“I AM A DREAMER!” - An Interview with BILL SHORE

Bill Shore is currently a staff writer for Cherry Heart Music Publishing in Nashville, TN. His career spans more then 30 years. During those years he has worn many hats, from Partner in Galli-Shore Productions with Multi-Platinum selling producer Byron Gallimore (Tim McGraw, Faith Hill) to heading publishing company’s for Charlie Pride and Sawyer Brown. But, his passion has always been for writing songs. Bill has had Number One Songs by; Charley Pride, "Every Heart Should Have One", George Strait, "I'd Like To Have That One Back", and Sawyer Brown, "Trouble On The Line", multiple RIAA Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum Awards, Top Tens by Garth Brooks, "Wild Horses", as well as Marie Bottrell in Canada and over one hundred songs recorded by artists such as George Jones, Porter Wagoner, Chris LeDoux, Vern Gosdin, Moe Bandy to name a few. Bill has received multiple BMI Million Performance Achievement Citations and BMI Awards. To date his songs have appeared on over 52 Million records sold!

I met Bill Shore at a Texas BBQ in the rolling hills outside of Nashville. It happened the way most people meet in Nashville, Kris Bergsness introduced us. (Kris is a book waiting to be written!) We hit it off and a few days later ran into each other at The Long Horn Saloon off Music Row. We exchanged numbers to set up a writing appointment. I have sense found out that when you play a song you wrote with Bill Shore, they listen! When some one asks you: “who do you write with?” and you mention Bill, they smile and say: “He’s one of the great ones!” The following is an interview with the inspiring and amazing Bill Shore!

(Jim) What did you do before you where a songwriter & when did you realize you where a songwriter?

(Bill) When I was 19 I left the farm and went into the Army. I met a guitar player who played and I sang until we drove the guys in the barracks nuts and headed to the Service Club. They dug what we were doing and started putting us on shows. He taught me 3 chords and as soon as I could make the change from one to the next reasonably I wrote my first song.

I sent a couple off to one of those we publish and put your tune to music places and of course they loved them. Must be a great writer, right? If I paid them $30 per song..lol, but it was encouragement to me and I started writing and singing like I was on my way to Nashville. I played some shows around the base and in clubs around town until I was shipped to Korea. I spent 13 months there in foxholes and patrolling the DMZ. On off days I found a few other guys who played and we started a group. Had uniforms made by the local taylor and all. We played service clubs and the officer's club would call from time to time, give us a fifth of our heart's desire and an overnight pass. That got me out of many patrols much to the chagrin of my First Sgt. who had to reorganize patrols. We had a ball.

When I got back stateside, I wrote mainly at home for me, got married and settled down. When I was discharged about 8 months later I headed back to farming and that lasted about a year and a half, said this is not for me and went back into the Army to feed my family, provide them with insurance and start to really learn the craft of songwriting. I spent three years traveling with the pistol team and writing my songs.

(Jim) What made you decide to go to Nashville?

(Bill) I had three out of three place in the Kerrville Songwriters Festival. Started sending songs to Nashville and a couple of publishers took an interest in the writing, encouraged me to keep at it and I worked every night when I came in from training. I started making trips to Nashville with a friend that owned a studio. Got out of the Army, started a band, wrote and ran back and forth from Texas to Nashville. The music director at the largest station in San Antonio became my local publisher and introduced me to Doodle Owens. Doodle liked what I did and started mentoring me.

I got my first three cuts while in Texas. Billy Walker, David Houston and Claude King. He called me one night and said, "I think it is time you move to Nashville". So, I came. He became ill and I went to work on a ranch for two years, basically putting my writing aside. I had worked with Johnny Russell and a few others, my wife did Conway's wife's hair and when she found out we were coming back had Conway call me. (Conway Twitty)

(Jim) So then what happened?

(Bill) I was at the Sunday dinner table when a familiar voice on the phone said, "Bill, this is Conway. I want you to have a tape on my desk Monday morning with everything you have on it". Needless to say, I did it. He put a song on hold. I asked Johnny Russell what he thought and he reply, "Did you come here to write songs or be a cowboy"? Of course the answer was obvious and he told me to put myself on a draw from my savings for six months and see what I thought then.

