded by Larry Sparks, Dan Tyminski, Ronnie Bowman, Claire Lynch and Alecia Nugent.

A native of Kingsport, Tennessee, where he currently resides, Tim Stafford began playing guitar seriously at the age of 18. As a teenager, he played with various groups in the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee, including Mountain Memories and the Boys in the Band.

Subsequently, he helped to found the band Dusty Miller, which was named SPBGMA International Bluegrass Band champions in 1990. Later that same year Stafford joined Alison Krauss and Union Station, along with Adam Steffey and Barry Bales. The band was named IBMA Entertainer of the Year in 1991.

Although he left Union Station in May 1992, in order to spend more time with his son Daniel, who was born in January of that year, Stafford won a Grammy award in January 1993 for his work on Every Time You Say Goodbye (Rounder, 1992).

In 1994, he organized his present band Blue Highway. They have released eight albums, the latest of which includes the award-winning title-song Through The Window Of A Train, written by Tim Stafford and Steve Gulley. Like this CD, all the other Blue Highway projects feature material written by Stafford.

In 2004 he released a highly acclaimed solo album Endless Line (FGM Records 114). This CD has nine songs penned by Stafford himself.

Recently, I spoke to Tim Stafford about his song writing skills ……

When did you start writing songs and what was the impulse?

I started writing when I was very young. I can’t really say what the impulse was. My sisters were piano players, and they always had written music laying around. I would look at Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel songbooks and try to figure out the songs and pretty soon I was coming up with stuff of my own. I wrote some not long after I picked up guitar–nothing I’d be willing for anyone to hear — and all the way up until I joined Blue Highway I was writing. But when that band started, I felt a conscious need to write more — Wayne Taylor had written some good things and he kind of inspired me to start taking it more seriously.

From whom have you learned most about the art of song writing?

I’ve studied it, bought books, listened to as many good songwriters as I could, but I still believe it’s a completely subjective thing. I’ve learned a lot from everyone I’ve written with. Kim Williams has a great ear for phrases. Bobby Starnes is always thinking. Steve Gulley and I have a good chemistry. Other writers I admire include Carter Stanley, Ira Louvin, Jimmy Webb, James Taylor, Harley Allen, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Darrell Scott, Tim O’Brien, Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Billy Joel, Hank Williams, Hazel Dickens, Burt Bacharach, Paul Williams… There are so many great writers.

How many songs have you written and how many of them have been recorded?

Probably around 200, and I’d say around 100 have been recorded.

Can you share some of the techniques that you use in your song writing?

I try to find a great idea anywhere I can — conversations, TV, newspapers, magazines, movies and I keep a ‘hook book’ to make sure that I don’t lose ideas. I’m always writing them down on business cards or saying them into a digital recorder. When I start writing or co-writing, I try to feel what a particular idea should sound like without thinking about it too much and then have the recorder running… Usually the first idea is best. But the key is making the melody match the lyric.

You have co-written songs with Dan Tyminski, Ronnie Bowman and Steve Gulley, among others; what different approach(es) have to be employed when writing with others?

Everybody’s different. When you co-write, you have to be aware of that and tailor your approach to whatever the situation is. I’m usually a melody guy, but you never know what direction something’s going to take, or who will have a melodic hook that works. You have to be receptive and malleable at the same time you’re strong and decisive. Does that make sense?

Is there any song that you have written behind which there is an interesting story?

Lots of them — that’s what makes them good ideas to begin with usually. A Week From Today, for example, came from a story my preacher told me — about a fellow who had been in prison for years and was scheduled to get out but didn’t want to go. Some time after Bobby Starnes and I wrote it, I saw Shawshank Redemption, and everybody assumes it came from that, but it didn’t. Two Soldiers came from a story on CNN about a soldier who wrote a letter that made it home, although he didn’t — he said, ‘If you see two soldiers at your door, you’ll know I’m in Heaven.’

Through the Window of a Train is the 2008 IBMA Song of the Year; what other songs have won you accolades from your peers/fans?

You mean awards? That’s the first song I’ve written or co-written that’s won an award, I guess. It’s always gratifying when anyone comes up to you and says a song you wrote made a difference in some way in their life or spoke to them. Some Day I guess has made the most impact in that way, even though I only wrote the melody for it. A lot of people tell me they identify with Midwestern Town, which is a truly fictional song. Ronnie Bowman did a great job on that one. Pacific Time, Union Man, How Long is This Train, Think About You Every Day, Two Soldiers, Wild Bill, Rider on an Endless Line… People are so nice to come up at shows and tell me they like songs. Its makes you feel like you’re doing something good.

Which of all the songs that you have written gives you most satisfaction and why?

Actually, it’s immensely satisfying when anyone cuts one of your songs–I’m sure every songwriter can relate to the feeling you get when you hear someone else’s version of it for the first time. I can’t really take credit for Some Day, but it does give me a lot of satisfaction that people seem to have been genuinely comforted by it at a very difficult time in their lives. One of my favorites is one Steve Gulley and I have co-written, Just Another Setting Sun, and one Bobby Starnes and I co-wrote about our high school years called Back in the Day. Another recent favourite is The Last Greyhound that Alecia Nugent and April Verch recorded — Craig Market and I co-wrote that one. Darrell Scott and I recently wrote a very dark piece about clinical depression, called Bleeding for a Little Peace of Mind. I really like that one. Darrell is amazing.

Of the songs of yours that have been recorded most have been recorded by Blue Highway; apart from the demand for songs for your recording sessions, have you been commissioned by others to write a song for them?

