?I'm in the middle of producing a country/pop/rock project with the best songwriter I know, Daniel Sexton. We are working up a bunch of songs and trying to figure out how to go about maxing out their potential. Most of the songs have never been played by a band are simply acoustic guitar and vocals for the most part. While I'm a strong believer that the strongest songs do come from sitting around with just an acoustic guitar, it appears that these are sometimes the toughest to pick a direction for. When I say direction, we could go fast or slow. We could make it rock hard or we could make the tune a pretty ballad. A song can go from sad to happy with the change of a drumbeat and a bassline in many instances.

We were working on a tune that sort of had the 50s sound to it. Think of “Stand By Me” and you'll basically have the song we were dealing with. Well, it turns out that I was working on the wrong version of the song. I had forgotten that the week before we had decided to pick up the pace a little bit and give it a more rocking feel.

So after we monkeyed with the slower, 50s sounding version, Daniel said “This isn't right”. Of course, like an idiot, I had pulled up the wrong version of the song. The new version was noticeable more rocking. In fact, it changed out direction by about 180 degrees.

So Daniel, being a blues fan, wanted to put a little blues lick on the front of the song. The lick itself wasn't bad, but I just wasn't feeling it. As a producer sitting their with hands free (no guitar in hand) I was able to simply listen...just like the people who will eventually buy this record. Daniel has been working on his guitar chops. There's nothing wrong with that, but I've been a first hand witness to what happens when a person practices 2 scales. You get into non-musical ruts. Of course, there is a quick fix for that. Just tell the lead player they can only use one string.

Of course, like a charm I got Daniel thinking. I also asked him what the song was about. It turns out that the song is about going through tough times and moving on. Daniel gave the analogy of “having a beer at your buddies' gravesite”. One could also use the Maverick tossing Goose's dog tags into the ocean analogy as well in my usual Top Gun spirit. The blues lick just wasn't making me feel that.

So Daniel messed around a minute. Every time he began to overthink a little bit, I'd say something to distract him. When I heard a good note, I made sure I told him “THAT was good”. It turns out that Daniel came up with a mega theme that not only completely changed the direction of the entire song to some degree, but it also blew our minds. I'm thrilled to be working on this song. I think it is going to change people's lives.

Conclusion

I could have let Daniel just slap something that didn't make me feel anything in the song, but I didn't let him get by with it. I expected more out of him. By pushing him to come up with something that moved me, we came up with something that I think will move a lot of people.