The Producer’s Chair Presents Hit Songwriter/Producer Jeff Steven’s
What do you get when you take a hit Nashville songwriter turned producer and feature them on a show called, “The Producer’s Chair, created by James Rea?” Well, you get one great show. I recently attended, The Producer Chair, which is a live show that features producers.
I attended this particular show because Jeff Stevens happens to be one of my all time favorite songwriters and I wanted to hear what he had to say. I was not disappointed. Jeff was personable, knowledgeable and articulate.
Jeff recently became a producer of other people’s musical works, most notably and successfully Luke Bryan, so he didn’t really feel that he had the expertise or longevity to answer some of the producer type questions being asked dealing with being a producer for a long time, but every answer from Jeff was real, down to earth and heartfelt. Jeff feels that up to this point, all of his experience and expertise is in the field of songwriting. He expressed this about songwriting and I quote, “If a song is written from the heart it can’t be bad.” I loved that quote. Jeff feels the most important ingredient on writing a good song is, “to be real about it.
He did critique a song that was thrown into the producer basket (I will discuss the producer basket a little later in this article) and his critique was truthful and straight to the point. It was refreshing to hear the honesty in his critique and I hope the writer follows his suggestions. There was a question and answer session where the Co-host walks around with a microphone so audience members can ask questions of the guests on the show. Jeff answered every question with patience and thought.
He picked up his little Martin and asked the audience what song they wanted him to play and the response was, “Carrying Your Love With Me,” a Steven’s song made a #1 Hit by George Strait.
One of the unique features of this show is that songwriters and song plugger’s are encouraged to drop a CD of a song or songs for that featured producer to listen to for consideration for any upcoming projects they may be working on. This journalist and songwriter thinks that is a great feature and a wonderful thing that is offered as it is not always easy to get songs to the right people. I have heard that there have been songs chosen for upcoming CD projects because of this feature so my advice to songwriters is find out who the upcoming guest are going to be, do you homework and find out who they are producing and then present your best written and most fitting song for consideration.
At the end of the show Steven’s had a meet and greet and took pictures with the audience members.
He graciously and enthusiastically agreed to do an interview with me so be looking for my up close and personal interview with Jeff Stevens soon. You can view my video interview with James Rea of the Producer’s Chair at You Tube at: http://youtu.be/zWtcozNihz8
