Dear IFS Readers

yesterday, I had a wonderful time seeing Helen Darling perform at
Gary Powell's "In the Studio" event.

one gem you'll find is where helen told us to

FIND Something everybody feels BUT
NOBODY'S PUT IT QUITE THAT WAY

Enjoy,

Ande

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On Saturday October 15, 2005 I saw Helen Darling at Gary Powell's "In
The Studio" event

My friend Gary Powell invited me to his In the Studio home concert
featuring Helen Darling. My wife bailed on me so I asked if I could
invite my buddy John and he accepted. When I pulled up I saw the iron
gates of his driveway and his lush landscaped lawn. I walked up to
his front door and was handed a back stage pass with my name on it.
The first room I walked in was his theater room, there was a grand
piano, a stage, and three rows of black leather couches, each row
higher than the one in front of it and Helen Darling. So I walked
over and gave her a hug. We immediately struck up a conversation
with her and her husband Dennis. The next room was the dining room
with a table covered with hors doeuvres. To my right was another
living area and to my left was his kitchen. I walked through the
living area, towards his back yard. His back porch had 2 porch swings
facing each other suspended on springs. His back yard was landscaped
as beautifully as is front. it featured a 25 yard one lane lap pool
and a building on the other side of the pool. I walked over and
discovered his studio. When I walked in, wall to wall it was covered
with Disney products, mainly childrens CD's. I saw the control room
and the sound room. It's the most amazing home studio I've ever seen.
I met Pete Markham, Joe Scruggs business partner.

I explored a while then made my way back to the kitchen.. When I
walked into the kitchen I met and spoke with Amy, Gary's partner. We
had an interesting conversation till it was time to begin the event.

We were called into the theater room. I sat in the front row on a
leather couch, then Gary explained that the couches, reclined. Since
there were only 20 guests Gary introduced the guests. He said Helen
was going to do a 45 minute set then we'd break for 45 minutes then
we'd do another 45 minute set in the studio where Helen would perform
and he'd treat his guests like clients and give them a real recording
studio experience. Then he introduced Helen Darling.

She sat in the middle of the stage with her guitar, spot lights
focused on her then she began her first song.

1) "Doesn't Everybody Feel like that" she wrote it with Tommy Lee
James.

She said if you get in and write with a producer you have a better
chance of getting cut since. The same applies if you get to write
with an artist as well. Helen got an artist deal with Decca then
Decca folded. She was thinking about packing it in and coming back
to Texas but Dennis told her you can't end it on that note, so Helen
stayed around Nashville and wrote songs

2) FLYING She Started the 2nd song "flying" that she wrote with
Billy Montana.

She went on to say that billy is a fun person to write with. I do a
lot of cowriting. I'm a social person. When I write by myself I tend
to over edit and find it hard to stay on. We feed off each other.

3) THRIVE This next song I wrote with Craig Bickhardt and Jack
Sundrud. Craig's written several Judds hits. Jack suggested we write
a song called thrive. If I looked at that title here's what I'd want
it to say.

Gary Burr is an enormously talented writer. he played with Carole
King and I had a cowriting session with him. Because of his
experience he was clearly the boss in the cowriting session and I had
to stop myself from trying to prove something. I walked in his house
and he left me for 10 - 15 minutes, so I started noodling on the
guitar. I tend to go into sessions with no song. He walked in the
room and asked me, well what do you got? She said I really don't
have anything. To me melody is king, I try to find melodies then
figure out what the music was trying to say. In that session with
Gary we wrote,

4) "Why Not Me"

I tend to write a lot of positive songs, They come from a real place.
I just like to be positive. My favorites start from a sad place then
transform to happy. I try to find gold in dirt. This next song was
released to radio on 09/10/2001. After 9/11 the charts froze for
several weeks. I discovered a radio station had taken my song and
filled in recordings from 911. I wrote this next song with Billy
Montana and it took us 2 days to write it.

here's a wonderful article about Bring On the Rain from the Tennessean
http://www.justplainfolks.org/ubb/Forum2/HTML/004630.html

5) Bring on the Rain

6) Merciful Morning

This is the second song I wrote with Gary Burr.

7) I'll be Wrong Again

I attended a songwriter camp where they pair you up with different
writers and you see what you can come up with. This next song was
recorded by Cliff rRchards, he's as big as Elvis in Europe.

helen set aside her guitar and Gary Powell sat at his piano. Then she
performed

8) I Will

I'm just getting ready to go back to Nashville. I come from a
conservative family, I'm not as conservative as my father, I think of
myself as sensible.

9) Father's Day

This next song is about a guy who was my first love. It was a
beautiful pure little love. I wondered what would I do if I ever ran
into him again.

10) Didn't We

This next song I wrote for Dennis. Over the years we change. Dennis
and I have been married for 13 years and we were together 5 years
before that. My parents have been together 50 years.

11) Tailor Made

THE FIRST SET ENDED and we took a break. Which meant desserts. on
their table was Italian Cream Cake and a decadent chocolate cake. Of
course I had to try both. I visited with folks. Time flew by and we
were called to go to the studio. Helen was in the sound room, Gary in
the control room. Half the group went into the sound room, we sat in
a semi circle and put head phones over our ears. The other half sat
in the control room with Gary.

