Schneider headlines Songwriters on the Edge of Texas
Songwriters on the Edge of Texas presents another rendition of fine Texas-tuned songwriting and singing when Bob Schneider headlines the concert on Sunday, April 15.
Held at Northridge Country Club starting at 6 p.m., Songwriters on the Edge of Texas also features Warren Hood Duo and The Moss Brothers. Dinner for this local CASA for Children benefit is catered by Outback Steakhouse.
Annually, this concert presents some of the very best in Texas country music with unique artists performing.
Then on Monday, April 16, the Songwriters Golf Tournament is held at Northridge. There’s also a tiny house giveaway promotion. More information about this, the concert and tournament can be found via the local CASA website listed below.
We caught up with Schneider for an email Q&A to see what he’s been up to and find out what he has planned for Songwriters. Here’s what he had to say, edited for space:
Q: “Tell us about the new album on the way, ‘Blood & Bones,’ and the tour you’re about to embark on to support it. What musical direction do you find yourself heading in with this one? There’s some infectious optimism in the new single, ‘Making it Up.’ What informs this outlook on life now?”
A: “Well, I have a 3-year-old daughter, and I’m recently remarried and a lot of the songs that I wrote on this album have come from that experience, so there is a lot of the hope and optimism that comes from being in love and surrounded by love. I don’t ever write songs that are autobiographical in subject matter, but I do write songs that are emotionally autobiographical, if that makes sense. The characters in the songs have the same feelings that I have in real life, but a lot of the times the events are made up and even the narrator isn’t necessarily who I am in real life. I think this method allows me to get at what emotions I’m trying to describe in a more interesting way, and hopefully it’s even more ‘honest’ emotionally speaking than just describing the mundane events of a day for me.”
Q: “It’s a challenging music industry now, but you seem to have found some unique, DIY means of getting your music out to your fans (thinking of ‘King Kong’ here, in particular). Can you talk about this some?”
A: “I’m doing what I’ve always done, really, which is to write and perform as much as I’m comfortable with. I’m so blessed and fortunate to be able to do something that I’m passionate about and love to do, so I spend as much time as I can writing and playing live. The rest of it sort of takes care of itself … I’ve never let anyone stop me from making music and performing. If I can’t find a record company that wants to do business on my terms, I’ll just put the music out myself. I can’t say that I’ve ever been a critic’s darling, and for the most part I’ve been completely overlooked by all the national gatekeepers of the music industry … but that doesn’t stop me either. The people that end up hearing my music have sort of stumbled upon it or heard about me through word of mouth. The cool thing about that is, my fans really do feel like they’ve discovered something special and are very loyal and end up coming to see me over and over, which is really nice, because you need that support if you’re going to continue to play music and make a living doing so.”
Q: “The live music experience. Tell us a little about what this means to you, having held court at Austin venues like Saxon Pub so long with such an eclectic musical style. In such a digital world, is live music going to save us?”
A: “I don’t know if anything is going to ‘save us’, but there is something about getting together with people that is really a touchstone of the human experience, and one of the ways people come together is through music. It’s always about the coming together as a group that is the vital part of the experience. It’s never about the music, and I think a lot of performers think that it is about them, but it really isn’t. It’s knowing that you are going to find ‘your people’ at these events. People that enjoy this one thing that you enjoy and you get to have this communal experience with them, together. You don’t get that when you listen to music alone or in your car. You have to get together in a group to do it, and there’s no substitute for the experience. It’s what people are going to do, whether it’s a church, or parade or concert. It really is a special thing that people want to do, and I get to be the catalyst for that event, but it’s never about me, it’s always about that getting together with others that is the important part of it.”
Q: “What makes for a great song, an honest song? What have your learned about songwriting all these years and what do you love about it, or need about it?”
A: “Well, I will say that you don’t ever really learn much about writing a good song. Every time you write something you’re in a sense starting from scratch and you have just as much to start with as you did the first time you wrote a song or even the thousandth time, which is absolutely nothing. Now you can get good at playing an instrument, but that has nothing to do with coming up with a great song. You can become a better singer but again, it’s not going to help you write anything. It might help you sell something that’s mediocre to people. You can take a pretty crappy song and play it and perform it in a way that might make it seem like it’s better than it is, but again, that’s not what songwriting is. I will say that after you’ve written a couple thousand songs, you are aware of how that song stacks up with other songs that you’ve written. You might even be aware of it while you are writing it, but I always try to reserve the critical part of the process for after the writing is over, otherwise you’ll stop yourself from writing anything. Nothing stops you from writing anything faster than trying to write something great. You have to just write whatever comes and not try to hobble it or restrain or bend it to your will too much. You have to let it be what it wants to be, and then afterwards you can figure out if it’s any good or not. Most of the time, it’s OK, but every once in a while, often unexpectedly, you’ll find you’ve written something special. Those are the moments you do it all for.”
(Tickets: $75. For tickets and sponsorship information, call 903-792-1030 or visit CASATexarkana.org/songwriters.)