How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?

Subject: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 12:27 PM

I have been reading all the helpful advice on how to write a folk song but I am not going to get rich that way. I really want to be a country star and appear on those Country Music Awards and wear bigger hat than anybody else. So I would be grateful if you could let me have all the tips on how to write THE Country Song. Not that I supose there is a formula?

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Earl
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 12:36 PM

From reading _Songwriters Market_ I've gathered that what they are looking for is the same old thing only different.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Paul
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 01:03 PM

Of course there aren't any definite rules, and I'm certainly no expert, but here are a couple of general observations:

1. Sing about specific events in the verses, and about generalities in the chorus. Example: Verse - The cafe was closing, on a warm summer night / Cathy was cleaning the spoons. Chorus - Tell me why does an old broken bottle / look just like a diamond ring.

2. Put some kind of a hook or pun in the final line of the chorus. Examples: "He's got a way with women and he just got away with mine", "Just call me Cleopatra I'm the Queen of denial".

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Bert
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 01:44 PM

You absolutely must keep it under 3 1/2 minutes, preferably under 3.
Use cliches. They only exist because people like using them. They allow the listener to remember the song.
Put plenty of emotion in the chorus. You must have a chorus.
Make the last line of the chorus the title of the song.
The last line of each verse leads into the chorus.
Bert.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 02:27 PM

Sorry Shambles, hate to bust your bubble but David Allen Coe says that John Goodman (I think that's the right guy) already has the 'Perfect' Country & Western song, "You Don't Have To Call Me Darling, Darling" (I think that's the right title), in the song there's all the necessary ingredients to having a C&W hit, there's lost love, getting drunk, trains & stations, pickup trucks, Mama, prison, rain, death & Merle Haggard being on his fighting side.You could try for the 2nd place C&W song though. Barry

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Bert
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 02:44 PM

Just mention "The Radio" prominently in your song. Always gets lots of airplay.
Bert.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: northfolk
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 02:59 PM

The Nation magazine in 1996 or 97, had an entire edition dedicated to the music industry, broken down by music categories...I found it quite insightful (as well as "incite"-ful) figure out what your soul is worth, contact a record company, with a moderately marketable product, and possibly you can get a year or so of celebrity!

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 05:29 PM

And don't use real country musicians in your band, use rock start wannabes, no country music fan listens to real country music nowadays.

Frank i.t.s.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 06:59 PM

Dear Barry,

It's the late Steve Goodman (click here) who composed the perfect C&W song which, as you noted, contains everything essential to the genre.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: BSeed
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 02:55 AM

The verse that made "You Don't Have to Call Me Darling" the perfect country song:

I was drunk the night my ma got out of prison,
And I went to pick her up in the rain,
But I was late gettin' to the station in my pickup truck,
And she got herself run'd over by a danged old train.

But personally, I think the perfect country song is "Wild Side of Life (Honky-Tonk Angels):

You don't read the letters that I write you,
You told me not to call you on the phone,
But there's one thing I still have to tell you,
So I wrote it in the words of this song.

I didn't know God made honky-tonk angels;
I should have known you'd never make a wife.
You gave up the only man who ever loved you,
And went back to the wild side of life.

The glitter of that gay nightlife has lured you
To the places where the wine and whiskey flow,
Where you wait to be someone else's lover,
And forget the truest love you'll ever know.

I didn't know God...etc.

If you don't know the song, it's to the tune of "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue-eyes," a slight variation of "The Great Speckled Bird."
--seed

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: hank
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 09:41 AM

As others have said, there is country music, and there is country music. One will earn you money when proformed by rock stars who want to wear a big hat, boots, and pretend they can ride that horse. (the lasso is an artist addition)

Then there is country music that the coyboys sang, or would sing today. If you want to write this style (and I encourage it, I love it enough that one song in this style a week makes me willing to wade through all the junk called country on the radio) you need to live. Get a job as a farm hand. Accually drive an old pickup truck, and make sure that you normally have it loaded it down with cargo. (at least once break the springs from the mass) Make sure at least one major component is broke. Starting via hot wiring is good. Learn how to fix a fence. Stand up your date friday night cause your standing knee deep in a manure pile with the vet trying to breech birth a calf. Then break your promiss to play the organ at church sunday morning cause doing the same in your sunday best. Oh, and learn to play fiddle, real country music has a fiddle part. :)

If anything in the second paragraph doesn't hit close to home, you don't have the expirence to write country music.

