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Celebrating Nashville's Music Legacy: Melissa Bollea-Rowe on Songwriting and Community Support in Music City · Takin’ A Walk Nashville

0:00
Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.
0:02
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking
0:05
Speaker 2: a Walk Nashville, and today I am back at the
0:08
Speaker 2: Russell Hotel and East Nashville. In their podcast studio, The
0:11
Speaker 2: Russell gives away a percentage of each night's stay to
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Speaker 2: local nonprofits who are helping those experiencing homelessness here in Nashville.
0:20
Speaker 2: The average weekend stay at the Russell Hotel provide sixteen
0:24
Speaker 2: nights in a bed, one hundred free showers, or thirty
0:27
Speaker 2: three meals for someone experiencing homelessness, so definitely check them out.
0:33
Speaker 2: And here with me today is songwriter, publisher and author
0:37
Speaker 2: Melissa Bala Rowe. And I've had the privilege of writing
0:41
Speaker 2: with you and performing alongside you at the Bluebird Cafe
0:45
Speaker 2: and Listening Room here in Nashville. And Melissa, I'm so
0:48
Speaker 2: happy to have you on the podcast today. Thank you
0:50
Speaker 2: for being here.
0:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. This is such an amazing hotel.
0:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so beautiful. I love the podcast studio and here,
0:58
Speaker 2: and throughout your songwriting career, you've had many cuts by
1:02
Speaker 2: various artists, including Ali Colleen, who is Garth Brooks's daughter,
1:08
Speaker 2: Karen Waldrup Jimmy Charles, just to name a few, and
1:12
Speaker 2: your publishing company, Rhyme Partners, owns hundreds of songs, including
1:16
Speaker 2: Bonnie Tyler's latest single, Yes I Can So. I want
1:20
Speaker 2: to get to all of this in a bet, But
1:22
Speaker 2: can you just start by telling us how you started
1:26
Speaker 2: your music career and what brought you here to Nashville.
1:30
Speaker 3: I think for as long as I can remember living
1:32
Speaker 3: in Florida, I'd wanted to get to Nashville. I worked
1:36
Speaker 3: in a salon for many years, and I would literally
1:39
Speaker 3: dream about playing the Bluebird Cafe. What would that be like?
1:42
Speaker 3: And for me, it was a matter of timing. I
1:45
Speaker 3: have a son, I had him pretty young in my life,
1:49
Speaker 3: and I though I wanted to get to Tennessee, I
1:52
Speaker 3: didn't want to remove him from his roots and his
1:56
Speaker 3: life there with all of our families, so I waited.
1:59
Speaker 3: I was in my mid thirties before I actually made
2:02
Speaker 3: it to Tennessee, and I once I got here, I
2:05
Speaker 3: did not want to waste a moment, and I started working.
2:09
Speaker 3: I landed a job at Great American Country, which was
2:11
Speaker 3: then on music Row, and it started out as supposed
2:17
Speaker 3: to be a temp job for three days, and I
2:19
Speaker 3: just had a talk with Jesus and I said, I'd
2:23
Speaker 3: like to turn this into a permanent thing, and I did,
2:27
Speaker 3: and that was a big launch for me with my career,
2:31
Speaker 3: with learning the business and also building relationships.
2:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Great American Countries now Great American Family, I
2:38
Speaker 2: believe as the network. And then from there you opened
2:42
Speaker 2: your publishing company, Ryan Partners in twenty thirteen. You've had
2:46
Speaker 2: songs placed in TV and film, a lot of cuts.
2:51
Speaker 2: What made you decide to open up your publishing company
2:54
Speaker 2: and was it hard when you first opened it?
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Speaker 3: Well, they say ignorance is bliss, and that was none
3:01
Speaker 3: true than starting a publishing company without having a lot
3:05
Speaker 3: of real understanding of how to collect royalties. And I
3:08
Speaker 3: always tell people that, you know, I just dove in
3:11
Speaker 3: and spent many years and still working my way backwards,
3:16
Speaker 3: but I wouldn't change a thing, and just going back
3:19
Speaker 3: real quick to what is now Great American Family ironically,
3:23
Speaker 3: And we've had lots of as a company. I've had
3:25
Speaker 3: lots of songs and Christmas movies, but my first as
3:28
Speaker 3: a writer, ironically was with GAC Family Network. You know,
3:32
Speaker 3: there's so many out there, there's all the streaming services,
3:35
Speaker 3: there's the Wholemark channels. But I thought it was so
3:39
Speaker 3: cool to land my first Christmas movie and I felt
3:42
Speaker 3: right at home with gac family.
3:44
Speaker 2: What Christmas movie was that that's.
3:46
Speaker 3: Called Journey to Christmas. So that was a couple of
3:48
Speaker 3: years ago, and it's still every year it comes out.
3:51
Speaker 3: As matter of fact, it was on Great American Family
3:54
Speaker 3: on the thirtieth of last year, November, but every year
3:59
Speaker 3: it comes out. And there's a song called Mary Almost
4:02
Speaker 3: Christmas in that movie, and that's the song.
4:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely check out that song. And you know, I
4:08
Speaker 2: think entertainment seems to run in your family. I recently
4:11
Speaker 2: learned that your uncle was Terry Jean Bala aka Old
4:16
Speaker 2: Cogan and unfortually bessed away this year or so. I'm
4:20
Speaker 2: sorry for your loss. But were you were you close
4:23
Speaker 2: to him growing up?
4:26
Speaker 3: Well, we have a very small family, so it was
4:29
Speaker 3: just my father was his brother. My grandparents had you know,
4:31
Speaker 3: two sons, and so we were a small family. And yeah,
4:36
Speaker 3: I remember Gosh being a teenager and my uncle and
4:40
Speaker 3: his wrestling friends at that time, they'd have been in
4:43
Speaker 3: their like late twenties, and they were just giant human
4:46
Speaker 3: beings to me. Maybe I was, you know, not even
4:50
Speaker 3: a teenager. I was probably like ten eleven years old.
4:52
Speaker 3: But they come walking through the house and there's vetos,
4:56
Speaker 3: and I was always just like, I just I remember
4:59
Speaker 3: being so fascinated at how large they were. But yeah,
5:04
Speaker 3: and over the years, just like kind of any family,
5:06
Speaker 3: you know, that were ebbs and flows, and there were
5:08
Speaker 3: times when we were closer in other times. My uncle,
5:13
Speaker 3: especially the first part of his career, he spent a
5:16
Speaker 3: great amount of time on the road. You know, three
5:19
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty five days a year. He probably early
5:21
Speaker 3: in his career was on the road three hundred of those.
5:24
Speaker 3: So it was complicated for sure.
5:26
Speaker 2: Yeah. Was anyone else in your family playing music?
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Speaker 3: Yes, actually my grandmother, So I grew up in a
5:32
Speaker 3: very musical home. My grandmother, I always bragged that she,
5:36
Speaker 3: which was his mother, played like liberachi. We had a
5:40
Speaker 3: you know, piano in the home always. And then my
5:42
Speaker 3: cousin Brooke, his daughter, she's a wonderful musician. She's a
5:47
Speaker 3: piano player also. And while I play acoustic, I actually
5:52
Speaker 3: piano is more my first instrument also, So I have
5:57
Speaker 3: I spent my time now between here and Florida, and
6:01
Speaker 3: I've got pianos in both music rooms. But yeah, so
6:04
Speaker 3: I actually come from a pretty musical family. Yeah, my
6:07
Speaker 3: uncle played bass in the bands before he sold all
6:11
Speaker 3: his equipment and decided that and literally verbatim told his father,
6:16
Speaker 3: my grandfather, that he was going to be the greatest
6:19
Speaker 3: wrestler in the world. And so I still have all
6:22
Speaker 3: the I've still got all kinds of pictures of my
6:26
Speaker 3: uncle and his bands in the seventies with those high
6:29
Speaker 3: platform shoes on. It was just really really cool.
6:33
Speaker 2: That's cool. And you've also collaborated with the legendary Bonnie
6:38
Speaker 2: Tyler in your career. I really want you to tell
6:42
Speaker 2: our listeners about the Rocks and Honey story because I
6:45
Speaker 2: think this really depicts like what it's like to be
6:48
Speaker 2: a songwriter in Nashville sometimes.
6:51
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and there are so many stories, but that
6:54
Speaker 3: one certainly is hilarious and interesting. A gentleman on music
7:03
Speaker 3: Row that used to work for Dream Records and Universal
7:07
Speaker 3: Music went by the name of Spoon, and he still
7:10
Speaker 3: goes by the name of Spoon, but he's no longer
7:11
Speaker 3: in the music business. But he was one of my
7:13
Speaker 3: very first champions when I came to town. He heard a
7:17
Speaker 3: song I wrote called I Want to Wear White, and
7:19
Speaker 3: he came to a couple of my early shows and
7:23
Speaker 3: he just became such a champion. It was my very
7:26
Speaker 3: first publishing deal. He was working with Wren song Reed Geier.
7:33
Speaker 3: I guess are you familiar with them?
7:37
Speaker 2: On Music Row?
7:38
Speaker 3: And he was working in the office with Hearns. So
7:41
Speaker 3: I had sort of a handshake pub deal. And one
7:45
Speaker 3: day he called me up and he said, Hey, what
7:47
Speaker 3: are you doing today? Would you like to write with
7:50
Speaker 3: Bonnie Tyler? And I just, of course thought he was joking.
7:53
Speaker 3: I was like, shut up, and He's like, no, really,
7:56
Speaker 3: I've got Bonnie Tyler here and Bonnie Baker, who by
7:59
Speaker 3: the way, is an incredible hit songwriter here and town
8:03
Speaker 3: and love her work, you know as well. And so
8:08
Speaker 3: I just stopped what I was doing and I ran
8:10
Speaker 3: down to do that. And on the drive there, I
8:12
Speaker 3: was really emotional because early in my life I lost
8:16
Speaker 3: my mother and I can distinctly remember just as a
8:22
Speaker 3: child bawling my eyes out to totally Clips of the Heart.
