If you haven’t yet had the
chance to go to a songwriters round, you are really missing out! With a range of songwriters all sharing one
stage and taking it in turns to perform, it is a very different and very
special type of show!
Gasoline and Matches, with
Your Life In A Song and B:Music host a regular songwriters round at the
Symphony Hall in Birmingham, alternating between evenings, lunchtimes and
Saturday mornings to bring a mostly country music based show to a wide range of
visitors
A show like this isn’t just
about hearing the music, because of the format of the show it is an opportunity
to hear from the artists and listen as they tell you the story behind the song,
the inspiration and the often humorous tales!
The October edition did all this and more. The evening was very much a celebration of story-telling and creativity – as all of the artists not only told their own stories but joined in with others and picked up on themes, creating some hilarious moments
Sally and Steve of Gasoline and Matches were
the hosts, with guests Cody Pennington, Em/Elle, Neil from Blue Nation and
Essex based singer Megan Rose. While we
were treated to stories covering an unfortunate relationship in America (Sally)
house hunting in Kentucky (Cody), a band splitting up over satin shirts (Neil)
and falling off a rodeo bull (Megan), the story with the most value of the
night was from Em/Elle whose first song (Crash) was written about falling for
the trainer in her first restaurant job, and how she forced herself to not like
him for fear of not learning how to make desserts! Not only did Neil follow on from this story
as though he had been that trainer, all the others picked up on the thread for
the whole first half of the show!
Sally and Steve play a lot
of these rounds and have amassed a back catalogue of stories to almost rival
their catalogue of songs, but guest Em/Elle, despite being the youngest on the
line up by some years also had stories and songs aplenty, having started to
write when she was still at school. Her
recent appearance on BBC’s Project Icon has introduced her to more
opportunities for songwriting collaborations, including a beautiful new song
about the pain of childhood bullying.
Often, the song or story of one artist will lead in to the song and
story of the next, as setlists are rare at these events, with each artist
picking up the vibe and running with it.
If you love music and want
to go a bit deeper into the art of songwriting, then a songwriters round is
definitely for you!
Your next chance in Birmingham will be on Saturday 16 December with tickets available now - tickets
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