Ruth Greenwood: News/Journal

This has been a sabbatical year...a time not to sow or reap...but not a quitting, not by any means.

We are all mostly mended now, and I have a studio full of ideas, written down, recorded, and in my head.

I miss a hundred people...cowriters, friends, fellow songwriters, listeners, others in the business.

Soon, soon, I'll be performing again, traveling again, cowriting again.

The Russians say we learn to skate in the summer and we learn to swim in the winter...we grow even (maybe especially) when we think we're taking time off.

Assume I miss you, if I know you, and know I would love to know what's up with your life...and if I haven't met you yet...all the more reason to say hello.

Best Thanksgiving wishes!

Hey, everyone, I'm still making music...just been adding to my MySpace blog instead of here.

So far this year have enjoyed rounds and performances in Nashville and a few NJ/NY venues. Been writing, getting into film/TV too.

Played for Mamapalooza...since I am a mom. And, being a mom, sometimes there are mom things to concentrate on. My son suddenly developed a weakness in his knee that was getting worse, and making it harder to walk. It has been diagnosed as...a weakness in his knee (fortunately) and so after a bunch of dr. visits, I now take him for physical therapy, and he's doing great. (Thanks to all who sent good wishes and prayers.) But if you haven't heard from me, that's what's been going on.

Getting back to the music, and looking forward especially to more writing and recording...and playing one of my two new Zager guitars (no more airplane silliness).

Imagine I'm telling you one of the funniest jokes you ever heard. There. Nice smile. As soon as I think of a good joke I'll put it in this space.

Meanwhile, just keep that beautiful smile.

Thanks for stopping by,

Ruth

Quark Park is a trip...when's the last time YOU played a venue designed by physicists (in a town whose congressman actually IS a rocket scientist)? It was fun, with as fine an outdoor sound system as I've ever had. Had little roadies and a manager so cute I took 'em all home, since they all had my last name. Think it's the first time I've had the WHOLE family at a gig. Wasn't gonna play "Happy on Top" but someone yelled out "You know they know all the words to all the songs anyway" and I couldn't argue that point. Besides, my son recently asked that, since Dad had told him the facts of life, could I please explain the meaning of life?


Anyway, like Rachel Williams' new song, I too am now world-famous in my hometown, which somewhere between Nashville and New York, but never too far from either.

And got to hear rhythm tracks from Sandy Zio's recording of "Don't Stop Talking"...including an arrangement they tried out using my vocal over a hard-driving rock track, with Jimmy Leahy on guitar (he's in John Waite's touring band). Trippy, especially since my vocal was recorded over only a very quiet and delicate acoustic guitar part (or synth mimicking guitar, depending on which demo Sandy has). Jimmy'll be on the final product, so it should really rock.

Song starts out "Your voice is the color of whiskey, Honey
Flows from your lips to my ear
Your words are the key to the cages in me
Do I hear you, oh baby, I hear."

Thanks to all who listened tonight (and double thanks to those who also bought CDs).

Go visit LanceChristopher.com and buy something. A CD. A cool T-shirt. Ask him how you can donate to the medical fund.

Because of all the people I know in Nashville, Lance is the person who is absolutely the most likely to say hello to you, welcome you, take an interest in you, cheer you up, celebrate your uniqueness and give you space to be who you are, praise whatever good you do...and make you feel like you did him a favor by getting born and thank you for just showing up in his life.

But Lance, most excellent writer and performer, is undergoing treatment for a recurrence of the multiple myeloma cancer that he thought he'd beaten through a combination of alternative and regular medicine and prayers from everybody. It had been in remission for over a year.

To some people, just having 3 teenagers, as Lance does, would make life unbearable! ...but Lance's kids are terrific people, fortunately (having a tremendously loving mom helps!), and Lance WITH cancer is still far more positive and giving and thankful than a lot of healthy people I know.

We had fun writing and talking together today...we started what should be a really fun song.

I feel so good every time I get to be with Lance and Michelle...so let's send Lance our prayers and good wishes and donations (he is trying to raise enough money for a lifesaving treatment available only at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem...Lance is also a minister, by the way, but if you don't share his faith you can always think of it as a donation to let Lance "get a second opinion" by experiencing Judaism and Islam in Israel And if you're all the way secular, just think of it as a chance to support a musician who's so good that UNESCO is sending him to do performances in Japan in September.)