8:25
Speaker 3: And I wasn't even really old enough to really understand
8:30
Speaker 3: the lyrics. I just felt them, and so I was
8:34
Speaker 3: in kind of in awe of the fact that I'm
8:37
Speaker 3: driving to this writing appointment where I'm going to be
8:41
Speaker 3: sitting in a room with this woman, and sure enough,
8:43
Speaker 3: writing session was amazing. We wrote a song called One
8:46
Speaker 3: Mistake that day and just hearing her voice and I
8:49
Speaker 3: still of course saved the work tapes. But Bonnie became
8:53
Speaker 3: a dear friend of mine after that, and in fact,
8:57
Speaker 3: we used to text back and forth, and I used
8:59
Speaker 3: to get nervous because she'd be texting me from Wales.
9:01
Speaker 3: And this is back when we didn't have unlimited text.
9:04
Speaker 3: You'd actually get your phone bill and you'd see like
9:07
Speaker 3: all these additional charges. So it's like, how am I
9:10
Speaker 3: gonna tell Bonnie.
9:11
Speaker 2: Just not texted me?
9:13
Speaker 3: It's much But yeah, So through the years we stayed
9:17
Speaker 3: in touch, and she's such a wonderful woman and such
9:20
Speaker 3: an icon and I cannot believe how her fan base is.
9:24
Speaker 3: And I actually have something else pretty cool in the
9:28
Speaker 3: works with a song that I co wrote with Megan Connor,
9:33
Speaker 3: who's amazing, and it's a collaboration. I wish that I
9:37
Speaker 3: could speak on it, but it does include Bonnie and
9:40
Speaker 3: and some other folks, so I'm and it's a song
9:43
Speaker 3: that is just so special. So I look forward to that,
9:48
Speaker 3: you know, coming up this year me too, So yeah,
9:54
Speaker 3: that that's the story, and oh you wanted to know
9:56
Speaker 3: about Rocks and Honey, and I went off on a tangent.
9:58
Speaker 2: Okay, I loved hearing how you got to meet Eric.
10:01
Speaker 2: I'm sure I was really nerve wracking the first time
10:04
Speaker 2: writing with her.
10:05
Speaker 3: It was she was just so open and honest in
10:08
Speaker 3: what she wanted to talk about that day that she
10:12
Speaker 3: made it just kind of effortless. But I was probably
10:15
Speaker 3: a little bit more excited than nervous. I probably should
10:17
Speaker 3: have been more nervous, but I was a little bit
10:19
Speaker 3: more excited than nervous, and I was just I actually
10:21
Speaker 3: was very much in the moment, and so I cherished
10:24
Speaker 3: that writing session. But that led to the friendship, which
10:26
Speaker 3: led to her putting together her album, and she invited
10:32
Speaker 3: me to her album release party and she had a
10:35
Speaker 3: duet with Vince gill on there, and somebody in the
10:41
Speaker 3: room said, Wow, their voices sound like Rocks and Honey together,
10:47
Speaker 3: and of course I immediately was like, oh, my goodness,
10:50
Speaker 3: that's a great song. And so the next day I
10:52
Speaker 3: was in a writing session with billdi and we wrote
10:55
Speaker 3: it and I immediately sent it to David huff which
10:58
Speaker 3: is Dan Huff's brother, because he was producing her and
11:02
Speaker 3: he said, gosh, we're just about wrapped up, but let
11:05
Speaker 3: me play this for her. So they were done recording,
11:09
Speaker 3: but she said she loved the song and she loved
11:13
Speaker 3: the title, so we really thought we were gonna get
11:15
Speaker 3: on the album. But as it turns out, she just
11:17
Speaker 3: titled her album Rocks and Honey. And I actually didn't
11:22
Speaker 3: know that until for some reason, Bill and I were
11:26
Speaker 3: on Wikipedia one day and Wikipedia said American songwriters Bill
11:32
Speaker 3: Dye and Melissa b o Leah while they wrote the
11:35
Speaker 3: song Rocks and Honey, it became the title name, but
11:38
Speaker 3: the song didn't get on the album, And I was like,
11:41
Speaker 3: go figure, thank you so much. Nashville.
11:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so frustrating because, especially as a songwriter, you
11:47
Speaker 2: always hear stories of, you know, the artist is really
11:51
Speaker 2: interested and sometimes even goes ahead and records the song,
11:55
Speaker 2: but it doesn't make on the app, it doesn't make
11:57
Speaker 2: it on the album, it doesn't see the light of
11:59
Speaker 2: the day. And maybe they had the song on hold
12:01
Speaker 2: so no one else can cut it for a while.
12:04
Speaker 2: So it can definitely be frustrating for Nashville songwriters. In
12:08
Speaker 2: your instance, you can't copyright a title.
12:10
Speaker 3: So you can't. And I only know of one other
12:12
Speaker 3: instance recently. My good friend Mark mlch wrote block Party
12:18
Speaker 3: for Priscilla Block and she went on a block Party
12:22
Speaker 3: tour and they sold black Party merchandise and black Party
12:26
Speaker 3: block Party bar patty block Party side. It's a tongue.
