'I Still Can't Whistle'

By Scott Coner

Country Artist

            A lifetime ago, I started playing guitar and following every major Southern rock act like a bloodhound. Country music had always ruled at our house, but I was a kid, and kids like to go against the grain sometimes. The first time I ever saw Molly Hatchet's debut album was on my school bus. This beautiful blonde girl sitting across from me was taking it to her art class, and I mustered up the courage to ask if I could look at the album cover. The artwork was like nothing I had ever seen, and the guys on the back looked mean and cool as well. I thought I might like this band, and I also thought it might give me something to talk about with the blonde-haired girl.

            We had a tiny record store in our town back then called "The Mystery Train", so as soon as I got a chance to go to town, I went. I sauntered into the store like I knew what life was about and bought my very own Hatchet album. Remember now, I hadn't even heard what these guys sounded like because I was still in hot pursuit of the blond-haired girl. My mom picked me up that afternoon standing there with this cool album under my arm and man, did I feel tough. I felt like I should have had a cigarette or something to enhance my coolness, but my mom would have knocked me out right downtown.

            I went to my room, put the album on, and fell in love instead -- with some stranger called "Bounty Hunter". By this time, I forgot all about the girl because this new music was pushing all my buttons. This Danny Joe Brown guy sang and whistled like he was calling cattle! I didn't know much back then, but I knew that I wanted to be just like him. Problem was, I could whistle like Andy Griffith, but I couldn't whistle like Danny Joe.

            This music was fluid with awesome guitar riffs and breaks and everything I love. By the time "Bounty Hunter" ended, I found myself knee deep in "Gator Country". Man, did I like this music. This offshoot of rock and country felt right to me because it felt down home like everything else I had been exposed to. The songs, to me at least, felt like they were written from a seasoned adult's point of view, but they still rocked. Funny thing about Hatchet is, I have never grown tired or bored with those first few albums.

            I'm no longer a kid now, and Danny Joe Brown passed away some years back. But I challenge you to check out the following songs if you like Southern rock at all. And if you whistle pretty good, you will enjoy it more than I ever have 'cause I still can't whistle. When I call my horses, I have to do it Andy Griffith style, and it's kind of embarrassing.

            Scott Coner's Molly Hatchet Song "Must" List:

            * "Bounty Hunter".

            * "Gator Country".

            * "Whiskey Man".

            * "Dreams I'll Never See".

            * "Boogie No More."

            * "Flirtin' With Disaster".

            * "Big Apple".

            (Scott Coner is a noted country singer-songwriter who has recorded the legendary artists such as Tanya Tucker, Charlie Daniels and T. Graham Brown. Learn more about him and hear his music at www.ScottConer.com. Subscribe to his You Tube channel at www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer.)

Kinda Like Surf City (just a little bit hotter)

By Scott Coner

Country Singer-Songwriter

            When I was about 15 years old, I had eight dairy calves I bottle fed to get ready to sell. (I went with dairy calves because I didn’t want my calves slaughtered.)

            Anyway, school started that fall, and a friend of mine told me about a television movie coming on soon I might like called “Dead Man’s Curve” about Jan Berry and Dean Torrence. Where I lived, we didn’t have but a few channel choices back then, so this was kind of big news for a guy that was addicted to “Starsky and Hutch” and “Battlestar Galactica”.

            So, the show came on, I watched it, and it was as if I had seen Jesus for the first time. I became immersed in their music to the point of being creepy. I sold my calves later that fall, but I found out that I could get a great reverb sound when I sang into my empty milk buckets if I could get past the sour milk smell. I actually played hooky from school one day so I could try to call them to let them know what a fan I was of their music.

            Most people won’t believe this, but I actually had a conversation with Dean Torrence's mother. I went through the information on the back of their “Anthology Album” and spoke to her on our rotary dial phone. (I think her name was Natalie, and she was very nice to me.)

            Looking back now all those years ago, I remember a kid stuck in "Nowhere", Ind., that loved all kinds of music. But, what I loved about the beach sound was not only the harmonies, but the innocence. Those songs told me about a time and place where the girls all had tans and blonde hair, and the guys all knew how to surf.

            A few years ago, I wrote a song comparing my world to theirs called “Kinda’ Like Surf City”. I had read that Dean Torrence was working with a group called The Surf City All-Stars, and I wanted the song pitched to them. (Yes, I’m still kind of a stalker after all these years.)

Scott... somewhere in "Nowhere", Ind.

            Well, the song never got pitched, but I recorded it myself cause’ I thought it was kind of cool. Jan Berry passed away, but one of these days I would love to tell Dean Torrence what true joy he brought to my life.  And when I get to Heaven, I’m gonna’ go bug Jan with my milk bucket for eternity.

