Press

Friday, March 30, 2007

Local Songwriters Working Together at Monthly Showcases to Make Each Other Better

By Dan Mayfield
Of the Journal

It's easy to say, and a lot of people might agree: popular music is trash. What happened to greats in the tradition of Roy Orbison or Parliament/Funkadelic? What happened to performers like Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Patti Smith or Elvis Costello who record songs they write?
So, when it comes to, say, any "American Idol" winner, where's the creativity? Well, "American Idol" stars don't write their own music.
Most pop stars don't.

It seems like common sense, right? Well, not to everyone.
Though you can make an embarrassing fortune by being a performing musician, "songwriting is potentially the most lucrative part of the music business," said Tom Frouge, the city of Albuquerque's music liaison in the Office of Economic Development.

"You can make living at songwriting," he said.
Guys like Bernie Taupin, Townes Van Zandt and even John Rich of Big & Rich do it— and very well.

Publishing a song and having others record or perform it is a major source of income for many musicians. Every time a song is played on the radio, used for a commercial, a movie, performed live, covered by another performer, sampled or bought, the songwriter is supposed to see a portion of the royalties. Though the checks from publishing organizations may be small, just pennies sometimes, those pennies add up.

Though Frouge has been in the music business for decades, he does work for the city's Economic Development Department and he's looking to make a case to local songwriters that they can make a living at this. He's looking for ways to establish a community of songwriters in the city by getting them together monthly.

His Songwriters' Series will have its next session on Thursday, April 5, with songwriters Jimmy Abraham, Jasper Brown and human beatbox Zach Freeman.

It's not a jam session. The songwriters play their music and accompany each other, but they're there to talk about their songs and how they do it.
Many in the small audience come because they're friends of the musicians, still others come because they said they were aspiring songwriters themselves and wanted to get pointers.

And they got several at last month's event at Seasons in Old Town. The songwriters were charged with talking about lyrics and how they come up with them.

"I have a way of taking a bad situation and making it worse," said Keith Drummond, who played several Americana songs. He was joined by monthly host Rob Martinez, Shelley Barratt and Rex Warren on the patio.
"Songwriting is about sitting in your room and doing something," Drummond said. "It's so great to get it out."
And they did get songs out.

Each showed their different styles and explained how they write.
Each songwriter has his or her own way of approaching a song, from Warren's country and Dylan-inspired tunes to Drummond's Americana songs and Barratt's nouveau folk.

By the end of the night, however, the group had found its groove and it devolved into a jam session with each songwriter strumming along on an acoustic guitar.

But that was only after they had chatted for a while on the patio at Seasons.
"You have to have something to say," Martinez said. "But something other people want to hear and they can relate to."

Where Warren said he likes to take emotions and form them into songs and Barratt said she prefers to find stories, Drummond said: "I come from a family of butchers. We learned to trim the fat early. Sometimes I just say 'The, a, at and I.' ''

Songwriters' Series
WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday, April 5
WHERE: Ben Michael's Café, 2404 Pueblo Bonito Court NW
HOW MUCH: Free. Call 311 or visit www.cabq.gov for more

 

Review of ' Invalid Love' from the
Albuquerque Journal on July 7, 2006:

"Invalid Love"
Keith Drummond

For those who crave a good country/ rockabilly CD with songs strongly rooted in rock and a splash of old country, then "Invalid Love" (King Of The World Music), the first solo project from Duke City-based music veteran Keith Drummond is just right for you.

Drummond, the singer/songwriter who previously fronted the acclaimed local Americana rock 'n' roll band the Saddlesores, (it won the 2003 Best Americana Act by the New Mexico Showcase) smartly weaves storytelling songs with heart in his new 10-track disc. With a straightforward, tongue-in-cheek wordplay approach, the lyrics are steeped in wit and humor, and sung with a warm, lived-in, twangy, gritty voice.

Rich with fiddle, banjo, acoustic, electric and steel guitar, "Invalid Love" weaves a tapestry of Southern flare cuts. The successes of the album are its mellow and melodic retrospective ones like the loungey "Mary, Mary," "Always Blue," and "Bridges," to its honky-tonkin' fired-up crankers like "Leave" and "Rock-n-Roll Sucks." Also, tucked in the middle are a few mid-tempoed numbers like "I'm Sorry Too" and "Didn't I." With a stylish effort that harkens a taste toward freewheeling, good ole' Southern rock with rockabilly heart, "Invalid Love" makes for a nice addition to any CD collection.

– Nathalie Baret

Rivet Gang, Keith Drummond, Rivet Gang

5/26/06 @ the Albuquerque Press Club

Coming out of his retirement for his long-awaited CD release of smooth country and raw moonshine shit-kickers (“rock and roll sucks”), Keith Drummond led a nice ensemble of amped Old & In the Way style, like Peter Rowan with a wicked hangover.
Read complete review at Wig Wam Bam »