A Songwriter's Champion

Theme for 2011 - Community: Life Blood for the Songwriter

2011-02-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I had the privilege of writing an article for Christian Musician Magazine titled "Community: Life Blood for the Songwriter". If you want to check it out here's the link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/46755409/Christian-Musician-Magazine-JanuaryFebruary-2011.

In the article I listed three benefits that a creative community can provide the songwriter: Inspiration, Accountability and Productivity.

So far in 2011 I have had the privilege of giving workshops to two songwriter groups, one in Colorado Springs and one in Denver. The workshops were organized by NSAI Regional Chapter Coordinators Rob Jones (Co Spr) and Elvira Walls and Bonnie Botham (Denver). These folks went to great efforts in securing the location and getting the word out about the workshops and we had a great showing at each event.

The reason they went to all that effort was their passion for providing resources for their local community of songwriters.

All levels of development were represented in each group and the fact that the songwriters invested the time and money to come to the workshop showed that their passion to write songs was alive and well.

A question I asked at each workshop was how many songs they had finished in the last calendar year. A majority of them sheepishly raised their hands when I asked if they had finished 5 or less. There was one writer in the Denver group that had finished more than 30 songs and she had had several songs published. I challenged each group to double the number of finished songs in 2011!

The goal for every workshop I do is to fuel songwriters with inspiration and strategic tools to move forward in their development. Song critiques is one of the most valuable components of my workshops. I identify what is working in the song as well as specific suggestions on how to make the song stronger.

My hope is that my workshops serve to motivate the local creative community to provide songwriters ongoing inspiration, encouragement to keep working at their craft and accountability for increasing the output of finished songs.

If you are serious about developing your songwriting skills I encourage you to join a local songwriting group and if there isn't one in your area I challenge you to start one! I gave some specific instructions on how to get a group started in the Christian Musician article.

One of the services I provide is Songwriter Development. Whether you are just starting out and have written a couple songs or if you have been writing for years but you need help keeping motivated, Songwriter Development might be just what you need! It is an individualized monthly program and will provide you with creative direction for new songs, feedback and accountability with the goal of developing commercially viable songs. Please contact me at cindy@cindywiltcolville.com if you have any questions.

I will look forward to keeping in touch with you throughout the new year and hearing about the connections you are making with your creative community!

Blessings,
Cindy

CWC 2010 SPEAKING SCHEDULE

2010-08-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

2010 has been a great year so far and I have had the privilege of traveling all over the country talking to songwriters about songwriting!

I want to keep folks informed of my whereabouts SO I thought I'd put it into a Blog Post!

If you know of a group of songwriters that would be interested in having me speak please get in touch with me!

SO... here is a run down of where I've been over the past several months and where I'm headed in the fall!

January 2010
Embassy Music Conference - Nashville, TN
Colorado Christian Songwriters Group - Denver, CO
March 2010
InspireSong Retreat - Nashville, TN
May 2010
Christian Musicians Summit @ The Chapel - Buffalo, NY
June 2010
Texas Christian Songwriters Annual Conference - Dallas, TX
July 2010
GMA Immerse Conference (Song Track Chair) - Nashville, TN
September 2010
West Coast Songwriters Annual Conference - Los Altos Hills, CA
Thriving Musician Summit - Roseville, CA
October 2010
Write About Jesus - St. Louis, MO
November 2010
Music Makers Community - Harriburg, PA
Sister To Sister Women's Conference - Blanchard, PA
Christian Musicians Summit @ Overlake - Redmond WA

If you are coming to any of these FALL events please let me know and I will look for you!

Blessings,
Cindy

http://www.christianmusiciansummit.com
http://www.westcoastsongwriters.org
http://www.writeaboutjesus.com
http://www.experienceimmerse.com
http://www.indieheaven.com
http://www.texascsa.com

Our God Delivers Us From Evil

2010-07-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

This has been one of those spectacular weeks of seeing God at work!