Doodle was better, we wrote and I got my first major single on Tammy Wynette, "You Still Get To Me In My Dreams". It was a top 20 hit.

Blake Mevis was opening a publishing company for Charley Pride, put me on as a staff writer. Two years later, when Blake left the company, Charley asked me to take it over.

I ran the publishing company for four or five years. I had several cuts, including a number one on Charley, "Every Heart Should Have One". The discography grew with George Strait, Moe Bandy, Helen Cornelius, Vern Gosdin and many more people recording my works.

I resigned and wrote there for one more year penning "Wild Horses" for Garth Brooks and a few others.

(Jim) You changed careers for a while didn’t you?

(Bill) I went back to work for Blake Mevis and he let me write and go to college to get my Nursing Degree (just in case). I had seen a lot of hit songwriters turning on their water for their kids to take a shower at the tap because they couldn't pay their bill. I left there when Blake closed the company and Mark Miller called me to come work for him.

I took over Sawyer Brown's Creative Director slot and helped get Scotty Emerick signed up. I had written Sawyer Brown's first hit with "Leona" a top 15 hit.

I went through a divorce, quit writing and went to nursing for a few years.

(Jim) What got you back into writing?

(Bill) My hospital was sold and I got a severance package that got me a year to see if I still had any gas left in my writing tank. I had given myself a year target and in month eleven, Gratton Stevens started Cherry Heart Music, signed me to a new writing deal and I am about to start my third year with them. They have been great, gotten me a few cuts, in this tough environment we are all working in. Today more artists write their own songs and the old warhorses are still hanging in but cuts are hard to come by.

(Jim) What do you love about being a writer?

(Bill) I love my profession. Love the enthusiasm of the young talent coming to town. Most of them work very hard at their craft and I am lucky enough that they want me to work with them and allow me to impart whatever knowledge and wisdom I have gained over the years to them.

(Jim) Now here’s the BIG question. Why do you write?

(Bill) I write because I have no choice. I write because I have not yet written my best song. I write because I love it, it excites me when I feel it coming together, when the last line is put on paper, when we do the work tape, the demo and when someone else loves it enough to record it, when the label believes in it enough to invest in the release as a single, each step it takes up the chart. I write because I love to sit alone and create. I write because I love to sit down with a friend and struggle to create something that no one has ever heard before. I would write even if no one ever listened to my song. I am a dreamer, I am a creator and I have never lost the passion for either!

(Jim) Thanks Bill!


A pretty amazing life Bill Shore has had and he’s not done yet! Are you a Dreamer? Do you love to Create? Do you still have that passion to write?

Drop me a comment and tell me “Why do you write?” I might be writing about you in a month or two!

Remember, you can find those other “Dreamers” at you local NSAI meeting! Because, “It All Begins With A Song!”

Jim Carolan
Big Daddy Songs
www.bigdaddysongs.net


c.2009 Jim Carolan

THE SOUL OF A WRITER

I asked my youngest son who is now 10 years old what he wanted to do when he grows up? He said, “I want to be a writer and an artist!” (Meaning he wants to illustrate the books he writes.) The truth is, he doesn’t have to wait until he “grows up.” He has been a writer and artist since he was not quite three years old. That is when he wrote his first book. It was about 6 pages long with pictures he drew, funny spelled words and it was about Potty Training. A BIG Deal in the life a not quite three year old. He thought it would help other kids. It was so cute; we still have it stored away to show his kids someday!

What he did at three years old was instinctive to him. He wrote about what he knew! What was important to him! What inspired him! He still does. Now it’s about Dragons and Yu-Gi-Oh adventures! He’s got three different groups of folded pieces of copy paper in his backpack that he tells me are different books he’s working on. He will coming running into the dinning room throw open the closet door to get a piece of paper because he has an idea that he has to write and draw. He has a list of book ideas he wants to write. Maybe he has learned some of this from watching me, but I have not sat down and taught him any of these things. This all has come natural for him. He has The Soul Of A Writer!

