Kenny Rogers recently came through town and spoke with our local newspaper. He had some interesting observations about what makes a good song, his thoughts on country radio (“they don’t owe me anything”), and the young performers coming up today.

For the Blogging Muses readers looking for commercial songwriting advice, it doesn’t get any better than this. Notice what his focus is as he discusses what songs have worked for him:

On getting radio airplay:

“a lot of these [radio] guys, were not even born when I had my (greatest) success. They don’t owe me anything. What country music has said to me is, “If you do a great song, [we] will play it. If it’s an average song, you stand in line.”

On what he looks for in a song:

“I tend to find songs with stories that connect with me. “The Gambler” is a song that goes way beyond gambling. It’s a philosophy of life, about knowing when to walk away from something. “Lucille” was a wonderful story about a guy caught in bad situation. When I first started in this business, music was about the message and little about the messenger. Now, it’s about the messenger and not the message. Not that it’s wrong. Either one is OK with me.”

In both instances, the quality of the song is important.

Just as important is the story. Each week as I (ahem!) watch American Idol, every single guest – Tony Bennett, Jennifer Lopez, Martina McBride, Kenny Rogers, and so on all try to emphasize to the contestants the importance of identifying with the story in the song.

When writing songs, many successful songwriters start with writing a 6-8 paragraph story – without concern for rhyme scheme or anything. Then they use that short story as the structure of your song. Some songwriters even fill dozens of pages with thoughts about the story and before they even begin putting a verse and chorus together.

Hype will only carry a song so far. When a guy like Kenny Rogers doesn’t expect any favors from a cutthroat industry like country radio, you shouldn’t expect it either.

Just write good songs.

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