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(Part One of Two)
By Kelly Dunn
Skip Ewing: The Horse and Writer program has been something we have done for they past ten years. This was inspired by my feelings when I went to Wyoming. I invited fifteen or twenty pro writers the following year to experience it. Everybody enjoyed it so much that it was important for writers wanting to work on their craft and open to furthering their craft. The program costs a little less than two thousand dollars, but for what it is that week. It's a seven-day program with writing, lodging, mentorship, and food. One day I got an email from a very kind, young lady who said that she loved the idea of the program but she just could not afford it, but one day maybe she could. That got me to thinking. When I was young I couldn't afford anything. Gosh, I was thinking that I could have learned so much from a program like when I was learning my craft. I think there are people I think really deserve to attend a program like Horse and Writer. So this is the first year of the Horse and Writer Invitational. Selected people will be selected based upon their potential and will attend for free. Perhaps next year we can get more sponsorship and we'll be able to invite more writers at our expense. Basically, we did this year we did this without any sponsorship. Maybe next year we can get an airline to fly them to Jackson Hole, we'll see. This year we are going to have a full ranch of really deserving writers whom are going to get one-on-one attention, not just from me, but the other excellent writers that are really affective mentors and teachers. But, really, we end up being each others' teachers. This isn't just about worrying about, tightening up a second verse, or talk about the foundation of melody. We look deeply at why we write, to whom we write and what we decide to write. We offer tools so that this insight and understanding can be applied for the rest of your writing career. It's not about how are we going to make just this one song good. The pro writers that are coming with me understand it.
Skip Ewing: When people come to Horse and Writer it is something that they can't get anywhere else. I think there is a need for a program like ours After writers have attended our program they really get it and they are really excited. It's exciting to me. I have to say that this is really a hard time for writers and we need the writing community to support itself. Kelly , you write some really good articles, I hope this isn't too much information...
Kelly Dunn: This is great, please continue!
Skip Ewing: It's just I feel that we need to be writing our very best, of course there are going to be hits, but we need to be at a level where the craftsmanship is excellent, skillful and purposeful. When a song has that kind of energy it enriches the lives of other by what we do. What this all means is that we continue to have a genre and craft that is viable.
Skip Ewing: They are both held on seperate weeks. The Classic program feature James Dean Hicks, Tim Johnson and myself. Anyone can come to the Classic week. We get all kinds of writers, from the beginner to the very established writer. The writers are so varied and they come from all over the world. After the first day I pretty level the playing field. Sure, I've made some money over the years and have some hits consistentl but that may not mean anything to another writer. But we as writers begin looking at ourselves and begin to understand our own writing to ourselves and then to others and publishers. These are some of the things that we delve into. After the first night we have a staff meeting and we'll plan our week ahead. There is nothing set in stone because everyone's needs are different.
Skip Ewing: Exactly, we may have a person who doesn't know anything about melody. Its varied and wonderful because we get to do what everyone is interested in. We do small group and large group work. However, the only thing we don't do during the Classic week is individual work. Now, at the Invitational there is individual, one-on-one for part of the time.
Skip Ewing: Please have your readers go to our web site and read the testimonials. You will see very successful writers right next to unknown writers expressing what a great time they had. You are right, people would not keep coming back it wasn't successful. I want to make one thing clear. This is not a song contest. This is writers applying to a program.
Skip Ewing: Of course, and we have anything to do with anyone's publishing. I can tell you the people that attend and are deserving will have their songs heard by major publishers. And I don't mean we drop off a CD and tell them to listen to it. We will sit down with a publisher and go over each song. But we do not seek to sign up writers to a publishing deal. What we would really like is to have one of writers establish a relationship with a publisher, not just to hear one song. I will assist a writer in finding a publisher but I myself do not seek to sign a writer. Here's the thing, I'm not doing this for the money. My main motivation for me is to share the information we have to the most deserving writers so that writing excellence can be cultivated. In return, we are giving our listeners the highest level of writing that we can offer. This way we keep our industry alive. Songwriting today is getting more and more difficult.
Skip Ewing: Look, we would have to accept a huge amount of applications to breatk even. The cost is
Skip Ewing: Come on! Way more than that! (laughter) This isn't a situation where someone wins first place. We are going to look deeply at the writer and go from there.
Skip Ewing: We want to offer a writer skills, awareness, abilities that will carry them through for the rest of their careers.
Skip Ewing: My grandfather was a thoroughbred rancher. And when I was a child I learned a lot about the caring of horses. I studied a lot about showing horses and reining work. Horses will teach us about ourselves. They are a very regal and powerful animals that are willing to work with us. Horses won't laugh at you, they won't lie to you and are capable of taking very specific que's. What we learn from horses is what we can learn about ourselves.
Please check out Skip's site "www.HorseAndWriter.com" and think about becoming part of this amazing group of songwriters.
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