I met Gaile Owens on my first visit to Master Life, a Bible study held every Sunday night in Freedom Chapel at the Tennessee Prison For Women. I started volunteering on a regular basis 12 years ago. Eight years ago the new warden decided that since Gaile was on death row she needed to be segregated from the rest of the inmates so during those years I was able to see her only at the Christmas party that was held in her unit.

In the spring of this year the Supreme Court declined Gaile's appeal of her death sentence and set the date of her execution for September 28, 2010. You can read her story at www.friendsofgaile.com. Her lawyer and friends organized a massive campaign to solicit signatures on a petition and letters to Governor Bredesen pleading that he commute her death penalty to a life sentence On Wednesday, July 14th, Governor Bredesen commuted Gaile's death sentence to life in prison and she goes up for parole in 2011!

On Sunday night, July 18, after eight years, Gaile was free to attend Master Life in Freedom Chapel and what a celebration it was to hear Gaile give God all the glory for her deliverance.

Another account of God's deliverance...

Early last week I just happened to look out our front window and saw a strange car backed into our driveway. I walked out the door and saw a stranger putting two large pieces of construction equipment belonging to a carpenter doing renovations on our home into the back of his pick up truck. The wanna be thief had been watching for when Jeremy would leave for lunch and within ten minutes he had backed his truck into our driveway. Side note, my car was also parked in the driveway.

When I asked him what he was doing he came up with a carefully rehearsed story but I told him to put the equipment back where he found it and he did! I tried to write down his license plate but the license plate was bent up in half so it was impossible to see the number.

Here's where the story gets even better - I was suppose to be on a conference call with a songwriter during this time but I got a text saying that he didn't have any reception so needed to reschedule for later in the day. He felt very bad about changing times at the last minute but when he heard about my thwarting a robbery we both recognized the lost reception as a divine intervention by God.

I am fully of thanksgiving for seeing God at work and how he keeps watch over his kids!

WRITE WITH ALL YOUR HEART

2010-07-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

This week I was listening through the Billboard TOP 200 albums and the #39^th album is a metalcore artist Parkway Drive and the featured song was “Alone”.

Let’s just say if my 85 year old Mom listened to Parkway Drive she would have thought Provident Label Group artist Red’s performance at the Dove Awards was close to heavenly! But again I digress from the point of this blog…

So I am listening to “Alone” and I had to look up the lyrics as I couldn’t understand any of the words. Here are some excerpts “Stranger to the world, alone in my abandonment” “Darkness, erase this lonesome place from my every existence” “No light to guide. No ties, no ties to bind. “

The song has a very despairing message.

Then in the #40 spot is Hillsong’s “A Beautiful Exchange: Live” and the song that plays is “Our God Is Love”. Some lyric excerpts “Every distant and broken heart, every prayer, every outstretched arm, finding hope in the love of the Father” “Our fear is overcome Our God is love”

WOW - what a tremendous contrast between the two songs!

What Hillsong and Parkway Drive do have in common is that they both are from Australia!

In my last blog I talked about how I want a song to make me feel something. In the case of the Parkway Drive song I didn’t like what it made me feel but it made me feel something.

I know that this is an understatement but songs are a powerful vehicle for communicating one’s beliefs.

I am very thankful that my work is focused on equipping songwriters to create art that is reflective of a creative and redemptive God. Whether they are writing metalcore or Southern Gospel they have a responsibility to create songs that bring glory to God. Whether they are in a Christian band or if they are Christians in a band, each is as valid and needed in reaching the lost and communicating the good news of Jesus.

In a couple weeks the GMA Immerse Conference is being held in Nashville and I have had the privilege of putting together the Songwriting Track for the week. We are having a panel called Writing For The Mainstream Market and the guests are Tom Douglas, Andy Dodd and Amy Stroup, all who are believers and have had tremendous success writing for mainstream artists.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23

I encourage you songwriters to work at your craft with ALL YOUR HEART so that you can continue to creatively and effectively communicate the truth of our very great God.

The Most Important Thing In A Song

2010-07-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of spending a couple days with 90 plus songwriters who were attending the Texas Christian Songwriters 2nd Annual Conference. One of the writers asked "If you had to name THE most important thing that you look for in a song what would it be?" Almost immediately I answered "It needs to make me feel something".