12:29
Speaker 3: Fwister didn't make it on the album. I'm laughing in
12:33
Speaker 3: jest with him, not but yeah, So when that happened
12:38
Speaker 3: with Rox and Hotti, I was like, are you kidding me?
12:40
Speaker 3: Like that is a first where the song didn't make
12:42
Speaker 3: it on the album but the title did.
12:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, the title of the album. Right, that's when you
12:47
Speaker 2: wish you trade marked the name for merchandise. But she
12:52
Speaker 2: made it up to you guys later because she cut
12:54
Speaker 2: the song she wrote with Bill d Luigi. Yes I can.
12:59
Speaker 3: She didn't write it with Bill. I pitched it to
13:02
Speaker 3: her with a bunch of songs. Bill wrote that song
13:05
Speaker 3: with Hannah McNeil, who is an artist in her own
13:09
Speaker 3: right and she's released that song and she does Hannah
13:12
Speaker 3: does a lot of philanthropic work. She's incredible, and she
13:17
Speaker 3: and Bill wrote that and that was part of a
13:20
Speaker 3: folder that I put together and sent to Bonnie and
13:23
Speaker 3: when she heard that song, she needed to get it
13:27
Speaker 3: and she did, but it took like four years. I
13:31
Speaker 3: think Hannah and Bill probably thought that.
13:33
Speaker 2: I was like, it was never gonna happen.
13:36
Speaker 3: I said, hey, you won't believe this, but I found
13:38
Speaker 3: out that some of the guys that played with Huey
13:40
Speaker 3: Lewis and the News played on your record and year
13:44
Speaker 3: after year, you know, but the timing was right when
13:46
Speaker 3: it did come out, and it has done phenomenally and
13:50
Speaker 3: she's never been needed to be resurrected because she's always
13:54
Speaker 3: been relevant. But we're so excited that her fan base
14:00
Speaker 3: really said that, yes I can. They felt like was
14:04
Speaker 3: one of those songs that competed with some of her
14:06
Speaker 3: great songs. So and it was almost on the super
14:08
Speaker 3: Bowl commercial. We'll talk about that, but yeah, and it's
14:12
Speaker 3: a very powerful anthem.
14:14
Speaker 2: It is, and it's the name of her tour. Correct.
14:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's going to go on tour all over the
14:20
Speaker 3: UK this year. And so I was actually thinking that
14:27
Speaker 3: and Bill doesn't know this, so don't hold me to this, Bill.
14:32
Speaker 3: Then I was saying that maybe we could, you know,
14:34
Speaker 3: get out to the UK, which I know you've been
14:37
Speaker 3: a lot out there, so yeah, to actually see her
14:40
Speaker 3: on tour.
14:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would be amazing seeing her perform the song live.
14:45
Speaker 2: And you finally got your monie Tyler Gun.
14:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, she debuted it last New Year's in front of
14:52
Speaker 3: seventy thousand people live.
14:53
Speaker 2: Wow.
14:54
Speaker 3: And that was the debut of it.
14:56
Speaker 2: And that was really cool.
14:57
Speaker 3: So we were like, oh, wow, this is really happening.
15:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very special.
15:02
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more of the Taken a
15:04
Speaker 1: Walk Nashville podcast. Welcome back to Taken a Walk Nashville.
15:13
Speaker 2: In addition to being a songwriter and publisher, you've also
15:17
Speaker 2: written five books. Many of the books are geared towards women,
15:21
Speaker 2: and you've also created music for Speak Life and Bullying
15:26
Speaker 2: the musical, which is a film that's been played in
15:29
Speaker 2: over one thousand schools and theaters nationwide. Tell us about
15:33
Speaker 2: your books and how you got involved with this musical.
15:38
Speaker 3: So we'll start with the musical because that has just
15:43
Speaker 3: been such a blessing in so many ways. But early
15:47
Speaker 3: here in Nashville, I did, as we all do, a
15:50
Speaker 3: lot of volunteering, and I worked a lot with different
15:54
Speaker 3: organizations like the Beat of Life and a lot of
15:57
Speaker 3: veterans organizations. But the Beat of Life at that time,
16:00
Speaker 3: many many years ago, was focused on they got they
16:03
Speaker 3: go into prisons and everywhere now, but at that point
16:07
Speaker 3: they were going into a lot of schools. And I
16:09
Speaker 3: had experienced some bullying in middle school, and so I
16:12
Speaker 3: was really passionate about it. But I'd put myself out
16:15
Speaker 3: there and I'd done a lot with the Beat of Life.
16:17
Speaker 3: So what I'm told is that when this organization decided
16:22
Speaker 3: that they could not they were using some music Kelly
16:27
Speaker 3: Clarkson songs and Katy Perry, and they were using some
16:30
Speaker 3: really big production songs, but they couldn't license them. The
16:34
Speaker 3: licenses were just so expensive, and so they thought, you
16:37
Speaker 3: know what, We're just going to go out and see
16:39
Speaker 3: if we can't create our own music, and we won't
16:41
Speaker 3: run into this issue. And so they were vetting people
16:45
Speaker 3: and they were looking online. And so this is a
16:47
Speaker 3: testament to all you songwriters who sometimes it's frustrating to
16:53
Speaker 3: do so much volunteer work. But this is a time
16:57
Speaker 3: where something I did early on in my career and
17:01
Speaker 3: continued to do really paid off because they found me
17:04
Speaker 3: in a lot of Google searches that I had done
17:07
Speaker 3: a lot with kids and bullying and so they reached
17:10
Speaker 3: out to me and they just said, Hey, we're just
17:13
Speaker 3: kind of in the phase of talking to people, and
17:16
Speaker 3: so I knew they were talking to folks in Nashville.
