Why write songs?

I met my friend Bill Gessner at Summersongs, the songwriting retreat I’ve attended many times in New York’s Catskill Mountains (as well as on the California coast), where he often teaches a class called “Why Write Songs?” Well, it isn’t exactly a class — more a philosophical musing back-and-forth about this often evolving question/answer.

It certainly has evolved for me. Frankly, in the beginning I wrote songs because I wanted to the next Suzanne Vega or Shawn Colvin. I wanted to be a star. Today, those feelings have waned dramatically, so I’ve had to come up with new reasons to keep songwriting in my life.

It seems like every time I finish an album I come upon the same question: Why am I doing this again, exactly? Well, when I was doing some cleaning recently I came upon a box which contained some notes from a previous Summersongs — perhaps back in 2006, I’d say. I have some free-form notes that I took during Bill Gessner’s class and I am happy to say what I wrote still holds true for me today — and I hope will continue to stay with me.

Here is a little of what I wrote:

“I write songs to keep my heart open and my soul unlocked. I write songs to give my life movement and motion, to satisfy my need for a creative path that is not solitary and for myself alone, but that I share with others. I write songs to touch someone else with my work, in whatever way it is. I write songs for the feeling of journey and process and for the lifelong learning process.”

Want to share? Let me know why you write songs…