There have been several benefits for Lance in past years that helped with past expenses. But now with this recurrence, he needs our help to secure the treatment that could turn this around to the positive.

Anyway, check him out at http://lancechristopher.com or http://myspace.com/lancechristopher

Thanks for reading!!!

Ruth

OK, I confess. I snuck across the border. And I inhaled.

And you know what? The BMI office air is just as nice as ASCAP's. (It''s OK...I >told< my ASCAP rep in advance that I'd be going to BMI, because you know how people talk...!!!)

And yesterday I decided to say hello to someone from my musical past, the publisher who was the most welcoming and encouraging to me when I first, first started in the music business. Ron Solleveld now heads up the International division at BMI, with a long stretch at BMG in the middle of that time. He was as kind and welcoming as ever--I was so happy to see him.

And this was after lunch with Gary Portnoy, who I met around the same time I met Ron, and who is still a friend and still a collaborator of mine (we have a new song HE'S DRIVING ME CRAZY WITH BECAUSE HE WON'T LET ME HEAR IT IN ITS FINAL VERSION UNTIL HE'S TOTALLY SATISFIED WITH THE BRIDGE, GRRR.... and is working on another CD of his own.

And I am getting for a week of cowrites and meetings and gatherings with newer friends.

I decided, when I came back to the music business, to only
work with people I liked. Until I ran out of likable people.

Hasn't happened yet.

Meanwhile, my guitar might as
well be a whole new instrument since Alan Bennett (another C&F...collaborator and friend...and wonderful guitar teacher) pointed out that I was invisibly welding the heel of my left hand to the fingerboard when I played and couldn't ever hope to play a barre chord or much of anything until I learned how not to hold my guitar like a Neanderthal. If you heard a loud >THWACK< it was me finally putting some airspace between left hand and guitar neck. And going hey, there's better music up here!!

Wasn't it Chet Atkins who said that the money chords are all above the fifth fret? Of course, on a Baby Taylor, that doesn't leave you more than a fret or two. I may have to get a grownup guitar.

Anyway. it''s been a busy and good enough spring that I've been out of touch here. Played the Millenium Conference, was the subject of a nationally-syndicated radio show piece (see http://mamapalooza.com/chickchat.html) , been doing a variety of music-for-money things (I know, what a concept!) and just booked my first 2007 gig. And decided to postpone the Bluebird round for a bit to let my newly-liberated playing and new songs ripen. Your ears will thank me.

Thank YOU for taking the time to read my ramblings...if you only knew how much your interest and support are my lifeblood!!

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Yesterday we rode by a sign for a local "professional rodeo" show, and my husband said, "How did "they"
come up with the idea for rodeos?"

I guessed that "they" were cowboys using the skills and only equipment they had to have some fun and compete....so I asked, "Why don't OTHER professions have THEIR rodeos...like a TEMP OFFICE WORKERS rodeo, for instance?!"

One of the Temporama Rodeo events could be the actual temp job >I< had for one very LONG day when I first got out of school: I was a telephone receptionist for an 11-man IMMIGRATION LAW firm.

(ALL CALLS ARRIVING SIMULTANEOUSLY)

Call #1: "Allo?! I am problem. Need talk."
Call #2: "Quick, INS here now and...AHHHHHH!"
Call #3: "shjfdoerndodjur!!! adsfhjdsafoer!!!!!!"
Call #4 "Need speak to Mr.%^&*%*." "Could you please repeat that, sir?" "Mr.%^&*%!!!!* "Again?" Mr.%^&*%*, you stupid girl"
Call #5: "Oh...um...."
Call #6: "MUST NOW SPEAK TO MY LAWYER!!!!!!" "Certainly, sir. What is his name?" "Don't know, but need to talk NOW NOW NOW!!!!!"

A temp dreamjob...yikes...our competing rodeo temp would have to connect a call a minute, like I did. Having lived in Japan for a year, however, I have tremendous respect for those trying to legally stay in the US and speak our hare-brained English, (I taught English as a second language, and used to have to apologize for how confusing English can be, especially the spelling!!! Be grateful you're a native speaker, if you are, because English mixes Latin, Greek and Anglo-Saxon roots and rules with words gathered from everywhere the British colonized. And then some.)

