Corey Bourque

nice song your grand daughter will be proud

Robert Lloyd

Thanks Corey… right now she is 11 months old, so maybe in a few more years. LOL

Brian Blevins

Robert,

I like this song a lot.  I read the lyrics first before I listen.  I really was not sure what to expect musically.  I really enjoyed what you did with it.

Very nice production.  Great job on the vocals all around too.  Singing, recording and Mixing them. 

Brian

Robert Lloyd

Thanks Brian… I am so appreciative of your comments. I have felt this is one of my best songs written these last several years and also within my lifetime spanning too many years. I find it hard to believe that we get better and better as a songwriter the older we are. Who would have thought that?

Thanks again…

Jackson Lucas

Hey Robert,

Here is a very personal reflection on what you have done, and where I would personally do things a bit differently.

I love the minor key, the sadness that sooner or later, we’re all going to look at out grandkids from above (I have no grandkids yet and I will, most likely, watch them from below), and that’s the way life is.

Now, I am pretty sure that your thoughts on your granddaughter are a non-starter on commercial country radio, where everyone is focused on themselves and their shiny new truck! These are the times, yes!

A couple of things I am suggesting thinking about commercial country (that I probably won’t do, even when I know where the winds are blowing, but I don’t know where you’re heading and what your intentions are):

1. Rework the lyric to reflect you’re singing about your daughter, not a granddaughter (a controversial shift, hard to explain, just that grand ds are a step removed…) that will bring it closer to the new country stars who are nowhere close to having granddaughters);

2. Have the bridge/chorus alternate sooner and more often. I recently had a “songwriting” course where a “hit producer” (quotes intentional!) told us that 9/10th of country songs have to be positive to make it. I will spare you my own thoughts, but it seems major keys are in, and minor keys are kept for special occasions….

In summary, I like your song, and while I don’t think it is very commercial to me, I don’t care.

Robert Lloyd

Thanks Jackson for your feedback. And I too have thought about the issue of me as a grandfather singing this certainly limits who could do it in its present lyrical form. But it, of course, was first written for my granddaughters keepsake. But it could easily be rewritten to the perspective of a dad and daughter without ruining the precious issue of the love between child, grandchild, father, mother, or grandparents.

But yes, that has always been in the back of my mine and you hit the nail on the head as far as “is it fit for the modern young country male singer”? No, but an Alan Jackson type certainly could do it well and be loved for it.

But I am, and I hope most everyone is, a songwriter first and foremost and I write a hole slew of types and genres. And yes, I can write the tongue-in-cheek songs too which I have done more than a few times. I have song called “Rednecks, Long Necks, and Wild Wild Women” you might like. But whatever the mood, I’m open for it and I love writing on request for whatever is needed for someone.

If that someone, artist or publisher, felt the song had merit, I would I go ahead and re-write the lyrics and re-record the vocal the way you have commented on here. But I write and record so much, and I am backlogged constantly with songs I need to demo-record, I just have so much time here unfortunately. Like most of us, I also have to put food on the table for my family and Nashville won’t do that for me at this time… though I have always dreamed of having a career like that. (urgh)

As far as a minor key, I just go where the song takes me. There is so much more room in the minor keys to do something beautiful that when I go to only a major key it is usually something frivolous and fun, which is ok at times also, but only an excursion.

As far as being positive, I can’t think of anything more positive than a song such as this, but I know what you are getting at with your thoughts on a more uplifting theme such as what a modern radio friendly country artist might like. I can’t be everything to everybody. But if you think of “My Way” or “The Impossible Dream”... I don’t mind doing the introspective song, or even Tony Arata’s “The Dance”. Ballads will be back and be back in a huge way eventually. But oh no, LOL, by that time maybe I will appreciate it “if only from heaven down”???

Thanks again Jackson, I loved your comments here. I take them to heart. BTW, I liked your two songs you have on this site. Good ones! Keep it up.