From Dick Weissman: Interesting article in Monday’s Wall St. Journal about three female Nashville songwriters who are really tearing it up (Hillary Lindsay, Liz Rose and Lori Mckenna). Mckenna actually lives in New England and commutes to Nashville. All of them have had lots of hits. None of them are performers. Thinking about the history of country writers, only Cindy Walker comes to mind as a pure songwriter who wrote many hits. Other female country writers , like Mae Axton and Marijohn Willins had hits, but not consistently. I’m not talking about writer-performer, but just writers. http://www.dickweissman.com
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Three of the most powerful moms in Nashville are working on a new song when someone blurts out a lyric about a woman stripping off her clothes. The line—“Don’t drop that dress”—seems like one that could actually be in a country song, but it sounds too dirty here and the women burst out laughing.
Lori McKenna, who with Liz Rose and Hillary Lindsey form a songwriting team known as the Love Junkies, explains that they’re trying to write something a man could sing. But, Ms. Lindsey adds, they don’t want it to sound “too dudey.”
The Love Junkies rarely perform together and have never made an album. They aren’t anchored by a celebrity. Ms. McKenna doesn’t even live in Nashville but instead treks down for writing sessions about every two months, rising at what she calls “the butt-crack of dawn” to travel from her native Stoughton, Mass.
Yet artists now making records across Nashville know these three hitmakers for collaborations that include the mega-single “Girl Crush,” a song recorded by Little Big Town that won the 2015 Grammy for best country song and the Country Music Association’s 2015 song of the year. Last month, the women sang background for Carrie Underwood as she performed their ballad “Like I’ll Never Love You Again” for the CMT Artists of the Year televised special. To date, they’ve sold more than 50 million copies of songs they’ve written individually, together and with others.
Nashville songwriters often try to write for specific artists recording albums at the time, but not the Love Junkies. “We really just write to impress each other, I think, more than anything,” said Ms. McKenna.
Ms. Rose is best known for singles she co-wrote with Taylor Swift, including “You Belong With Me” and “White Horse.” Ms. Lindsey’s current hits include singles for Ms. Underwood, Keith Urban and Lady Gaga.
Now it’s Ms. McKenna’s turn in the spotlight. A song of hers recorded by Tim McGraw, “Humble & Kind,” won the CMA’s 2016 song of the year this month, marking the first time since 2011 the honor went to a song written by just one person. She recently released her 10th album, “The Bird & the Rifle,” which includes her own version of “Humble & Kind,” a song filled with life advice that she wrote for her five children.
“I’m getting absolutely blown up for Lori right now—a lot of artists and songwriters are asking, ‘Can we go to Boston?’ ” said Jeff Skaggs, senior creative director at Ms. McKenna’s publisher, Creative Nation.
The women, close friends introduced by their representatives about five years ago, play off each other’s differences. Ms. McKenna, 47, is the youngest of six who married her high-school sweetheart at 19. Ms. Rose, 59, has been married four times and has three kids. Ms. Lindsey is 40 and a new mom.
In writing sessions spanning several days, the women sprawl across the living room in Ms. Rose’s airy Nashville home, under the steady gaze of a mounted South Texas deer. In stints lasting from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., with grown-up slumber parties in between, they write, drink coffee, write, drink wine, write more. On a recent morning while writing a tune called “Baby Don’t,” Ms. McKenna probes its internal logic while Ms. Lindsey harmonizes and Ms. Rose plucks lyrics from the air. The women switch roles throughout the song and continue to do so as they write into the afternoon. When it’s late, a napping Ms. Rose sometimes offers dead-on lyrics that only her co-writers will remember the next morning.
Ms. Lindsey said their sisterhood makes the songs. “Our friendship translates into our writing, and we’re able to be more open and free,” she said. “Obviously we have a lot of fun, but we also dig deep.”
Ms. McKenna’s roots in a former industrial town in New England don’t always mix with her Nashville life. About six years ago, Ms. Swift visited her to work on a song. Neighbors spotted security in the cul-de-sac and called police. Many in the local police force went to high school with Ms. McKenna, and an officer called to find out what was going on. “Poor Taylor, we got her out of there just in time,” Ms. McKenna said.
At a party at a Nashville club this month, Ms. McKenna sang “Old Men Young Women” from her new album, a blistering song that ought to make anyone in a May-December relationship uncomfortable. “Well you say he’s so nice, he treats you so good, well he’s had enough damn practice, he sure as hell should,” she sang. Later, she turned Boston wiseguy as she asked the crowd, “Nobody took it personally, right?”
Near the end of the evening Ms. McKenna was joined on stage by Ms. Rose and Ms. Lindsey for a new song, “Like Patsy Would,” about Patsy Cline. The women performed with restraint—no flashy clothes, no stage drama—to a packed house. As if to make sure the audience realized what they’d just seen, the event’s emcee leaned into the microphone and teased: “That’s three of the richest songwriters in Nashville.”
Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com
By Ellen Gamerman
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Next Durango Songwriters Expo in Ventura, CA – February 16-18, 2017
http://www.durango-songwriters-expo.com