its been a stressful week. our funds are severely skinny and tensions are a wee high. we balance with humor and are creating the vernon rust reality.
I host the zaniness on my flickr site.
thegraffithunter.
You will find a mad case of photography and art. It’s all my own.
Just in case you’re reading about us for the first time, I’ll give you a quickie low-down: Vernon and I ran off together last year, fell kinda sorta GOOFY (tsk, tsk) in love, lost everything, gained a whole lot more and strive to bring the best out in everyone….
Oh, and we lived on the streets last summer. To be honest, this summer isn’t looking too grand either, but then as our dear friend Squeaky said last night, ‘why would I worry, God’s got my back’…
With Vernon, I believe that…
here’s a wonderful moment in time when Vernon Rust performed downtown nashville and another cool friend wandered up on us…
‘By joining ASCAP you can begin to register your songs, collect performance royalties….’
‘That’s funny, Vern, ‘Didn’t they tell you that YOU needed to get a performance set list from Keith’s people’.
‘Why, yes…’
‘But Vernon, they state categorically in their rules, regulations and governing documents that they collect performance royalties for the writer’.
I quote from their website:
“For live concerts, ASCAP uses set lists provided to us by concert promoters, the performing artists and our own members.”
Hmmmmm…
‘Well..honey (he doesn’t really call me that, it just sounded good…I haven’t received anything in the thirteen or so years that Keith has been performing those songs in concert’.
And let me tell you, the evidence is out there.
Log on to you tube.
It’s all there, beautifully documented by the fans cameras’, iPhones’, etc.
The artist is there on stage singing your song and it’s quite possible there’s a kid from the audience on stage, too. Sweet…
That’s a lot of foot work for a person to do.
That’s a tedious task for any individual.
Do you have any idea how many people, emails, phone calls it takes to get that information…for one concert year, let alone years of performances?
But what really bites, and bites really hard is being told by the organization that you are a member of that its your job to do.
EXCUSE ME for being a member!
Unhappily, but sorely in need of these severely back dated funds we contact Keith Urban’s folk.
‘That comes from ASCAP, Vernon. We don’t give out set lists.’
Next follows a barrage of expletives which I choose not to repeat, but as you can imagine and will understand this is extremely frustrating!
I wonder how many writers have missed out on their ‘God given right to their royalties from performances over the years.
It was probably too much trouble getting the concert set list themselves.
Perhaps, even a little bit of ‘well, maybe its just not worth my trouble, it’s too small’.
No earnings are too small and its organizations like ASCAP that bank on, and I mean BANK on the little (but with HUGE talents) guys not going to the trouble and just letting it slide. That’s a very large annual revenue for ASCAP, let alone the interest.
So we go back to ASCAP…but hang on they’re out of the office ’til Tuesday.
“ASCAP receives payment for public performances of songs and compositions by negotiating license fees with the users of music (radio, TV, cable, bars, clubs, restaurants, shopping malls, concert halls and promoters, web sites, airlines, orchestras, etc.) and distributing these monies to members whose works were performed.”
“There are billions of performances licensed by ASCAP each year. ASCAP is committed to paying our members for these performances fairly, accurately and efficiently. ASCAP collects and distributes more money in performance royalty income than any other organization and our payment system is by far the fairest and most objective in the U.S.”
Not so…
check this out, a hugely funny and timely interview with Vernon Rust that we recorded a while ago…
Wow…what a crazy few days and finally the realization of a dream and vision I had a year ago when I first met Vernon. It was Christmas morning and he came downstairs to the living area of a very depressing rooming house that we had both found ourselves trapped in.
He played a handful of his brilliant songs. Like I have written about so many times, his songs are like beautiful stories and it was one Christmas day that I will cherish forever. But what really impressed me and amazed me no end was the fact that Vernon is an incredible performer. If anyone should sing his songs, it is HIM!
The whirlwind months have been filled with wonderful news of one artist or another covering a Vernon Rust song…each and every day it’s something new and exciting. His songs are timeless classics, as cool and moving today as they were when he first penned them 5, 10, 15 plus years ago.
What struck me, this time last year…is the fact that if anyone should be out performing, wowing the crowd and singing from his vast repertoire, it is Vernon.
Last night he took the stage at The Werehouse and totally rocked the house with the help, support and creativity of an awesome group of musicians…Cody Cooke, Jackie Brock and Ryan Dougherty. It was an awesome set of shared songs, music and I can tell you the crowd loved it all! They opened for David Allen Coe and if any artist needed the audience warmed up, David surely was one lucky son of an outlaw gun.
Check out this awesome clip from last night’s show:
More importantly, earlier on that evening Vernon received an award and was inducted in to NXNWLAMusicFoundation (North by Northwest Louisiana Music Association) hall of fame. He joins an illustrious group of musicians and songwriters…Lead Belly and Bob Campbell, who is truly a radio icon and recorded artists such as Hank Williams and Elvis.
It was truly a blessed day…and a huge thank you must go out to Dan Garner for his long-standing friendship and support of Vernon and his music.
Me?
Wow…I loved every minute of seeing Vernon on stage, living his passion…finally doing what he should have been doing all these years.
My chest swelled with pride as I surveyed the happy crowd digging my man…
Thank you, as always for John Perkins who was there filming more footage for the Nashville Wild Child documentary so please head on over to Kickstarter and support this project.
So what prompted the recording of this fascinating documentary about one man?
