Behind the Scenes: Nashville

I booked an impromptu recording session and am tracking my first co-write as we speak. (If you remember, I came here in February—the last time I had a few songs recorded—and for the first time ever, I wrote a song with other people: lyrics, melody, and guitar.) I’m improvising on this keyboard with no sheet […]

Did a little backup singing in the recording studio today. I’ve talked before about how nerve-racking that is for me. I told myself that this chance doesn’t come along very often in one’s lifetime, let go, and sang my little heart out. Okay, okay, how it really went down: the husband and producer had to […]

I had my own assistant during last night’s co-write session: Me: “So, Harlan, do you think we should do an instrumental bridge?” Harlan: “Woof.”

It took two hours to complete our co-write session: my second and Ken’s first. And yes, we wrote a happy song (and not just because I uncharacteristically consumed alcohol earlier in the day). I think I could get addicted to this. The co-writing, not the alcohol, just so we’re clear. If you remember, Jennie is […]

Remember that day I was stuck with the Roland keyboard during my last trip here to Nashville? Well, I started composing on that thing and had the main gist of the song done in one hour. (It helped that I “recycled” some instrumental music from a long time ago—one of the only ones I could […]

Ken and I toured the Grand Ole Opry this morning. Oh, to stand in “the circle” for realsies. Wait, I’m a songwriter. I guess that hallowed spot is reserved for singers. I don’t know who Roy Acuff is, but I’m going to use his words as my mantra when I try to nail measures 91-106 […]

You know that little hashtag I put in my last post? Well, I might be failing a bit at that. This is so much fun. I’ve started writing another song. What the heck is happening to me? I used to compose a song a year if I was lucky. I looked up the word “free” […]

Still here in Nashville and I am “stuck” with this bad boy all day. I have only played on non-acoustic pianos a handful of times—what can I say? I love my baby grand—so it looks like Google and I are going to be spending some time together. #thoushaltnotcovet

Did my first co-write today. There were three of us in the room and we wrote a song. One hour, people, that’s all it took. It was incredible. My big fear going in was that I was going to sit there like a bump on a log and not contribute in any way. But I […]

That moment when I get to sit in the producer’s chair and give the final approval. I have yet to do it without crying. That’s a good thing, right?