1963-1972 - Early Years
I wrote 400 songs in 40 years. It began as I was turning 18. I began hearing songs that did not exist. That made me a songwriter. There was a cheap, beat-up guitar at my grandmother's house. I learned chords from books. Chords were easy to make, and I quickly understood how they fit together to form patterns. I could transpose from one key to another. The problem was, I had no rhythm. Bill Davis would help me with that years later. The neck of that guitar was terrible. Strings dug into my fingers like barb wire. The pain in my fingertips woke me in the night. Calluses formed. My first songs were about breaking up with girl friends. It holds true for most writers. Self-pity is a factor. Most songwriters are introverts as I was. The creative process and schizophrenia are closely related. Creating music which no one else can identify with isolates a person. He finds himself cut off from society, misunderstanding and misunderstood. That is how it was. My mother bought me a Gibson SG Jr., an electric guitar. I was no guitarist. I banged out chords and screamed, sweat pouring out of me on hot summer days. My first songs were imitations of what was on radio. Elvis Presley and The Beatles were influences. Coherent efforts were Welcome Mat and Long Live Rock & Roll. The culmination of this period was the gospel songs I wrote after coming out of the Army. My religious phase was crazy. As America rejected the Vietnam War, I began reading books of a spiritual nature. I delved into the writings of Aldous Huxley. One thing led to another, and I fell in with a group of Jesus freaks in Louisville. We went to a Pentecostal church in Indiana where the congregation danced in the aisles. We spoke in tongues. I threw away all my possessions except for my clothes, Bible and guitar. I went off the deep end, and my mother had me put on the mental ward of the Veterans Hospital. I was given shock treatments. My gospel songs coincided with these experiences. Jesus Paid My Debt and Living Within Ourselves were the best. I recorded Jesus Paid My Debt with Kymberly 36 years after I wrote it. No problem because the song sounded 100 years old from the beginning. It reeks of old time religion. Kymberly grew up in the church and got her flair for gospel from her mother.
1973-1984 - Comeback
I rose from the ashes. I began going to the Dipperwell, the restaurant where my mother worked. The Dipperwell was run by Thelma Lee, my mother's cousin. Thelma introduced me to Barry Davidson, a drummer in a local band. We devised a plan whereby Barry helped me produce Long Live Rock & Roll. We recorded it in a Louisville studio. I did the vocal. We took it to Nashville and pressed 1000 45s. I mailed them to record companies, publishers and radio stations across the nation. Doing the record was a resurrection. Some decent songs followed, the strongest of which was Phoenix. Phoenix was based on the bird of Greek mythology, and I was that bird. I soon found myself in Nashville recording with Bill in a makeshift studio in his back yard. I had a 4-channel Teac, and he had a Docoder. We used the two decks together. Our collaboration led to an album with students from Castle Heights Military Academy where I worked. We called the album Rising from the Ashes. My renditions of Leaving and Belle Meade Blues were on it. These were comeback songs. Lori Powell sang Losing Makes You Stronger, and Tim Morrison did Too Late For Love. Of course, it was a misadventure. Working with Amy Plummer that summer, Sailing Out came out nice. My first female songs were really male. I simply changed the pronouns. As this way of things played out, we did final cuts for Jim Colyer Records. My son's mother recorded Somebody To Love, and I backed it with I Am The Greatest. Silence! I realized the futility of putting out records on my own label. It would be years before I recorded again.
1985-1996 - Rewrite
After becoming a parent, I questioned music and my involvement in it. I had a young son to take care of and had squandered my resources. My songs suddenly seemed second generation imitations of what I had heard on radio. Few held up, and even those were mediocre. They reflected my life at a particular level. Entering middle age with a son to raise gave me a different perspective. I retreated to my parents' basement after my divorce. Nothing sounded good, and I did nothing in music for a long time. The rewrite began unconsciously. I wrote the lyrics of Agnetha over an old melody and did the same for Stockholm Lady. When I Was A Boy evolved lyrics relevant to my life. I pieced together a jukebox musical, Phoenix Rising, 30 songs strung together with a story around them with characters and dialogue. It was about an American soldier named Frank Logan who had a daughter in Sweden he had never seen. Frank was on the verge of fathering a second child with a young British singer. The plot was an extension of my infatuation with younger women. I discarded Phoenix Rising, knowing it was a phase and not what I ultimately wanted to say. The rewrite continued as fragments sprouted new verses and bridges.