            If you haven't visited it yet, Jan and Dean's website is a lot of fun to explore. Take a ride into the past at www.JanandDean.com.

(Country artist Scott Coner has worked with legendary artists such as Tanya Tucker and T. Graham Brown. To learn more about him or hear his music, visit http://www.ScottConer.com.)

Scott Coner: 'There are no Rules in Songwriting'

By Scott Coner

Singer-Songwriter

            NASHVILLE -- Songwriting seems to be different for all people. I have met and talked with several writers around Nashville as well as other places, and their approach is always consistently different. For me, for whatever reason, my writing seems to improve when I read quite a bit and don't listen to other music. I find that the silence allows me to hear other melodies and phrasings that I wouldn't be in touch with otherwise. I hate to admit it, but I also write better when my wife and kids are gone for a while.

            I find that I may have some line or phrase that I carry around for weeks or even months, and sometimes that leads to a song, or I might have a piece of music that I search for a suitable melody and theme that works. Most of the time I write with an acoustic guitar, but recently I have written several songs on a Les Paul using a loop pedal. I don't know how it all works. I wish I did. Writing songs for me is that place that I go to that is personal, imaginative and without rules.

            Paul Zollo has put together a fantastic book called, "Songwriters on Songwriting". In it, Mr. Zollo has chased down a massive amount of outstanding writers including the likes of Jimmy Webb to Burt Bacharach and Hal David. I actually keep his fourth addition on my nightstand and read it when I have trouble sleeping. I love the backstory of a song. I like to know why the song was written and what inspired the writer. 

            I have never been that guy with a ton of friends hanging around. I stay pretty quiet in my little world when I'm not working in Nashville or somewhere else. Because of this, and I mean no disrespect, I have always kind of understood Brian Wilson. Brian didn't surf, he didn't swim, and he didn't drive fast cars. But he wrote songs that would make you believe he was the golden boy of the California Coastline. The Beach Boys became an American institution, and it was all because of Brian's genius.

            I certainly don't compare myself to Brian Wilson's talent. But, I have written a lot of songs based on other people's lives and stories. "Maybe She Lied" is a song I recorded with Tanya Tucker a few years back, and it is a good example. A guy that I know came home one day and found out that some major changes had taken place while he was gone to work. His house was empty, most of his things were gone, and his heart was broken. I thought about what had happened to him for a few days, then sat down and wrote the song. As the lyrics came, I wrote it in first person as if the damage had been done to me. Thank God the story isn't about me, but as I put the song together, I "witnessed the movie" in my mind and the song wrote itself.

            There is nothing more cleansing to me than writing a song. I don't try to write for radio, and I don't write by radio's rules. I think a song should live and breathe the way it wants to, and this includes the length of the song. There is a theory out there that the hook should be the primary theme in the song, and there is no question that this approach works. But, I don't live by those rules. I don't believe the listening public needs to be on a diet of baby food. I think people still enjoy the journey a song that can be related to, can take you on. For radio stations, it is about getting X amount of songs in between advertisements. To me, it is about writing and recording a song that I feel good about and am proud of.

            So, if your a songwriter like me, you have no doubt noticed that I have no good advice. If you are a music lover like me, then I am certain that you agree that the song and the craft of songwriting is something that is magic and not available in a bottle. A song, if it’s lucky, ends up as part of the fabric of someone else’s life. I consider this to be one of life’s highest honors and most humbling achievements.

(Scott Coner has worked with some of country music's top artists and musicians, including Tanya Tucker, T. Graham Brown, and Charlie Daniels. Learn more about him and hear his songs at www.ScottConer.com or www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic.)

Scott Coner: 'I Have Always Thought of Country Music as a Self-Cleaning Oven'

By Scott Coner
Country Artist

         When I was a kid, I remember a lot of people complained about the condition of country music. Some people, my mom included, thought some artists seemed to emphasize a honky-tonk, alcoholic, divorce-fused landscape called country music.

         Country music was simpler back then, and so was the world. The early 1970s country music market was primarily driven by AM radio, 8-track tapes, and "Hee-Haw". I remember riding with my dad to Kentucky in our new black, Ford LTD listening to Tom T. Hall sing about old dogs and children on an 8-track tape. I remember hearing Tammy Wynette sing about D-I-V-O-R-C-E. I remember Barbi Benton on "Hee-Haw", and I think maybe she sang, but I'm not sure. I was kind of taken back by her attributes. (I was a true fan.)