We began by Gary playing a recording he did for Joe Scruggs which was
the first recording Helen sang for Gary. Pete Markham was the Troll,
helen was a baby and Gary did the alligator.

12) Black Widow Spider written by Chris Martin and Gary Powell
from Disne's a Bug's Life childrens CD

Sometimes we watch a movie and ask, if it were a musical
where would be the songs?
what would be the songs?
This next song was created for Disney's Dinosaur

13) The Perfect Size written by Chris Martin and Gary Powell

I'm very different from my husband, we're complete opposites, yet it
works.

14) the Rhythm of you and me

Since Gary Powell was recording the session there were a few times
when Helen stopped or want to do something over Gary would back up
the tape, then she'd start singing along and he'd punch it in.

Then WE SWITCHED,
people in the control room came to the sound studio and
people in the sound studio went to the control room.

15) There's a Place

I tend to mainly write with me, cowriting can be very intimate, we
discuss everything to

FIND Something everybody feels BUT
NOBODY'S PUT IT QUITE THAT WAY


I wrote this next song with Will Robinson and Gary Burr. I wanted a
female version, it's sort of a sad song.

16) I will not be a mistake

Billy Montana, we can get to this place when we cowrite.
we started thinking about who are you and what are you doing with
your life
this next song is about the dream calling to the dreamer

Which was the last song in the set

Helen went back to the dining room, sold CD's and signed them.

People visited for an hour or more before finally leaving

What an incredible experience, while these words might give you a
taste of what took place they fall far short of the entire
experience. I definitely enjoyed it, I hope to attend more in the
future and I highly recommend you attend them as well.

You can hear a few clips of Helen Darling's beautiful voice and songs
at
http://helendarlingmusic.com

To Find out More about Gary Powell's In The Studio
http://garypowell.com/flash/inthestudio.html

http://garypowell.com/flash/main.html

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you can hear my latest cowrite with Wake Eastman on
http://www.songramp.com/view.ez?sampleid=36764

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IFS READERS Take a SongU Course for FREE!
What Is SongU? SongU provides over 40 multi-level online courses
eveloped by award-winning songwriters in addition to online coaching,
co-writing and pitching opportunities.
http://www.SongU.com/IFS

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Show us how the fabulous scents of Snuggle make you want to sing, and
you could be one of five fabulous Moms to perform at "Backstage at
the GRAMMY®s" with Westwood One Radio.* This incredible prize
includes a fantastic trip for two to Los Angeles and two tickets to
the GRAMMYs.

Just share a video with us where you perform one of our five
scentsational songs. The top ten videos will be posted on our site
and the winner chosen online. Be sure to check back on December 1 to
vote for your favorite.

You have until October 31, 2005 to submit your video. No purchase
necessary. See official rules for details. Watch the 48th Annual
GRAMMY Awards on CBS, February 8 at 8 PM ET/PT.

http://www.snuggle.com/karaoke/index.aspx

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if you want to receive email announcements from
the BlueBird Cafe in Nashville send an email to
send a message to dbluebird@...

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Does anyone know anything about
http://www.idolunderground.com/pages/welcome.aspx


kforward@... writes:
Howdy Ande,

I clicked on the CMT link for the Karyn Rochelle article. It was
great!

I also have been very impressed with Craig Bickhardt. I've had some
great
reviews with him at SongU and have been fortunate enough to get to
know
him a bit. He's one of a kind and a great resource (as you posted)
for
info for writers.

Talk to you soon,
Kent Forward

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Thanks Ande I do read these as they come through. Been going through
a rough
patch writing wise myself lately, and this issue with Craig
Bickhardt's
article was a great pick me up.

Thanks again

Andrew

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My friend Freebo's bass, a Tacoma Thunderchief acoustic/electric bass
guitar took left with a thief from the SW Regional Conference in
Lakeway, Austin this past weekend. We would all like to see Freebo
get his bass back!
Please take a look at it on this link
http://www.liveoakuu.org/coffee/stolen.htm

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After Her 15 Minutes of Fame, Rocker Thrives as a Producer
http://tinyurl.com/dz7ea

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Songwriter shares secrets with students
from http://tinyurl.com/e363k

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"Hollaback Girl" first song with one million commercial downloads
By Charles Starrett | 10.03.05 |

For the first time since the advent of commercial digital music
downloads, a recording has passed the 1,000,000 mark in download
sales. The song, former Billboard #1 "Hollaback Girl" from Gwen
Stefani's debut album Love. Angel. Music., had sales of approximately
995,000 downloads as of Friday, September 30. The recording has
averaged 15,000 downloads per week since it's release on November 25,
2004.

Stefani commented, "It's always an honor to be recognized for your
music, and this is really the coolest. It's exciting to see people
embrace the song and really make it part of their lives. Whether it's
cds, computers, or cellphones...it really is bananas."

Another track from the album, "Rich Girl," was featured in
commercials for Apple and Pepsi's free iTunes download promotion
earlier in the year. "Hollaback Girl" is available for sale from
iTunes, as well as Napster, Rhapsody, Sony Connect and other online
music retailers.

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FIND Something everybody feels BUT
NOBODY'S PUT IT QUITE THAT WAY
~ Helen Darling

Write On,

Ande

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