Some songwriters have the uncanny ability to craft a song that feels as though it was written just for you, a song that’s so universal it can speak to anyone’s experience. The lyrics hit you like a truth you’ve always known yet never found the words to describe. Such songs can stand your hairs on end, coax a smile from your face, or make you sway to the music in gentle reflection. These are the kinds of songs that Nancy Scott writes.

Nancy joined our Lion and Pirate Open Mic community in the first few months of the pandemic. She was one of several artists who benefited from the safer online setting of Zoom, able to perform from the comfort of her cabin in the tiny town of Red Rock, Texas. As with the other longer-distance talents who graced our virtual stage, Nancy gave us solace and hope that not only would we survive that terrible time, but we would be better for it.

Nancy has described her music as “country bluesy folky sh*t.” This may reflect her formal genres, the sections where you may find her CDs in a record store. But her songs transcend genre. They’re songs of the heart, songs of loss and healing, heartbreak and humor.

Her vocals are at once steady and vulnerable, with an edge that recalls one of her biggest influences, Janis Joplin. Her voice soars over tastefully mellow guitar chords. Her lyrics are relatable, a mix of metaphors and concrete details. Her melodies are gorgeous, lulling any listener into a state of peace.

It was a delight to speak and correspond with Nancy, to learn more about the woman behind such beautiful songs. We began by discussing her background:

“I was born in Tennessee in a town called Oak Ridge, which has an interesting history all of its own! Even mentioned in Oppenheimer… I came to Texas on a very wild hair with a friend, and when she left shortly after arrival, I decided to stay… The rest is history as they say!”

Nancy explained how she started playing music—a passion that developed in the 1960s!

“My parents thought I might like to learn to play the piano, so that was tried for a while until I told them I would like a guitar instead. They told me to save up my allowance, so I could buy one. So I bought one for about $5 in 1964, I think it was. I played that cheap guitar as much as possible! Big callouses on my fingers! After they saw that it was serious, they bought me a much nicer guitar for my 16th birthday. That’s the beginning of [my] music story.”

Nancy also recalled the first song she ever wrote:

“It was about a high school friend of mine’s mother having a baby, and a song came to me about the baby whose name I can’t remember.  And I can’t remember all the words to the song, but the first verse started with ‘Blond hair and bright blue eyes, help make your happy face… when you say your goodbyes, this won’t be the same place.’ I believe ‘Lost in Austin’ was my second song after I moved here but couldn’t find my way on Lamar half the time! [I would] be going south and think it was north, etc.”

Nancy went on to record three albums of music, including a live performance with the Therapy Sisters. For more than 35 years she’s entertained Austin-ites with her music at a number of notable venues. She’s played everywhere from BookWoman to UT’s Cactus Café to Patsy’s Cowgirl Café, an iconic restaurant and one of the many cultural casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nancy hosted a popular monthly songwriting circle at the latter for almost seven years.

I hoped for a glimpse into Nancy’s creative process, but for Nancy, as it is for many songwriters, inspirations are difficult, if not impossible, to articulate. When asked what inspires her to create, she answered:

“Hmm… I guess mood, experiences in life (heavy, sad, or humorous), my life’s history (Old Flings), even the Moon! (‘sits like a whole note on the telephone wire.’)”

The latter is a particularly poetic image from her jazzy, aptly-titled song, “The Moon.”

As we neared the end of our correspondence, Nancy offered sound guidance for aspiring musicians and songwriters:

“Don’t give up! And keep recording capability close by, so you don’t forget the tune and the words to your inspirations!”

As for current projects, Nancy continues to promote her latest album, Heartprints in Clay. But she also has enough songs for a new project that she hopes to start soon.

Nancy will play at NeWorlDeli in Austin this June, July, and August on the 4th Saturday of each month from 2-4 PM. You can see her perform and/or purchase her CDs there. If you haven’t seen her live, I highly recommend it!

You can also hear Nancy on the Art Spark TX Radio Hour on KOOP Radio Monday, May 13th from 2-3 PM Central!

by Eric Clow

You’d be hard-pressed to find an artist who embodies the spirit of Disability Pride Month more than Jeff Moyer. Now 74, Jeff saw a fledgling disability community transform into a well-organized civil rights movement. And more than that, he was a part of it. He worked with Ed Roberts at the first-ever independent living center. He sang outside the famous 504 sit-in. He witnessed the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), then played at a Senate reception celebrating its passage.

He’s also been a fierce advocate in his personal life. Jeff worked tirelessly so that his younger brother Mark, who experienced a severe cognitive disability, could enjoy a life in the community. It took decades, but Jeff was ultimately successful. In 2010, he donated a kidney to save the daughter of a friend—an act of selfless compassion that left him with serious chronic pain.

