Time and time again I'm amazed at how the songwriting outlook can be so bleak one moment, and the clouds can clear revealing a sunny beautiful day in the blink of an eye.
  Such was my day a week ago when it seemed like all of the songwriting avenues were coming up short and I was stuck.  A couple emails later, I found that the song "Good News" had been chosen to be played at NSAI's "pitch to publisher" luncheon, which is the crown jewel of NSAI's critique service that happens once a quarter and features the best 20 songs that had come through NSAI any given quarter.  The tunes are then "pitched" a group of 30 or so publishers.  Excellent foot-in-the-door opportunity.  I also learned that another song, written with Elvira Walls, had made it to the finals of the NSAI\CMT song contest, which is a huge honor and accomplishment given the size of that contest.
  Nothing brightens a songwriter's day like the industry saying "Wow, turns out you've really got some great stuff here!"  Here's to moving past the finals and making some waves in the contest.  I'm also very excited about one particular publisher contact that came out of the P2P luncheon.  There are some very positive opportunities happening there, so I look forward to fostering that relationship.
  Looking forward to sharing more "Good News" in the future!

One thing I've noticed about this songwriting adventure is that my outlook is greatly influenced by the number and significance of the things that I'm looking forward to.  Events, contest results, song submissions for critique, return emails, phone calls.  In this business, the disappointments come heavy and often, and the only way I've found to put the blues behind me is to look ahead to the possibilities that await. 

  I spent the last month or so preparing for an event that I have been looking forward to for over a year now.  The Durango Songwriter's Expo is hosted every year in Colorado.  It originated in Durango, but was held this year here in the Denver area.  It's a very intimate collection of 40+ songwriting professionals and less than 200 attendees for a weekend of basically hanging out together and talking music.  I had an opportunity to perform a showcase, which is essentially a one-song slot in one of two 2-hour "concerts" featuring several of my aspiring songwriting peers.  It's a bit intimidating performing original material for a roomfull of 200+ peers and industry pros, but it went well, and I definitely enjoyed getting back on stage.  I also had the opportunity to present several of my songs to various publishers and artists during the critiquing sessions.  I'd say they were all received very well.  I'm getting pretty used to the phrase "this is a really well-crafted song", which is certainly a step in the right direction.  I've even heard "There's a lot of talent here" and "This song could be a hit" from various critics of a few of the songs, which is even closer to what I'm hoping to hear.

  But, ultimately, I want to hear the words "We really want to cut this song" and even better, "We're looking to release it as the first single".  Those phrases will come eventually, but while I'm waiting, I'm taking in all of the small victories along the way that keep me going.  The new relationships, the songs that seem to come out of nowhere, the stories of how songs have touched people, the kudos from unexpected places, the new surprising opportunities...  All of these make this journey a joy to travel, and I look forward to whatever God has in store around the next bend.

  I'm currently planning the first of (hopefully) many songwriting business trips to Nashville in mid-November.  It's a great opportunity to put faces to names and get my material out there in the hands of folks that can make things happen, so I pray that I can make the most of the limited time I've got.  I'll be meeting up with my co-writer from Kansas, Josh Holthusen, who's planning the trip with me, so I have a hard time imagining it being a bust.  I look forward to posting some positive results from that trip soon!

