How the Song Came to Be Podcast Anne Heaton

Join me for this great conversation with singer-songwriter Bob Hillman. We chat about why reading is so important and why having a core song critique group can be the single most important thing! Bob shares a song he rewrote three times - changing it from being about an altercation in a Target parking lot to a love song about the night he met his wife. Bob also shares about some unexpected silver linings that have surfaced as a result of the pandemic.
 
Bob Hillman, a San Francisco singer/songwriter, is well into the second act of a career that began in the late 1990s in New York City, where he fell in with Jack Hardy’s long-running songwriting group, which met every Monday night in Greenwich Village to eat pasta and share new songs. Bob’s career flourished in the early 00s, then survived ten years of “real jobs,” and resumed in 2016. Bob’s most recent full-length album, Some of Us Are Free, Some of Us Are Lost, was released in April 2019. Bob has toured extensively with Suzanne Vega playing venues like the Fillmore Auditorium and Bowery Ballroom. Most recently, Bob wrote and recorded Inside & Terrified, a five-song EP written during and about the COVID-19 lockdown.

In today's conversation with singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke, we talk about how songs can evolve over time in terms of production, meaning, feel etc. (she even plays us an example!) We also chat about the "rules" of musical theater songwriting, Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, Taio Cruz and giving yourself song assignments! Join us for this uplifting conversation where Jonatha shares a little about her new album The Sweetwater Sessions as well as her revelations around songwriting, life and building community online.
Jonatha Brooke has co-written songs with Katy Perry and The Courtyard Hounds among others. She's also written for Disney films and numerous television shows including composing/performing the theme song for Dollhouse. In 2014, Brooke debuted her one woman musical and companion album My Mother Has Four Noses at the Duke Theater in New York City. The show ran for three months to rave reviews and was a critic's pick in the New York Times who called it "both funny and wrenching.”Formerly of the New England-based folk-rock duo The Story with Jennifer Kimball, Jonatha Brooke has been writing songs, making records, and touring since the early 90's. After four major label releases, she started her own independent label in 1999 and has since released nine more albums including her most recent The Sweetwater Sessions.
If you like today's episode, check out my conversation a few years back with Jonatha in Episode 6. In it, we talk about using songwriting as a survival tool in hard times, leaving some mystery in your lyrics and what you can learn about singing and melody writing from the way you speak.

Join us for this beautiful conversation between Liam Davis, Laura Doherty, Justin Roberts and myself about telling the truth to children, making music that kids and adults both enjoy, introversion, and much much more.
 
Some of the things we chat about include...
 
- Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are)'s approach to creativity (telling children the truth!)
- Ways of teaching music and songwriting to children
- How children are our teachers
- How children can always sniff out dishonesty
- Songs that connect on many levels
 
We recorded this heart-warming conversation right before Covid-19 and after it hit, I serendipitously ended up working with children more regularly. I'm so grateful for this reflective time with these bright musical souls. If you're someone who writes for children, works with children, someone who would like to work with or write for children, or simply someone who wants to tune into your own inner child, join us!
 
Liam Davis is a Chicago-based singer-songwriter and 3-time GRAMMY-nominated producer who creates music as a solo artist, in numerous musical groups and produces many artists' music.
 
Justin Roberts is a 3-time GRAMMY-nominated songwriter who records and performs songs for families throughout the US.
 
Laura Doherty is an award-winning songwriter who has an intense passion for creating sweet, folk-inspired songs for children and families.
 
https://www.justinrobertsmusic.com/
http://liamdavis.com
https://www.lauradohertymusic.com/

Will Dailey is an acclaimed independent recording and performing artist. His sound has been described as having a rich vintage vibe while having a firm appreciation of AM rock, pop and big hooks leading famed Rock journalist Dan Aquilante to call him “the real deal”. Will has shared the stage and studio with Eddie Vedder, T Bone Burnett, Tanya Donelly, Willie Nelson, Roger McGuinn, G Love, Ryan Bingham and Kay Hanley.
Dailey's album, National Throat, has been met with stellar reviews, over 8 million spins on Spotify, top 20 on Billboard Heat Seeker chart and won Album of the Year in the Boston Music Awards, New England Music Awards and Improper Bostonian Magazine.
In our conversation, Will talks about:
Learning the rules of the craft and then breaking them
Why everything (including good songwriting) is pattern and pattern upset
How playing with other people brings out different parts of yourself and
Having respect for your listener

Tony Lucca was raised in a very large musical family in Detroit, home to Motown. In 1995, following a four-season run as a cast member on The All New Mickey Mouse Club alongside fellow future hit making heavyweights Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, Lucca relocated to Los Angeles where he dove into doing the Hollywood shuffle/auditioning actor thing before deciding to ditch acting in favor of pursuing his true passion.
Since 1997, he has released over 20 studio albums, EPs and live records.
His album Canyon Songs is a touching 10-track tip of the cap to the legendary Laurel Canyon sound immortalized by master musicians including Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne.
Tony Lucca has acted on popular shows such as Parenthood, The Tonight Show, Last Call with Carson Daly, the Aaron Spelling-produced Malibu Shores, as well as small roles in some independent features. He earned third place on Season 2 of The Voice (which led to a recording contract with Adam Levine’s 222 Records, as well as high profile stints on tour with the likes of Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson and Sara Bareilles).
In our conversation from 2017, Tony shares about:
Losing his passion for acting and gaining it for songwriting
Why collaborating can lead to your best songs
A Daily Dose of the Beatles and
Have an Artist Narrative

Jen Lee is the director and producer of two feature-length documentaries: Bright Lights (2016) and Indie Kindred (2013). A GrandSLAM storytelling champion, Lee's autobiographical stories have been featured on the Peabody Award-winning Moth Radio Hour. Her resources for artists and makers worldwide include The 10 Letters Project and Movies for Makers.
In our conversation from 2017, Jen talks about:
Uncovering memories of what you love
How making things is a way to finding peace
Re-working your paradigm around how creative work gets done
The more time and effort equation does NOT EQUAL BETTER WORK (it gets thin, not rich and deep)