A Q&A With the Spring Breakup Lyric Contest Promotion Winner, Jennifer Schmitt

Jennifer Schmitt is American Songwriter’s Spring Breakup lyric contest promotion winner for her song, “Break Up in This Town.”

Schmitt told American Songwriter that she penned the song in 2018 amid some big life changes.

“I was preparing to move away from a small town in Montana (pop. 800), a move that would end a relationship, too,” she said. “I thought, ‘What would it feel like to go through this breakup if I wasn’t moving on, in a town where everyone knows everyone’s business and there’s no getting away from it all?’ From there, the lyrics came pretty quickly.”

The song, Schmitt said, is all about “not knowing how to get through a tough breakup” and figuring out “how to be brokenhearted while still somehow navigating the days and nights.”

“There’s also the element of making yourself sit with the pain in order to get through it, maybe even sharpening that pencil so you feel every bit of it, fully,” she said. “It’s about finding your way, even stumbling through it, until the ache eases up.”

Read on to learn more about Schmitt.

Jennifer Schmitt Q&A

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SONGWRITING? WHAT GOT YOU INTO MUSIC IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Since age 12 or so, I kept notebooks of song lyrics. In the last 20 years I started collaborating with other songwriters. I don’t sing or play music, but I love trying to find a new way to write a detail or a feeling. And I was always the girl who read the liner notes and lyrics. 

WHY DID YOU ENTER AMERICAN SONGWRITER’S SPRING BREAKUP PROMOTION? 

This lyric was just hanging out in my files, biding its time, but it never found a project or co-write opportunity. When I saw the Spring Breakup promo, it felt like the right time to see if it could have a life off the page.  

WHAT DOES WINNING THE CONTEST MEAN TO YOU?

I hope it means that the judges felt something true and familiar in these lines. It’s such an honor for these amazing songwriters to read something I wrote. For them to choose it feels really good, and I’m truly grateful for the recognition.  

WHAT SONGWRITERS AND ARTISTS DO YOU COUNT AS YOUR BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS?

Tyler Childers. Chris Stapleton. Ashley McBryde. Jeremy Pinnell. Loretta Lynn. Jeffrey Foucault. Jason Isbell. Perhaps most poignant, John Prine. My partner and I were lucky enough to have tickets to his show at the Opry on New Year’s Eve 2019. [It was] right before the pandemic, just before the world lost him. That night holds a very special place in my soul. I have a few tattoos. The last one I got was [of Prine’s lyrics], “The moon and stars hang out in bars just talkin’.” It means a lot to me.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PLANS IN 2026. 

I write most often with my dear friend Marcedes Carroll, a Montana singer and songwriter I met when she was playing at Willie’s Distillery in Ennis. We connected over songwriting and started meeting twice a month to write together.

In time, several of our co-writes ended up on her album projects. We just finished another co-write in May, a song called “Silver Pocket Watch.” [It’s] about a man whose life is mostly behind him. Her partner, Doc Elliot, jumped in too. We’re all really pleased with how it turned out. 

We’re even releasing it in a very analog way. I run a monthly mail club called The Prose & Post Society with about 500 members in 20 countries. I send out art prints, a letter, and some extras each month. In June, I’m including a QR code to the song along with a lyric sheet. (The QR code isn’t so analog, but at least it’s printed on paper, right?) I hope they love the song.

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST CAREER DREAM?

To say it out loud feels so wildly improbable, but the biggest dream is to sit in a pew at the Ryman and hear someone I admire singing a song I had a hand in writing. While I’m dreaming, it would be incredible to hear the audience sing along with all the words, carried away in the moment. (I would lose it, of course. Tears for days.) That’s it. That’s the dream. 

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL OTHER ARTISTS WHO ARE CONSIDERING ENTERING THE CONTEST?

Send in your songs, and keep sending them. I’ve entered the American Songwriter Lyric Contest many times over the last 15 or so years, with one 4th-place win and an honorable mention. I can’t think of a more low-risk, welcoming place than this to share your lyrics with songwriting peers. It’s like a campfire we’re all gathered around, as the music and sparks drift up into the stars and we’re all just happy to be in such good company. 

Read Jennifer Schmitt’s Contest-Winning Lyrics for “Break Up in This Town”

I ask the waitress on the late shift at the diner
I ask the old men shooting pool down at the bar
Toss and turn every night ‘cause I just can’t figure out
How do you break up in this town?

How do you walk across the street like it’s nothing
How do you go to work where everybody knows
And answer how’re you doing without always breaking down
Won’t you tell me how to break up in this town

I take all the counsel friends so kindly offer
I try going out and I try staying home
I turn left instead of right so I don’t pass his house
And I still don’t know how to break up in this town

I drop another roll of quarters in the jukebox
Play every song that hurts me right down to the bone
Throw a fifty on the bar and buy everyone a round
Guess that’s how you break up in this town

I spend my nights trying to sleep out on the sofa
‘Cause it’s the loneliest place that I can find
So don’t be surprised when I’m closing this place down
‘Cause I don’t know how to break up in this town

Photo by Martin Harris