One man who came to Nashville 25 years ago with a boat load of songwriting ideas and a sub conscious vision of having an influence on country music. Or on the recording industry for that matter…
Nashville had most certainly changed over the years and as my personal guide, historian and street companion, Vernon spent our homeless summer telling me all about country music people, the places, the recording studios on Music Row, his experiences….good and bad.
He reflected on what used to be, what once was and what no longer is…
Much has changed since the advent of the internet.
Since the proliferation of personal computers.
LP’s became cassettes…became CD’s…became downloads and unfortunately it all morphed in to file sharing…
Music became barely intangible…
Sadly, and to quote Vernon “you can’t wake up Christmas morning and find a download in your Christmas stocking….”
Illegal downloads whittled away at talented royalty cheques. They ensured that the most important people behind that awesome song you love to listen to on your Ipod, mp3 player, your laptop… is definitely not paid for his work. For his creation. For his idea.
This summer we visited the closed up studios and offices along Music Row. So many musicians, songwriters, technicians left with nothing to do but find a job, earn a paycheck, try to survive…in a rapidly changing business and city.
In Nashville, many (having come here from all over the country) wound up on the streets, their hopes and dreams of making it in the music industry vanished for good…
Vernon’s never vanished. He always believed in his music.
His songs became a dormant volcano, just waiting to erupt in popularity and figure out a way to beautifully infiltrate our technologically driven lives…
What I learned about Vernon though, is that he never lost his love of and belief in people.
Even when life had seemingly beaten him down.
Sometimes because of others, admittedly through his own faults.
His sense of humor kept him going, a constant lifeboat on a dodgy raft. One that has seen him through many a storm.
Most importantly, in my opinion he has songs to share with the world. Music that he is driven to share, with all walks of life.
He draws on his lifetime experiences, both hardships and joys and turns his emotions in to songs that we can all relate to.
His lyrics know no boundaries.
His songs are timeless pieces, more relevant today than when they were born years ago.
Stories about the hard cold life of reality,
of the changes in town when the factory closed down,
of the love we had even though our family was poor and how upon ‘looking back we were the rich kids, after all’,
of how ‘We need a lot more Jesus and a lot less of everything else’.
He currently has young artists such as Scotty McCreery, David Nail and Adam Brand recording and performing his songs.
Rising stars that weren’t even born when Vernon’s lyrics and music were conceived.
I will never forget the morning I found out Scotty McCreery was to include ‘walk in the country’ on his debut album.
The latest winner of American Idol, a young man with a rich, velvety smooth voice and stellar stage presence, wanted to sing my man’s song, a Vernon Rust song!
And sing it so well, too! I ran upstairs, where Vernon was asleep and did something I should never in a million years do, I woke him up….
“Hey, Scotty McCreery is gonna record ‘walk in the country’ for his album ‘Clear as day’”.
Sleepily,Vernon murmured and with very little excitement ‘Hmmmm, so…who is Scotty?’ ‘some local club singer?’ and then added ‘that’s good’ basically meaning ‘let me go back to sleep honey’.
I proceeded to bug him….tripping over words ABOUT how freakin’ wonderful this is, how he had better get up and BE excited! Scotty is HOT. He’s arguably the best winner, ever, of the very popular TV show.
I went on to get him up to full steam on Facebook. To re-connect him with friends from his past. Friends that very much wanted to help him with his future.
John Perkins had tried to find Vernon two years earlier by writing to him via everyone’s favourite social network.
Thankfully, John is a patient man.
He also happens to be a lifelong believer in Vernon’s music too.
Please click on the above link for more information about the documentary ‘Nashville Wild Child – The Vernon Rust Story’and to make a donation towards the production of Vernon’s highly entertaining and poignant story…
Now I would never in a million years claim to be an aficionado on great music. Neither would I say I’m a huge fan of country music. But I know what I like and I most certainly like what I know.
Recently I got to see behind the scenes of the making of a documentary titled ‘Nashville Wild Child – The Vernon Rust story’. It is a film about the man, the song writer that has become such a huge part of my life this year.
I first met Vernon when I moved to Nashville December 2010. I came here reluctantly and really with nowhere else to go, my life at a distinct crossroads with some definite changes to be made. Vernon happened to rent a room upstairs and he appeared Christmas morning, armed with his beautiful, unique and one-of-a- kind green guitar. I had already been told that he was one of the best songwriters in Nashville. What I heard that morning certainly backed that statement up.
Vernon is credited with having discovered and assisted in the making of country music’s very own Keith Urban. The two had written together nearly all of Urban’s first US album release ‘The Ranch’. An album that many fans claim to be Urban’s best with songs like ‘Walk in the country’, ‘Homespun love’ and ‘ Desiree’.
For whatever reasons, the two parted company. Urban went on to a very successful career in country music and Rust slipped in to relative obscurity, enjoying over time the income from smaller and smaller royalty checks. He hid himself away, rarely performed and lived life on the razor thin edge of poverty.
So what was a hugely talented singer/songwriter doing hiding in a fairly run down rooming house in Southern Hills, Nashville? Trying very hard to not pawn his unique guitar, for one and trying to survive on the erratic income from frozen meat sales.
What I encountered that Christmas morning were some of the most awesome songs I had ever heard. They flowed like beautiful, sometimes sad but forever hopeful rivers of human emotion and experience. They sung like stories.
Stories shared by couples falling in and out of love. And finding love again.
Stories that are sung to children at bed time.
He had my attention…
And I met a man who has become my lifelong friend, companion, mentor and inspiration…
Check back real soon for my blog – Nashville Wild Child Part II…
