We started our monthly local NSAI meeting with a send off to our former leader, Steve Simpson. Steve served as coordinator for the Charlotte chapter for 5 years, and did a great job growing the group. Fortunately for us, he is only stepping down from the leadership role, and will still be part of our group. We kid him now that he has to bring more songs for critique since he is going to have a lot more free time. Fiona McAllister has stepped up as our main coordinator, and Angelo Melendez and Carl Dews will be co-coordinators for the group. Fiona and Angelo have been working for our group for some time now, so we know that the group will continue to flourish.
Our next activity was to critique the Country Music Association song of the year, "In Color" by Jamey Johnson. When we do these song critiques we look at things like, length of song, title, use of title in the "hook", how long does it take to get into the chorus, does the chorus lift away from the verse, are the verses concise, yet, do they say everything they need to say, etc... Anyway, we songwriters really get into this stuff, and we even started looking at all of the CMA songs of the year for the past several decades. I'm surprised at how many of them really are saying something. Country is accused of just being a genre filled with songs of whiners, cheatin' tunes, or drunk redneck anthems. However, if you look at the songs that have won, "Song of the Year", there are some fine lyrics and emotions in there. And besides, the drunk redneck anthems are a lot of fun, and there is definitely a place in music for that!
This meeting was our annual planning meeting, and there were many great suggestions brought forward for things that the group would like to do this year. We are looking forward to participating in as many as we possibly can.
Lastly, we had our new song, I'm Moving On critiqued by the group, and received lots of positive feedback. We think it's just about ready to put on the CD. Have we mentioned lately how excited we are about recording a CD this year?! : )
* YouTube Video of the song, In Color by Jamey Johnson
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