A songwriter's sad tale.

Here I am.  With the most poetic thoughts in the world flowing from my mind, to the paper in front of me.  You might say I'm on a roll.  I can just hear the next #1 hit freely leaping about in my brain.  This is gonna be a good one!

All of a sudden, there's silence.  Something has clogged the path from my head to my paper, and that magnificent piece of musical genius dies within me.  Try though I may to revive the once spirited, buoyant, life of a would-be-winner, its too late.  We'll never know how the song would've ended, nor will we hear that wonderful, catchy chorus everybody would've loved to join in on.  A songwriter's tear falls from my eye in mourning of the passing of something that never became anything.

But thus is the life of a songwriter.

When I listen to music in my spare time, I listen to songs that have a lot of oomph in them.  This musically correct term means that the melody and lyrics work together to make a song worth singing.  I spend a lot of time studying musician's word choice and melody patterns in hopes that I too someday might write the next tear-jerker, or raise-your-hands-gospel song, or rambler ballad, whatever the case may be.  I've tried to, believe me!  The closest I got was what I consider my biggest hit: A Few Miles Down The Road.  You haven't heard of it?  Not many people have.  Those who have heard it told me they liked it and some even learned the words to sing it!  That is the biggest compliment any songwriter could get.

Ever listen to Celtic music?  Some of the world's greatest lyricists are Celtic music writers.  Bluegrassers are the same way.  Folk music has its moments of glory as well.  Just being in the crowd doesn't make me a good writer.  I have to 1.) Start writing  2.) Keep writing  and 3.) Write some more.  Eventually, I may be able to do what so many songwriters are capable of doing.

But there's still the little problem of originality.  "There's a girl on my mind I can't get over/ Yeah I'm dreaming about my Mary Ann/" Wait...have I heard this song before, or did I just write a good one?

Until then, I'll keep trying to put pen to paper and tell the world about life, hope, sorrow, and other such subjects.  I'll write that song about a Civil War Battle (that I actually have to do research for).  I'll write that song about my crush on Jennifer Willis (but I doubt she'll hear it, cause she doesn't know me from Adam's cat).  I'll write that song about the '64 Cadillac I don't really have (but I'll write about it anyway in case the folks at Cadillac give me a free one).

Well, gotta go!  There are songs to be written.  Stay creative, my friends!