1997-2004 - Explosion
I had an environmental song called Save The Planet. I thought it could be an international hit. I advertised in a Louisville music paper for a female vocalist. This triggered a chain of events which I never could not have predicted. A lady in Indiana recorded my song, but it was no good. Shortly thereafter, I was talking to a clerk in a video store. She had a cousin in the west end of Louisville who wanted to be a country singer. I gave my phone number. Three days later, Ron Coogle called me. He had a daughter named Rachel and was looking for songs for her. I went to their house with a song called Satisfied. We took it to Doc Dockery's basement studio in New Albany, Indiana, and did a demo. Rachel performed the song on a public access show for songwriters. Doc introduced me to Pam Ingold, who was in a band called Inkahoots. She recorded 8 songs with me including Half Crazy Half The Time and Something That's Got Me. Suddenly, I was back in Nashville in an apartment on Music Row writing songs. Was this not what I really wanted? I bought Doc's white Takamine, and songs poured from me. Many were female. I wrote Free for Dana Medley, Always The First Time for Donna Carter and Common Man for the Gentry Cousins. My best songs were coming in my 50s during the Shania Twain era. The girl songs I was writing were different from the early ones. There was female psychology in them. I was writing as if I were a woman. People joked about my feminine side. It came with being older. By now, women sang the way men used to. They were strong and independent. They liked my tough girl lyrics and rockin' beat. I recorded with Kenny Royster at Direct Image. I did I Promise (Wedding Song) with Veda. Calling it (Wedding Song) was a stroke of genius. I began to think it a good idea to identify songs with entrenched institutions. I Feel So Country is filled with patriotism and flag-waving. I wrote Merry Christmas using the same melody and sang it over the track. I will promote it every Christmas. It is hard to write good Christmas songs. All the good ones came before the rock era. Music Row is tight. Signed artists are surrounded by attorneys, managers and A&R people who work with major publishers. It came down to the Internet, and jimcolyer.com was the definitive site.
2005-2020 - Commercial
The time has come for me to give up other music and to concentrate on my own. It is time to stop losing money because of music. My catalog will stand on its own and generate income if it is worthy. Music is a luxury, not a necessity. It is ego-based. "I" is the songwriter's favorite word. John Lennon could stretch the word "I" over several seconds. From my own catalog of 200 titles, about 70 of them begin with the word "I." Music people care only about themselves and their families. They want money. When they get it, they are gone. They are self-oriented. Every generation produces its own music and cannot relate to that of previous generations. Music is like language. It is tied to the sexual mores of the people who produce it. Everybody writes, and writers care about their own songs, no one else's. Ego and money! Radio hits are recorded using state-of-the-art technology. Production cannot be overestimated. Audiences respond first and foremost to sound. Song are intellectual things. A bad song with a good production can be a hit. A good song with a bad production cannot. The ideal situation is to have both a good song and a good production. I publish my catalog using the Internet. If people like something I have, they can use their resources to record it. I am conscientious about the songs I pitch. I am interested in those which are positive, having the potential to lift people up.
Colt Records
Colt Records was founded by J.K. Coltrain in 1998. J.K. is from Ashley, Ohio, and works out of Nashville. He has several acts signed to his label. One Night Stand is one of them. ONS recorded my song I Looked Twice! and included it on their CD titled Thank God for Country Music. There was a release party at the Nashville Palace, March 28, 2009. Michael and I went. Jamie Lemmer manages ONS.
Andy Joe Stewart is recording Name, Number & Message for Colt Records, Bobby Dee is recording I'm The One and Rough Night.
Donna Ray, a member of the Louisiana Hayride, is signed with Colt. She and her producer, Ed Gowens, did Old Time Country Song. It is quite traditional and went to #3 on the SoundClick Country and Western chart.
Myra LeBlanc in Canada is recording four of mine. I sent her mechanical license forms which I printed from the Harry Fox site.
17-year-old Katrina Lynn from Pennsylvania recorded I Feel So Country.
Crystal Rose in Hendersonville is putting both I Looked Twice! and I Feel So Country on her CD.
I am recording Kymberly Bryson at Direct Image. We started with God Given Talent. We are working toward a demo album which I hope lands her a record deal and me some major cuts. I first met Kymberly at BuckWild Saloon on Second Avenue in Nashville in January, 2009. I wandered into BuckWild quite by chance, sang a few songs and asked Kymberly for her card. I actually threw it away after leaving BuckWild, thinking that nothing could come from the encounter. I was back in BuckWild in March, and again Kymberly was running karaoke. I did not even recall her name, but she gave me her myspace address. As I heard Kymberly sing song after song, it dawned on me that her vocal style fit my writing style. I could hear her singing my songs. She had that blues element. She sang new country hits as well as standards. She did male songs. She sang Elvis, Jerry Lee, Bob Seger and The Eagles. She was the most natural singer I eve heard. She got me when she sang Roxette and Ace of Base. She was the most natural singer I ever heard. I told her she was the singer I had been looking for, for 30 years. I want to keep working with her. She will probably be the last one.
At 5'1," Kymberly looks and talks like a little girl. When she sings, she comes off as this powerful diva. She pours it on stronger than Martina. Kenny Royster recognized her vocal capacity.
Francis King, an attorney friend, is helping us. He joined us at a session at Direct Image. I gave him our first seven songs on CDs so he could show them to a producer. I told him of my plan to press 100 CDs at We Make Tapes and spread them around to the right people.
Francis will help me copyright the 10 songs on Kymberly's CD.
Having written 400 songs in 40 years, it behooves me to critique my own catalog. I am 63. From this point, I am content to throw out the songs based on self-pity and those that communicate depressive emotion. I want to leave behind songs which inspire people, especially young people. My Christmas song and handful of gospel songs do that. So do the Shania-type girl songs which tend to encourage women. There was a time when all I wanted was to get a cut or have a hit. Now I am conscious of the effect my lyrics have on people. We are affected by the movies we see, the books we read and the music we listen to more than we realize.