Jeff has assumed many roles throughout his life: singer, songwriter, historian, activist, author, educator, rehab specialist—and the list goes on. A blog article is ill-equipped to capture the breadth of such a multi-faceted man. But as I spoke with him, his artistry as a lyricist and writer soared to the forefront. I hope you’ll find his creative journey as compelling and fascinating as I do.

The Troubadour

Jeff began to lose his vision when he was five. Because the cause wasn’t well-understood, many believed he was pretending. This sparked a great deal of confusion but also imparted the power of playing music by ear. “I was given piano lessons when I was six, but I couldn’t see the music and the piano teacher had been told I was pretending I couldn’t see. So he made me sit back as if I could see it. I wanted to play, so I’d imitate him and my mother would school me and teach me the song until I was playing it by memorization. And then I’d go back and perform it, and [the teacher] turned the pages as if I was learning to play.”

By the time he picked up the guitar at age 14, Jeff opted to teach himself. “I knew that I could hear chord changes, and if you can hear chord changes accurately, then even if you’re just strumming, any chordal instrument … is easy to play.” Jeff went on to learn 20 instruments, instructing himself along the way.

But perhaps his greatest teachers were the folk giants of the early 1960s. “People like Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan and Tom Paxton were probably the big three that I was listening to. And they were writing songs that said something and in chords that were easy to sing. It was all about the heart. And I fell in love with that.”

Inspired by these protest singers, Jeff penned his first lyrics when he was 15 years old. He continued to write one song each year, which he considered the minimum to be able to call himself a songwriter. But he became much more prolific when he started meditating in his 30s. “When I started getting connected to my spiritual source, instead of waiting for the muse to speak to me, I could go into the zone and pull a song out. And I wrote 60 songs in about three months in that very productive period.”

His songs aren’t merely inspired, however. They’re also crafted. “The craft of songwriting is about using words effectively and cleverly and sparely. [It’s] about editing and taking out anything that’s extraneous. And that’s true if you’re writing a short story or a memoir or a song.”

As I explored Jeff’s various albums, I was struck by both the diversity and specificity of his audiences. He’s written everything from disability rights anthems to children’s songs to an album for people in hospice care. I wondered how Jeff chose his audience. But it was actually the other way around: “my audience has found me.”

At one point scrambling to make a living, he considered working as an assembly presenter in schools. One performance led to another, and soon he was traveling around the country, performing in schools and keynoting education conferences. Music proved not only to be a powerful educational tool. It held the potential to make young people more accepting of disability, in themselves and others.

“I realized that there was no one writing music for young people where they heard disability in the music, where they could identify and say, ‘yeah, that’s me.’ And so I started doing that and I was working at a People First Conference in Michigan, and I was on my way up there and I was writing this song in my head, ‘we’re people, just people, people living our lives.’ So I’m singing on the stage and there are 150 adults with cognitive disabilities in the audience. And they said, ‘yeah, we’re people first. We’re singing the song. We’re going to get up on stage.’ And one by one, they pulled each other up on the stage until everybody was on the stage. What a great moment that was.”

Jeff’s foray into creating music for people in hospice was similarly fortuitous. “I started volunteering in hospice, which was what my heart was leading me to do. And I did 300 concerts in a big hospice center where people were dying and … got a lot of comfort through music. And I produced an album called Peace Sweet Peace.”

Jeff has written 600 songs and earned quite a following. But winning fans has never been his priority. “Our culture so adores success in its most grotesque form, like the superstar, that many people feel … if they can’t become that, then they fail. And the fact is, our successes are every interaction with another human being that is positive… We have to quit looking at a stage with adoring fans as success and look at any time we make someone else happy with our art.”

The Author

In the last 15 years, writing has taken precedence in Jeff’s life. The transition from music to this new art form was a matter of necessity. With increasing pain and limitations, Jeff couldn’t keep up with the demands of touring. “I used to do … three, four shows a day, and there’d be set up and breakdown and an hour show, very audience involving.”

Undeterred by this need to adapt, Jeff infused the same passion and work ethic into his writing. In 2016, he published his 400-page Grit: A Family Memoir on Adversity and Triumph. The book recounts his life as the Disability Rights Movement morphed into a powerful force for change. He’s also written a forthcoming short story collection called Underdogs: Heroic Stories.

Long-form memoir and short stories may seem like disparate mediums, but Jeff approaches them in a similar way. “I believe in writing short things. So, my memoir is 75 essays to tell one story… It’s a continuous story, but it’s told in small stories. And [it’s] the same with short stories, of course. You can have a quick story that has a lot of potential for thought.”

His books share more than this penchant for brevity. “I write about adversity. Because life is about adversity. Life is pain divided by moments of pleasure. Or you can look at it as pleasure divided by moments of pain, but you’re going to get both. And disability is a great teacher.”