Just finished up another early Friday morning Skype session with my good friend Josh Holthusen, and as always, I've got ideas and possibilities fluttering around that will likely be with me the rest of the day here and there.  A few instant messages will likely flow between us during the workday today in an attempt to nail down some of the ideas that are floating around.  The result may be nothing more than good conversation between friends about something that we're both passionate about, but it just may turn into a song that becomes someone's favorite.  I'd say that's a win-win situation.
  For the vast majority of my songwriting career, I've written solo.  Take an idea, bounce it around for months to try to paint with words the picture I have in my head.  I'm proud to say that there are several songs of mine that have blossomed this way, and I won't ever stop writing songs by myself.  But, I've just recently discovered the treasure of co-writing, and a significant number of excellent tunes have come as a result.  Josh and I have put together an album worth of great songs that have a solid chance of finding their way onto studio albums out there given the right ears and timing.  Several other co-write relationships are in the works as well with songs being formed as we speak via personal conversations, lunch meetings, skype sessions, email correspondence and google docs to keep it all organized.  My main dilemma during my commute is which unfinished tune to work on.  I'm loving it, though, and for anyone who is a bit uncomfortable about diving into a co-writing situation, my advice would be to simply expect to forge a new friendship with someone who shares your passion.  Don't set out to write the next hit together, and don't be worried about failing to deliver genius ideas or cheesy melodies.  Some days it works seamlessly, and some days it just doesn't.  But, if the goal is a friendship, you'll be hard-pressed to fail.

  I learned long ago during my days with Acappella that time spent in the studio somehow travels much faster than it does in normal life.  I could jump into the studio to work on a project in the morning, and after pouring myself into a recording project, I take a break to discover it's somehow turned into the middle of the night... 
  So it continues...  My studio is in my basement and as I do most of the recording on all of the songs I write\co-write, my "to-do" list of recording projects seems to grow faster than I can strike items off.  Tuesday night was a rare opportunity for me to have a studio pass from the family to dig in right after dinner and knock some projects out.  I worked on putting together a full band demo of a song Josh and I wrote a while back called "Just A Drive".  It's a fun, rockin', roll the windows down on the interstate kind of a tune, and I've been looking forward to finally polishing it up and getting it "out there".  Well, as I wrapped it up, the clock hit 1am, and I braced myself for a couple really rough days to follow as my body reminded me I'm not in college any more...
  Invariably, a couple listens to the finished product the next morning reveal several necessary tweaks and modifications before it can be truly complete, so I hope to post the song here after a bit more buffing.
  Now off to the gym to try to wake up a little...

So a friend of mine, Jamie Wolf, had a vision for a singer\songwriter concert to benefit Habitat for Humanity's Earthquake relief efforts.  She pulled together 5 other songwriters and we ended up having an incredibly successful evening.  After all was said and done, it raised more than a thousand bucks for the cause!  The audience of 65 or so loved it, and all the songwriters had a blast.
  Kind of got me in the mood for playing out a little more.  I've not done much of that on the solo side of things.  I've done plenty in the a capella group realm and have always enjoyed it.
  So, thanks to Anne, Krista, Matt, Gregg and especially Jamie for such a great evening, and I look forward to the next one!

Quite a bit going on these days.  I'm chipping away at this website piece by piece whenever I have a few moments.  I also received my new business cards, hoping to have plenty of opportunities to pass them out to folks interested in collaboration, publishing, licensing some of my music, or just interested in this whole songwriting world.
  The benefit concert that Jamie Wolf has organized is coming up on Tuesday, and I'm really looking forward to that.  It should be a great time to get to know some fellow songwriters and just have a fun evening sharing some of our favorite tunes.
  I'm getting Haley, my 8-year old daughter into the "business" as well by "hiring" her to print and burn a batch of CDs for this upcoming concert.  I'd say she's taking the responsibility to heart and getting very excited about it.  (Probably the fact that I'm paying her for it has something to do with it...)  The past two days, I've come home from work to my songs blaring on the kitchen radio.  My wife Anna is hoping it's a phase...
  Both Josh and I are reporting nibbles on the pitching front as well.  The song "You're Mine" seems to be attracting some attention from producers, radio stations, and publishers.  We're certainly pulling for it! 

Working on putting the site together piece by piece.  I have to say that ipage.com makes it very simple to get a site up quickly.  At this point, there's not a whole lot to it, but I don't know that I'm looking for flashy right now.  They do give me total control over the site with unlimited storage, so I can make it as impressive as I've got time to spend on it... which brings me back to "not flashy"...

This is the first blog of the new site.  ...cool