My new music release is called YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER. Recorded in Nashville, it is a rocker with a message about changing yourself rather than others.
Given a suggestion to write a song based on a proverb, I chose “You Can Lead a Horse to Water, but you cannot make it drink.” The next line, “You can give out information, but you can’t make someone think” came immediately. In performance, I saw folks really related to the song & message. So I travelled to Nashville to record and love what the musicians added. I’ll be launching at a Songwriter’s Showcase in Nashville, promoting on social media and including in an upcoming album.
One day during the pandemic I saw on Facebook my amazing poet-singer-songwriter friend Robert Priest offering an online lyric writing workshop sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets. I always love to dive deeper in creative fields and wondered how Robert might approach the subject, so was thrilled to take part. In the first session he suggested a take-home assignment to write a song (or lyric) based on a proverb. He emailed us a list. It was an interesting assignment as I noticed how many of the early songs of Harold Arlen’s first lyricist, Ted Koehler had that origin, including one of my favourite’s the little known “Get Yourself A New Broom” which I sometimes perform.
From the list, for whatever reason, I chose “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.” Immediately, the next line “You can give out information, but you can’t made someone think,” came to me. From there the song more or less unravelled. I thought it was a decent offering as a class assignment and was happy to share it at the next session, where it was well received. Robert pointed out a few places the lyric could be tweaked and I worked on those, improving it. Then I had a chance to sing the song a few places and everyone really enjoyed it and started requesting it. I was a little surprised that this song, which had been strictly a light-hearted exercise, actually seemed to be a pretty good song that people liked! (Thanks Robert!!)
It was also from Robert I’d first learned that in Nashville one could go to a studio and bring a song which session musicians would record. That sounded intriguing. I have so many unrecorded songs, I‘m always looking for recording opportunites. I noticed that SOCAN ( the Canadian performing rights organization) maintains a house in Nashville where members can apply to stay. I wrote saying I wanted to check out Nashville and maybe record a song, but didn’t hold out much hope for a positive response. I was a little relieved when told it would not be possible. But then a few weeks later I was told that the person the space had been offered to had cancelled and I could stay if I wanted.
Richard, my husband and I conferred, and thought “Yes! Let’s do it.” Who knows if the opportunity would come again? I guess there’s also a proverb about that, ‘Never look a gift horse in the mouth!”
So we said yes, and arranged to visit Nashville the first week of April 2024. In the meantime I had scouted out studios where I might be able to record a song. I found Beaird Music Group online and they seemed friendly and helpful. The founder, bassist Larry Beaird has put up an educational video on the Nashville Numbering System which I found enlightening. I contacted the studio and a ‘tracking date’ was arranged for April 4 at 2:00 pm.
I had a video conference with bass player Eli Beaird in which we discussed the song and the style and he wrote out a chart in the Nashville system (it’s all numbers and quite different from my notated chart or my lyric/chord chart). In his southern twang Eli assured me we’d have fun tracking in the song. I hadn’t a clue how this was going to happen and, as you can imagine, was both nervous and curious.
When we arrived I waited my turn as various songwriters recorded demos of their latest. Then it was our turn. Eli said hi and ushered us in to the control booth. Richard stayed behind but Eli encouraged him to sit in on the fun. The players assembled in the booth and we listened to my little iPhone recording of the song. Without much discussion they then scattered to three connected recording rooms. Over headphones we communicated re. tempo and then, voila, they started the song, I started singing along (on what is called a scratch track, not the final vocal) and we pretty much had our song. I couldn’t believe what I heard. Then the players listened and added little flourishes and the occasional fix and after some 20 minutes the darn thing was complete and they were ready to do that to the next person’s song.
I was mind-blown!! I still am. These are the great musicians on this track:
Eli Beaird, bass
Evan Hutchings, drums
Blair Masters, keyboard
Pat McGrath, acoustic guitar
Scotty Sanders, pedal steel
Troy Lancaster, electric guitar
I’d love to hear your feedback on the song. I’ll be releasing a slightly longer version on my upcoming album “Change in the Weather” which will be launched later in the spring.