Jeff writes on a Braille Touch keyboard with synthetic speech that reads back the text. He then sends his writing to his secretary, who edits any grammatical issues. “I believe in two pairs of eyes. And I also now use artificial intelligence. I have a piece of software that we run my writing through, and it helps me tighten [the writing], which is amazing. I’ve not used it in the creative process, but certainly in the editing.”

Jeff writes every day, dipping into poetry as well. “My main thing these days is, I write sonnets to people. I like the poetic form, the sonnet. It’s demanding. It takes some chops as a poet to write a sonnet that reads well. I like to lift up other people by giving them a sonnet about themselves.” Discussing this latest pursuit, Jeff offered perhaps the best encapsulation of his life’s work. “My job is to make other people feel good about themselves.”

Support the “Troubadour of Inclusion”

Jeff Moyer’s website is the best place to find his books, music, and other works not mentioned in this article. You can also stream many of his albums on platforms such as Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Or you can hear him speak and perform at our virtual Lion and Pirate Open Mic on Sunday, July 2nd at 1 PM Central or on the Art Spark Radio Hour on KOOP Hornsby-Austin on Monday, July 24th from 2 to 3 PM Central.

When we held our first virtual open mic in April 2020, we didn’t know if anyone would show up. We had always been an in-person event, and our lovely space—the independent, community-oriented Malvern Books—had always felt integral to its success. While we hoped our Zoom “experiment” would wrangle a handful of regulars (and ourselves) out of quarantine for an evening of stories, poetry, and maybe some music, we certainly didn’t expect our turnout to increase! But as the months wore on, our humble Lion and Pirate expanded to become a home for artists not only in Austin, but state- and nation-wide as well. One such talent was Joanne Stato, 70-year-old singer-songwriter from the aptly-named Safety Harbor, Florida and our August 2022 Artist of the Month.

As Joanne tells it, “I was invited … by my friend [Art Spark artist] David Romero. I had initial misgivings because I did not have a disability and was concerned that I would be taking up a space from some other person who had more right to be there. But that is not what happened at all. I learned that the word ‘inclusive’ really means ‘everyone is welcome’ including me.” Perhaps, she fell in with us so well precisely because of her keen awareness to share the spotlight. True to form, she practiced the art of stepping up and stepping back, allowing space for fellow performers to shine. But her support extended beyond mere courtesy. She genuinely engaged with her peers; offering insight, positive comments, and even at times writing a tune in response.

Then, there were her songs: a soulful blend of wit, sincerity, and humor that mirrored her warm disposition, all set to a minimal piano accompaniment, but nary a thing seemed absent. Great lyrics, catchy melodies, a tender voice open in its vulnerability—these were the hallmarks of Joanne’s music. Well before I began writing this article and studied her work more closely, I would find myself humming tunes she had performed only once at the open mic. Needless to say, our community embraced her, and she quickly became a cherished regular. In fact, over the past two years, she missed just one event, and that was during the maelstrom of the 2020 presidential election—a week when she certainly wasn’t the only one who opted “to curl up and go to sleep.”

Her intimate, exploratory brand of songwriting brought to mind the renowned singer-songwriters of the 1970s. I heard Joan Baez in her falsetto and vibrato. I heard Joni Mitchell in her surprising chord changes and melodic choices. But I had no idea how far back her love of music spanned nor did I fathom the diversity of influences at play, so it was wonderful to correspond with her and learn more about her process:

Can you share a bit of your background?

I grew up in suburban New Jersey in the orbit of New York City. My parents were children of Italian working-class immigrants but my generation grew up middle class. I had a secure, happy childhood and went to Catholic school throughout high school.

When and how did you start playing music?

From the age of 5 I always used to pick out Broadway tunes on the piano by ear. I took accordion lessons at the age of 8. When the Beatles happened, I was in the 7th grade. I immediately begged my parents for a guitar and learned some chords in a group class at the music store. I used to listen to the radio and try to play along.

During high school I sang in a garage band: we played for school dances. We played songs by Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, the Beatles, Moby Grape, Traffic, Jimi Hendrix and various Motown hits. I was the only girl in the band and did not play any instruments or have much say in choosing the music, but I could not believe my good luck to be performing in a band. 

When I got to college, I started writing songs; first on guitar, then on piano. I always performed at local church coffee houses and then later at college. Playing for an audience was always very energizing for me.

After college I moved to Colorado and played solo in various coffee houses and open mics. First, I joined a traveling band that performed various hits from the jukebox—this was in the mid-70s so often they were disco hits (I acquired an attitude about disco which I did not update for quite a few decades…) Later I formed a band that had 3 songwriters (including me) and was more creatively fulfilling. I still felt that being in a band was the absolute best way to spend my time.

Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?

