MUSIC AND LYRICS
Realistically, I realized and recognized "star quality" and never set my sights on ever being a "star" long, long ago. I did, as a young man in my twenties, audition for, and be accepted to an intensive Country Music Songwriter's workshop. This was a six week course, one night a week, in which about 20 of us would present a song. The group and host would then discuss the song and the fine and not so fine points. We would study a current "hit" and dissect what made it a "hit". We were never encouraged to take a tune and "make it our own", as is common these days. I won't call it a technique, I will say it is being taught, so, whatever. At the end of six weeks, we each presented our best song to a Nashville ASCAP rep, the late Merlin Littlefield. I did get the best review and enjoyed a write-up in the Tulsa World. Merlin's words to me were, "If you wrote that, you can write a hit."
I fell in love with non-mainstream Americana/Roots music and that pretty much ended my desire to join the mainstream loop which may have been a loser of a career move, but utilizing hindsight, that world of commercial songwriting is vicious and competitive and again, realistically, I do not have "star quality". I know a few folks who are in the middle of this grind. The shelf life is short unless you are one of the "elite", or lucky. Still, I write a lot, just about any genre.
My music is not intended to dazzle the listener with great studio sound or glass shattering vocals. The songs here are mostly recorded at home using average gear. You see, one thing I did take away from that workshop was that a demo need not be a great big studio production. Artists like to hear the bare bones of a song and let their creativity embellish it and you'd better be prepared, if your song gets covered, to hear the artists rendition and not your own. So the songs listed here are pretty much stripped down except for a few that I just decided to have fun with and that deserve orchestration to define my intention. I will continue to post original songs and offer them for download here,100% free. Please consider leaving a tip. Just click on the "tip jar". I do have to pay for this website. Just scroll left or right to change the song. Contact me if you'd like to cover it. ernpick@gmail.com
That's me with the fiddle along with (L-R) the late John Hotze,(creator of the John Hartford Memorial Festival), Danny Hootenanny Clarke, Jon Griffin, and Tom Burkhart (crew chief and promotor), a.k.a. The John Hartford Volunteer Jug Band.
I fell in love with non-mainstream Americana/Roots music and that pretty much ended my desire to join the mainstream loop which may have been a loser of a career move, but utilizing hindsight, that world of commercial songwriting is vicious and competitive and again, realistically, I do not have "star quality". I know a few folks who are in the middle of this grind. The shelf life is short unless you are one of the "elite", or lucky. Still, I write a lot, just about any genre.
