How you doin’ (with the songwriting challenge)? I got nuthin’…

August 18, 2010

How’s your DDOA? That is, how’s your “Dog Days of August” songwriting challenge going? Only 13 days left to e-mail me that MP3 and lyrics to songwritingscene at gmail dot com! Ha. I should talk. I got nuthin’. See, a whole week in songwriting camp and I’m still empty. Sure, I learned a new guitar [...]

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Songwriting tips: Straight from song camp

August 11, 2010

I’m winding down here at the week-long SummerSongs in Ashokan, NY, and I had the chance to sit down on a shady porch on a humid evening with songwriting instructor and fabulous performer David Roth — who, in addition to teaching songwriting and guitar at SummerSongs, runs the Contemporary Folk week track at North Carolina’s  Swannanoa [...]

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Songwriting exercise: The song “hanger”

August 9, 2010

So I’m spending the week in the songwriting zone…in a fabulous alternate universe called SummerSongs, where dozens of folks in a green, lush, hilly setting want nothing more than to write songs, talk about writing songs, listen to songs, and play songs. One class I’m enjoying is a songwriting workshop taught by Cosy Sheridan,  a [...]

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Songwriting Scene Q&A: Jonatha Brooke

August 8, 2010

Sometimes I’ll e-mail the publicist of an artist that I really admire and request a phone interview — without the hope of much success. Most often (as with my dwindling efforts to get Paul Simon on the line…ha ha), my e-mail efforts go unnoticed. But in the case of Jonatha Brooke, I recently got an [...]

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