Yesterday was the final day of the 38th Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival. Last Wednesday in the weekly e-newsletter, I wrote that I’d just come back from being at that event in Alabama, yet it’s so big that it was still going on!
In that email, the above statement was part of an item about a “Promoting Your Music Career” seminar that I had put on, now nine days ago (pictured above and documented here too).
To the casual observer it might seem as though participating songwriters would’ve come away with the shows that they played, possibly having attended my seminar, and the swag bag given out at registration. That, however, is only part of it.
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Songwriters can just have a casual conversation with each other and an idea can strike them, so imagine putting them together in an environment such as the Frank Brown Festival – with 200 songwriters taking part – and you know there are to be new songs that some of them collaborate on and take home.
New relationships are also a great benefit of the time spent at such an event, not to mention reconnecting with folks you haven’t seen maybe since the last edition of the festival. (Keep in mind, as I said at my seminar, that in networking, you never know who someone else knows!) In some cases, the pandemic kept songwriters at home instead of making the trip to the Florida/Alabama border and so it had been even longer since they’d last seen one another.
I was impressed seeing a performer share a healthy portion of what had accumulated in the tip jar with the sound guy. This is the much more desirable route to take than the person who sits on stage and says into the microphone, “We’re experiencing technical difficulties,” while the sound guy troubleshoots and works to make that person sound better. (So don’t shine a bright light on it and make it sound like it’s his fault.)
In a bit of an awkward moment, I also, however, saw a songwriter in a round not quite fitting in with commentary or mis-timed harmonies. Err on the side of the-less-said-the-better, kids, because if you don’t know the others in your round – or their songs – attentive audience members might do their best Homer Simpson (“D’oh!”) when you try to chime in on what someone else is doing on stage.
Actually, there was another round I attended where it was a little awkward seeing an older songwriter on stage say, “I thought we agreed before we started that there wasn’t going to be any showing off” after a younger festival participant proceeded to shred on guitar.
That’s not unlike one month earlier when I was at the Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival and someone decided to perform the Charlie Daniels classic, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which was met promptly by stern warnings, er, reminders, that it is an ORIGINAL MUSIC ONLY festival.
Songwriters festivals are SUCH a great environment to be a part of. There’s so much to savor, and notice that I haven’t even mentioned the beach. Navigate those waters carefully and you can find yourself heading home with a whole lot more than just the cash from the merch that you sold at your performances.
I have been working with independent artists from around the U.S. for more than 18 years. Book a one-time online video consultation with me and let’s take your challenges head-on to keep you moving forward. The conversation is completely confidential, and we will target whatever you set the agenda for, not me. Schedule time with me for this private discussion and keep the momentum going for all that you’re doing in your music career.