Good Film "It All Begins with a Song"

[Dogma]

I watched this documentary on Nashville songwriters last night on Amazon. It's really good and has - surprise, surprise - a high guitar quotient! To me, it's particularly interesting in its focus on the craft of songwriting and ways in which a wide variety of artists approach that craft. Won big at Cannes too!

Check it out.

[SongwriterFan]

Did it happen to feature a song called "Without The Song", written by Thom Shepherd and Steve Williams?

Thom is a friend of mine. Moved to Texas after being in Nashville . . now he's living in Idaho.

[Dogma]

Don't think so but I wasn't familiar with everyone so could be wrong....
Watch and see!

[Mbroady]

Originally Posted by Dogma

I watched this documentary on Nashville songwriters last night on Amazon. It's really good and has - surprise, surprise - a high guitar quotient! To me, it's particularly interesting in its focus on the craft of songwriting and ways in which a wide variety of artists approach that craft. Won big at Cannes too!

Check it out.

Thanks for the heads up. I got it save in my cue and look forward to checking it out soon.

[crnazz]

Thanks for posting! I just got done watching it and thoroughly enjoyed it. One part, you probably know which part, brought tears.....
Highly recommend!

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by Dogma

Don't think so but I wasn't familiar with everyone so could be wrong....
Watch and see!

No, it didn't. But I think that song would've been better than the one they chose to use as the main them. Oh, well.

Still, a great show. Unfortunately, I watched it on Apple TV (cost me $3.99) instead of Amazon (where it would've been free). If only they both didn't begin with "A", maybe I would've remembered the right one.

I've seen several of the featured songwriters "live" before:

Jon Randall
Jessi Alexander (who's married to Jon)
Chuck Cannon
Bill Anderson
Victoria Shaw

Here's a crazy, convoluted story that involves both Jon and Jessi (and a few other songwriters I know). It all starts with The Wilkinsons, a father-daughter-son trio that I followed from about 1999 to maybe 2004 or so.

I went to Grand Cayman to see them perform, and there I saw a musician named Austin Cunningham. He was playing for a mother-daughter duo called The Bakers. They never made it (didn't get an album cut). I think they were on the Sony label.

A few years later, I was in Nashville at Tin Pan South, and watching four songwriters at The Sutler. One of them was Jessi Alexander. I remember her mainly because when I was looking through the 70-200 lens (I was into concert photography then), it looked like she was winking right at me . . . . very deliberately, multiple times. Finally, I turned around, and behind me was . . Austin Cunningham. THAT'S who she was winking at.

Flash forward to 2011 or so, and I'm in the DFW area at one of my favorite places, and I see a sign for Austin Cunningham. I didn't really remember the name, but I certainly recognized him in the picture. When I saw him, I asked about the Caymans thing (I didn't remember the Tin Pan South incident with Jessi Alexander until later). He confirmed that he was in the Caymans at that time, and filled in details that I'd forgotten (like the name of the mother-daughter duo).

A few years later, I'm in a Guitar Center in DFW, and there's a guy maybe 10 years my senior trying out a used custom signature Martin that I'd never heard of. Curious about it, I looked it up on my phone. He handed the guitar to the salesman, asking if he could knock the price down a bit. As the salesman left, I told the guy that the price was already a very good deal, based on what I'd seen. He said he knew that, but thought he could get an even better price on it.

I noticed he had on a Nashville baseball cap, so I asked if he was from there. He said that he wasn't, but that his son lived there. So I asked what his son did, and he said he was a songwriter. Since I know quite a few of them there, I asked his name, and he said Jon Randall. I recognized the name, but couldn't place where I knew him (was pretty sure I hadn't seen him live or have any of his CDs). He said he'd written "Whiskey Lullaby". Oh, THAT Jon Randall. That's where I knew the name from.

After I got home, I googled him, and noticed that he was married to Jessi Alexander. Now where had I heard THAT name before? Then I remembered that this was the gal who I thought I had been winking at me. So I went back to my pictures to confirm, and yes, there she was. I had quite a few pictures of her "in the round" with the other performers that night. And then at the end, there was Austin Cunningham playing. Note: Austin has a house in Nashville, but when he's here in the DFW area, he lives about a mile from me with his wife in her house.

The next time I saw Austin, I confirmed what I had remembered/concluded . . and he said that he was dating Jessi at that time (thus the winking, bringing him up on stage during the set, etc).

Then, just to complete the circle, Jon Randall co-wrote "Twenty Years From Now" with Kylie Rae Harris, another local songwriter in the DFW area. Kylie was one of my favorite singer/songwriters. I was a huge fan of hers, and we had become friends. The only time I've seen Jon Randall play, unfortunately, is when he played that song at her funeral last year, after her tragic death.

Because of how I felt after her death, I ended up writing this song to her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAZ0EA8Leso

[MCP850]

It is amazing how many music documentaries there are on prime