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
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