Many of my favorite country tunes are in mudcat. If the song your thinking of writing can't be included in mudcat, it falls into the first, psudo country catagory.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From:
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 10:36 AM

I'm kinda bored at work now, so I though add some more things. Remember a real cowboy has expirenced most of these, and can well belive the rest will happen to him. Only a real country person (not country music, country as in lives in the country.) can write country music

Signs you could write a country song:
Your significant other expects you to smell like manure everywhere
You would have guests sleep in the hayloft. (and have done so yourself)
You have electric lights, but you still heat with wood.
After doing a days work you have less then 8 hours to play, eat, and sleep.
You gross $30,000 a year, owe the bank over a million, and expect to pay that off
Your love your job enough to endure the above

I don't qualify for any of the above. My neighbors do, which is why I drive to the cities for a easy job.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: northfolk
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 11:30 AM

I agree with the sentiment that the country stars are all hat and no cattle, thought I'd add this, you can tell a real cowboy, he sits in the center in the pickup, so he doesn't have to get out to open gates.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Old Timer
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 11:47 AM

hank said: "Oh, and learn to play fiddle, real country music has a fiddle part." - Right on! Let me add that real country music is totally unplugged (no electric instruments)!

OT

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 01:39 PM

The classic definition is: Three chords, sung from the heart through the nose.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Barbara
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 02:46 PM

I LIKE that, Dick!
Country music. I remember hearing there is a very standard structure for it, I can't recall all the details. Something like: 3 verses total, one bridge, one chorus, order should go - v, c, v, c, b, (instru break)v, c, b, c. And the bridge should modulate to the IV chord key. Does that sound right? Anyone more familiar with the top 40, AM format? I took a songwriting class from Geoff MOrgan a few years back, and he had it down.
Life in the countryAs far as I can tell, living on a farm means always, always having way more to do than time to do it in; so it's an ability to ignore problems until they get critical and sometimes past that.
Farm trucks are even worse than pickups; they only get used once a year at grain hauling time. Neighbor had one with a starter motor with more spaces than teeth. He cut a little hole in the cover so you could slide under it with one of those big honking screwdrivers (necessary farm vehicle tool #3, right after hammer and duct tape) and lever the starting gear around until it engaged.
Another good hook is "Why should I forgive and forget, when I can remember and blame?" Geoff said the hook was the biggest selling point. Song HAD to have one.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 02:57 PM

Mason Williams did a whole routine/song about this genre'..."You Done Stomped on My Heart"...I'll post it sometime... ..."darlin', you just sorta, mashed on my aeorta".....

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: The Shambles
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 03:16 PM

I think I'll maybe just let Hank write it. You don't see all that manure and all those pick-up trucks on the Country Music Awards. It all sounds a bit unsavoury. I think Hank must be right just don't have the right background.

I did try and write one for a laugh about a year ago but it turned out to be quite a good song? I would post it here but I'm sure that someone could take it to Nashville and make a lot of money from it. The whole point about country songs is that we know they are bad and that's what make them good. If that makes sense?

I mean 'She's in love with the Rodeo Man' is 'soooo' corny but I just love to sing it!

I have enjoyed reading all the tips though, please keep sending them in.

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Maj Marvelous
Date: 16 Oct 98 - 07:40 PM

My best country song ended up to be a gospel more or less, because I wrote it from my heart with family and their love close at hand. It didn't win any awards in 1970 and it won't now, but it is still a tear jerker for me. Based on true events of course.

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU'RE A DETOUR ON THE HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN
From: BSeed
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 12:41 AM

Here's another greatest country song, even greater than Wild Side of Life (but to the same tune): I have no idea who wrote it.

YOU'RE A DETOUR ON THE HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN

When Mama lay a-dyin' on the flatbed,
She told me not to truck with girls like you;
But I was blinded by the glare of your headlights,
And went joy-ridin' just for the view.

(chorus)
You're a detour on the highway to heaven,
I am lost on the back roads of sin.
I have got to get back to the four-lane,
So that I can see Mama again.

Your curves made me lose my direction,
My hands from the steering wheel strayed;
But you were just one more roadside attraction--
It's been ten thousand miles since I've prayed.

If I ever get out of the fast lane,
And get back to that highway above,
I'll be waiting for you at the tollbooth,
In that land where all roads end in love.

BTW, I don't know if he wrote "Wild Side of Life," but I think Hank Snow first recorded it. There's a woman's response to the song called "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-tonk Angels."

--seed

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 01:04 AM

In a year or two, there won't be any more country music. Since all the kids wear their seed/baseball caps backwards now-a-days, in a little while there will be NO MORE REDNECKS (no more sunburn)!! And everyone knows, without red necks, there can't be any country music.

Sooooooo--Mr. Shambles--ya might as well learn jazz guitar.

Art

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: The Shambles
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 06:51 AM

Thanks Art. Look at the Jimmy Reed thread I think I'm doing better trying to write a blues song there.

I'm sure I could get some tips here on playing jazz guitar though?

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 04:54 PM

I do think that it was Hank Thompson----not Snow--that did "Wild Side Of Life".

Subject: RE: How to write a country song --TIPS PLEASE?
From: BSeed
Date: 17 Oct 98 - 07:03 PM

Right you are, Art. I got caught in another one. I knew it wasn't that other Hank (what was his name? Williams? :) Double purpose close parenthesis. --seed