Sharyn,

HFA acts as the agency for the publisher. If that's Bug Music, they should respond. If not, just send them a notice to obtain a compulsory and you are legally covered as long as you follow the procedures on the US Copyright Office website. Once they receive your notice, they will probably respond. If not, then continue to follow the compulsory license procedures

What the artist (Richard Thompson or whoever) told you may be the reality of the situation -- Bug Music may not want to bother with small potatoes -- but it's not what the law says. The US Copyright Office is the final authority.

By the way, in my own experience, whenever I told a publisher that I wanted to record one of their songs that was in the BMI repertoire but not on HFA, they thanked me and then got it listed with HFA within a few days.

Best of luck.

--- Steve