17:18
Speaker 3: They were talking to a girl who's now become a
17:21
Speaker 3: good friend of mine too, is a fantastic artist named
17:24
Speaker 3: Juliet Riley in New York at the time. And Juliet
17:27
Speaker 3: has we talked about TV and film placements. She's kind
17:31
Speaker 3: of the queen of it and songs in the Kardashian
17:34
Speaker 3: movies and just all over the place. She's just such
17:37
Speaker 3: a neat girl. And so they were talking to Juliet,
17:40
Speaker 3: they were talking to me, they were talking to few
17:41
Speaker 3: other people, and we went through a series of zoom
17:44
Speaker 3: conversations and so I was honored to get the call
17:48
Speaker 3: one day that they had chosen me for the project.
17:51
Speaker 3: And then that's when the panic sunk in because not
17:56
Speaker 3: only was it something they needed done in thirty days.
18:00
Speaker 3: I needed these five songs written, produced, mastered, and ready
18:05
Speaker 3: to go in thirty days, wow, but they had also
18:10
Speaker 3: been used to they had a budget. They are they
18:14
Speaker 3: were funded through the Justin Simmons Foundation, who does incredible
18:19
Speaker 3: work for youth and Justin Simmons is a football player,
18:25
Speaker 3: I think for the well he was for the Denver Broncos.
18:28
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if he's still playing for the Denver Broncos.
18:30
Speaker 3: But anyway, so they did have a budget, but it
18:33
Speaker 3: wasn't it wasn't the type of budget for the songs
18:36
Speaker 3: they had been. I mean, I'm sure that those songs
18:39
Speaker 3: had like one hundred thousand songs individually, had one hundred
18:43
Speaker 3: thousand dollars you know, productions to them. So I say
18:46
Speaker 3: that because I knew what their ear was accustomed to hearing.
18:52
Speaker 3: And so, but I stayed awake one night, staring at
18:55
Speaker 3: the ceiling and just really you know, saying God, I
18:59
Speaker 3: you know, if you feel like I can do this,
19:01
Speaker 3: then I'll sign the contract. Because it was like a
19:03
Speaker 3: twelve page contract on top of that, and so I
19:06
Speaker 3: was really nervous. But the next morning I woke up
19:08
Speaker 3: with confidence and I said, yes, and wow, I can't
19:13
Speaker 3: even begin to express to you how you know, literally
19:17
Speaker 3: there was a blessing in every one of those songs.
19:20
Speaker 3: And thankfully this is not to kind of tooot my
19:24
Speaker 3: own horn, but I'd been in Nashville long enough that
19:26
Speaker 3: I was able to understand what each song, and I
19:31
Speaker 3: knew so many people that I could. I could see
19:34
Speaker 3: the song and know which singer it needed, which co
19:37
Speaker 3: producer it needed, which co writer it needed. I did
19:40
Speaker 3: end up writing a couple of the songs solow because
19:43
Speaker 3: again there was a budget and that kind of thing.
19:45
Speaker 3: But I collaborated on three out of the five with
19:50
Speaker 3: some pretty incredible artists and talent here at Nashville. So
19:55
Speaker 3: given their skill level and everything, we were able to
19:58
Speaker 3: get it done.
19:59
Speaker 2: Oh great, Yeah, I'm sure it was hard near the
20:01
Speaker 2: end of the deadline getting it done in thirty days.
20:03
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, because one of the things that I had
20:05
Speaker 3: to do was present the song to them. And you know,
20:09
Speaker 3: when you're presenting a song and you don't want to
20:11
Speaker 3: go ahead and fully produce it because they may not
20:13
Speaker 3: like it and they may want changes. But also you
20:15
Speaker 3: don't know if they can hear it because it's not
20:17
Speaker 3: their lane. Yeah, so you don't know if they can
20:20
Speaker 3: kind of hear where their production would go. And so
20:22
Speaker 3: the very first time I had to present the very
20:26
Speaker 3: first song that I wrote, called Shadows Story, I was
20:30
Speaker 3: so nervous and we got on a zoom and I
20:33
Speaker 3: started to play it for them, and the tears just
20:36
Speaker 3: were coming down, and I was like, Okay, this is.
20:40
Speaker 2: Gonna be okay.
