Videos by American Songwriter
There’s no question that Nashville is primarily known as a country music town, and although country has long been the driving force in Music City, it’s by no means the city’s only create vehicle. Nashville songwriters today are currently writing everything from alternative country to reggae and rock to all styles of Christian music. As more people outside Tennessee become more familiar with the depth and breadth of talent in Nashville, the community’s tunesmiths are seeing astounding success.
Perhaps the best example came at this year’s Grammy Awards when Wayne Kirkpatrick, Tommy Sims and Gordon Kennedy accepted the song of the year Grammy for “Change The World.” That recognition by voting members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and science (NARAS) went a long way toward shattering Nashville’s perceived stereotype of being a country music town. The Eric Clapton hit from the soundtrack of the movie Phenomenon also netted single of the year accolades.
Do the writers think “Change the World” may help change perceptions of Nashville? “Absolutely,” says Gordon Kennedy. “People are telling us that it is and I just have to believe that. People in this community are excited because they know this is focusing a light on Nashville to say that there is more here than what the stereotype might be, and that’s the country thing. Nashville has always been known for that. But I think everybody appreciates the fact that it’s showing that Nashville is more diverse than that.”
The diversity of talent in Music City is one of the community’s key calling cards. Members of Aerosmith were recently in town writing with Gary Burr, and country artist/writers like Marty Stuart are expanding their boundaries. During a recent trip to Los Angeles, Stuart co-wrote with Carole Bayer Sager, who told him she’d heard glowing comments about the Nashville songwriting community from Neil Diamond in the wake of his Tennessee Moon project.
Though “Change The World” was a major coup for the Nashville songwriting community, it’s not the only success story. Joose recently recoded the Garth Brooks hit “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” penned by Brooks and Kent Blazy. Frank Myers and Gary Baker’s “I Swear” was a country hit for John Michael Montgomery and then became a huge hit for the group All-4-One, topping Billboard‘s Hot 100 for 11 weeks. Myers says such exposure has opened additional avenues for him and Baker.
“There are people approaching us because of the success we’ve had,” he says. “We’ve developed a relationship with All-4-One’s producer and we’re developing contacts in other markets.”
There are several other examples of pop and R&B acts having huge hits with songs by Nashville-based writers such as All-4-One also covering John Michael Montgomery’s “I Can Love You Like That,” written by Jennifer Kimball, Steve Diamond and Maribeth Derry. And who can forget the mega-hit Whitney Houston had when she covered the Dolly Parton chestnut “I Will Always Love You” on the soundtrack of her film The Bodyguard, or Bette Midler’s success with “Wind Beneath My Wings,” written by Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar. Southern gospel veteran Dottie Rambo’s song I Go To The Rock” was cut by Whitney Houston on The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack, due in large part to the persistent pitching of Benson Music publishing’s Cindy Wilt.
“We’ve always had cuts outside the marketplace,” says EMI Nashville chief Gary Overton. “We own song ‘Nobody Knows’ which has been a hit for the Tony Rich Project and for Kevin Sharp. It’s an incredible song—We keep seeing our songs continue to touch more and more people.”
Overton says there are more people looking in Nashville for hit songs, than there ever have been. One of his writers, Tony Joe White, has a cut on the new Tina Turner album. He says his company recently got a call from Rod Stewart’s people looking for material. Also Nashville’s songwriting tip sheets revealed that Hall & Oates were in Nashville looking for songs for an upcoming project. And there has been an influx of pop writers, artists, and producers such as Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Peter Frampton, Michael Omartian, Bob Halligan and Dennis Matkosky who’ve moved to Nashville in recent years.
Halligan is a veteran songwriter who has had cuts by a huge cross-section of acts including Judas Priest, Kiss, Cher and Michael Bolton. Since moving to Nashville two years ago, he’s had cuts in the Christian market by several acts including Rebecca St. James and Considering Lily. He also wrote the title cut for Kathy Mattea’s current album Love Travels. He admits it would be hard for a writer who doesn’t write Christian or country music to make a living in Nashville. “I find that people still think of it as ‘Hee Haw land,’ Halligan says. “They view it as a niche market. You and I know how parochial that is on their part, but it’s a business of perception.”
Halligan says the perception is changing but at a “glacial tempo.” He says the challenge is for Nashville-based writers to do work that will change the perception and that Nashville’s presence at the Grammys was a big plus.
“Nashville is a true melting pot of music,” he says. “And if people were taking notes on the Grammys, they saw the pop music icon and R & B icon performing a song written by three guys from Nashville.”
Beyond just getting cuts by pop, rock or R & B acts and placing songs on soundtracks, there are a lot of other avenues for Nashville writers and publishers. Mike and Sue Gay are achieving national success with their line of children’s music series, The Cedarmont Kids. Also Nashville-based J. Aaron Brown and Associates has had Grammy-winning success with children’s lullabies.
Opryland Music Group VP Jerry Flowers report OMG had “an amazing year in commercials.” Among the spots they secured were the Pepsi “Security Camera” spot, which utilized “You Cheatin’ Heart,” won two Cleo Awards, and was the second highest rated spot ever in the Ad Meter ratings. According to Flowers, another coup was the usage of “When Did You Stop Loving Me” in the Nissan “Towtruck” spot. “Both of these spots were unique in that there was absolutely no voice over on the tracks—meaning bonus level performance payments,” Flowers says.
One of the things that is helping Nashville publishers garner usages outside country and Christian music is networking with other offices. Peer Music Nashville, like many other Music Row publishers, is part of a large international corporation. Kevin Lamb, head of Peer’s Nashville office says they’ve had success internationally by utilizing working closely with Peer offices abroad.
“We’ve been doing demos in London to get away from the possibility of having a country flavor,” he says. “We’ve also been working with offices in Spain and Italy and finding melodies to some foreign language songs that our writers are working with to create new songs.”
Interaction with writers from other genres is a great way for Nashville writers to expand their horizons and help change the perceptions of Music City. Rock tunesmiths Richie Sambora and Richie Supa were recently in town for a Nashville Entertainment Association event and say other songwriters respect what is coming out of Nashville. “I recorded some of the last Bon Jovi record here,” Sambora says. “There’s a cool vibe in this town and I’ve spent a lot of time here.”
He encourages Nashville writers to pitch outside their usual arena. “What it really is, you have to go and peddle it,” he says. “You have to work with artists that are outside where you’re used to being. A good song is a good song and that’s the beauty of our business. IT just starts with that. Without the song, we don’t have a business. It’s the building block and foundation of everybody’s job and joy.”
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