         The whole Outlaw movement had come to life by this time, but there was more to it than that. By then, I was into Firefall, CDB, Marshall Tucker, Skynyrd, Hank Jr., and so many others. Music was special back then because the artists all had their own sound. That sound was special then and still is today, but that was my world. My very simple, little, small-town world. Things change.

         These days, I hear a lot of people putting down today's country music. I can't say that I love everything on the radio, but I certainly don't hate it. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don't like Eric Church's "Wrecking Ball", then you must be a little bit stupid. Music changes with the times, and it always has. I'm a little bit older now, and maybe the whole bro-country thing doesn't apply to me, but sometimes when nobody is looking, I like to sing along with Nelly: "Baby you a song, you make me want to roll my windows down and cruise."

         I guess what I'm trying to say is that if there is a real problem in country music, it's just that we don't have enough radio formats to meet all of our musical pallets. So many of the older country music legends that I have heard complaining about today's radio format during interviews used to dominate the airwaves, and they weren't complaining then. 

         Country music will, and is, beginning to change. I have always thought of country music as a self-cleaning oven. It just kind of shifts back and forth in its own rhythm. The truth is, there is no problem here. Country music is still the king where I live and always will be.

(To learn more about country artist Scott Coner, visit www.ScottConer.com. You can like his Facebook page at ScottConerMusic and follow him on Twitter @ScottConer.)

Awareness of Snakes: More Advice for Fellow Singer-Songwriters

By Scott Coner
Country Artist

(Note from Scott: I recently released the new video "Nashville Song" to share the highs and lows of trying to make it in the music industry.)

            When I was a little boy, I used to walk the fence line with my grandpa. I had my small, steel pail with some staples and a hammer. I felt pretty important tightening the fence with him. We didn't always have a post where we needed one, so sometimes we would just grab the nearest tree. It probably wasn't like the fancy fences you might find around Lexington, Ky., but I was always proud of our work. Grandpa warned me often about walking over old tree stumps and logs carelessly. "Boy, walk around those old logs or your liable to find a copperhead," he would say.

            I have been told all my life that if you're out in the woods and smell cucumbers, you might be standing close to a copperhead snake. Those words proved true one night when a smiling music industry executive ordered extra cucumbers on his dinner salad while discussing my musical future. I should have heeded Grandpa's advice after I paid the check.

            The worst I ever came across was a black snake back in my boyhood days. I accidentally found the copperheads years later. I can only blame myself I suppose, and harboring resentment and anger only wastes my time. I have always been a hard worker and have been dedicated to whatever I put my mind to, so I assumed foolishly that everyone else was like-minded. Heck, it only made sense that people that were blessed enough to actually make a nice living in the music business would be dedicated to their craft. I am such a hayseed.

A picture my grandfather (Grandpa Coner) hoeing a field on his Kentucky farm.

            So, here is part of a hard lesson that I have learned: If you are talking to some big-time Nashville mover and shaker, be aware. They will talk in circles, usually being non-committal. I think the commonality of all of these people is that they haven't actually accomplished anything noteworthy in their entire career. They may have some gold albums hanging around their offices or even some gold cassettes, but they weren't actually involved with the project itself. They also have a fetish for nice foreign cars that they drive around town using other peoples' money. In the end, they accomplish nothing for the artist, and it may even offend them if you ask what they have been doing.

            I have had the pleasure of dealing with several of these reptiles in Nashville, one in Europe, and a few in other states. They all slither away in their BMW or Mercedes (possibly with a purple "Co-Exist" bumper sticker) as they begin to detect that they are about to be exposed, and head for the shadows. My "redneck" response would be to beat them until they can't stand up, but apparently this is frowned upon in the musical community. So, in the end, I find a way to turn the other cheek and try to get back on a reasonable path.

            I believe it is important to learn from life’s lessons, but I think it is just as important to appreciate the people that have been good and kind along the way. Throughout my “journey”, I have met countless people that have truly made all of this worth it. I have met great players, talented writers, as well as some talented engineers and producers, and one very cool publicist (my current one!). It is always good to talk with like-minded people, because if you aren’t in Nashville, people just won’t understand your passion for the industry and the music.

            As Christians, we are told to pray for discernment. We are also told to be honest and forgiving. I am honest, and I am forgiving. But, I must not be living right because this whole discernment thing seems to be completely unplugged when it comes to me. I'll just keep forging ahead though, because I love music more than I hate the business of music.

            My advice? If you smell cucumbers, either run or get a sharp shovel. And if they have one of those purple bumper stickers... Well, I'll just keep that to myself. 

(To learn more about hit country artist Scott Coner, visit www.ScottConer.com.)