TrouBeliever Fest – MAGIC

Songwriting Center Stage

by Mark Wilkerson
images by Alterman Images

“So what drives a great song
words or music; lyric or melody;
that is the question?“

Say I.

“Well, I do love a good Shakespearean reference. But, no that is not the question,” says Monty Powell. Monty, who has won enough Grammys and National music awards to wallpaper a music studio (speaking of which, you should see his studio), including Songwriter of the Year, and who you should think of every time you hear Keith Urban singing “Sweet Thing”, was sitting across from me in his extraordinary high tech music studio (you should see the wallpaper) in Huntsville Utah. He agreed to visit with me about the art of songwriting, with as a backdrop the just completed TrouBeliever Fest 2018, a music festival focused on singer/songwriters and their craft.

The festival, brainchild of Monty and his songwriting and life partner, the brilliant Anna Wilson, rocked. It was a mix of fantastic solo performances, full on rock and roll bands, classics from the 70’s, and new music by up and comers as young as 14 years old. Magic.

A great song is a seamless blend, a compound, an alchemic binding together of words and music.

Monty Powell

The festival was held over a sunny two days at Snowbasin Ski Resort’s Outdoor Amphitheatre. Interspersed between 120 performances by 20 different artists, were songwriting seminars, vendor booths including one with 40 different Godin guitars one could try out, and completely mind-blowing impromptu jam sessions. All with Monty, Anna (a beautiful genius with the voice of an angel and bunches of hits and awards of her own), and their many famous pals including Billy Dean, smoothly guiding the audience through a truly unforgettable musical experience. The focus throughout was on the art of the songwriter, that magic moment when a lyric meets a melody and finds grace.

Emmylou Harris headlined, playing until midnight in a sultry testimony to the brilliance that is a songbird singing songs she wrote. Every song had a story. Every story had an intention. Every rhyme had a reason. Every note rang true to the intention. Magic.

While Emmylou Harris, who confesses to getting crushes on certain words and building a song from there, exemplified the experience of TrouBeliever Fest, every artist gave us a look — more than just a toss off peek like “Hey I wrote this on the tour bus on the way to Boise Idaho” — a real look into the magic of making music. Each explained how they conceived those words and that music, and the particular moment the two merged to became one magnificent whole.

A song. A catchy, gripping, stick in your head, sing in the shower, unforgettable song. A song that when heard 30 years later evokes not only the time and place you first heard it, but often the smell in the air, the taste on your lips, the touch of a hand, the tingle in your spine. Right there just behind the eyes; fully formed memories of stunning detail; memories with all five senses fully firing. A three dimensional moving picture with soundtrack. Right in front of you. And all from “That Song” first heard those many years ago. Magic.

So back to my search for the key, the trick, the formula that unlocks the ability to write a great song. Back to my question about words or music. Monty replies,

No, words or music, lyric or melody, that is not the question. Great songs, unlike Shakespeare’s baleful, ‘to be or not to be,’ are not an either or proposition.

A great song is a seamless blend, a compound, an alchemic binding together of words and music, lyric and melody, and much more.

A great song is lyric rhythm melody pace alliteration metaphor meter.

A great song employs musicology and musicianship, twelve notes in each octave reforming in almost infinite combinations; consonance dissonance harmony and progression. Tempo texture theme tone transposition triad and triple meter—and that’s just the T’s.

Monty Powell

Monty pauses for breath. I start to speak but halt; he’s not quite done.

Oh and then there are the instruments, over 1000 at last count, that you choose to lay down the music you want. Guitar for me (Piano for Anna) is a must. But do I three finger pick it, strum it, pluck it, play it as lead, play it as rhythm? And which of my 32 guitars should I use, and when in the song should I use each different one I select?

Look, the bottom line is a great song is a whole bunch of cool stuff blended together so perfectly that they add up to far more than the sum of their parts.

A great poem is fabulous. A great piece of music is fabulous. But a great song is a quadratic of fabulous. It attaches to all of your senses. It comes pouring in your ears and flows to every corner of your brain, and then right on down to your fingers and toes. If a great song is soulful, it will fill your soul.

Monty Powell

Monty pauses grinning, and then adds as if an afterthought of something I ought to already know.

Oh, and you must have a message–something to say that is worth hearing. And you must keep it all, every word and every note, authentic to that message. Finally, you must, simply must, keep it simple.

Monty Powell

WHAT? My brain screams … simple! SIMPLE? Oh sure simple, like brain surgery is simple if you are a brain surgeon. Seeing my head about to explode, Monty decides to ease off on the firehouse of information.

