Sorry I haven't posted or written much lately. I'm still here. I've just been reading and trying to soak up as much as I can. I met with my friend, Kevin, that I mentioned. We worked on two of my songs together, "What Are You Doing In My Head" and "Give Me A Moment". It was a great session. He's going into the studio in a couple of weeks and I'm driving down to sit in on it. The guy who owns the studio is also the copyright attorney that I spoke to a few weeks ago. He's a published poet, an award winning author and has asked me to write some poems and speak at a festival they are having in May. He also asked Kevin to invite me to a "spoken word" convention (poetry related) in Oklahoma City sometime in the near future. Supposedly to be introduced to a publisher there with ties to BMI. Some lady....I can't remember her name. But apparently she's the one who bought several of Kevin's songs and pushed them through BMI. And she's also a judge. Not sure about all of that though. That's just the jist of what I understood him to say. I was published in the 90's for poetry I wrote. Even invited to recite poetry one year at an international convention of poets in Washington, DC. But I never did it. I never took it seriously and I quit writing poetry when I started writing lyrics. However, from what I gather, these people know a lot of people in the music industry and publishing. So I'll at least entertain the idea until I know more and can make a sound decision. At least I'm connecting at some level with people.
I also did an online search for musicians in the Wichita Falls area. I've sent several of them messages introducing myself. I didn't say anything to them about collaborating with them. I just asked them if they knew of any kind of local efforts to have songwriting nights and open mics that I might attend. And if not, maybe start trying to set up something along those lines. In the process of googling that stuff, I happened to discover where the Beaird Music Group had come to Wichita Falls in 2014 and did a songwriters affair in town. I would've loved to have attended that. But that gives me some hope that eventually something else along those lines will happen again locally.
I"ve also been trying to make up my mind about a couple of things that have popped up in the various songwriting forums I'm a member of. But I was saving those to write you about in an email at a later time along with other questions I might have that I don't think would benefit me if I posted them in here. Somebody might read it and take it the wrong way or think I'm referring to them when I'm not. I may be able to answer them for myself and if not, then I'll wait until several pile up and include it all in one email so as not to waste too much of your time. I know you have a lot of irons in the pot.
I will ask you about one thing though if you don't mind. When Kevin and I were talking, he told me that he knew several artists out there who come into these songwriting forums and read our lyrics. They may never partake in the posting themselves of music or lyrics. Or reply to any of them. But in their spare time, it's something a lot of artists do. Is that true? I know I often may have only a select number of replies but may have 150 or even more views. I kind of thought it was just other writer members in the forum checking it out or the same people viewing it each time somebody replies or I do a rewrite. But Kevin told me that I'd be surprised at how many really good artists and songwriters come in and read through the better lyrics on these sites. Is he right about that? On one hand, that is flattering if it is true but on the other hand, it worries me that others might be using it to hijack our ideas. What are your thoughts on that?
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