20:41
Speaker 3: Yeah no, So they basically said no, we were absolutely
20:44
Speaker 3: blown away. This is exactly what we wanted. So it
20:47
Speaker 3: was just a blessed project from there. And I'll wrap
20:49
Speaker 3: it up by saying that, you know, if you had
20:52
Speaker 3: asked me early on in my career, you know, I
20:56
Speaker 3: think that we all I don't can't speak for all songwriters,
20:59
Speaker 3: but I think I can when I say we all
21:02
Speaker 3: kind of ache for that timeless song. You know, you
21:06
Speaker 3: hear timeless songs on the radio and you're like, I
21:08
Speaker 3: just want to make a difference that way. I want
21:10
Speaker 3: to write and contribute to the world a timeless song.
21:12
Speaker 3: And I'm sure we all have them in our catalog,
21:15
Speaker 3: and you know they may someday, hopefully while we're living,
21:19
Speaker 3: but even later, you know they may surface. You just
21:22
Speaker 3: never know. But I would have probably said if you
21:25
Speaker 3: asked me that, I, you know, oh well, I hope
21:27
Speaker 3: to be known for, you know, a Garth cut or something,
21:31
Speaker 3: but got ahead of the plans. And I get letters
21:34
Speaker 3: from children that tell me that after seeing the film
21:39
Speaker 3: the musical, because it's a musical and they turned it
21:41
Speaker 3: to film in order to get it in more of
21:43
Speaker 3: the schools that they were going to commit suicide and
21:47
Speaker 3: because of that film, because of that song, they went
21:49
Speaker 3: home and changed their mind.
21:51
Speaker 2: Wow.
21:51
Speaker 3: So that kind of really tops it all for me.
21:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing to see how impactful you know your
22:00
Speaker 2: songs can be. And I love when you brought up
22:04
Speaker 2: how volunteer work is so important, because I've seen many
22:08
Speaker 2: times where volunteer work and charity can lead to bigger opportunities,
22:12
Speaker 2: just like for you seeing your songs being turned into
22:16
Speaker 2: a musical and film.
22:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I will say, without going into a lot
22:20
Speaker 3: of detail, there was a particular day when I was
22:25
Speaker 3: having to drive. I was living in bell Mead at
22:27
Speaker 3: the time, and I needed to drive something like thirty
22:30
Speaker 3: miles to get to this middle school, and the night
22:35
Speaker 3: before I'd gotten some bad news and back home, but
22:39
Speaker 3: I was I'd cried all night, and I woke up
22:41
Speaker 3: in the morning and honestly, the last thing I wanted
22:45
Speaker 3: to do was get in my car and drive thirty
22:48
Speaker 3: miles and go pour into these kids. I didn't feel
22:52
Speaker 3: like I had it in me, and I forced myself
22:55
Speaker 3: to go, and ironically That's one of the biggest pushes
23:01
Speaker 3: towards me was that day because there was a film
23:04
Speaker 3: crew there. Unbeknownst to me, the local TV stations were
23:08
Speaker 3: there that day, so a lot of that footage and
23:10
Speaker 3: a lot of that day was what is was put online.
23:15
Speaker 3: And so I think about the details of that day
23:19
Speaker 3: and I think about how cool and profound it is
23:22
Speaker 3: that we have to sometimes let go of the idea
23:26
Speaker 3: that we know what direction our career is going to go,
23:29
Speaker 3: and we just have to do what we love and
23:31
Speaker 3: pour in to the music in the ways that we can.
23:35
Speaker 3: Because yes, that was something that they googled, and I
23:40
Speaker 3: almost wasn't there that day, you know.
23:42
Speaker 2: So wow, Yeah, that's amazing. How have you had time
23:46
Speaker 2: to write books while doing a musical having a publishing company?
23:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I've been a little bit nuts looking back,
23:55
Speaker 3: But I think when you just kind of love everything
23:58
Speaker 3: that you do. You know this, Sarah, because you are
24:01
Speaker 3: so multi creative, and I find it ironic you're asking
24:05
Speaker 3: me that because you do how do I find the
24:08
Speaker 3: job you do so much? And you've written your book
24:12
Speaker 3: Turtle Tears, which my granddaughter Mila has in her room.
24:18
Speaker 3: But I had always wanted to. I'd started by and
24:23
Speaker 3: this is listen up if you are anyone out there
24:26
Speaker 3: thinking about writing a book. I started by contributing to anthologies,
24:32
Speaker 3: and that really helped me understand book writing, Like I
24:35
Speaker 3: would contribute a chapter to a book. There's a lot
24:39
Speaker 3: of people out there putting books together that are looking
24:42
Speaker 3: for authors to contribute, and so I started doing that,
24:48
Speaker 3: and yes, they were all like female empowerment. I was
24:50
Speaker 3: just kind of sharing some of my stories and some
24:53
Speaker 3: of them were relationship type things. But I learned a
24:57
Speaker 3: lot about book publishing by doing that. So then I
25:01
Speaker 3: felt like maybe I was ready to finally put out
25:04
Speaker 3: my book.
25:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you've written five of them, which that's a
25:09
Speaker 2: lot of books.
25:11
Speaker 3: It's a lot of books. But I always joke with
25:13
Speaker 3: people and tell them that if you actually, you know,
25:17
Speaker 3: have some of my books, then you know that they're
25:19
Speaker 3: like coffee table books and that they're not very long
25:21
Speaker 3: and they only take you, you know, like my book
25:25
Speaker 3: Got Gratitude and Giving would take you all of maybe
25:27
Speaker 3: forty five it is to read, and it includes some
25:30
Speaker 3: journal pages in there for some you know, just kind
25:34
Speaker 3: of thinking about some of the things I talk about.
