One of the things that I think is such a constant in country music is that the song is so much a story. I believe it is supposed to be based around a story.
The song 'Tyler Durden' is about the movie 'Fight Club,' so obviously, it's not a personal experience, but I love that song. It's my favorite song.
If you go back to early folk, it's all storytelling; that's exactly what it is: some guy telling a story in a pub to 50 people with a guitar, you know.
The great thing about country songs is the storytelling.
I try to tell a story musically in a song.
If you're dealing with a musical in which you're trying to tell a story, it's got to sound like speech. At the same time it's got to be a song.
For a ballad's a thing you expect to find lies in.
I have a passion for ballad. . . . They are the gypsy children of song, born under green hedgerows in the leafy lanes and bypaths of literature,--in the genial Summertime.
I don't think comic timing is the same as music timing, but I definitely find that I've learned from just writing in general that songs can be narrative without having a story.