Thanks for everybody's good wishes, and especially to those who came to listen...what a cool, fun gig...I've played in various bar bands, but this is the first time somebody yelled from the audience, before I could open my mouth to sing, "Hey, how many kids do you have...what are their names...how old are they?" And I've NEVER had an MC poll all the artists thusly: "HOW MANY PERFORMERS TONIGHT >NURSED< THEIR BABIES????"

Trippy to be in a typical Lower East Side NYC music venue with pierced and tattoed folks but have the MC asking for a show of hands from the artists as to which of us nursed our kids--gave a whole new spin to the concept of being a mainstream artist...! And then the MC made me come back onstage after my set and repeat the first verse first lines to "Happy on Top".

Moms' night out...pretty wild...check mamapalooza.com or Family Circle magazine to find an event near you (Nashville was earlier this month).

(It's good to be a woman! On the subway tonight I noticed an ad for a malpractice law firm. Said they helped a man get awarded millions of dollars after "injury to his arm during prostate surgery". Okay, maybe the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but his ARM??? That's a REAL detour.)

BITTER END - much fun - got open invite back

thanks to all the sweeties who came out to hear me this weekend!!

Am invited back to play either the Bitter End or CBGB - whenever I want and as often as I want on these biweekly writers' nights. Can't ask for better! Got some very cool photos to post too.

This was my first NYC gig in...well, we know...so it was a JOY!

Thanks for all the good wishes of those who couldn't be there...I should be getting a DVD of it and may be able to post something.

More soon!

If you're clicking and wondering what's going on with the website...we're adding features, including free mp3 audio articles for songwriters interested in improving their craft and creativity. I'll be adding new ones regularly. You'll get a sense of my style of teaching, and can sign up for lessons or critiques.

I love coaching other writers, sharing what I've learned, experienced, read. Protecting and encouraging their unique voice. Offering many ways to solve the "puzzle" once a first draft is written. Respecting the privacy and emotion that writing demands sometimes. Finding new opportunities for performance and cheering students on.

My handsome webmaster will have this all sorted out soon.

Meanwhile, if you listen to any of the Springboards, please drop me a line at ruth@ruthgreenwood.com and tell me what you think. Was it useful? Did you write a new song or edit an old one? What would make it more helpful? What else would you like help with in YOUR writing?

Write on!

Ruth

No babies, been there, done that already...got one of each...but I AM pregnant with news about writing, news about performing...good news that I cannot yet publicize.

Happy stuff, exciting stuff.

Watch this space!

Ruth

Hearing writer and singer Bekka Bramlett, you want to say, "Hold something back, girl! You don't have to turn yourself inside out every time...but please do, because it hurts so GOOD!"

It's criminal that she both writes and sings better than anyone. And ecstasy to witness. (Sound like I'm exaggerating? Nah, I'm just telling the truth.)

Bless those who inspire. Go hear Bekka!

Last night, my daughter glanced at the invitation to my Bluebird gig that I'd just sent out.

"What are 'cow rights'?"she asked.

Now, I believe in the ethical treatment of animals, as much as a non-vegetarian can, but I usually don't single out a single species.

"Cow rights? Where do you see that?" I asked.

"In your email, Mom. C-O-W R-I-T-E-S."

While watching our kids play after school, a mom asked if she could hear my CD. I happened to have a player with me, and gave it to her. After a song or two she brought it over to her son, saying, "hey, listen to Gabe's mom sing!"

Later, I walked over to the seesaws where her son was now playing with my Gabe. The boy, about 8, looked at me, smiled, and said, literally,

"So, are you a rock star?"

What would YOU have answered?

I read an obituary that quoted Knotts as saying that he was sad that he couldn't sing or dance well. He said he would have loved to do a musical, but he just didn't have a good voice or dance ability.

I figure you can take that lesson two ways:

Either you can think about how people get put down for what they cannot do, and so never find the courage to rise up and focus on their strengths and talents.

Or you can think about the courage it takes to be honest with yourself about what you cannot and probably cannot learn to do well, and instead devote your life to bringing people joy with your unique brand of talent. He did that.

But now, if he chooses, may he sing with an angel's voice and dance like a dream, elegant in a white tuxedo, with room for wings.