Look man, I’m just messing with you, sort of. There really are lots of things that go into a great song, but the basics are constant: message, music, hook. The real trick is finding the music that matches the lyric and blending them together as the means to deliver your message.

Monty Powell

Experiencing TrouBeliever Fest gave me the perfect reason to explore this alchemy that is songwriting, I think two songs by the two headliners are worth examination.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell are way way famous. They started out playing together, and have done a lot of songwriting and performing both separately and together over the course of 45 years. Both are justifiably revered by other famous songwriters, who use words like “exquisite, authentic, genuine, bona fide; not a wasted word or note; consummate musical story tellers.” But it turns out they write entirely different kinds of songs.

Rodney Crowell’s “The Answer is Yes” is a great song. It is brilliant. The story is a vignette; fun, rich and nuanced. You can see the bartender grin as the playful Crowell teases and flirts with his love interest de jure. With a fast pace, heavy back beat, and 3 chord rock-nroll music, your feet are practically dragged to the dance floor. As you start to move your feet, you can’t help but grin along with that cocky Romeo over there at the bar flirting with the hot girl. You are in the moment, living the scene, all the while itching to dance. Some would argue that this is a traditional country-rock song. But forget the labeling.

Let’s look at the song. The music moves and shakes, and makes you want to sing, and certainly dance, along. The music matches the message. Teasing, cocky, fun, “Let’s Party.” It has 4 sets of lyrics, each 36-38 words long. It has a 44 word chorus that repeats 3 times. It is 4:19 minutes long with 180 non-repeating words. That is one new word every second and a half.

Emmylou Harris’s “Red Dirt Girls” also is a great song. It is brilliant. The story is a novel; deep, heart-wrenching, and poignant. You can smell the dust rising off the dirt road just outside a sun beaten cabin with two barefoot grinning girls singing on the porch. You are there with Lillian when the telegram comes, tears streaming down your face. You feel the depths of desperation when you nod along knowingly with, “One thing they don’t tell you bout the blues when you got em, you keep on fallin cause there ain’t no bottom…” With a slow deliberate pace, haunting bass, and plaintive guitar punctuated by steel, your heart skips a beat and tears well in your eyes. You are in every moment as you look in on the hopes and shattered dreams of a life not permitted to be well lived. Some would argue that this is a traditional country folk song. But forget the labeling.

Let’s look at the song. The music pulls you in and along with the story, thumping and crooning with sorrow. The music matches the message. Sad, thoughtful, nostalgic, “Let’s all try harder to love one another.” It has 6 sets of lyrics, each 55-70 words long, plus a 22 word wrap up. It has NO chorus. It is 4:19 long (yes the two songs are precisely the same length) but with 389 non-repeating words. That is 1 ½ words per second.

Much slower. Twice as many words. No chorus.

While Rodney Crowell dances us through a one night barroom encounter with a sly winking promise of love, Emmylou Harris tells us of an entire forgotten life, “the life and the death of a red dirt girl.”

One great song makes you grin, dance, and maybe lust a little. The other makes you cry softly, hug your loved ones, and promise yourself to be more kind. Although vastly different in tone, tempo, and story, both songs share the key elements of all great songs — a story to tell, a way with the words in which to tell it; a way with the twelve notes to bring the story to life; and an overall authenticity that guides the binding of the words to the music.

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I have thought about all Monty Powell said. I have thought about and dissected the great talents of Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. I have reflected back on the two dozen other excellent songwriters who graced the Snowbasin stage at TrouBeliever Fest 2018. I have considered the words of the great poet Donald Hall, who wrote, “be not tired, ordinary, trite, or false.” I have listened to Bach, Dylan, Petty, Isbell. I have thought deeply about the art of songwriting. And here is what I have come up with. Every great picture might tell a story. But every great song tells a truth. Short story or novel; happy or sad; playful or soulful, every great song captures all of your senses, imprints itself on your heart and soul, and brings you joy over and over for all the years of your life. All in 4:19 minutes or less.

As for the process, the craft, a lot of that can be taught, but the actual art of songwriting. Well, that’s just Magic.

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HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL was the charitable partner at TROUBELIEVER FEST 2018. The charity brought in a façade of a home to the festival site where artists interacted with fans and signed the wall, sharing messages of hope and goodwill. Anna Wilson (festival co-founder) penned the theme song for Habitat, A HOUSE A HOME. habitat.org

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Learn more at their website
troubelieverfest.com
montypowell.com
annawilson.com
troubadour77.com

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