My wife and I encourage our kids to pursue their passion, but we also know that “life happens.” That doesn’t mean you have to stop pursuing your passion when you get detoured along the way. Sometimes the detours make you better at what you do. Maybe they are just part of the road we have to travel down to get to be that writer we are meant to be. Maybe they give us depth to our soul. I’d like to share a few stories about some really good friends of mine who have taken the “Long and Winding Road” to successfully reaching their dream. What they all have in common is the Soul Of A Writer!

My main co-writer, Bud Tower started writing songs at 13. Joni Mitchell and Eric Anderson heavily influenced him. For 30 years he always thought writing was a “hobby.” He did what most of us do, went to college, got married, got a job, started a family etc…. He was a stock research analyst for an investment bank. He did extremely well at his job because he worked very hard. But that “hobby” was always calling to him. He would write down idea’s all the time. Write songs on the side and play at local bars. One day Chuck Cannon (#1 Hit Country Songwriter) heard one of his songs and encouraged him to pursue it professionally. Bud joined NSAI in New Orleans, started making trips to Nashville (that’s how we met) and after two years of doing that he quit his job, sold his house and moved to Nashville. Five years later, he has the current single by Hank Williams Jr. called “Red, White & Pink Slip Blues!” (Check out the video, it’s killer: http://www.hankjr.com/home/) He also just landed the title track to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s new CD “God & Guns!” Almost everyday he calls me and says: “Hey dude, I got this really cool idea for a song!” What he thought was a “hobby” was really his passion and now his profession. It just took him a long time to finish completing his degree! He has The Soul Of A Writer!

The Eastern PA Chapter of NSAI’s Adopt-a-Shop-Pro, Bob Dellaposta would be right now getting ready to retire from his High School Band Director job in Altoona, PA. But he didn’t follow that path. At first he didn’t know he had The Soul Of A Writer! He came to that epiphany through the oldest reasons in the book. A girl! He wrote a song for a girl and that was it! (BTW, John Mellencamp gives the same reason for writing.) Of course Bob got detoured in good ways like most of us do, (Family, Career to pay the bills etc…) but he just kept writing one great song after another. Storing them up. He is also an excellent trumpet player and his trumpet gig got him an invite down to Nashville by Loretta Lynn's bandleader, Buddy Spicher. Nashville seemed like the right fit for a guy who had a bunch of songs stored up. So, Bob eventually made the move and he is not looking at retiring anytime soon! He’s got more to say! He’s excited everyday about getting another cut! He’s got The Soul Of A Writer!

My good friend Bill Shore, whom I will have an interview with in my next blog has traveled an amazing road. He left the family farm in Texas at 19 years old and along his way has been around the world and has written a bunch of #1’s! He says: “I am a dreamer, I am a creator and I have never lost the passion for either.” He has The Soul Of A Writer!

So what feeds your soul? Is it listening to a great singer or musician? Then do that every morning on your way to work. Is it playing guitar, reading, singing or cooking? Do it. Take a detour from your “everyday life” and feed The Soul Of Your Writer! If you’re a carpenter, hammer out a rhythm of that new song in your head as you build a new house. Feed your soul! If you work at a factory, read a book of short stories about a place you have never been. Maybe do it at lunch and on breaks and jot down lines about the scenery and people to help you paint better lyrical pictures in your songs. Feed your soul! If you work retail, or at restaurant, maybe a bartender, get a small digital recorder and listen to all the great hooks people will blurt out. Record them and write them down in a “Hook Book” every few days. You will be surprised at how many great ideas the average everyday folks are giving away for free! Then set up a three-way co-write with the carpenter (who’s already got a great groove) and the factory worker (who’s got awesome lyrical lines written). Write a great song that feeds your soul!

Another way is to join a songwriters group like NSAI. Go to the next NSAI Meeting and meet your next “main co-writer!” Bud said to me today, “writing feeds my soul, it fills it up every time I write a song. It makes me feel good! It's really that simple!”

It’s really that simple! Feed & fill The Soul Of A Writer today! Make it yours!

Let me know what feeds your soul. I will do a follow up blog somewhere down the road with all the ideas I receive!

Inspire yourself today!

Jim Carolan
Big Daddy Songs
www.bigdaddysongs.net

c.2009 Jim Carolan