The Nashville Rinse
For Boomer songwriters like me, there’s a good chance we have a lot of songs we wrote in the 80s and 90s that have been sitting on the shelf for a while. Kind of like that old trunk found in the dead guy’s attic ….maybe with some wonderful art work inside. Except we’re still alive!
Some of these songs might have withstood the test of time, but need new production values. Song styles, genres, recording equipment, digital instruments and samples were very different back then. I’ve had professional critiques of my demos from that era that routinely note that the songs are solid, but the production values are outdated - unless someone is looking specifically for a vintage recording sound.
Sometimes it’s hard to know where a song fits in today. Is it Adult Contemporary ? Pop ? R&B ? Country ? Or in an even more vague genre like Singer-Songwriter ? I asked a working professional about understanding musical genres today and this was his response:
…rock and pop love ballads went away on the charts the last 15 years..., and country absorbed those audiences.
A little twang.. and a little Nashville influence.. and that's where all your
love ballads went.. Keith Urban.. think.. Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani duet ballad...
Lonestar "Amazed"..
pop is all dance music
rock is now metal..
alternative is now very very indie...
everything in between is basically country…
So, I thought it was time to try out a Nashville demo studio and see what they might do with a few of my songs that were definitely NOT written with anything Country in mind, but might fit into the genre with a Nashville rinse! You have to shop carefully, rely on respected recommendations, and do as much due diligence as possible to find the studio and people that are a good fit for you.
I was very lucky to connect with Stacy Hogan at A Writer’s Paradise and may have found a new life for a few of my songs with a Country audience. Check out I Just Want To Drive Away, You And I, and Don’t Tell Me. I embedded the original demos as well so you can see how different they sound with this approach.