25:36
Speaker 3: But I had always wanted to write that book because
25:39
Speaker 3: I had a very profound experience. And when I moved
25:43
Speaker 3: to Nashville, I because I didn't get here till my thirties.
25:48
Speaker 3: One of the things that I was committed to doing
25:51
Speaker 3: was not taking any job that wasn't aligned with the
25:56
Speaker 3: music industry, because I wanted so badly to find do
26:00
Speaker 3: what I'd always wanted to do with my career. But
26:05
Speaker 3: I was falling on some really hard times and I
26:09
Speaker 3: was about to take a waitressing job at Pfchin's on
26:13
Speaker 3: West End, and the day that I was going to start,
26:18
Speaker 3: the road was blocked off by fire trucks and the
26:22
Speaker 3: kitchen had caught on fire, and so it was kind
26:25
Speaker 3: of a gift and a curse for me. I really
26:27
Speaker 3: didn't want to do it, but at the same time,
26:29
Speaker 3: I was kind of counting on that money right away,
26:32
Speaker 3: and so I went home and I just kind of
26:35
Speaker 3: went into my time with God, my meditation, which I
26:37
Speaker 3: learned to do when I was a little girl. After
26:39
Speaker 3: my mom died, I wanted to feel close to her,
26:42
Speaker 3: and I would close my eyes and I would just
26:44
Speaker 3: like I could smell her, I could feel her, and
26:46
Speaker 3: I would just have that prayer time with her with God.
26:49
Speaker 3: And so I went in prayer time and I was like,
26:52
Speaker 3: what am I going to do? And I heard these
26:54
Speaker 3: three really profound words laid on my heart God, gratitude
26:58
Speaker 3: and giving and in that order, and I knew in
27:00
Speaker 3: that moment why they were given to me. I knew
27:05
Speaker 3: what they meant, and I knew that if I focused
27:07
Speaker 3: on those things daily, God, which I talk about in
27:11
Speaker 3: my book, is for me my silence. I mean, there's
27:16
Speaker 3: just so many there's so many things, and we all
27:22
Speaker 3: know God as the ultimate, you know, healer and love.
27:29
Speaker 3: But where I would find my time with God was
27:32
Speaker 3: in silence. So I knew that every day if I
27:35
Speaker 3: focused on silence and gratitude and giving, and it didn't
27:39
Speaker 3: have to necessarily be monetary. It could be sending a prayer,
27:41
Speaker 3: it could be writing a note that I would stop worrying,
27:46
Speaker 3: release my anxiety. And I did that immediately, and my
27:51
Speaker 3: life just shifted so profoundly. And so I'd always wanted
27:54
Speaker 3: to tell that story about God, gratitude and giving and
27:57
Speaker 3: in that order. And so after doing this anthologies and
28:01
Speaker 3: understanding the publishing world, that I put that book out.
28:04
Speaker 3: And then came another book that I wrote that I
28:07
Speaker 3: partnered with a neuropsychologist. It's called The Musical Imprint, and
28:12
Speaker 3: that book we did incorporate stories with other people. Some
28:17
Speaker 3: of them are in the music business, some are realatures,
28:19
Speaker 3: some of them are coaches, and that was just that's
28:23
Speaker 3: an incredible book. I highly recommend it. But Sarah doctor Sarah,
28:27
Speaker 3: and I we come from the perspective where she's a doctor,
28:31
Speaker 3: and so she talks about the real neurophysical effects of
28:34
Speaker 3: music on the brain, which we've all heard so much about.
28:37
Speaker 3: And then myself, I'm a little bit more about the
28:40
Speaker 3: magic and the muse and how a song lands on
28:43
Speaker 3: my shoulder and you know that side of it. So
28:47
Speaker 3: it was really interesting to have, you know, a songwriter
28:51
Speaker 3: and a neuropsychologist come together and the stories are incredible.
28:57
Speaker 3: And I talk about my song in the Story that
29:02
Speaker 3: Changed My Life was three Times a Lady by Lionel Richie,
29:07
Speaker 3: because the night that my mother was killed, me, my
29:09
Speaker 3: brother and sister were sitting in the backseat of my
29:13
Speaker 3: aunt's car and that song came on the radio and
29:15
Speaker 3: I was really little, and I thought that that song
29:18
Speaker 3: was talking about my mother and all of my life.
29:21
Speaker 3: Three Times a Lady When I would hear it was
29:24
Speaker 3: a love song to my mother, and of course later
29:27
Speaker 3: in life I learned, you know that it's a romantic song.
29:31
Speaker 3: But to wrap it all up, I will tell you
29:33
Speaker 3: that I got to meet Lionel Richie. I got to
29:38
Speaker 3: share the book with him.
29:39
Speaker 2: Wow.
