He has written over 3,000 songs and had just performed – again – at the famous Bluebird Café in Nashville a couple nights prior to this interview. He has worked with and performed with some big names in country music, including Frankie Ballard and 2015 runner-up on “The Voice,” Meghan Linsey. His previous appearance on our show (Episode 12) is one of – if not THE – most popular episodes of NHTE.
“(The Bluebird Café) is the Broadway of Nashville singer/songwriters.”
“People that are on American Idol have gotten great publicity and, of course, it spawned a lot of things, like The Voice and things, but, like anything, it can be overdone. Now record labels and people are expecting you to go through the reality television shows and a lot of it is, behind the scenes, there’s a lot of not as much reality as you would think… There’s a lot of manipulation in these things and so there can be some negatives about it.”
“…the TV show ‘Nashville.’ You cannot believe what it has done for tourism in this town. As a matter of fact, we’re talking about it in Nashville (that) we should name our state bird the crane, ‘cause there are cranes everywhere. Building is just going on and traffic, and we’re becoming the new Los Angeles.”
“Everyone that is involved in this in any level has their own agenda. There are people that own studios, and many of them are legitimate. I sometimes call Nashville, ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ Everybody thinks they can do what you need. Everybody thinks they can make you a star.”
“There’s always someone ready to separate you from your money.”
“One of the biggest problems that people make… we get very excited about the songs that we write. ‘Boy that song – the greatest songs ever written were Yesterday by Paul McCartney, Imagine by John Lennon, and the song I just wrote this morning!’”
“The songs may work for their local neighborhoods in Schenectady, but they really don’t work for Nashville and you need to keep all that in perspective when you’re trying to decide on recording. You need to decide what your purposes are.”
“Around 600 people a week …come in (to Nashville) attempting to do something with music – some move, some are making trips – and that’s offset by about 1,200 people a week that have tried between six months and two years to do something and they’ve just finally given up.”
“I want to be able to picture a scene. I want the little video going off in my mind when I’m listening to what someone is saying.”
“Twitter and Facebook are going to kill as many careers as drugs and alcohol ever did.”
“I would encourage anyone wanting to be involved in this industry, be careful what you say online ‘cause it can come back to bite you.”
"Barefeet"
"The Biggest Risk"