The Challenge

I almost scrolled past the post. It was a normal “bucket list” kind of post that appears on all of our social media pages from time to time. The only reason I stopped this time was because it was a friend of mine whose opinion I respect that posted it and I usually enjoy his insights into life.
“When your ‘maybe someday’ list gets too long its time to act!” The post said, “I’m curious, what’s something you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t gotten around to?”
I thought about it for a few moments before I responded:
“I’ve written many different things. Magazine articles, short stories, life blogs, product reviews, news articles, how-to articles, poems… but I’ve never written a song. I think that would be fun”
After hitting send I never put much further thought into it, until later when I received a notification that the original poster had replied. He gave me a challenge and an arbitrary date: “Ok” he directed, “you have until January 1st to write a song. Go!”
I kind of scoffed at the idea – I dont really have a musical bone in my body, I am not that great a dancer and my singing sends animals and small children running. These are not exactly the qualities one would look for in a songwriter.
Life was moslty normal after the seed was planted – for awhile. I kept the thought in the back of my head though, counting syllables and listening to the cadence and rhythm of songs on the radio as I went about my day. Soon enough I had an idea for a song.
The writing process was not unlike writing a short, poetic story – cadence and rhyme, making words fit, adding or subtracting syllables until it felt “right” and soon I had a pretty good outline. I used Google and found the beats per minute of some songs that were in a similar genre and Google also helped with the total word count expectations and song length. I learned about song structure and what a bridge was compared to a hook. It was a fun writing exercise that got me to think differently how words interacted with each other and I enjoyed it, tucking the final product into my “work in progress” notes folder where I assumed it would stay forever.
A few months went past and purely by luck I ended up talking with one of our local musicians who has had some successes with a few songs played on Canadian Country music airwaves across Canada. We got talking music and I brought up that I had written a song. It actually very nearly did not come up as I assume that every artist has a constant barrage of people telling them they have a song idea for them, the same as every comedian gets the “I’ve got a great topic for you” speech. I didn’t want to be that guy. Fortunately however the conversation flowed naturally towards those topics, and soon I found myself forwarding my song lyrics to him.
The following weeks we were in constant communication, sending ideas back and forth as we worked together to shape some other ideas he had been working on and I helped put together a song that he was having trouble getting to flow the way he wanted.
Through all of this I had another idea for a song that I had not yet shared with anyone. It tells the story of a country girl and how she lives a country girl life because of how her father raised her.  When I had it completed (lyrically at least) I forwarded it to him as well and asked what he thought of the new idea. The response was immediate: He loved it and he wanted it to be the first release from the new group he was assembling!
The new song fit very well as a duet and his new band had brought on a female singer as well so it was perfect timing. The band worked together to finalize the music beds and before I knew it I found myself sitting in a recording studio listening and watching as the producer worked his magic to mix levels and assemble the complete song. To hear the lyrics I had put together come alive in music is truly a breathtaking experience.
A date was picked for the “live” release of the song on a night that the band was booked into a local club. A film crew was on hand for footage for a short video about the song and we had many family and friends show up for the event.
The video also required dancers and since it was a father/daughter song it was decided that I would dance with my youngest daughter for the release.
I’m not sure there are words to accurately describe the feeling of dancing with one’s adult child to a live first-performance of a song that you wrote about a father and his daughter but it was completely surreal.
That song, titled “Country ‘Cause of You” was released on all streaming platforms and climbed to number eight on the Canadian independent country music chart.
Since then we have several other songs that I have lyrically composed, including one titled “Last Cold Beer”, which is also quickly climbing the Canadian Independent Country Music Countdown chart. All because someone made a post about trying something new, and followed it up with a challenge.
Right Turn Clyde.

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