29:39
Speaker 3: And I've become friends with him and he did promise
29:43
Speaker 3: to write with me when he came to Nashville, but
29:45
Speaker 3: that hasn't happened yet. But I'm not giving up on
29:47
Speaker 3: that because he gave me his words. So that's a
29:50
Speaker 3: full circle.
29:51
Speaker 2: Linel, if you're listening, were your word, Lionel. Yeah, that's
29:56
Speaker 2: so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that with us. Where
30:01
Speaker 2: can people find your books and your music?
30:03
Speaker 3: So everything's at Melissa blero dot com and there's also
30:08
Speaker 3: Rhyme Partners. Everything kind of intersects and attaches to all
30:13
Speaker 3: the social medias and that kind of thing.
30:16
Speaker 2: So yeah, we'll definitely check that out. And I want
30:19
Speaker 2: to give you a congrats because you are now a
30:21
Speaker 2: CMA Country Music Association Member ambassador. What are you going
30:27
Speaker 2: to be doing with this program?
30:29
Speaker 3: So the ambassadorship has been incredible and this was twenty
30:36
Speaker 3: twenty five, was the first year that they decided to
30:38
Speaker 3: do it, and it just made perfect sense for me
30:42
Speaker 3: because I've been such a champion of CMA. It's one
30:46
Speaker 3: of my favorite membership organizations. And I don't know if
30:50
Speaker 3: a lot of people really understand all the benefits of
30:55
Speaker 3: being a member that there are. There's different tiers. You know,
30:58
Speaker 3: there's student, there's industry, and there's professional that allows you
31:02
Speaker 3: voting rights. But beyond that, there really really are so
31:06
Speaker 3: many opportunities, most of them you can find online. But
31:10
Speaker 3: what we are here to do is to elevate ourselves
31:15
Speaker 3: as members to really kind of tell people who are
31:19
Speaker 3: not members what the CMA is really all about, not
31:23
Speaker 3: to mention all the cool I mean, we were invited
31:26
Speaker 3: to the CMA Awards this year. I wouldn't say that
31:30
Speaker 3: it gives us more cloud or anything like that, but
31:33
Speaker 3: we certainly are members who have been actively involved for many,
31:38
Speaker 3: many years and kind of proven ourselves to show up
31:42
Speaker 3: for the CMA and be involved to the point that
31:45
Speaker 3: they felt confident in creating this ambassadorship program with those
31:49
Speaker 3: of us that were chosen to be ambassadors, so that
31:52
Speaker 3: we could represent we could be sort of boots on
31:55
Speaker 3: the ground for the CMA, and it's it's absolutely been
32:00
Speaker 3: been wonderful, and it's come with some cool.
32:02
Speaker 2: Perks, a great way to connect with other country music
32:06
Speaker 2: artists and creatives as well.
32:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I think I think there really are a
32:10
Speaker 3: lot of people. There's so many membership organizations and if you,
32:14
Speaker 3: you know, don't take advantage of what the things that
32:16
Speaker 3: they have to offer, or if you don't know what
32:18
Speaker 3: they are, then you you can't get the full value
32:21
Speaker 3: of your membership. So I'm here to help people understand
32:25
Speaker 3: that value.
32:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's wonderful. Well, Melissa, I have one final question
32:30
Speaker 2: left for you. I always ask this to every guest.
32:33
Speaker 2: This is taking a walk Nashville. So do you have
32:36
Speaker 2: a favorite place you like to take a walk in
32:38
Speaker 2: Nashville Currently?
32:41
Speaker 3: I like to take a walk on Main Street In Franklin, Tennessee.
32:45
Speaker 3: I lived on the West Side for many, many, many years.
32:49
Speaker 3: I have been in Nashville over twenty years, and then
32:51
Speaker 3: I've moved out to Franklin. But listen, Nashville is so cool,
32:58
Speaker 3: Like I'd like to take go walk down on twelve
33:01
Speaker 3: self a lot, you know, But Main Street is I live.
33:06
Speaker 3: My office suite is a half a mile from Main Street,
33:10
Speaker 3: so I'm pretty fond of that these days. It's really cool.
33:13
Speaker 2: So many cute shops on Main Street and Franklin Theater,
33:16
Speaker 2: which you will be playing at too.
33:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, Franklin Theater, so that's really cool. It's very iconic,
33:24
Speaker 3: like the Bluebird. So I'm just honored to be playing
33:28
Speaker 3: the iconic historic Franklin Theater for the first time with
33:33
Speaker 3: a show I created four years ago called a Very
33:36
Speaker 3: Merry Nashville Christmas, and so look out for us every year.
33:40
Speaker 3: Hopefully they'll invite us back, but we'll also be traveling
33:44
Speaker 3: to different theaters with the show.
33:46
Speaker 2: Wonderful. That's great. Well, Melissa, thank you so much for
33:50
Speaker 2: being on Taking a Walk Nashville today and being here
33:53
Speaker 2: with me.
33:53
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Sarah.
33:55
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with singer
33:58
Speaker 1: songwriter Sarah Arylson, and check out our other podcasts, Music
34:03
Speaker 1: Save Me, Comedy Save Me, and Taking a Walk, available
34:07
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
34:10
Speaker 1: your podcasts.