Bobby Cameron headed back to Toronto last Wednesday. He was our houseguest
for almost a week and that was a real treat. The last time he was here, he came with his family while Shauna and I were in the middle of the construction of our
log home. Bobby and his family rented a cabin not far from our place, and one night,
Bobby and I sat at the kitchen table in that cabin, with our guitars, and played
each other a few songs we were working on. There are few people with whom I
share my unfinished songs. I’ve begun to change that, because it is helpful to
have feedback from other artists I respect. Musically, Juan Barbosa has been very
helpful in the arrangements of my songs, but Bobby is really the guy who re-started
my love of song writing. He and Shauna were the people who really encouraged me
to continue writing songs when I was ready to stop. No words can describe the
satisfaction of penning a promising song, then having a good musical artist
work on it with you. Having worked with Bobby, and now with Juan as well, I am
less intimidated playing with musicians who are better than I am. In the past, I
often went off tempo playing with a good musician, because I would listen
to his or her performance and forget to focus on my own. I’m working on that.
The other day, I pulled up a video clip on my computer that I’d
forgotten about, and it was of a writing session in our Banff, Alberta hotel room, when
Bobby and his wife, Sherrie, came down from Edmonton to visit. I vaguely remember
the songs we worked on, and while I don’t think I had much input in that
session, I do remember hearing one song, "Perfect
World", which Bobby was writing at the time. That song really moved me, because
it has a beautiful and universal message. There are so many strong songs we
were privileged to hear as they were being written, and I learned a lot from those sessions. A few years back, my buddy Bob finally convinced me to join him on a
visit to the Rock ‘n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and it was not the
signature guitars or the famous articles of clothing that most impressed me; it
was the original lyrics, written by artists in their own handwriting. For me, to
be in the room when a great song is being written is heady stuff. Over ten years after
that writing session in Banff, "Perfect World"
has finally been released on Bobby’s most recent album, “Comfort Zone.” That
album might be the best work Bobby has put out to date, and he’s written a lot
of good songs.
All artists go through dry spells. We write something down on paper,
maybe we have a hook for the chorus, but we can’t make the lyrics fit to our
satisfaction. A word of advice to the neophyte song writers out there: save everything you write. I have three voice recorders lying
around the house, and everywhere I travel, I try to take a recorder with me in
case I am inspired. In 2009, I wrote a few verses down for a song called "The Middle of Nowhere", and over the past
six years, I have re-written the song several times, but without a melody in
mind. When Bobby was our houseguest last week, we had a little writing session,
just like the good old days, and I pulled out the lyrics for "The Middle of Nowhere". Within five
minutes, Bobby had put the song to music, which in turn inspired me to finish
writing the lyrics. Almost done, I think this song might be a good one, especially if Bobby records it. For the past several days, every
free moment I have has been devoted to polishing that song, and it is almost done. Bobby says his next album will be live, off-the-floor, acoustic
performances, and he said he'd like to include my song. Juan Barbosa's new album, Soulbot
6000, will be released in late September, and includes one of my songs, "Stupid Show and Tell". I recently learned
that CBC radio will soon put one of the cuts from that album into national rotation,
which is great news. Coupled with the fun I am having doing my radio show,
thanks to Hunters Bay Radio, I'm a very happy guy.
-Written by
Jamie Oppenheimer c2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-
