Becoming a Song

By Scott Coner

Country Singer-Songwriter

            There have been moments here lately that I find myself in the beginning stages of a meltdown. I see the videos, the songs, the photos, the interviews, and everything else that goes with this business, and I begin to panic. I feel humiliated and embarrassed as I realize what I have allowed myself to give to this music. It isn’t a natural act for me to be so outward with my feelings. Yet, as I look at my own private diary set to music, I see that it is far passed too late to pull back now. It might be comparable to the “sexting” that we hear about on the news. Take a picture of your private parts in high definition and share it with the world, and you can’t retrieve it no matter what. 

            The issue with me is this: I started writing at such a young age, I didn’t take time or have the capacity to process the act of writing itself. When you’re a kid, you take everything literally. So when I began writing, I wrote about what was going on in my own life. Even though in truth there wasn’t much going on in my simple little life, it was big and important to me. I remember the fall of my sophomore year. The sky was a perfect shade of blue, and I was wearing a jean jacket. I remember a girl that I thought a lot of telling me she didn’t feel the same way. I was beyond crushed. But I wrote a song about how it felt, and it was then and there that I realized that life’s little punishments had a silver lining. 

Scott Coner (photo provided by Cynnamae Media Productions)

            Dan Fogelberg wrote a song called “Same old Lang Syne”. One of the verses of the song says, “Just for a moment I was back in school... I felt that old familiar pain... The snow was falling on my way back home... Then the snow turned into rain….”  

For me, that pretty much sums everything up. As a man, I have thought a lot about that perfect line or verse. Capturing childhood feelings or feelings in general is hard to do sometimes. I think we lose touch with those emotions after we enter adulthood, pretty much the same way we forget how to imagine a bicycle is a motorcycle or a box is a spaceship. But you can find a song if you allow yourself to open up and forget about the protective walls we all have a tendency to build. At least, that’s how it is with me... just a man sitting alone in his Avengers pajamas writing about life. How’s that for being too transparent?

            What allows me to find balance these days are the thoughtful and kind people who reach out to me. They tell me how they feel about certain songs. They let me know that it matters to them. I know it sounds strange, but knowing that something I have been a part of actually matters to someone else is extremely important to me. Those people may be the reason I wrote the song in the first place.

            The natural beauty of the craft of songwriting is simple. For me, it is a story that begins with a melody or a few chords. It is a connection that is made when I least expect it. It is one of those special moments that God allows me to have. Even though I will probably always have episodes of doubt, I am truly happy that I have been given the opportunity to write and share my songs. And if you are one of those kind souls out there who have supported me along the way, I just want to say, “Thank you.” It is because of you that I don’t grow a long beard, use Kleenex boxes for house shoes, and take myself off of the grid.  

            Scott Coner is a country/American/Southern rock artist who has recorded songs with legendary artists such as Charlie Daniels, Tanya Tucker and T. Graham Brown. Listen to his music and/or watch is his videos at http://www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer, http://www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, or http://www.ScottConer.com. Follow him at http://www.Twitter.com/ScottConerMusic.