My first song was an embarrassing expression of unrequited love for a fellow college student. I wrote it on the guitar. My best friend Catherine had a radio show on the college station and she invited me to perform live. The subject of my song heard it over the radio and told me later that he thought it was beautiful. (It did not further the relationship, but still…)

Catherine was also a songwriter and we used to play our compositions for each other. That relationship and/or experience was equally as energizing as being in a band. It meant so much to me to share this endeavor with someone who understood and appreciated the process. 

What inspires you to create?

I would say that emotion and connection with people is usually what prompts a song. There might be a compelling idea, but it is usually more effective when a fellow human being is part of the equation.

Who are your biggest influences? (I sense some Joni Mitchell in there…)

Definitely Joni Mitchell. And equally, Laura Nyro and Randy Newman. 

I have read so many analyses of what made Joni Mitchell’s music so good and popular, but as far as I was concerned, I just connected with her and needed to hear every song she put out.

Laura Nyro was a sublime composer. It was impossible to follow her process—it was so inspired and elegant. The quality of her voice; the dynamics of her piano accompaniments—they transported me.

Randy Newman—people know him now for writing the score to Pixar’s TOY STORY movies, but in the ’70s, he was writing wry, satirical, and occasionally heartfelt gems that hit the nail on the head. He had irony, attitude, and wit, with a solid and dissonant New Orleans-style piano accompaniment. 

In that same vein I have always loved the songwriting of Donald Fagin and Walter Becker from Steely Dan. They express gut feelings couched in a self-deprecatory humorous veneer.

How did you adapt to keep making and performing music during the pandemic?

I hate to say it, but the pandemic was the best thing that ever happened to my music. I had migrated to Florida from Baltimore in 2016 and still had not built a music community here. Covid did not help. Then I contacted my two closest music friends from Baltimore, Russ Moss and Adam Book, and we decided to start a Zoom group that would meet every 3 weeks. For two solid years, each of us presented a new song every 3 weeks. I have never been that prolific in my entire life. And especially in the previous 5 years, I had not written practically anything. So the ongoing comradeship really helped my songwriting come back to life.

Ditto for the Lion & Pirate open mic… The pandemic really gave me the space to connect with people in a way I had not been doing in person.

Which of your project(s) and/or song(s) are you most excited about now?

I wrote 20 new songs during the 2-year pandemic period. However, I still am not performing live in public. I feel like these songs need to be performed often in public before I can consider them really having come to life. I am not quite sure how to go about this; concerns about COVID as well as a lack of budget to go out to clubs are the excuses I have given myself, but I really do feel that I should be trying a bit harder. If that can be called a project, that is my new project.

Community Conversation

Throughout our correspondence, Joanne retained the same sweet humility she exuded in her first Lion and Pirate appearance. She bemoaned that her songwriting career wasn’t in a more active or performative phase, but between a fabulous album she released in 2002, a well-wrought lyrical craft, and years spent filling coffee shops with beautiful, heartfelt music—not to mention the impact she’s had on our own modest open mic—she should be very proud. And, the future isn’t written yet. As Joanne told me, “Five years ago, I did not think I would ever write anything again, and now, 20 songs later, I suppose that was untrue! So there is always hope.”

Joanne joined us for a lovely conversation about her creative process! As a bonus, she facilitated a fun activity to get our lyrical juices flowing. Check it out on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/MMTWRXrZRRI

We corresponded with Question, recording artist and one of RAMPD’s founding members, to learn more about the origins of this important organization and what people with and without disabilities can do to push the music industry forward. Read more below and be sure to join RAMPD this Friday, January 21 at 5 PM ET for their Official Launch Party, which will stream live on YouTube (see video below).

First off, awesome acronym! Can you start by giving us an overview of RAMPD, and how it came to be?

RAMPD (Recording Artists & Music Professionals with Disabilities) is a music industry-oriented collective founded with the goal of shedding light on disability culture, inclusion, and access. RAMPD was founded mid-2021 by award-winning Recording Artist Lachi based in NY after a panel she spoke on alongside members of the Recording Academy. 

I love that part of your mission is “amplifying Disability Culture,” which I think is so important because a lot of people, especially those from outside the Disability Community, don’t even recognize us as a social group, much less one with a thriving culture. So, how do you define Disability Culture, and how do you amplify it?

It’s a culture made up of people who identify as having a disability who strive to progress through challenges. I amplify Disability Culture by pointing out the similarities with other subcultures and demonstrating we are capable of achieving equal forms of success.

Here is RAMPD’s “official” definition of Disability Culture: Disability Culture is a celebration of people who identify as disabled, while acknowledging the vast diversity of the disability experience and each person’s inherent and equal worth. It is unapologetic, creative, innovative, adaptable, imaginative, and rooted in problem-solving. It is based on the premise that disability needs to be seen, respected, included and celebrated. It includes our worldviews, our perspectives, our contributions, our art, our words, and our music. Disability Culture, at least in part, is a vibrant and thriving counter-response to the exclusion, marginalization, and oppression historically and currently experienced by many disabled individuals. 

