Looking Forward
We set up the living room with music stands and monitors. Mics and peddles. By the fourth rehearsal my voice was limbering up. I was reaching notes I couldn’t reach the week before. My hands and fingers started going to the right place without forethought. Before I knew it I was in that zone. Deliriously happy. We sounded pretty good. A drummer-away from touring. 😎😎
Joni Under The Stars
My favorite part of the show was when Joni laughed after finishing a song and hearing the uproarious response from the crowd. She sounded like a young child who just caught a dragonfly inside a jar. ♥️
Christina & Sabrina sing “What a Girl Wants” 😀
In a beautiful staged, elegantly filmed celebration of nostalgia and appreciation for the past Christina goes down memory lane. She sings “Come On Over Baby,” “Genie in a Bottle,” and then my jaw drops as Sabrina Carpenter emerges and joins her on “What A Girl Wants.” It’s a song that keeps giving and I’m eternally grateful for its life. ❤️😀🎶
“You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling”
In writing sessions we pray for lines like these to drop from the sky. Lightening in a bottle. Sometimes, it’s obvious. Sometimes elusive. The sum up is as important as the title. It supports the whole ‘thesis’ of the song and brings the concept full circle. 💙🎶
Green Light Moments 💚🚥
Green Light Moments are when the Universe tells us we’re on the right path. Not for a minute since we began creating the Musical SNIPPED! have I had a second thought about the endeavor. And on the morning of our first staged performance I got a sign from the Universe … a Green Light Moment if there ever was one ... that life was saying "yes." 💚🚦
I’m Not In Love
10 cc’s Graham (I’m Not In Love”) Gouldman (on the left) and I were guests on The Naked Lunch Podcast hosted David Wild and Phil Rosenthal. I’m in awe of this man … his history, creativity, his ongoing writing process. I was honored to be part of the conversation. I think you might enjoy it. ❤️⭐️🎸
Songwriting With Your Honey
It was never a goal to be collaborators. We were both happily doing our very own things. It wasn’t until Covid, when we were all faced with the challenge of convening with other humans (or writing on Zoom — which I couldn’t stomach) that we turned to each other and said “I guess you’re it.” Hey, Barry and Cynthia did it. The Bergmans. Carole and Jerry. There have been hundreds of spousal collaborative teams. We were about to explore this conjugal dynamic.
Crossing The Pond
There’s a slight kerfuffle at boarding. We wait in the tunnel for 20 minutes at a standstill. Is something wrong with the plane? Are they reattaching the exit door? Is this a Boeing? I’m poised to call American Express with whom I booked my flight to ask what my options are. And do I have a change of underwear in my carry-on? I used to be a free man in Paris. And everywhere else. Not any more. What happened? 😳
Holiday Cards
Every December for the past 26 years I’ve sent out holiday cards — since shortly after my daughter was born. It was around the time my career was taking off. The image on the card has always been light in spirit — usually the three of us in a loving configuration. Two kitties on the back. And then sadly, only one. It’s been a pleasure sending this yearly greeting. To touch base. To get touched back. But this year I’m having some trouble. What would the message be? 🕎🎄💜
Under The Influence
Writing under the influence changes your judgement. It just does. That said, I’m all for it as long as you're not too invested. As long as you're willing to wake up the morning-after and forgive yourself for the sin of thinking you were a genius the night before when in fact you were a fool. 😳
Thank You ❤️
After spilling about my tinnitus last week the empathy and 411 poured in literally from all over the globe and man, I never realized how many of us have it. We just never talk about it I guess. But after weeks of going down the Google rabbit hole looking for answers, cures and comfort … it was my online community and music biz friends that lifted me up and pointed me toward the light at the end of a the tunnel. 🙏
Why Does Ed Sheeran Keep Getting Sued?
We all fall into that delicious trap of borrowing something we sincerely believe we wrote. It’s human. We’re influenced by everything that came before and it’s not surprising that we mimic. Just like we inherit our parents’ mannerisms because we’ve grown up around them. But it’s our professional duty to assess our work and adjust as needed. And if we find it’s impossible to separate ‘ours from theirs,’ then we share credit PRE-release just like the writers of “I’m A Mess” did with Meredith (Brooks) and I when a resemblance between their track and our song “Bitch” was brought to their attention.
Two Of Us
I always feel a sense of ‘what just happened?’ when I’m ready for take off after a trip that was long awaited and is now over … like so much else in life. Including I imagine, life itself. No matter how wonderful a time was had, it will be a relief to come home. To get my passport stamped. To speak and be understood. To know I can find my way all by myself if I get lost. So I’m happy. But I’m also sad to leave my friend. Because I’ll miss her all over again.
Good Morning Bodrum, Türkiye
I took this particular trip because one of my dearest besties up and left the country 6 months into the pandemic to go back to her homeland. One day I realized … she’s not coming back. (Maybe I should have known this when she sold everything she owned and packed up her 2 cats.) Clearly, I was in denial.
American Song Contest
I’m a song junkie — a sucker for smart memorable ear candy. And this show has ‘em. It’s nice to know those kinds of songs are still being written. But could Tracey Chapman have survived this business model?
Hotel Cafe
Hotel Cafe is packed. If I don’t get Covid tonight I’m immune! Good for songwriters. Good for Hotel Cafe. Good for the music business that so many ppl came. I’m happy to be here but definitely feel some personal-space anxiety. Deal with it, Shelly. It’s gonna take a minute. I need to get back to the land of the living.
Catching Up With Kasim
My friend Kasim Sulton (bass player with with Todd Rundgren for the past 45 years) was one of the many touring musicians whose livelihood was disrupted due of the paralyzing forces of the pandemic. That didn’t stop him from releasing an album, launching a radio show and starting a podcast. But now that Covid protocol seems to be in retreat, he’s back to his happiest place — on stage with Kasim Sulton’s Utopia. He and I took a moment to talk about where he’s at. Literally and figuratively. Oh and…here’s to musicians getting back to work!!
🥳🎊🎉🍾🥂
Love Is War
It was 2010. Britney Spears was making a new album. I felt like I had some momentum because she recorded another song I wrote “Out From Under” for her previous album Circus. Songwriters all over town were partnering up and trying to come up with something undeniably Britney. One night I sat down at the piano with a glass of wine. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what the girl had been through. How might she feel if she were STILL trying to get over Justin? I didn’t know for sure that’s where her head (and heart) was at. But you have to start somewhere.
#PAY$ONGWRITERS!
We were always underpaid. It’s just there was enough flowing down from the top of the waterfall so our time was better spent trying to write another song that would catapult us to the top. But when the invisible stream came along and hijacked our mechanical (physical) royalties we weren’t able to sustain ourselves any longer. The rumble of discontent has grown into a deafening roar. I’m happy to report there are quite a few initiatives circling the zeitgeist to effect change.
Can I Have Your Attention?
Pop songs are getting shorter and shorter. A recent report finds that by 2030 the average length of a hit song will be 2 minutes. That’s about half the length of what it was in 1990. James Shotwell says “it’s not about writing the most incredible song that anyone’s ever heard it’s about getting them to listen to it.” That’s a shame. Writing the most incredible song was always a fun goal. Something to shoot for.
