Our Universal Tongue

There’s no denying that as a writer, I’m all about words. But when words are put to music and made into a song, a universal language is created that can move a mass of people all at the same time. Often it does the job better than mere words can.

I’m just back from my first trip to Nashville and the button of my music-loving soul has most definitely been turned on. I road tripped down there with my husband and two dear, longtime friends for the annual Americana Music Association’s Festival and Conference http://americanamusic.org/who-we-are. Americana music is folk, country, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, often called roots music. All four of us love the many flavors of Americana music and the mess it makes with our emotions so we went down there to marinate in it.

I never seen so much talent spanning the generations in one place, at the same time.

Here are just a few musicians you might recognize:

Stephen Stills

Emmylou Harris

Richard Thompson

Rosanne Cash

Billy Bragg

Robert Hunter (who sang “Ripple”).

Dr. John

Buddy Miller

Merle Haggard

The McCrary Sisters with a kickin’ version of “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

Buddy Miller singing “Gasoline and Matches.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmSDxOWfIOM

Billy Bragg singing “Never Buy the Sun”

Enough review, travelogue and linkage.

If you get the chance to go to Nashville, do it!

What I really want to share with you is that next to all the riffs, licks, melodies and great one liners that are still dancing in my head, I picked up some things about inspiration from the songwriters. There are many things we can learn from them about creative process and making art:

Inspiration can come in the strangest ways: from a memory or mood, line or title.

Rodney Crowell

“It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night that Chews Your Ass Out All Day Long“

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWqWA6IhLgY

Art doesn’t have to be about big things.

Dr. John singing “Right Place Wrong Time”