How do you talk about creativity? Making something out of nothing.  What could be more mysterious?  And yet Buddy Mondlock is wonderfully articulate about writing songs.  The process is clearly fascinating to him and he has paid careful attention to what goes into making a good song.  He’s able to communicate what he has learned in 25 years of writing songs.  In one of his workshops you will hear about the many elements involved with bringing a song to life and how to communicate feelings and ideas through music and words.  Using his own songs as examples he talks about things like layers of meaning, the effective use of imagery and detail, storytelling, technical aspects like structure and rhyme scheme, the importance of editing and knowing when not to edit, the integration of music and words, and even the up sides and down sides of collaboration.  His fifteen years as a staff writer in Nashville show up in his insights about publishing and the business of songwriting as well as his tips for songwriters who are interested in getting started down that road. You’ll also get a chance to play a song of your own for Buddy and get some comments from him and the group. There are also likely to be some fun songwriting exercises that everyone will participate in. But in the end what he will tell you is that a great song has to come from the heart.  All the cleverness and technique in the world will never be a substitute for true feeling.

Buddy Mondlock has given songwriting workshops across the country from the Napa Valley Folk Festival to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Recently he led several workshops across the Atlantic at the Belfast-Nashville Songwriters Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  The aim of that festival was to use songwriting to find common ground and bring communities together there.

Buddy’s songs have been recorded by Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, Garth Brooks, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, Janis Ian, David Wilcox, Edwin McCain, Cry, Cry, Cry... the list goes on.  He has recorded five CD’s including “Everything Waits To Be Noticed,” a songwriting and recording collaboration with Maia Sharp and Art Garfunkel. His most recent, “The Edge of the World” won the award for best album in the male singer/songwriter category from the Indie Acoustic Project in 2008.