A music business story that made me think of GCA...

[Mike_Young]

Pat Alger is a friend who has written the below letter on FB today.  Over is career he had something like 8 #1 songs such as Unanswered Prayers for Garth Brooks etc . (check him on wikipedia).  Anyway i it just seemed that this closely relates to the golf architecture business for many of us who were there when it was booming and still sort of hang around, do our thing and don't get all involved with fighting a non existent market....oh well just thought some might see the connect....


In 1998, I walked away from the music business that I grew up in and I don't think anyone really noticed but me. My career began in Atlanta in the late 1960s but by this point, as I watched the landscape of the big business of music changing completely, I no longer saw where I fit in. I had no axe to grind – I had been blessed – but I decided to re-evaluate everything I had been taking for granted. The longer I stayed in the background, the more distant I became, until finally I realized I wasn't coming back – the decision had been made for me.
[/color][/size]I still kept an office on Music Row (a mythical place by then) and I never stopped writing. In my opinion I was still writing as good as I ever did, but that's easy to say when you're not really competing with the current crop of talented writers. Most everything I've done since then has received very little notice, which has been fine with me but perhaps a little unfair to the talented people who recorded those songs. Looking back I am surprised how many have actually been released – a few of which did surprisingly well.[/font]
[/color][/size]This week I received several CDs in the mail (as well as mp3's) of upcoming releases that I'm proud to be a small part of and I'd like to share them with you. It's a pleasure to shine a spotlight on these very talented friends.[/font]
[/color][/size]BAT McGRATH
First and foremost this is a career retrospective from one of my best friends and most prolific collaborators, Bat Mcgrath. I have more songs on Bat McGrath projects than any other artist. He is perhaps the best songwriter you have never heard of – a Hall of Fame legend in Rochester, New York & Canada, he has been living a quiet life in Ashland City for a many years with his wife, the gifted actress Tricia Cast. Due to a recent grim health prognosis, his friends Fred Mullin and Matt McCauley pulled this all volunteer project together and I have been riding around listening to it in my car all week. It is awe-inspiring in its complexity and honest simplicity. Bat is one of the best lyricists I've had the honor to work with and he always makes you raise the level of your game when you write with him. The songs are at once heart-wrenching and humorous – invoking smiles as often as tears. Most of the 19 songs he wrote by himself, but of the half a dozen cowrites I am proud to have contributed two of them. Please take a moment to go to his website and read his story and order a copy of this soon-to-be classic recording – it will enrich your life.
batmcgrath.com[/size][/font]
[/color][/size]RUBY LOVETT / IT'S A HARD LIFE (Puff Bunny Records)
Ruby is one of the top five best country singers I've ever heard – right up there with Tammy and Loretta. We just missed each other when we wrote at forerunner Music, but at a reunion years later we connected and wrote a couple of wonderful songs. This album is full of great songs and performances, including the Nanci Griffith title track as well as quite a few by Ruby and her co-producer Taylor Pie. Our song "Where I'm Standing Today", about her recovery journey, is one of the best lyrics I've ever been part of. There isn't a false molecule in anything Ruby does – she is as deep as the country roots she hails from and one of the funniest people on earth – I encourage you to to do yourself a favor and order a copy today.
rubylovett.com[/size][/font]
[/color][/size]AMY McCARLEY / MECO
A few years back I played at Douglas Corner with my buddies Janet McLaughlin and Wood Newton and a new singer/songwriter, Amy McCarley from Huntsville, Alabama. The intensity of her guitar playing and singing was riveting and the songs were all uniquely her vision. We ended up becoming good friends and I quite selfishly encouraged her to write some songs with me. I thought it would be great to be a part of something so different from what I usually do and I thought I could perhaps add something unexpected to her unique style. We approached the idea cautuiously and one day at my office we wrote a heartfelt song about her grandparents that was different for both of us. We went on to write 5 of the 10 songs on her new album and as her producer Kenny Vaughan remarked these songs sound like Amy McCarley songs – not Nashville co-writes – as fine a complement as we could have hoped for. A long time NASA engineer, her story is fascinating – check her out and order this really cool album - you won't regret it. The album release party is in Huntsville on June 1 and I will be in the band.
amymccarley.com[/size][/font]
[/color][/size]COMING SOON....[/font]
[/color][/size]LIVINGSTON TAYLOR / LIVE- 50 Years of Live Performances
He includes my song "Heart and Soul To Me" previously recorded by Michael Johnson and one we performed together at the Franklin Theatre last year. One of the finest live solo performers I've ever seen and the singer who first recorded my songs "First Time Love" & "City Lights". livingstontaylor.com[/size][/font]
[/color][/size]TONY ARATA / GETTING OLDER
A new set of classic Tony Arata songs that includes "My Mother's Son" our song about our sweet mothers – both from the same hometown. My little brother from another Mother delivers these songs as no one else can – available soon. tonyarata.com[/size][/font]
[/color][/size]PAT ALGER / SOMEWHERE IN A SONG
My first recording in a very long time it includes 3 songs and 1 instrumental that I wrote by myself and 10 more songs written with 10 of my favorite writers including Tony Arata, Jon Vezner Bat McGrath and Ward Davis.
Available in the fall – details to follow...[/font]
[/color][/size]Thanks for supporting these talented friends - there is nothing like the healing power of great music.[/font]

[John Kirk]

I thought I'd at least acknowledge your post.  Thanks for sharing.  Mr. Alger is co-composer on one song in my collection, "The Thunder Rolls".  My Mom liked that one.   I have immense respect for people who write popular songs.  It's a special skill.

The difference between golf architecture and popular music is the continued demand for good new songs.  There is limited demand for new golf courses.  On the other hand, it's interesting how Mr. Alger faded into the "background", and how his new songs seem every bit as good as his well-known efforts in younger days.

I don't know how songwriting royalties have been affected by the modern music culture, with audio streaming websites like Spotify driving down the cost to listen to music.  Perhaps it affects the songwriter's royalties as well.  The inability of the music industry to command a fair price for the privilege of listening to recordings, is a damn shame.

[Mike_Young]

John,
Pat is doing fine.
What I was trying to say is that not all in the golf business are out promoting since the projects are not national so it may be that there is more going on from guys who have been in it for a while than people think.  While a few fight for the few jobs you hear about there is still much no one hears of...same as the music stuff...

[V_Halyard]

With feet in both worlds I love this post.  I also continue to think one of your most under the radar Mike Young Design projects is also at the top of my personal “most important restorations in golf” list.
Hoping the management hasn’t f-(#d it up. 

[Mike_Young]

With feet in both worlds I love this post.  I also continue to think one of your most under the radar Mike Young Design projects is also at the top of my personal “most important restorations in golf” list.
Hoping the management hasn’t f-(#d it up.

I'll fill you in soon.  All is good...

[Lou_Duran]

Two things, I always suspected that MY was not really the Jeff Foxworthy/Larry The Cable Guy of golf architecture, but a Renaissance Man keeping it down low.  When he starts channeling Robert Frost in his "golf is not big business" shtick, that will be all the confirmation I need.


Second, as a 20 handicapper when it comes to music, I knew that "Thunder Road" and "Unanswered Prayers" were fantastic Garth Brooks songs.  Never heard of MY's pal Pat Alger.  It got me to thinking how many other significant collaborators on golf courses I really like are left unrecognized.  Beau Welling, only because his association with Tiger and now getting out on his own, might be one of them.