What in your view are the biggest obstacles facing musicians with disabilities today?

• Accessibility: Companies and content creators don’t have people with disabilities in mind when creating their products and instead consider us as an afterthought leading to us having to create our own methods to interface with products.
• Awareness: Lots of companies aren’t gathering data and marketing towards people with disabilities which is an overwhelmingly large group. Companies underestimate our capabilities and buying power.
• Inclusion: Because many people aren’t aware of how many disabled artists are in the industry, we are often not included in opportunities.

What resources and opportunities does RAMPD provide?

RAMPD has a growing online database of esteemed music artists and professionals. This resource is available for the industry to aid in awareness and to recruit talent. 

If musicians with disabilities want to get involved with the organization, what is the best way for them to do so? Where can people learn more?

We are active on social media and becoming more so as we grow. Follow us on social media and at www.rampd.org. Here are all our links:

RAMPD LAUNCH EVENT LINK

RAMPD OFFICIAL WEBSITE

RAMPD ON FACEBOOK

RAMPD ON TWITTER

RAMPD ON INSTAGRAM 

RAMPD YOUTUBE CHANNEL

RAMPD SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

How can folks without disabilities, both in the music industry and beyond, support the mission of RAMPD and be better allies to musicians and music goers who identify as disabled?

We super encourage and appreciate allies and their support because there is power in numbers. Allies can visit our website to take our survey to sign up for our newsletter to stay aware of events and future opportunities. 

Our October Artist of the Month is Judith Estrada Garcia – an ever-evolving artist, educator, veteran and mother, with an undeniable artistic voice. Her artistic journey was put on hold for many years as she fully devoted herself to serving our country through her military service and raising her family. However, her passion for art has been restored and Judith has been pursuing her artistic practice with a fervor, absorbing and explore new materials and methods as she grows.

A few weeks back I sat down with Judith and we explored three pictures of her work together. These three images span her reemergence as an artist, from roughly 2014 to today. From her past is “Crazy Dreams”, a picture that began her journey back into personal expression. Then a picture from 2-3 years ago, “La Llorona,” a transitional piece that serves as a personal metaphor for struggle. And lastly her most recent work, “Serene.” Through this process of examination, she and I were both delighted to find the common themes in her work, and the areas in which it has changed and grown. 

 In her own words, “My artistic style is evolving as I learn more about the medium and the figures I select. However, I do know that I am determined to use vibrant colors to express my idea of freedom. Freedom not defined by the lack of autonomy. The freedom of electrical currents dancing in and out and around us. We cannot control these currents They exist regardless of our efforts. However, these currents connect us. This connection is what will save us.” 

We began with “Crazy Dreams,” an acrylic painting from 2015. At the time Judith had just reignited her artistic passion, and was confronting a reoccurring nightmare she had been having. “At this point in life I had come out of the military and was working full-time, all while raising my three children as a single mother. Functionally, I was fine, but the inside of me was raging, and in turmoil.” 

 For me, this piece gives voice to the uncomfortable emotions that Judith was experiencing at the time. The figure in the foreground is depicted as a fragile, flushed-faced young woman, and Judith uses abstraction to give her a curving, yet stable form. She is restricted in the composition by a large black band of color that crosses her chest, almost like a safety belt. Behind her, in a field of dark red color, float three teddy bears, representing Judith’s three children. 

 In this piece Judith is expressing the disconnect she feels around her. In our interview she describes it as, “a troubled piece”. And so it is, but what it also illustrates is her ability to directly translate her feeling into visuals. This piece helps us see into Judith’s inner world and her desire to communicate difficult human emotion. She concludes, “That’s why I painted it, because I believe that it could bring me through it, it could cure me.”

Next, La Llorona, from roughly 2018. This collage and acrylic painting serves as a transition piece from the struggles Judith expresses in “Crazy Dreams,” to the metaphor of La Llorona, or the weeping woman. At the time Judith was reflecting on her feelings around immigration and the U.S./Mexico border. “I was inspired by La Llorona, even though she is seen as a negative thing in the myth. Her crying by the river seemed appropriate for the way I was feeling about the border, and our river on the Texas border.”   

In this picture Judith transforms the figure of the weeping woman by the river, into a more peaceful river guide, perhaps ushering or comforting travelers as they cross the red river. “I tend to be a positive person, and so I can’t remain dark,” says Judith. “It’s my default to turn negative things into positives.”  

Regardless of how familiar you may be with the story of the story of La Llorona, Judith’s painting reads as a portrait of complex calmness. The woman is mostly submerged in the river below, but she seems content with that. The colors and textures of her body blend into the water and the surrounding sky. The reds and blues of the background meld together in curving forms that interlock to provide a solid, almost architectural structure. The white lilies, in the bottom right of the picture, symbolize hope at the riverside.