I remember my very first meeting with Jason Ingram. His manager at the time, Tamara Alan, brought him in to meet with me while I was a publisher at Word. He played me several songs and one of his songs deeply moved me. I ended up signing him to his very first publishing deal and needless to say that was a great signing!

This Sunday at Church of the Redeemer, where my husband and I attend, I was deeply moved by a song.

I have been singing this song since I was a child attending the Bible Baptist Church in Lincoln, Maine where my Dad was the pastor. It even has my name in it!

Instead of Where Is Waldo? (a great book series), Where is Wilt?!

Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Written by Thomas Chisholm and William Runyan.

Our worship leader hadn't had planned on singing the song during the service but felt the Spirit prompting her to lead us in a verse and chorus.

Sometimes songs are so familiar to us that we miss the impact of the truth in the message.

I felt this overwhelming surge of gratefulness that I worship a God whose love for me does not change when I am ungrateful, complaining, fearful, and a compulsive worrier.

In fact in God there is NO SHADOW OF TURNING - I just love that image.

Daily I am amazed by God's new mercies being lavishly poured out on me. I have a God who promises to provides everything I need and I can take him at his WORD - "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Joshua 1:5

I pray that your heart is encouraged by the reminder that your Heavenly Father delights in you and that in Him you have everything that you need.

Blessings,
Cindy

Beautiful Words, Wonderful Words, Wonderful Words of Life

2010-06-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple days I have been especially thankful for the ability to read words on a page, to communicate my thoughts through words, to write in my journal and to write a blog! All things that I have taken for granted.

This past weekend my husband Bruce and I visited with his Dad Gene who has a brain disease called Primary Progressive Aphasia. Gene can't read more than one or two words, he can't formulate complete ideas and cannot verbalize what he is thinking other than a few recognizable words here or there. He is otherwise a very healthy and joyful person to be around.

We visited the house where he was born in 1925 and although he couldn't formulate words he did seem to know where he was. Throughout the weekend I would sit with him and listen to him express himself with words that didn't make sense to me but hoping that he felt understood.

My work with songwriters is a great joy for me as I hear them express the full spectrum of their lives through the words of the songs they write.

So I've been thinking, what would a song be without words?

What would life be like without the ability to use words to express myself?

I am struck with a profound sadness thinking about Gene's word-less life.

However, my faith in God, who I believe meets us in the middle of every circumstance we face, gives me hope and courage to pray that Gene will know that he is loved, that he is known and that he is heard.

So words... beautiful words, wonderful words of life, wonderful words of life!

I am always looking for wonderful words of life in the Bible that specifically relate to songwriters and I was struck with the relevance of the very last verse in the Gospel of John.

John says "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."

THE WHOLE WORLD would not have room for the BOOKS that would be written...

Then I started to think about the thousands of lives that Jesus impacted during the thirty plus years he walked on earth. In heaven we are going to hear all of these stories! Add to that number the countless number of people who have been impacted by Jesus' life before his incarnation and after his ascension.

This will make for some heavenly writers-in-the-rounds. I believe there will be new songs written in heaven!

So what does this have to do with songwriters?

I believe that songwriters have the privilege of telling what Jesus is doing in their lives through the words of their songs. I believe that this is a powerful motivation for working at the craft of songwriting: telling the story of the Savior.

Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life!
Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life!
Words of life and beauty, teach me faith and duty.
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life!

Blessings!

Cindy

Ruth the Moabite and Bev the Songwriter

2010-05-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite books in the Bible is Ruth.

Ruth was a courageous, hard working woman with no sense of entitlement. I was reading in Ruth where the widow Ruth has returned to Bethlehem from her own country of Moab to live the rest of her life with her widowed mother-in-law. She immediately goes to work in the fields to provide for them and in the verse below the other workers describe Ruth's work ethic to their boss Boaz, who also happened to be an eligible bachelor! Be sure to read the whole book of Ruth to find out if the bachelor finds himself a good woman!

