OC Music Magazine

James Lee Stanley

What do you think is the biggest misconception or mistake of young songwriters?   A question asked of Tom Russell, veteran songwriter:

(Laughs.) I could go on and on. At South By Southwest, I wasn't there, but Little Steven got up and made this speech. People asked me if I wrote it for him. He said: You people come from all over the world, and you're all trying to network your way to fame. None of you young songwriters are doing your homework. You're not learning other people's songs, staying home and learning the craft. You're not playing bars for 10 or 15 years, paying your dues. And that's true. When Dylan came to New York, and he's the supreme example, none of these people will top that catalogue, he knew a thousand songs. He could steal from Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie, and he could play blues. He came through that scene very fast because of the homework he'd done. You could say genius, but he did a lot of hard work. We've made it very hard for young songwriters, with these stupid bullshit conferences, South By Southwest, Folk Alliance, Songwriter Magazine. There's this idea

 that there are gimmicks, tools, networking that can help you. But they haven't helped anybody. They've limited people. The Beatles had four tracks and a guitar. All this science, this introspective look at songwriting, it's put hobbles on songwriters. It was a heavy scene that Dylan and Cohen went through. Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, those guys, were in the Navy and Marines, and had been exposed to hard drugs. By the time they hit the scene they were adults, they had character. You don't run into that type of kid anymore.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2009/10/interview_outtakes_tom_russell_off_broadway_october_16_2009_interview_dylan.php

just received this in an email and I thought it would make a really good topic.    Little Steven from Springsteen’s band evidently made these comments and Tom Russell quoted them.   The full article is on that website.

He does have a point, tho the dissing of the conferences could only be made by someone who is already famous.     No matter how good a songwriter you are, people have to hear your songs to know that.   Dylan, et al, came up through that NYC scene, because there was a real scene there.   A scene that was supported by the media and by the public.    That scene does not exist anymore, so networking and getting your music around has to be done differently, and I suggest to you that going to these conferences and playing for your peers as well as the hundreds of venue people that show up will give you a chance to expose your music, be exposed to other music, compare your work to others to see how you are doing, and get some work, if you are good enough.

Some people take exception to the idea of comparing your self to others, but comparing yourself to how you were doing two years ago will only give you a gauge of you now verses you then.   A good thing to know, but when you hear  a truly great singer, guitar player, songwriter, etc, you are impacted and you learn from it and you have to compare yourself and your work to that level.    And it is a competition…not a fair one, I’ll grant you.   There are far too many mediocre talents in our industry that are celebrated for me to pretend that if you do the work and have the talent you are guaranteed a first class seat.    Not always the case in terms of popular acceptance, but in terms of artistic satisfaction, absolutely.  

After a certain level, you are only getting better for yourself.   Only other devoted players are going to appreciate what you had to do to get there.    Unless you get SO there that you are Chet Atkins and everyone can hear it, no matter who they are.    And that being said, there are many people for whom Chet’ s unbelievable playing just doesn’t do it for them.   

Though it is wonderful to get the support, you cannot trust the majority in this regard. 

What Little Steven said about getting some life experience I have to agree with totally.   You get some scars, some knocks, some pain, you end up creating stuff with more depth and hopefully more resonance.

This article is reprinted with permission by JamesLeeStanley. Please find the original article and support James at datamusicata.com