And finally, “Serene,” an oil painting completed during the Coronavirus lockdown of 2020. During that time of uncertainty Judith turned inward to her art, to search through her feelings. “I’ve always painted from a place of feeling. I want to express inner feelings and share how things affect me”. She continues, “I was actually feeling comfortable during that time. I liked staying home. I felt tranquil and reserved, and I was able to learn oil painting. This was a painting that came from that learning. I started using the palette knife in this piece.”   

This picture explores the peace that Judith felt during the lockdown, being at home in a comfortable environment. It’s another transitional piece for Judith. Gone are most of the highly saturated colors from previous works. The color pallet is light, even pastel, setting a mood that is open and inviting. The paint is spread across the surface with a buttery consistency, adding a visual weight that gives the figure a solidity. The lounging posture of the figure reflects an inner peace that speaks directly to how Judith was feeling at the time she was painting. It captures an emotional moment, and uses color, texture and form to convey that feeling to others.   

As Judith continues to explore a range of emotions and feelings in her work, she has felt herself opening up, and growing more sensitive. “I was so into my job and family, that I just didn’t have time for creativity.” As she has transitioned from that part of life into this new stage of life, she has witnessed, “a pouring out of emotion and feeling.” Judith feels that making pictures is a safe and healthy way to explore and expose these feelings, and I would have to agree.  

Good luck Judith, and congratulations on your Artist of the Month recognition. For more information about Judith and her work, please visit www.estradagarciagallery.org.

Judith joined us on our Community Conversation series to talk about her art. View Judith’s Community Conversation here: https://youtu.be/HNAdnp99Q0Q

The hour Nathan spent with us was a great refresher for anyone working the craft of songwriting, and the perfect starting point for anyone new to it. These are the pieces of wisdom I found most helpful for my own lyrical practice. If you could not attend our session with Nathan, I highly encourage you to watch the recording at the end of this article. I am confident these tips will speak to any writer, whether or not you consider songwriting your primary genre.

Lessons from Performing Live

For Nathan, performing for a live audience can be more than a mere unveiling of polished, perfect songs. It can also serve as an opportunity to workshop material. As he described his own experience, “live performance has taught me more about songwriting than sitting alone somewhere and trying to write a song. And that is: the faces that are out in front of you are telling you what is and what isn’t working.” Having a tenuous relationship with playing live, instead preferring the solitude of home recording, this has been a difficult tool for me to implement but ultimately rewarding. I know all too well that feeling when something I thought was great work utterly failed to land with an audience, or something I was ready to discard became one of my more popular songs. If we can move past the sting of disappointment when a song isn’t working, a live audience can be an invaluable resource in fixing it.

Nathan’s Prompt #1: Write a song that follows a chronology. Let the passage of time ground the story and connect with your audience. (Example: “Daddy’s a Fool” by Nathan Brown)

“Lyrics should breathe.”

In a fast-paced society where we are constantly inundated with activities and content, the idea of leaving open, wordless space in a song might feel self-defeating. If you stop singing for a measure, or even a few beats, won’t the audience just tune you out? In fact, it’s the opposite: giving your lyrics room to breathe allows your listener time to absorb them, ponder them, and, most importantly, remember them. This comes more naturally for me, as I gravitate toward mid-tempo songs with lots of musical space, which means the songs I write often assume a similar form. Still, this was a helpful reminder that I don’t need to speed or tighten things up, and that my limited lung capacity may actually be an asset to my songwriting practice.

Nathan’s Prompt #2: Write a song and limit each line to 3 words, or as few as you can. (Examples: “A Face in the Crowd” by Tom Petty, “Waves” by Sam Baker)

“Read, read, read.”

This is familiar advice for any writer, but for an aspiring songwriter, instincts might suggest reaching for a record before a book. As Nathan said, “Poetry is a powerful form of teaching how to write great song lyrics.” If there’s one area where poetry excels over other kinds of writing, it’s the art of brevity. This brevity engenders both a critical eye for what is essential and a broad vocabulary that ensures each word is the right word—indispensable tools for any songwriter. Reading poetry doesn’t stop at improving your lyrical chops, either; it can also exercise your voice, as Nathan explained: “I’m in the habit of reading great poetry out loud because I feel like it trains my voice in the flow and use of great words.”

Nathan’s Prompt #3: Write a list song. Listen to “Big in Japan” by Tom Waits, then fill in the following blanks. (Bonus points if you rhyme every two lines.)
I got the ________ but not the ________.
I got the ________ but not the ________.