"She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter" Ruth 2:7

Today I had a creative meeting with Bev, a songwriter I am working with, and we went over a song that she had done a major rewrite on, her second major rewrite of the song.

She had made tremendous progress on the song and I asked her how much time in the last week she had worked on the song. She said about 12-15 hours! And that was just this past week, not considering the time it took for her to write the first and second drafts of the song.

She said she would spend a couple hours on two or three lines, she listened to a lot of songs to analyze what made them work and applied these findings to her song and when her kids were watching TV she would go in the next room and keep working on the song.

It is exciting to see Bev's passion for the PROCESS of songwriting and her commitment to investing in the WORK of songwriting.

Next week I am participating in the Christian Musicians Summit Songwriter Bootcamp at the Chapel in Buffalo, New York and will be giving a workshop on the Art and Work of Songwriting. I look forward to sharing this example of a songwriter who is going out into the field and WORKING steadily from morning til night! Great songwriting doesn't just happen - it takes a tremendous amount of tenacity and WORK - did I happen to mention what a delight it is to be a songwriter's champion!!!!!

Keep at it, keep working the field and keep trusting God to bring about fruit that lasts!

The Thankful Worshiping Leper

2010-04-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

The story begins....

"Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

We see Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, he is taking a very specific route and heads into a village. There is purpose in every step Jesus takes.

The lepers must have heard about Jesus and knowing that they could only see him from a distance because of their contagious disease ALL ten of them yelled out in a LOUD voice that he would have pity on them. They most likely had heard that Jesus was a miracle man.

"When he saw them, he said "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And AS THEY WENT, THEY WERE CLEANSED. "

Here we see the power of the WORDS of Jesus. Something miraculous happened to every single one of them in response to their obedience to Jesus' command to "Go, show yourselves to the priests."

Can you imagine living with a body ravaged by a skin disease that alienated you from all society, including your family, and then in ONE moment being completely free of disease?

ONE OF THEM, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He THREW himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him - and he was a Samaritan.

Would my response to this miracle be loud words of praise to God, throwing myself at the feet of Jesus, telling him how thankful I was? I so hope so.

Jesus asked "Were not ALL ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

ALL ten lepers were healed in their bodies but only one came to a saving relationship with God through his faith in Jesus.

Last night our pastor made the statement that our salvation is a miraculous work of God.

I have learned alot from the Thankful Worshiping Leper on the appropriate response to the miracle of salvation - shouting loud praises to God, throwing myself at the feet of Jesus and pouring out thanksgiving for the mercy and provision of God.

Not that I ever doubted the role of music in the church but for those seeking salvation what a testimony it is to see the body of Christ singing loud praises to God at the feet of Jesus and giving thanks for his great mercy.

I imagine there have been hundreds of sermons based on this story but this morning it was like I was reading this for the first time.

Bible Reference: Luke 17:11-19

Moses The Songwriter

2010-04-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

The One Year Bible has been a great tool for keeping my spiritual life focused. I am in the last chapters of Deuteronomy and was blown away to read that Moses had a songwriting champion - God!

One of the last commands God gave Moses before he died was to write a song!

Yesterday I had a conversation with a songwriter about assignment writing and here in Deuteronomy God gives Moses a songwriting assignment:

"Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them...So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites." Deuteronomy 31:19,22

How many times have we heard people say "God gave me this song"? One of my favorite responses to this statement was by Regie Hamm who said "I've heard God write better"!

But here Moses is transcribing a song directly from the lips of God so he could legitimately say God gave him the song!

The primary purpose of the song was to serve as reminder to the descendants of Israel of God's faithfulness and his deliverance.

A side note: one of the elements of a great song is the use of drama or conflict and this song of Moses' is plum full of it! Check out the song Deuteronomy 32:1-43.

"Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you - they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess." Deuteronomy 32:44-47

I know that this is an understatement but I am continually amazed at the power of a song to impact lives!

My husband has been in Haiti on a missions trip and went to church in Port-au-Prince on Easter Sunday and they sang "God Of This City" written by Aaron Boyd of Bluetree. The lyric of that song certainly takes on a whole new significance in the context of the devastation of the earthquake on the city of Port-au-Prince!