Well, actually, I think I’ve had more songs cut by other people now. When Blue Highway first started, I felt a need to write material for the group, and they’ve recorded a lot of them. But I have been really fortunate that other folks ask me for material as well. I may not have exactly what they’re looking for, but it’s great of them to ask!

How do you combine the process of song writing with being part of a touring band?

We used to write a lot while we were out on the road, but we just don’t do that much anymore. As you get older, you tend to want time to yourself out on the road. I would like to co-write more with these boys though — I think Shawn [Lane] and Wayne [Taylor] are great writers.

What tips would you give to an aspiring young bluegrass writer?

I don’t know if it’s something you can learn how to do, but you can get better at it. Just write as much as you can with different people and by yourself. Be critical of your songs — how can you make them better? Always look for ideas, and always write them down or keep a list of them somewhere. Then get out there and play your songs for people, but make sure they’re copyright protected [www.copyright.gov]. Make good demos and give them to artists you think might cut them — we have that luxury in the bluegrass business. You can walk right up to an artist and hand them a CD. Get a tough skin though, because they may not have time to listen to everything and you need to get used to rejection. It’s all part of the process.

Patrick McDougal was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina and he grew up watching his father, Robert McDougal, perform at the Grand Ole Opry in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was influenced by the first generation of bluegrass musicians, Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs and the like.

He lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina, where he owns and operates Music Plus, a music store and instruction studio, as well as teaching a music course at Blue Ridge Community College.

Currently McDougal is a member of  High Windy. In the past Patrick has performed with such notable musical talents as Herschel Sizemore, Jimmy Haley, The Blue Dogs and country star David Ball. He is 43 years old and has been with High Windy for two years.

McDougal is best known for writing the title song to Dan Tyminski’s Grammy-nominated CD, Wheels. The song was September’s No. 1 on Bluegrass Music Profiles‘ Top 30 Hot Singles chart in and is noted in the December edition of Bluegrass Unlimited at No. 2 in the National Bluegrass Survey, having been five months on the charts. His work has also been performed and recorded by Del McCoury, Alan Bibey and Blue Ridge, The Lonesome River Band, Jeanette Williams Band, Dixie Creek Revival and The Blue Dogs.

Recently, I chatted with McDougal about his background and his song writing …….

Tell me about your formative years in music.

“I always wanted to play banjo, since I was about 6 months old. They told me that I would cry unless I could go to sleep holding on to the banjo players pants leg when my dad’s band would practice. My dad played in a very successful band in 1960s and 1970s; even played the Opry some. I got my first banjo at age 12 and practiced some times all day.”

Who was the first bluegrass songwriter that you took noticed and why?

“Bill Monroe was. I noticed most of his songs were about every day things or events that really happened. I sorta got the bug when I heard two friends of mine sing their songs and thought that was a true way of expressing your thoughts. Tim O’Brien was one of my favouritess. But Tim Stafford makes me cry…”

When did you start writing songs yourself and what was your first song?

“About 10 years ago. My first real song was No Sad Goodbyes [recorded by Blueridge]. I’ve been fortunate only two songs I pitched haven’t been recorded.”

What other songs have you written and by whom have they been recorded?

“County Fool [Alan Bibey, accompanied by Del McCoury], Missed It By A Mile [Lonesome River Band], (You Left The) Dog Off The Chain [Junior Sisk] and Carolina Time [Jeannette Williams]. The Blue Dogs have recorded three tunes; Missed It By A Mile, The One That Didn’t Show and Four Winds. High Windy have recorded five also; Richest Man To God, Stuck Out In The Rain, Dancin’ Round The Daisies, Country Fool and Four Winds.”

What inspires you to write?

“When I hear a song that touches me or a phrase that would make a good hook I think that would make a great song. Most of my ideas come to me in dreams or right before I fall asleep.”

Wheels may be your most well known song; tell me how you came to write it.

“I really don’t remember. I use to sit up all night and just record tunes I like and I guess something spurred the idea. I do know I wrote all at once.”

Which of your songs are you most pleased with in terms of it being finished just as you intended it should?

“I like Four Winds, The Richest Man To God and Wheels. I was surprised when I heard Dan’s version, for the most part it was left the way I sent it.”

What tips would you offer for someone new to bluegrass song writing?

“Write meaningful things that you have some connection to. Its OK to make up stories, but try to take your thoughts there to that time or place. Feel it, mean it.”

What prompted you to pitch Wheels to Dan and what did Dan have to say to about the song?

“Sound engineer Daren Shumaker said Dan was looking for material and I should send it to him. Dan said when he heard the song he knew he could build an entire album around it.”

Looking back through the 10 years in which Patrick McDougal has been writing songs it is evident that those songs are of a consistently strong quality, with a couple being quickly picked up by top flight artists. At the turn of the century, Jeanette Williams’s recording of Carolina Time (on Too Blue) and the Lonesome River Band’s cut of Missed It By A Mile (on Window Of Time) have kept McDougal’s name in the minds of bands who are looking for good, fresh new material.

In addition to Wheels, Dog Off The Chain, Richest Man To God and Dancin’ Round The Daisies are all getting a lot of air play currently and each adds weight to an assertion that they represent McDougal’s best work to date.

Most recently McDougal has written four new tunes that he and his new publisher Eric Willson, with Omni Artists Productions, plan to pitch to a wide range of artists.

Editor’s note: Patrick was also featured in the most recent issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles.