The Literal, The Poetic & The Balance. This challenge is not intended to be a “finish-song-in-a-week” exercise, rather, a challenge to keep your creative mind busy and build mindsets and frameworks that become useful songwriting tools. Every Sunday, I’ll throw a new word, set of words, expression or phrase at you. This week’s word(s):...

Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks – Sail On Sailor The beauty and impact of this superb and evocative song belies its tortuous antecedents. Brian Wilson had been musically inactive for nearly 5 years, a victim of a nervous breakdown brought about by a calamitous cocktail of anxiety and drug abuse. The Beach Boys continued to fill the gap, writing and producing...

The Nick Drake Principle Musycks Musings & Topical Tips 13: A weekly column by Inside Songwriting contributor, Michael J Roberts. Have you ever wondered why certain artists are elevated into the pantheon, or have a certain cache or mystique attached to their work, when other, similar artists, get nothing like the same approbation or adulation? There are...

Randy Newman – Sail Away   Randy Newman released this song as the title track of his 1972 release Sail Away, instantly contributing a classic to the American canon and all with a song that dealt with a little examined stain on the American Dream, black slavery. The acerbic Newman coats his bitter lyrical pill, as usual, in the sugary and sweet strings...

Original songwriters and the cover question A weekly column by Inside Songwriting contributor, Michael J Roberts. All songwriters start out consuming and most likely playing or singing other writers songs, it’s how we learn, through what resonates with us as fans. As a singer-songwriter develops their own catalogue and finds their own voice they will typically reach...

Andy Partridge – River of Orchids XTC’s resident genius, Andy Partridge, retreated from the live performance arena after suffering a nervous breakdown in Paris in the early ‘80s due to anxiety triggered by stage fright. He settled into creating several brilliant studio albums to communicate his musical vision and came up with a surfeit of inventive and...

Music in Films – The Write Stuff A weekly column by Inside Songwriting contributor, Michael J Roberts. Music is a crucial accompaniment for every aspect of modern life, for many of us an inseparable feature that connects and evokes places, people and memories. Many of us find the perfect song to express how we feel at any given time – we nominate songs for...

Inside Songwriting Episode 21: Reaching Out In this episode, I talk about reaching out to those you would either like to collaborate with or even those you want to learn from. Remember, in life we should always be learning. Inside Songwriting has a new Facebook Community group and YOU can come join us anytime you like. I’m on there most days answering...