Recap

With tens of thousands of songs being uploaded to Spotify and other streaming platforms every day, the challenge of reaching an audience for your music can seem insurmountable. But you can increase your odds significantly if you keep in mind Nathan’s principles of “sing-along memorability, breathing room, and the ability to fully understand your story on the first listening.” But not every song needs to be a pop song, Nathan was quick to add. His own repertoire features long, dark, twisting narratives that don’t always lend themselves to a cheery audience sing-along. The key to success in songwriting is not too different from any other art form: striking that balance between convention and experimentation, between pleasing your audience and realizing your own artistic vision.

Lead Your Own Songwriting Workshop!

We are seeking musicians and lyricists who may be interested in facilitating future songwriting sessions with Art Spark Texas. If you’re a practicing songwriter and open to discussing your creative process with our artists, we’d love to feature you! Email Eric Clow for details.

Visit Nathan Brown’s website to follow and support his work. Watch his full songwriting session below!

—Eric Clow, Media & Communications Specialist

We launched our initial songwriting series in the Fall of 2020 with the idea of imparting tips, techniques, and prompts to help songwriters of all skill levels get their creative juices flowing. We shared three poetry-fueled evenings with Dustin Welch, Gaelynn Lea, and Robert Kelley—musicians who exhibit a mastery of craft but differ drastically in their individual approaches and sound. Click here for a recap of past sessions. We invited a diversity of lyricists because songwriters, like artists of any medium, benefit from having a diverse array of tools and approaches at their disposal.

Facilitating our session this month is Nathan Brown, a songwriter and award-winning poet who served as Poet Laureate of Oklahoma in 2013/14. Nathan has published over 20 books throughout the years. He tours full-time performing shows and leading workshops on creativity, poetry, and songwriting. When the world was thrust into quarantine, Nathan launched the Pandemic Poems Project—a collection of four books of commissioned poems written in 2020/21. He also started a companion online video series called The Fire Pit Sessions, now numbering over 100 episodes, in which he reads poems from the project and performs music from his backyard.

I am thrilled personally for Nathan to facilitate our next workshop because I took a songwriting class with him in 2013, and the lessons I gleaned from that course inform my writing to this day! So, if you are an absolute beginner who aspires to write lyrics, or even if you’ve written dozens of songs, we hope you’ll join us for this fun and creative evening!

Check our event page for updates, or you can sign up for our Community Conversations email list here.

—Eric Clow, Media & Communications Specialist

We were pleased to round out our 2020 Fall Songwriting Series with a workshop led by Robert Kelley, our 2020 Artist of the Year and long-time front man of the popular Blue Mist Band. We honored Robert for his 40+ years of entertaining diverse audiences in Central Texas. As five of the group’s six members graduated from Texas School for the Blind, we were also cognizant of the awareness and opportunities he has made possible for our community of disabled musicians.

We invited Robert to chat with us and share a bit of his wisdom gleaned from many years of work in the music industry, writing and performing both original music and covers. He certainly delivered! Here is what I found most useful. View Robert Kelley workshop.

“Vision can distract you from the music itself.”

Right from the start, Robert’s songwriting session was distinct because he did not activate his video. Others might have done so out of shyness or to hide the clutter of their homes, but Robert intended to share a glimpse of his world—one where the ears serve as the eyes. More importantly, he hoped to impart a critical lesson: Music is not a visual art form. It’s auditory, learned and played with the ears.

Indeed, this may seem rudimentary knowledge, but it comes from a place of hard-earned experience. Robert fronts Blue Mist, a band in which several members are visually impaired. If they get lost in a performance, they cannot look to each other for cues; they must navigate by sound. For the sight-minded such as myself, vision can become a crutch, a distraction that detracts from truly listening.

Prompt #1: Put on a favorite piece of music, close your eyes, and just listen. While not technically a writing prompt, you may still be surprised by what you notice—and learn.

“Covers are the things that keep you employed.”

Blue Mist has been a staple of Austin’s live music scene for 40 years, playing bars, restaurants, weddings, and other events. Though the band writes superb original music, they are possibly best known for their covers—a lively collection of soul, R&B, pop, and jazz. As Robert explained, audiences like covers because it’s music they know and love, music that relieves them of their daily stresses.

I myself have always been wary of performing covers because I felt that my own talents would fail to exceed or in the very least, match the quality of the source material. Writing songs that suit my specific vocal and instrumental capabilities appeared to be a better option. But after hearing Robert’s perspective, I reconsidered my hesitation. I recognized that I should judge my covers not by how well they compare to the originals but by how well the audience receives them.

Prompt #2: How do you express yourself?

Play (and write) what you feel.

When Robert brings lyrics or an arrangement to the band, he encourages them to play what they feel. In so doing, they create a song that combines the unique insights and talents of each member of the band – a song that changes and evolves as opposed to “just me.” The reverse is also true: when one of his bandmates has an idea for a chord progression or melody, he crafts lyrics inspired by the feeling that music evokes.

Prompt #3: Write a few lines that tell people something about you.

Write from the perspective of bass and drums because that’s the foundation.

