Songwriters’ News – Volume IV, Issue 12
That's The Dream by Doug Millaway
I heard a song the other day that left me speechless. It wasn’t just the melody or the lyrics—it was the way it all came together, effortlessly perfect, as if it had always existed, waiting to be discovered. I couldn’t help but think, I wish I had written that.
It stirred something deep inside me, not just admiration but also a feeling of envy. Jealousy is a strange emotion—it’s humbling and frustrating, but in this case, it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t a desire to take anything away from the songwriter but rather a feeling that I needed to create something equally powerful myself.
The beauty of someone else’s work can feel like a mirror, reflecting back your own aspirations and insecurities. It’s easy to compare, to feel like you’re not measuring up, but I’ve come to see it differently. That song wasn’t just a reminder of my shortcomings—it was a call to action. A challenge. If someone else can pour their heart into a piece of music and move the world with it, why can’t I?
So instead of letting that envy sit and fester, I decided to channel it into motivation. I started analyzing songs that resonate with me, not to copy, but to understand what makes them work. What makes them unforgettable? I’m trying to push past my comfort zone, exploring new ideas, new structures, and most importantly, allowing myself to be more vulnerable in my writing.
Because I think that’s what great art does. It doesn’t just sit in the background; it wakes you up, shakes you, makes you question things. That song might not be mine, but it’s part of my thought process now. It’s a reminder that I’m still learning, still growing, and still reaching for something. And someday, maybe someone will hear a song I’ve written and think, I wish I had written that. That’s the dream—and the drive to make it real.
Doug Millaway
Mill Away Publishing
Blind Owl Studio
Meeting Dates By Mike Rudquist
Please Note: Going forward, all online Zoom events will use the same Zoom link. Here is a members-only link to our "Member Event Access" page which has the Zoom link:
https://mnsongwriters.org/activities/member-event-access/
- Monthly Mixer with Doug Millaway – Wednesday, December 4 – 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
This meeting allows for all types of topics to be explored and discussed as it relates to songwriting – the writing process, production, inspiration, the music business – any and all topics related to the craft, production and business of songwriting. This is a moderated open discussion, and participants are encouraged to share their personal experiences and expertise.
- Minnesota Homebrew Radio Show with Carl Unbehaun- Thursdays all month – December 5, 12, 19, 26,
Every Thursday evening from 6 to 7 pm, fellow MAS member and radio DJ Carl Unbehaun offers music written and/or performed by Minnesota musicians on his Minnesota Homebrew Radio Show. Radio station KSRQ in Thief River Falls (90.1 FM) streams Carl’s show via the Internet. On the FIRST Thursday of the month, Carl dedicates his entire show to music written by members of the Minnesota Association of Songwriters!
To submit your songs to Carl’s MAS-dedicated show or to have it played on any Thursday night, contact Carl at minnesotahomebrew@gmail.com.
To listen to Minnesota Homebrew on your devices, click here: https://mnsongwriters.org/activities/radio-airplay/.
- Online Round Robin Song Share with Paul Nye- Wednesday, December 11 – 6:30 – 8:30
This is a laid-back, come as you are type get together with fellow songwriters to share your songs in a take turns fashion either performing live via zoom or with a recorded version of your songs. Just for fun and just to get together and play. Even if you want to just join in to listen, this is the place for you!
- Monthly Online Song Review Session Hosted by Doug Millaway- Wednesday, December 18 – 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
This is our general information and song review meeting. You are welcome to play an original song in any phase of its development or completion for purposes of potentially improving it based on feedback received.
Please refrain from submitting songs you do not intend to change from feedback given. You’re welcome to share those in our Round Robin Song session above.
Our review sessions are one of the best opportunities to help you learn and improve your craft. Giving feedback on other writer's songs, and listening to others doing the same, is a great teaching tool.
You may submit your song’s audio and-or lyrics only for review up to the time of the review session. Please note, we are limited in the songs we can fit in, so you’ll want to watch for the email announcement to submit them and get it in early. Please do not submit songs prior to the announcement to avoid missing out.
We will play an MP3 of your song directly in the room. While MP3s played digitally in the room are generally easier for people to hear, they are not required for feedback. We’ll also accept lyrics only.
Find more detail, go to our Song Review Meeting page on our website: https://mnsongwriters.org/activities/meetings.
You can check out all MAS events on our website calendar at https://mnsongwriters.org/events/
Editor's Note
By Mary Kealy-Falk
The writers this month were given a prompt to use as an idea to help them develop the articles they wrote.
Here is the prompt:
Do you have any favorite holiday songs that you would want to write about? What were some of your family's favorite songs? Have you ever written a holiday song? How did the idea come to you, where have you ever performed it, what are the lyrics. If you have a recording, do you want to add a link in the article for readers to listen to it? The two writers this month followed this prompt with their own experiences of growing up with, listening to and writing their own holiday songs. Their stories, ideas, and interpretations are uniquely their own.
That Special Season
By Terry Kennedy-Lares
What a great topic Mary suggested for an article! Having played and sung all the classic Christmas songs every year at our family gatherings, I was quite familiar with the genre. But it wasn’t until the crazy “War on Christmas” movement came into being that I finally considered writing a Christmas song. Yes. It was to counter that insane concept that in a country founded on freedom of religion, one religious group owned the rights to the Yule season.
