Tag Archives: Vintage

The C.L.I.M.B., Write Like A Pro

The C.L.I.M.B. #43: 5 Ways Songwriters Make Their Lyrics Too Old

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On today’s episode: shacking up, drinking, plastic surgery, Barney the dinosaur, and making your lyrics too old!

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The C.L.I.M.B. Podcast Episode 43 is live and ready for download!

In this week’s episode, Johnny and I discuss 5 ways that some songwriters make their lyrics too OLD.  It’s a “young” market, and you can torpedo your song’s chances of success by putting these 5 things in your songs!  (Be sure and subscribe so you never miss another helpful episode!)

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The C.L.I.M.B. stands for “Creating Leverage In The Music Business,” and that’s the goal of this podcast- to help singers, indie artists and songwriters like YOU to create leverage in the music business.  What is leverage?  It’s “strategic advantage; the power to act effectively.”  We want to help YOU make stuff happen in the music biz.

It’s exciting to see how folks are digging the show- and being helped on their CLIMB.  If YOU like it, we’d really appreciate it if you’d subscribe and leave a rating or review on iTunes.  Positive ratings and reviews help us to climb the iTunes rankings so more people become aware of the show and we can help more singers, songwriters, and indie artists like you make The CLIMB!The CLIMB iTunes review 3

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Thanks for your time. It means a lot to me, and hopefully it’ll be a lot of help for you!

God Bless and keep C.L.I.M.B.ing,

Brent

Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens, and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

Biz

Songwriting Seeds Grow Slowly

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Ruthie Collins EP

Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens, and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

Songwriting seeds can (and usually do) take years to bear fruit.  Here’s a case in point.

My cowriting buddy, Ruthie Collins, started her first radio tour as a solo artist late last year (2014) on Curb Records / Sidewalk Records, and her debut EP is now available on iTunes.  I’m blessed to have a song on there called, “Vintage.”

Ruthie and I met back in 2008 while she was in a duo called Wild Honey and was just coming off Season One of CMT’s “Can You Duet.”  Sheree Spoltore introduced us one day at NSAI, and we started cowriting.

You can do the math.  First cowrite in 2008 to first release in 2014 is a long time.  But that’s the thing about the music biz- things can take a long time to develop.  (Heck, I had a Randy Travis cut that took 2 years from cut to release!)

You have to be patient.

Ruthie and I wrote a lot of songs before we wrote “Vintage” (with Jessica Roadcap).  But those songs and days weren’t wasted- we were building our trust and friendship.  This is not a rich-quick business.  It’s more of a probably-not-ever-rich business, honestly.  So my advice is this:

Write songs you enjoy with people you enjoy.  Because it’s those people you’ll stick with long enough for some seeds to bear fruit.

You can check out Ruthie at:   ruthiecollinsmusic.com

You can get the EP on iTunes <HERE.>

God Bless,

Brent

A GIFT FROM BRENT

Thanks to those of you who have already downloaded my book, Hit Songwriting: How A Songwriting Coach Can Fast Track Your Success! You made it an Amazon bestseller in the Songwriting and Music Instruction categories, and I really appreciate it! However, if you haven’t downloaded your copy yet, you can get it FOR FREE at www.GiftFromBrent.com or by clicking on the image below. Enjoy!

Gift From Brent Songwriting 3

 

Songwriting Decisions

Songwriting Decisions: Ruthie Collins & “Vintage”

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Ruthie Collins EP

Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens, and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

Here are some of the songwriting decisions that went into the song “Vintage,” which has been recorded and released by Curb Records artist, Ruthie Collins.

Ruthie is a buddy of mine, as well as an artist on Curb Records. We’ve written off and on for a few years. She’s awesome. We were in the middle of working on another song, and we kinda hit a wall and decided to shelve it for a while. However, we had some time left, so we decided to look at another idea.

What idea(s) do I present?

I had this title in my hook book called, “Vintage.” I didn’t have an idea around it, but I liked the word. I hadn’t heard it as a song title before, and I knew Ruthie loved vintage clothes, furniture, etc. I usually like to wait until I have an idea or direction to go with a title before I present it to an artist… but I thought Ruthie would be be perfect person to help me figure it out. She loved the title.

What’s our angle?

The title “Vintage” just felt positive. Also, Ruthie had plenty of sad songs, so a happy song would fill a need for her. And making it somehow about love was a no-brainer. We landed on love being vintage.

What’s our point-of-view?

Deciding on the point-of-view was tricky. Our first impulse was to say, “our love is vintage,” but that made the singer old (because vintage = antique). And that doesn’t work for a young artist like Ruthie… or pretty much any artist selling many country records these days. Should we say, “THEIR love is vintage?” Well, that would work, but we still wanted the impact of “me” speaking to “you.” (That’s a more powerful way to write- directly addressing the listener.) We decided that the love was new, and the singer WANTED to love him UNTIL their love was vintage.