Robert was initially a drummer and singer, so he writes with drums in mind. In contrast, since I first made music with guitars, then keyboards and synthesizers, I tend to think in terms of chords. That approach, however, bears inherent limitations. Chords undoubtedly form the bedrock of harmony, but the groove, the thing that impels you to stomp your feet and move—that’s the rhythm section.

Here is why Robert’s advice is spot-on: if every time you write from the chords, you risk repeating rhythmic ideas instead of discovering new ones. Working up from the foundation also instills a holistic orientation where each instrument has equal footing. This creates space for accidents and spontaneity; in short, magic. In my own experience, focusing on the drums and bass opened the door for fresh songs to emerge, which propelled my music in exciting directions.

Prompt #4: What would you like people to know about your writing process?

Pro Tips:

• Add a modulation (key change) for variety.
• Always carry a recording device (tape recorder, voice memo-style phone app, etc.) to log ideas as they come. Keep it at your bedside, so you can capture those fleeting dream melodies, too.

You can watch Robert Kelley’s full presentation on our YouTube channel below. Sign up for our Community Conversations email list and follow us on social media to receive updates on future songwriting sessions!

Visit Blue Mist’s website for a listing of their upcoming gigs.

We would like to give a special thank you to all of our guests, who shared their inspiration and their time with us. We appreciate all of our participants, and, of course, the Art Spark staff for their support, and hosting skills. We hope you enjoy this overview of some of our 2020 Conversations.

We look forward to having you join us in 2021! Stay tuned so you don’t miss any of our roundtables by following us on social media. You can also sign up for notifications about Community Conversations here.

Card Making Party

The next Community Conversation is scheduled for Wednesday, January 27th (7:00-8:30 PM CST). We will host a Card-Making Party and have extended the time from the usual one hour conversation to one and a half hours for some extra creative time!

Questions? Contact Susan at outreach@artsparktx.org

She joined us for a little more than an hour in which she discussed how she learned the violin and started to write songs, imparting a wealth of helpful tips and advice for beginning songwriters. As an emerging songwriter myself, these were my biggest takeaways:

Verses need not be identical.

In many of her songs, Gaelynn plays with the structures and melodies of her verses. This variety lends itself well to her layered sound, created by multiple violin lines recorded over each other and looped, allowing her to sing simultaneously. As she quipped during the session, altering how she sings the lyrics can make a song less boring for her as well. In my own experience, limiting myself to a stringent number of lines or syllables, rhyme scheme, or melody can often lead me to a dead end, or worse, to abandon songs entirely. So this truly was liberating advice.

You can use common phrases (sparingly), but find a fresh take.

If you’ve done any kind of writing, you’ve probably been told to avoid clichés at all costs. In songs, this isn’t totally necessary. Common phrases can be useful in certain instances because they’re relatable, universal–a way to reach many people. However, the key is to offer a new angle, something different from what listeners have heard before. The example Gaelynn provided was from her tune “The Long Way Around.” She re-purposed the saying “lay it all on the table” but made it her own by changing “on” to “across”, which better captures the listener’s attention.

“Sometimes the words you start with are not the words you end up with–and that’s totally okay.”

Gaelynn shared this gem of wisdom when discussing her process of deciding whether to use a curse word in a song expressing anger. Ultimately, she opted against the word because she felt it may exclude folks in other age groups. Hearing that reminded me of my own writing process: focus first on getting the words out because you can always change them later.

Don’t judge your work too harshly at first.

When a song is written, Gaelynn encouraged us to not give up on it until we have a chance to record it. Even if you feel uncertain about the lyrics, you may feel differently as you explore instrumentation. Often, the process of recording will change your opinions about a song. And Gaelynn knows from experience: a song she almost chose not to record became a favorite number on her last album.

Gaelynn’s Prompt

Choose one of the themes below, then write whatever it means to you. Start with writing just one line and don’t move on until you feel good about it.

• Moving Forward
• Light / Dark
• Winter

Gaelynn hosts a concert on YouTube every Sunday afternoon where she performs with special guests. Learn more on her website.

You can watch the full workshop on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/8HTd1Pe0HDo

Join us next Wednesday, November 4th at 7 PM Central as we continue to explore the art of songwriting with Art Spark 2020 Artist of the Year Robert Kelley!

Click here for details and sign up info

Robert Kelley formed Blue Mist while attending the University of Texas in Austin. In the 30+ years since, the band has been entertaining diverse audiences with a variety of rhythm & blues, jazz, soul, and popular music. The band has been regulars at central Texas’s most popular nightclubs and performed with various national acts such as: Little Milton, Joe Simon, D. Train, The Platters, Pinetop Perkins, grammy-winning R&B group The Manhattans and R&B/hip-hop singer Anthony Hamilton. Five of the group’s six members attended and graduated from the Texas School for the Blind.