While my husband was worshiping in Haiti on Easter I was at the Tennessee Prison for Women leading worship for their Easter sunrise service and my four nieces Kayitesi, Marlo, Ukyeye and Christine brought special music to the 500 plus inmates. They sang an a capella version of the 2nd Chapter of Acts classic "Easter Song" written by Annie Herring. Seeing the words of that song penetrate the hearts of the prisoners was another reminder of the POWER of a song.

What a privilege it is to participate in the creative work of God! It is one of my life's greatest joys to encourage songwriters in their passion for writing songs and to help them be stewards of their gifts!

A Songwriter's Champion - The Beginning

2010-04-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

This morning I was sitting out on our screened in porch with my cup of coffee, journal, One Year Bible and Jesus Calling and my heart was getting fuller and fuller with thanksgiving to God for the opportunity of living another day doing what I love to do. One of my greatest passions for the past 18 years has been songwriters.

It was in 1979, while living in New York City, that I wrote my first song knowing absolutely nothing about the craft of songwriting or any chords on the guitar. I was a huge Joni Mitchell fan so open tuning worked for me! I'd write songs about the street people that I met like Mr. Edmund, sweet John O'Shannessey who would bring me danishes every morning (I have no idea where he got them from), I wrote worship songs, I cowrote a song with my boyfriend at the time for a friend's wedding and then my most famous song of all "Swing The Sickle" (someday I'd love to play it for you!). While living in New York City at the Lamb's Manhattan Church of the Nazarene - the Lamb's Club - I had the opportunity to play my songs for Bob Benson (of the Benson Company) and he was very, very kind to me - I mean very, very kind! He didn't dash my dreams of being a singer songwriter but encouraged me to just keep on writing!

Well as the story goes, my friends encouraged me to give Nashville a try so I packed up my baby blue Maverick and headed south to Music City USA. I played my songs for Bob MacKenzie, who was an alumni of Houghton College from where I had graduated and he was very, very kind as well but I never heard the words, wow you have something special, a gift, etc. I was a flute major in college and thought that I could always do session work in Nashville until... I observed a recording session with Sam Levine who not only played several wind instruments but he was playing all of the music by ear! I had absolutely no inclination or gifting to play by ear - I needed all the notes written out. I also had the opportunity to sit in the audience of the music variety television show called "You Can Be A Star" hosted by Jerry House at the time. I was selected out of the audience (they called it the stairway of the stars) to sing with the house band "The Rose" - my cousin Roger living in Texas actually saw the show - but alas no record contracts were issued and I figured I better just find a real job.

My first job in the music business was as a receptionist for Lorenz Creative Services, a boutique publishing, production and management company. I met record producer Greg Nelson who hired me within a few months to work as his production manager which I did for 6 years. What a privilege it was to work for not only one of the most successful producers in the late 80's but a very successful songwriter as well - People Need The Lord one of many of his songs that are still being sung around the world. One of my roles as production manager was to "screen" songs from the publishers so I got to know many of the songwriters and publishers. Regie Hamm remembers pitching songs to me and that I told him to just keep working on his craft - little did I know the fire that lit under him! And I might add he certainly did work on his craft and has had great success! Dave Clark was one of those songwriters that I got to know really well.

I left Nashville and moved back to New York City for a couple years to get a much needed break from the music business. I got a call from Dave asking if I'd be interested in a publishing position at the company where he was a staff writer. My first response was no as I knew how competitive it was to get songs cut even back then and didn't know if I could handle the rejection! BUT after some great conversations Dave convinced me to at least interview. I flew to Nashville for the interview and was hired to run Benson Music Publishing with absolutely no publishing experience! What a huge learning curve that was as I didn't even know what a mechanical rate was. But I never looked back and have been in creative music publishing ever since. So back to "Swing The Sickle"...I do believe that that song led to the demise of my songwriting career- people just couldn't see the magic!

So here I am in 2010...doing what I know God has been forming in me over the years, and that is the privilege of serving as a Songwriter's Champion, Coach and Connector. I look forward to sharing my journey in future blogs!