Ruth

Reading about the birth of the song "Bless the Broken Road" in the Tennessean, I was struck by the various version of the title the song had before it was a hit. One artist recorded it as "Broken Road" and another as "God Bless the Broken Road". Did settling on the current title make a difference? (Couldn't have been that it was recorded by the top country group...)

The title is what the public sees and hears...and yet...I wonder if other writers fuss over making sure the title is THE right one. I have a fairly recent song called "Love You from a Distance". "From a Distance" would be a better title...but somebody beat me to it bigtime. I've toyed with "Distance".(This reminds me of "The World According to Garp"...and how Garp gets the name because he says "Garp", and as he dies, it shrinks to Arp, Ar, A...and silence. I suppose mine could shrink to "You" and then "A"...I'm sure silence is what I'd hear too!) Once heard a publisher say he didn't like songs with "Love" in the title. Once heard a songwriter/writing teacher say he didn't use adverbs and didn't think others should.

That's why these two didn't go on a date to see "Love, Actually". Which would have led to someone singing "I Love You Truly" at their wedding.

And if you have any doubt that I'm a troublemaker, KAOS-FM in Olympia, WA will be playing my CD on a Sunday morning show, Sister Sound...just got a request from a DJ who heard my CD on CDBaby. And I haven't yet had to hand anybody fat envelopes, but it is public radio...

Just got word that the hosts of the Yellow Beat program on Shonan Beach FM are going to feature "Name for This" as their recommended song of the month
for May, and plan to play "many of the other songs on the CD".

You can listen on http://www.beachfm.co.jp/beachlivebb.asx
They've asked me to record some comments for their listeners if I have the time...you'll get to hear my basic Japanese (I lived there for a year).

This station was one of the international stations included on the Radio list on my first version of Real Player...

Ru-su Gu-ree-n-woo-do is happy tonight

Just got a call from my local B&N asking if they can carry my CD!

PS So much to say about Tuesday's showcase, etc...but I've got to play in an hour or so. More soon.

I'll be back soon, valentines.

R

Yesterday I had the luxury of a long phone chat with my dear friend and collaborator, Jack Perricone. Jack, like Gary Portnoy, was a songwriter present on the first recording session of my own song I got to be present for, the RCA album of Gail Wynters, and, as with Gary, we became, and remain, friends and collaborators. Jack is now also the chairman of the songwriting department at Berklee College.

A good collaboration team is a creative marriage, with all the changes and complexity of a real marriage, and a gift to each of the writers. If it's also a great friendship, it's priceless. Jack and I wrote an album of songs for Sesame Street Records and talked a lot, as his first marriage was ending and I was in love, planning to spend my $1000 advance on a trip to stay with my boyfriend in Italy. And we continued to write when I was crushed about a boyfriend I'd actually met at Jack's house, and Jack himself was enjoying new love. And when I wasn't writing, we stayed friends. And we wrote again, my first collaboration after more than a decade, when I went up to visit Berklee and Jack and his talented, wonderful wife (they just did an album!) and kids for a week in 2002...I went to classes (when I was at Berklee, there WAS no songwriting department!) And our families met for the first time the year before. And we will continue to write and talk about songs.

And he ordered my CD the minute he heard about it, the same day I was addressing an envelope to SEND him one.

And perhaps that is one of the best things about songwriting...in what other art form can we so easily create complete works by ourselves one day, with a cherished friend the next, and with a complete stranger the next?

Mailbox money is a pretty sight...

...but the friends along the way are my treasure. The original thank-you list on my CD was a page-and-a-half...the designers said I'd have to give up including the lyrics. I asked a bunch of friends what they thought of my album notes, and those who were mentioned there said, "Hey, I appreciate it, but include the lyrics...that's what means something to the listener."

But I'm asking Hostbaby if I can add an acknowlegment page...because there are so many people whose friendship
and support and knowledge help me. Like you. Thanks for reading...and don't forget to say hi in the Guestbook.

So you think if you were a little younger you might have a better shot at XYZ...

Well, it's relative.

A relative of mine, namely, my son, age 8. Recently he asked me,

"Mom, how old do you have to be to be on American Idol?...I guess you have to be in the double-digits, huh?"

Oh, well.