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Three days of musical inspiration

ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO cranks it up in L.A.

Three amazing days in Los Angeles with songwriters and creators from every musical genre, freely sharing their knowledge, their experience and their love. And best of all, sharing their music.

Despite the bleary-eyed early morning start from Nashville, when we pulled back the curtains on our hotel room and saw that famous HOLLYWOOD sign through the L.A. haze, we felt a rush of energy. We knew we were in for an unforgettable three days, and we were right.

Paul Williams at ASCAP EXPO. Photo credit: Lester Cohen, Getty Images/ASCAP

After so many years of doom and gloom and dire predictions about the music industry, it was a shot in the arm to hear ASCAP President Paul Williams remind us of the good news from Washington. Legislators and the music industry are working together to pass the long awaited Music Modernization Act. And music sales are on the rise again.

“This is the most amazing collection of Musoids on the planet!” – Paul Williams, President of ASCAP, starting his EXPO kickoff speech

Meghan Trainor proves you can make it

Songwriter J Kash and Meghan Trainor at ASCAP’s ‘I Create Music’ Expo. Photo credit: ASCAP

Songwriters can feel disheartened, particularly when their careers seem to stall. If any needed some encouragement and inspiration, they found it in Meghan Trainor who first attended the EXPO as a young unknown songwriter.

This year, she was back, but this time she was on stage with the credentials of being a hit writer and performer. Meghan and songwriter J Kash took part in the Keynote Conversation on Day 3, and Meghan’s family were in the audience to share in the success that her perseverance had created.

Songwriter credit must add up to 100%!

Perhaps one of the funniest (and very important) presentations came from Desmond Child who really does have world music in his blood, care of his Hungarian father and Cuban songwriter mother. He has writing credits on mega-hits for Aerosmith, Michael Bolton, Bon Jovi, Cher, Kiss, Clay Aiken and many more across multiple genres. Not surprisingly, Child is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Desmond Child and his 99 ‘volunteers.’ Photo credit: Preshias Harris

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Singing with someone else’s lungs

Transplant gives voice back to singer

You’re a gifted singer with your voice at its peak and a promising future ahead of you. And then the doctors break some terrible news: You need a double lung transplant.

For anyone, that news would be shocking. But for a singer, that could also mean the end of all of one’s hopes and dreams.

Charity Tillemann-Dick. Photo: John Armato

That was the news given to opera singer Charity Tillemann-Dick in 2009, and she has told the story surrounding that momentous event in a new book, ‘The Encore: A Memoir in Three Acts’(available here at Amazon and all major retailers). On September 30, she spoke to NPR’s Scott Simon about the frightening news, the surgery and the aftermath. You can hear and read the moving interview at NPR’s website here.

She told Simon that she almost died during the transplant surgery – she flat-lined twice – and the doctors left her chest open for two weeks. She was in a coma for 34 days and it was months before she could breathe on her own.

“My voice was gone”

She told Simon, “When I woke up from the surgery, I saw the nurses and my mother, and I was just so profoundly grateful to be alive and I opened my mouth to say ‘thank you’ and nothing came out. My voice was gone.”

Charity underwent both the usual post-surgical therapy and also vocal training: learning to sing with somebody else’s lungs.

“There’s something very mystical about singing. Because we all have these two tiny little flaps of skin in our throat, but some people can’t really sing at all,” Charity told Simon during the interview. “And some people sound like angels when they do it, you know? [Laughs.] And no one really knows why!

“And I think that for me, singing with someone else’s lungs, it never lets me forget that I’m not the one who’s in charge — whether you call it fate or chance or God, that we all have a reason that we’re here; we all have a song to sing, whether it’s musical or not. And I am very conscious of the fact that I am one of the human embodiments of my organ donor’s life.”

“We’re usually one another’s angels”

Imagine: singing with someone else’s lungs. As she stood backstage, ready for her debut at the Lincoln Center, all she could think about was the person she had never met who generously pre-planned the donation of their organs for transplant.

Charity’s amazing experience, and the many people whose skill and selfless generosity gave her a new lease on life, have had a profound effect on her. In the interview, she said, “I think sometimes we want winged figures to bring us miracles, but I think in life we’re usually one another’s angels.”

Transplants saved my life, too

The subject of organ donation is very important in my own life. I’m alive today thanks entirely to kidney transplants, firstly from my father, Sheldon, and then from my sister Tishia. My brother Ken’s life was saved with a kidney donated by a stranger who had pre-planned their organ donation, and my friend Jim is healthy today due to a liver transplant.

To learn more about organ donation and how you might save a life, go to this informational U.S. Government website. By registering as a donor, you could give up to 8 people a second chance. Did you know that 20 people die every day due to the shortage of available organ donors and more than 116,000 Americans are awaiting transplants right now? Please become a donor!

The power of copyright: 5 Q&As with Preshias Harris

Q&A interview with Copyright Alliance

This week we would like you to meet one of our Individual Creator Members, Preshias Harris. (From the Copyright Alliance blog, August 17, 2017.)

1. What was the inspiration behind becoming a music career development consultant?
Preshias: “I’ve always loved music. There was always music in our house when I was growing up in Kentucky. I knew I had to be in Nashville because that’s where the music is. As s soon as I could, I moved to Nashville and got a job as an intern at BNA Records and then Atlantic Records. It was a wonderful opportunity, working with recording artists such as John Anderson, Lorrie Morgan, Tracy Lawrence and Confederate Railroad. Everyone was willing to share what they knew with me, the new kid. That made a big impression on me. So many young people turn up here, knowing nothing about the music business. They are easy prey for the ‘music sharks’ who are waiting to take advantage of them. As my knowledge of the music industry grew, I made myself a pledge to help aspiring artists and songwriters follow their dream while giving them the knowledge to spot – and avoid – those smiling sharks!”

To read the full Q&A article, and to find out more about the great work that Copyright Alliance does on behalf of songwriters, recording artists and every genre of creativity, visit the Creative Alliance website.

The Copyright Alliance is the unified voice of the copyright community, representing the interests of thousands of individuals and organizations across the spectrum of copyright disciplines.