So, I was inspired to write a song called “That Special Season” with the chorus line. “There ain’t a war on Christmas, in the land of the Brave and the Free, there ain’t a war on Christmas, and no one is your enemy” as a protest against that ideology. Unfortunately, my production skills were poor at that time, so I have never played it for anyone, and won’t offer it here.
It wasn’t till coming to MAS that I decided to make a serious attempt at writing a Christmas song, and I put it on my to do list. It wasn’t long before I got the opportunity while attending one of Rachel’s “Song Prompt” sessions. She read us the prompt line, “Just getting in that elevator, and sitting down at one’s desk was highly meaningful”, and I started writing and riffing with my guitar. At the end of the ten minutes, we were given to write, I had the beginnings of a song with the catch line “what was the meaning of it all”. Little did I know at that time it would turn into my first real Christmas song. I titled it “A Christmas Carol” as it was a song based in the Christmas season about how we spend our time and where we put our priorities in life.
In MAS, we often talk about finding ways to spark ideas for songs, and while Prompt sessions etc. do work for me, as shown above, I find my ideas come more often organically, just from what is happening in life around me. Last Thanksgiving my family and I were sitting around discussing our upcoming Christmas. Talk turned to our mother, who passed many years ago on the solstice, and how her drinking affected our Holiday. Bingo! I thought ‘yeah, Mom always cried at Christmas. So, at our Christmas celebration last year I sang them the first version and asked for their ideas about my song “Momma Always Cried”.
This year due to the election, I find my family is in turmoil and we will not be spending Thanksgiving together, and probably not Christmas as well. While the situation is sad and disheartening on a personal level, it also has spawned the idea for my next Christmas song with the working title, “I’m Feeling Lonely for Christmas”. This is not only an opportunity for a song, but as with most organically written songs, will offer me agency for introspection and a release for my feelings at this sad time. Talking to so many of my friends, I find many in our society are going through similar situations, and so who knows, this song may turn out to be an aide to others who are dealing with this trauma.
While Christmas is a joyful season for most people, many people have experienced sad events during the Yule season. Christmas and the holiday season are full of ideas and events that are ripe for the harvesting into songs. I wish all of you in MAS a Merry Yule Season and the happiness that we all deserve in life, but either way I encourage you to allow your muse to come to the front, and maybe you will write the next great Christmas classic.
A Songwriters Study of the Hymn: Joy to The World!
By John Bennett
My history as a song organization leader goes back 46 years when a few songwriters met at my house and grew to become the Minnesota Songwriters Association. I found that getting together with other songwriters helped motivate and encourage me to come up with a song every month (yup that’s over 550 songs). In 1985 after I became a Christian, I began writing worship songs. I also began writing one Christmas song every year since then. The Christian Songwriters Association began 36 years ago after I heard someone play a Christian song at a MAS meeting. After writing rock, folk and sad breakup country songs for years, my conversion to Christianity opened a whole new Vista of songwriting for me. I was like a kid at a candy store gobbling up everything I could learn through sermons and reading.
Out of this came a multitude of new ideas for brand new songs. Christian songwriting also becoming a way for me to study and grow in my faith. I then began leading worship at church learning hundreds of hymns and worship songs which gave me further insight into my own writing. Since then, I’ve released nine Christian double Albums including two Christmas albums. Remember I told you I write a lot of Christmas songs? This December I am releasing my third Christmas CD. You can listen to my previous Christmas releases on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB8kZ_1SeK4wsNtEoYwlEzCbGVt0XA6ny&si=9aiz-6CByauvs-R6
Joy To the World! originally title The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom was written by Isaac Watts in 1719. His words were inspired by Psalm 98 in the Bible and is a song collaboration of over 100 years. The music was adapted by Lowell Mason, an American church musician, who used musical phrases from Handel's The Messiah within the song. (I’ve heard of modern day songwriters lifting parts of other classical songs like in Dan Fogelberg’s "Same Old Lang Syne" Listen to the first verse and compare the music to the 1812 Overture.) The overall theme of Joy to The World is all about the first and second triumphant coming to the Earth of Jesus Christ, God personally revealing Himself to the World! Let's look at the lyrics:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
There was great joy at Jesus' first coming but at His second coming not everyone will be joyful. Only those who have accepted His offer of eternal life by His grace.
Let earth receive her King.
He was declared King of the Jews by Pontious Pilate and given a crown of thorns. On His second coming He will be declared the KING OF KINGS.
Let every heart prepare Him room.
This is asking; Have you received Jesus into your heart? Have you prepared for where you'll spend eternity?
The next 3 lines repeat to drive home that all of nature Worship Jesus:
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing
Angels in heaven worship the Lord Jesus. The Bible tells us that this worship has lasted from the beginning and will through all of eternity.
Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
The Bible tells us that when Jesus returns after the Tribulation, He will rule over all the nations of the whole World.
Let men their songs employ.
I like this line. Our purpose as Christian songwriters is the mission to put our songs to work for the Kingdom of God!
While fields and floods,
Again, we see that all of nature Worships God. rocks, hills and plains
The Bible tells us that if we didn't worship Him that the rocks will.
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy
