Nashville songwriters are like family; uniquely close but competitive
Writers are creative people, and I think most of us are better staying out of the song politics game.That’s where tension and problems can arrive.
A FEW years ago, country singer Tyler Farr was out listening to live music at a bar in Nashville when he heard hit songwriter Jonathan Singleton play a catchy ballad called “A Guy Walks Into a Bar”.
Intrigued, Farr walked up to Singleton afterwards. “Man, that’s a hit song,” he said. His next question: Does anyone have the song on hold? Meaning, did any other artist have plans to record it?
Singleton wasn’t sure, so he introduced Farr to his publisher, who was also at the bar. Farr requested to put the song on hold.
But as it turned out, “The Voice” superstar Blake Shelton’s label had already heard a demo recording of “A Guy Walks Into a Bar,” and executives liked it so much that they also put it on hold. And Shelton wasn’t thrilled to learn that Farr, a relatively new performer, was suddenly in the mix.
Welcome to a side of country music that fans don’t usually see: Many of their favourite hits started out with a different artist. In an insular place like Nashville, where every deal is contingent on relationships, figuring out which songs should go to which singer can be a delicate issue.
The country music songwriting community is competitive but uniquely close; a tightknit, supportive, fiercely loyal family. At the same time, everyone wants to get their hands on that next big song, especially as streaming services eat away at profits.
The “hold” policy in song publishing has been around for decades, though it has become more complex as Nashville writing rooms evolve. While country songs used to be written by one or two people, now the norm is three, even four. If the songwriters are contracted by different publishing companies, who all technically own the rights to the same song and split royalties, there might be six or more people pitching the same tune around town.
At the same time, the financial stakes are higher than ever. These days, the best way to make a living as a songwriter or publisher is with a radio single, which earns money per spin and helps rack up sales. Fewer albums are being released, and most country artists prefer to co-write their material; unless you’re collaborating with the singer, the chances of getting a cut on an album, let alone a single, are getting smaller.
“In our heyday, we probably had about 3,000 to 4,000 songwriters making a living on getting songs pitched. Most of those songwriters made a living on a volume of album cuts. The radio singles were a luxury,” said Bart Herbison, executive director of Nashville Songwriters Association International. “Today, album cuts are insignificant; really, they contribute almost nothing to your income.”
Plus, most of the industry operates within a few blocks on Nashville’s Music Row — so if there is tension over who will record a song, you could run into your competitor that same day. In fact, you may have to talk to them about a different business matter tomorrow. Sometimes, they’re one of your closest friends.
“Nashville is still a very small town,” said Cris Lacy, vice president of artists and repertoire (A&R) at Warner Music Nashville. In the publishing and pitching world, this can mean complications. “It works well 80 per cent of the time. The other 20 per cent of the time, the human element shows up, and stuff happens.”
Here’s what some country singers, songwriters and publishers say when asked to describe putting a song on “hold.”
“It means somebody likes a song.” “A verbal handshake.” “This mythical, word-of-mouth thing.”
“A polite ‘Don’t play anybody else this song until I’ve had a chance to get a response from whoever I’m holding for.’”
“There’s no protocol. There’s no real definite answer. It’s just, ‘Please don’t play this for other people.’”
Wires are bound to get crossed, particularly because there are so many ways to pitch songs. After writers finish a song, they email a recording to their publishing company’s song pluggers, whose job it isto consider singers who might be a good fit. If they don’t know the artist personally, they’ll contact label A&R representatives, managers or producers. They get creative.
“I will pitch to anybody - the bus driver, best friend, band member, wife — once I can figure out who to go to,” said Mike Molinar, general manager of Big Machine Music.
Back in the day, an artist or rep had to travel to an office to hear a cassette recording of a potential song. Now, audio files zip around at lightning speed. Once, singer Craig Campbell was accidentally sent an email with a track called “Outta My Head”. Campbell texted one of the writers, saying he loved it. “You’re not supposed to have that song,” the writer texted back, because it was already on hold for “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery. Too late.
Campbell appealed to McCreery, who agreed to let the song go. Campbell’s “Outta My Head” eventually went to No. 15 on the radio.
