Palm Coast Songwriters Festival has TDC's support to draw more tourists in 2020

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

Two weeks after the Palm Coast Songwriters Festival was held in May, a group of those same writers performed again at one of the most famous little venues in Nashville: the Bluebird Café. James Slater, a pianist who wrote hits such as the Grammy-nominated “In My Daughter’s Eyes,” recorded by Martina McBride, brought the writers together for the Bluebird event, which he hosts every year as a cancer fundraiser.

Q+A with James Slater

Q: Who is Aunt Rosie in your song “Forever Changed” (recorded by Carrie Underwood)? Are your songs based on true stories?

A: They really are true stories to a lot of people — anything we write. Aunt Rosie isn’t a real person, it just fit. But of course, there are people who have an Aunt Rosie, and everybody goes through stages of life.

That’s the beautiful thing about country music: You gotta have a good story; you have to talk about real life.

Carrie said, “I can’t perform that song live because I can’t sing it. It’s so personal for me.” So we didn’t write it for her in mind; we just wrote the truth.

The irony is, and writers learn, that the more specific and truthful you are, the more it is a global message.

Q: You wrote “In My Daughter’s Eyes” all by yourself. What is it like to get a solo credit on a Grammy-nominated song (recorded by Martina McBride)?

A: That was a huge thing to me. I wrote that song alone, the lyrics and mysic, and that doesn’t happen too often. Nashville is a co-writing town.

The first version, the demo, had my voice, but when I got here to Nashville, we got Gretchen Wilson to sing it — she was just singing demos at that time. After she sang the demo and then Martina sang it, then Gretchen got the record deal and won the Grammy for “Red Neck Woman” the next year.

Another song, “The High Cost of Living,” I had the title, and I tried to write that one alone, but I couldn’t finish it. I got together Jamey Johnson and we wrote it together, and that became our next Grammy song.

Q: Do you know pick the artist and write the song for that artist, or do you write the song and then shop it around?

A: It’s half and half. In this town, it’s a business, so your publishers will say, “Carrie Underwood is recording her album in a few weeks.” But I will tell you, the best songs come from not doing that, just writing the truth and not worrying about who’s going to sing it, and then that ends up being recorded by somebody.

Q: How many songs do you have that you’re actively shopping around at once?

A: Right now, I’ve got many songs. Old Dominion has a new song on their new record. Tenille Arts, Keith Urban. They’re all in various stages: Some are recorded and mixed, some are recorded but not mixed. About 20 others are being shopped by publishers. So you have 20-25, and that changes because you have new songs.

Q: What are some strategies for telling a story in so few words?

A: People’s attention spans are short nowadays. It’s challenging. The strategy is to be as simple as possible, but as succinct as possible.

You have to write a hundred songs to write a really incredible song. I look at it like a baseball player, like Babe Ruth. They don’t hit it out of the park every time; they hit singles, doubles, and then everything connects and one goes out of the park. You do it every day, and you get the lyirc and the music, and you get those magic songs.

Q: What songwriters do you admire today?

A: One I love is Kacey Musgraves. She’s unconventional. I like anybody that breaks the mold, somebody that can write something a little bit different.

“I wanted to reprise what we had down in Palm Coast,” Slater said. “We had stories to tell about the Palm Coast event.”

In a phone interview with the Palm Coast Observer on May 21, Slater said, “Today, I wrote with Tony Lane, one of the best writers in town, and he was so sorry he couldn’t come, but he said he wanted to go next year. … So I think it’s really getting a good buzz.”

That’s music to the ears of Garry Lubi, who organized the event again this year. He estimated that over 800 people attended the three-day event, including dozens from out of town responsible for over 180 hotel room nights. One couple told him they were visiting from Virginia and saw a flier in March at Captain’s BBQ, so they returned to town two months later for the festival.

As Lubi looks toward the third-annual event, in 2020, he is optimistic that the festival will continue to grow. Tweaks for next year include reducing the price for lawn seats and trying to get the word out that this is a unique opportunity to see world-class talent in Palm Coast.

The dates for next year are May 1-3, the weekend before the Key West Songwriters Festival, which is an established draw in the industry. Many writers who are going to perform in Palm Coast in 2020 will then travel to Key West.

Another major change for next year will be the direct involvement of the Tourist Development Council, according to interim director Amy Lukasik. She said that, if the County Commission votes to approve the expenditure, the TDC is planning to invest $15,000 in marketing and other strategies for the 2020 event. That’s the same amount the TDC has spent on the event each of the past years, but that money came out of a discretionary fund and was used to pay for things like venue rental and equipment charges, not necessarily to help draw bigger crowds.

With better marketing, Lukasik believes the event has great potential for attracting visitors to Flagler County.

“I do, I really do,” she said, “with the quality of songwriters that he (Lubi) has.”

(She added that the TDC could be focusing on cultural events more in the future; in the past, sports has been the prime focus. She hopes to have a communitywide strategic planning session for the TDC this year.)

Lubi feels the TDC’s involvement will help the Palm Coast Songwriters Festival to flourish.

“It has the real potential to become a very substantial tourism draw,” he said.

Slater agrees.

“That festival is going to be promoted here in Nashville, and we’re going to be bringing more people out there,” Slater said. “I can’t wait to come down there and play again.