Carolyn Snell, Singer/Songwriter

On a (private) plane, somewhere between Nassau, Bahamas & Nashville: As much as I love musicians (and believe me, strap a guitar around a man's shoulder and I'm DONE), I am completely jealous of the talent they have to work their magic on stage or in a studio or even in a living room. But, what I'm even more in awe of is the songwriters. It's one thing to take lessons and learn how to play an instrument, but there's not a real direct route to learn how to cultivate melodies in your head and turn them into catchy tunes. And trying to find the words to express some deep emotion or experience in the form of a lyric is almost as impossible for me to do as writing a blog (ha).

While lamenting about my lack of songwriting capacity, an accomplished studio engineer (also a creative singer / songwriter himself) got fed up with my complaining and decided that it was time for me to shut up and sing. "That's it," he said one day, as I longingly watched him strum his guitar in the studio. "We're writing a song together." Pangs of fear and excitement crawled up the back of my neck and I immediately listed the excuses of why this would never work.

I've never written a song before!

I can't come up with melodies!
Everything needs to rhyme!
I haven't had enough to drink!

But, the fearless engineer calmed me with an encouraging nudge, a bottle of red wine and an internet page for me to browse, opened to thesaurus.com. It started with one word, which lead to a silly memory, which lead to a catchy line, which lead to another line that rhymed with that first line, which lead to.... another bottle of red wine and an outline of a song. But, of course, a song needs to be sung, so suddenly I was in the vocal booth, headphones on, candles lit, singing background vocals to the song. OUR song. The song I helped pen would now include my voice.

It must seem like such a menial event for those who write and sing for a living, but if they can remember back to that first time it all came together -- the first time the idea turned into words, the first time the melody got stuck in their head, the first time someone helped them believe they COULD do it -- I hope they would remember some of the wonder that was created in that eternal moment.

My (first) song, Down South, is featured on my co-writer's / engineer's / producer's website and is now available for your listening pleasure here as well. I'm proud to say I can now add singer/songwriter to my own credits.

Look for the EP and live show coming to a seedy bar near you soon!