Making something happen (long with lots of backstory)

The most solid and promising friendship that I have with a person in the business (we’ll call him Dave) was a result of what has been considered my best song to date… those of you who know me pretty well, know what that song is… it has the name of one of the people linked to the right in the title. He became familiar with the tune in the late winter and spring of 04 as it was being reviewed for the song contest that was sponsored by the organization for which he works. As each of the ten finalist songs was being announced at the gathering at the end of a conference, the writer stood and was recognized. He approached me about writing after that happened, and thus began the friendship.

Later that summer, after writing together, he referred me to another person (we’ll call him Chad) in the industry who, when he hears a song of promise, has the ability to do something about it. This person listened to my stuff, and didn’t do what I wanted him to do. But he did offer me a spot in a once-per-month seminar his organization/company does with up-and-comers every summer. I began to attend this seminar in the late summer of 04, but I could not continue due to a legal issue prohibiting me from becoming a member of his organization until the Summer of 06. Nevertheless, I met a writer (let’s call her Jenny) at one of the seminars I was able to attend. We agreed to write the next time I was in town. We had a brief email exchange, and then we stopped communicating since it was so tough for me to write with her from out of town.

When I moved here in July of this year, I sent several emails to friends in town letting them know that I was on my way. One of them was to Jenny, whom I had really planned on writing with. I received no response from her, and was frankly a little agitated that this was the case. I also knew, however, that she was getting some attention from publishers, and decided to accept the fact that she may no longer want to write because she may be getting action with hit writers already. I figured that I probably wouldn’t hear from her, and just got on with it.

Lately, most of the time I have spent on the internet has been devoted to researching songwriting websites and kinda trying to keep my “finger on the pulse” of what’s going on. A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled onto a site that was promoting a showcase for a writer. The writer was Jenny, and the venue happened to be the same one in which this night started. Oddly, in an effort to reconnect with one of the first writers I got to know after I moved (we will call her Lisa), I noticed on her website that she would be performing as a member of Jenny’s band at this showcase. I decided, “what the hell,” and booked myself to go to the show tonight.

I sat in the corner at the show, as I usually do. When Lisa arrived, she noticed me there and came up to say hello. In the course of conversation, I told her that I had known Jenny from some time back but was sure she “didn’t remember me” (because I was sure that, if she didn’t want to write, she would pretend she didn’t remember, and I didn’t see the point in embarrassing her). Lisa replied, “No, I’m sure she does,” and proceeded back to Jenny to initiate a re-introduction. Jenny came over and we “re-met.” After 30 seconds of catching up, she recalled the last name. I told her I was in town now and had been for several months.

Shortly thereafter she said, “Well, when are we going to write?”

Before the end of the evening (which was actually quite humorous in a number of ways) I had a three-person co-write (which is not what it’s called, but I’m trying to keep Russ from giggling) promised in early January. I had also learned that Jenny no longer had my email address because she had lost a year’s worth of emails deleted from her server. Whether or not that was the whole truth isn’t important (and for the record, she seemed sincere… not that I’m a great judge of that).

The point is that I learned tonight that, when things aren’t happening and “letting go” doesn’t seem to be getting me somewhere, maybe making something happen will. Stay tuned.