Vintage

Ballad or tempo?

With an idea like “Vintage,” it could’ve been a sweet ballad. But, thinking like songwriters who wanted cuts, we gave it as much tempo as we felt the idea could carry. We both love ballads, but Ruthie had plenty of those already. We needed to write what she DIDN’T have. And she DIDN’T have enough tempo songs. This made it positive-love-young-tempo. We wrote a verse and chorus that day. Ruthie, being the vintage expert, carried the bulk of the work. Thank goodness for cowriters!

Several months passed while Ruthie went in to record her debut album (which ended up on the shelf, but that’s another story). Eventually, she rediscovered the worktape and fell in love with it all over again.

Do we bring in another cowriter?

Ruthie really wanted to get the song right, and she thought Jessica Roadcap would help us get it there. I’d never written with Jessica, but I knew she was one of Ruthie’s “inner circle” of cowriters. I trust Ruthie’s instincts, and I also figured it would be valuable for other reasons, as well (see my post: “The Artist Camp: Multiple Points Of Contact”). She called up Jessica.

Together, the three of us tweaked the first verse, chorus melody, and wrote the second verse. Thankfully, Ruthie loved the finished result. She wanted the song to have the best chance of getting on her record, so she and Jessica demoed it.

It must’ve worked, because it’s on her new album! Thanks Ruthie and Jessica!

You can check out Ruthie at:   ruthiecollinsmusic.com

You can get the EP on iTunes <HERE.>

God Bless,

Brent

THE PRO KNOWS

To BE a pro, you need to THINK like a pro. In this complimentary report, learn the mindsets that help the pro songwriter get cuts, earn respect in the industry, and maintain long-term success in the music business. Just click on the picture below to download this complimentary report today!

The Pro Knows

Cut Study

Cut Study: Ruthie Collins & “Vintage”

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Ruthie Collins EP

Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens, and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

I’m blessed to have a cowrite on Ruthie Collins’ debut project on Curb Records. Here’s the inside story on how it made the record.

I wrote with a developing artist (early).

Ruthie was just coming off Season One of CMT’s “Can You Duet.” We got introduced at NSAI, and I started writing with her. That was back in August of 2008. Eventually, Ruthie got a record deal on Curb. Thanks to our friendship and writing history, I was able to bypass the gatekeepers at her publishing company and label (both Curb) and continue to book cowrites directly with her. I didn’t get blocked out, as sometimes happens when cowriters get deals.

I brought in the right title.

Knowing Ruthie loves all things vintage, I thought she’d like the title. I kept it in my “Ruthie Collins Ideas” file on my laptop. One day we hit a wall on another song we were writing, and we decided to move on to something else. I mentioned, “Vintage” and Ruthie lit up like a Christmas tree.

The timing was right.

The song sat unfinished for probably a year while Ruthie finished up her debut album and I had to go get a day job.  I did have one song on there called, “Always Open.” What I didn’t know was that they basically scrapped the whole album she’d recorded, and she was now headed in a different direction. It was a direction that “Vintage” fit perfectly. Ruthie rediscovered the worktape and said, “We HAVE to finish this!”  Boy, am I glad she did!

We served the song, generously.

Ruthie and I can write a good song on our own, and we know it. Almost all of our cowrites were just the two of us. But Ruthie really wanted to make sure we got it right, and she thought her good friend and cowriter, Jessica Roadcap, would be a great fit. In terms of ownership (and potential money) this brought us each down from 50% to 33.33%. But we’d rather have 33.33% of a cut than 50% of nothing. And it was a good call. Jessica brought great value to the song. (Plus, it gave me a new friend in the music biz and in Ruthie’s camp.)

We positioned the song to win.

Ruthie could’ve just played the worktape for Curb, but she really wanted to put “Vintage” in the best light possible. So she and Jessica demoed it. They even went back and did several tweaks to the demo to get it just right.

Ruthie championed the song.

Ruthie believed in the song. She knew it really fit her brand, and she didn’t sit around hoping her label and marketing team would happen to come to the same conclusion. She actively brought them ideas around the “Vintage” concept. “Vintage,” both the song and the style, summed up her brand.

Right idea, written right, with the right artist at the right time. Easy and predictable… right?

You can check out Ruthie at:   ruthiecollinsmusic.com

You can get the EP on iTunes <HERE.>

God Bless,

Brent

THE PRO KNOWS

To BE a pro, you need to THINK like a pro. In this complimentary report, learn the mindsets that help the pro songwriter get cuts, earn respect in the industry, and maintain long-term success in the music business. Just click on the picture below to download this complimentary report today!

The Pro Knows