Writing an entire country music album was a wonderful experience and a great opportunity to get to know myself better. Three of the songs were true, in every detail, of my personal account of certain events. Eight of these songs were written in a six week period as I was experiencing a writers "rush". What worked for me in song writing was to think of a neat story and think about it for a day and play around with rhyming words related to the story. When I was ready, I would sit down and write the whole thing almost without pause. The words were written in my head already and found their way onto paper rather easily.
4th of July weekend in 2011 found me in Houston visiting a good friend. I had to write 3 more songs in order to offer a full-length Album. I wrote 2 of them on the 3rd, and had one left to go. The next day we went to Surfside Beach where I did my most favorite thing, bodysurfing. I love the water and I love to swim. We rode our bikes on the beach for a couple of miles and on the way back, I saw something amazing and just yelled to my friend to "Stop!". And there it was. Spelled out on the sand, very neatly and large, was the phrase, "I Love my Family". The 'word' Love was in the shape of a heart.
As my friend was taking pictures of this amazing creation, a little girl, no more than 9 years old, runs up to us and proudly said that her Mom made this. The girls name was Casey and I told her that I had a golden retriever with the same cool name. The rest of her family came down to greet us; Mom, Dad and her little brother. We all chatted for quite awhile and I told them how wonderful and how impressed I was with this arrangement of shells. I finally looked at Casey and asked her what was the most important thing in life. As I expected, she beamed and shouted out "Family". I told her that when she has a family some day, maybe it would be a great family tradition for them to spell out this phrase in shells every time they go to the beach. The family assured me that that was a good idea and plan to start this tradition.
My friend and I eventually left and rode our bikes away. Within a minute, I told him that I finally have my last song. That night I wrote this song in about 40 minutes. The song writing part of the album was done and I was relieved, tired, and excited all at the same time.
I never told Casey and her family that I was working on a Country Music album, but wished I had. I think about Casey now and then and hope one day she will hear this song, because when she does, she will know that those shells were hers. I hope some day I can meet the family and thank them for the inspiration that they gave me to write this song and finally finish the album.
Three points I want to make here. First, family is so important and we all must not take our families for granted, but to love each and every one every single day, Second, it is amazing how life can always bring people together perhaps coincidentally and maybe only briefly, but in a way where each one gains inspiration from the other. Where that person that you may run into actually touches your life in a special way. And last, although writing lyrics for a song can be challenging, sometimes a story or idea can just fall into your lap magically. Perhaps that is the the most fun and rewarding aspect to writing songs. And when someone may have 'writers block', that can all be resolved with a single and powerful experience. Just look around and you will see that there is so many really neat things out there to be discovered and appreciated. And maybe Casey knows that more than most of us.
Lou Ross
My friend and I eventually left and rode our bikes away. Within a minute, I told him that I finally have my last song. That night I wrote this song in about 40 minutes. The song writing part of the album was done and I was relieved, tired, and excited all at the same time.
I never told Casey and her family that I was working on a Country Music album, but wished I had. I think about Casey now and then and hope one day she will hear this song, because when she does, she will know that those shells were hers. I hope some day I can meet the family and thank them for the inspiration that they gave me to write this song and finally finish the album.
Three points I want to make here. First, family is so important and we all must not take our families for granted, but to love each and every one every single day, Second, it is amazing how life can always bring people together perhaps coincidentally and maybe only briefly, but in a way where each one gains inspiration from the other. Where that person that you may run into actually touches your life in a special way. And last, although writing lyrics for a song can be challenging, sometimes a story or idea can just fall into your lap magically. Perhaps that is the the most fun and rewarding aspect to writing songs. And when someone may have 'writers block', that can all be resolved with a single and powerful experience. Just look around and you will see that there is so many really neat things out there to be discovered and appreciated. And maybe Casey knows that more than most of us.
Lou Ross
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