With the NOMAD festival right around the corner, I've been trying to come up with some fresh ideas for workshops. I've done eight million (give or take a few) Songwriters workshops and too many of them are just song swaps preceded with the same introduction... "Here's a song I wrote..) As my sons would say, "No Duh!"

So, I'm going to ask to do a workshop Titled Songwriter's Favorite Songwriters. Now there's a twist... where none of the songwriters can introduce the song saying, "Here's a song I wrote.." I'll ask the participants to pick their favorite songs by other songwriters, and try to explain why the song works so well.

When the thought occured to me, there was no question which song I'd want to do first: The Last Minstrel Show. That song is so evocative of the passing of an era that it is like a short movie for me. The melody even captures the feeling of an era long-since passed. There's a tiredness and a wistfulness to the song that draws me into the scenes as if I was there. Now, I have to track down all of the words, as I don't have a recording of it. Have to see if it's in the digitrad here.

O.K. you songwriters... if you were in this workshop, what song or songs of other songwriters would you do, and why?

Let's try not to make this another "list" thread. Ya want to be in my workshop, you gotta give a little thought to what you're doin.' You can't just introduce the song by saying, "Here's a song I didn't write."

Jerry