Sometimes, after several writers collaborate, all of their publishers will send out a version of the song and instantly get multiple messages back: “Can I put that on hold?” When that occurs, everyone agrees, the key is quick, direct and honest communication.
“Normally what happens is we all know each other, and it’s such a small community, we can all get on the phone and talk,” said Beth Laird, who co-owns Creative Nation publishing company with her husband, hit songwriter Luke Laird. It can come down to the timestamp on emails or texts to figure out who has claim to a song, she said. Publishers also tend to prefer the artist who’s recording an album first.
An immediate solution isn’t always realistic. For “A Guy Walks Into a Bar”, when Farr approached Singleton (who
Lee Thomas Miller, songwriter
wrote the song with Melissa Pierce and Brad Tursi) no one at the bar knew another publisher had already pitched it to Warner Music, where Shelton is signed. After they found out, then came the waiting process: Did Shelton actually want to cut it? Or was just his label interested? The eventual answer: Shelton really liked the song. More waiting. Farr continued to fight for the tune and recorded it himself. When he bumped into Shelton on tour, Farr asked him to listen to his version.
Though Shelton called him a “song-stealer,” as Farr told Country Countdown USA, he relented when he heard Farr’s passion for the track. The two became friends after the incident, even as Farr took the song to No. 1. (It helped that Shelton isn’t exactly hurting for hits.)
“Rarely does anything like that get ugly,” Molinar said. “Sure, people get a little disappointed. But I think everyone hopes that wherever a song ends up, it’s supposed to for a reason.”
The hold process is filled with unwritten but respected rules: If an artist writes a song, it’s understood they have dibs. On radio personality Bobby Bones’s podcast, Lee Thomas Miller talked about “In Color”, the Grammy-nominated smash hit he co-wrote with Jamey Johnson and James Otto. Though it was the biggest hit of Johnson’s career, the ballad was originally recorded by Trace Adkins. Everyone was surprised when Johnson decided to take the song back for his own album, but Adkins had no choice.
After the “In Color” writers won song of the year at the 2008 Academy of Country Music Awards, Miller recalled, Adkins called him over and put him in a headlock. “He screams with vulgarities, ‘That’s my (expletive) song!’” Miller said. “And I remember, I’m standing in a headlock looking at Kid Rock, who’s watching me be beat up by Trace Adkins.” Then Adkins started laughing and congratulated Miller. After all, it wasn’t his fault.
“Writers are creative people, and I think most of us are better staying out of the song politics game,” Miller said. “That’s where tension and problems can arrive.”
Songwriter Heather Morgan joked that she never thought she would use the word “strategize” in her line of work - yet when she sends a new song to her publisher, they “put together a plan” about who it could fit. That doesn’t mean writers have control: One of her recent cowrites, “Reckless”, bounced from Keith Urban to Lady Antebellum to maybe Carrie Underwood to, ultimately, Martina McBride for her latest album. All the writers can do is watch.
One common conflict is when a young songwriter pens a killer song that they’re determined to hold on to as their potential first single. Yet if an established singer hears it first and expresses interest, all bets are off — the “writer’s dibs” courtesy doesn’t always hold firm.
In 2014, one instance played out publicly with Urban’s “Cop Car,” co-written by Sam Hunt, Zach Crowell and Matt Jenkins. At the time, Hunt hadn’t released his first album and wanted “Cop Car,” inspired by a story from his life, for his record. A publisher gave it to Urban, and Hunt was upset. “Everything I poured into that song was stolen from me. I unfortunately can’t celebrate it being on the Grammys,” he tweeted when Urban performed it at the awards ceremony.
As you may expect, publishers aren’t keen to keep a surefire hit for an unknown artist. Sure, there’s always the chance they could become a superstar, like Hunt, who included “Cop Car” on his debut album anyway. In the meantime, one hit single from a popular artist - worth hundreds of thousands of dollars - could make or break a publishing company’s year.
Though new writers are not always happy with this result, a high-profile No. 1 can open many doors, from bigger co-writes to attention from labels.
“If your name gets out there as a hit songwriter before you are introduced as an artist, that can only help your journey,” said Jody Williams, vice president of writer-publisher relations at BMI. — WP-Bloomberg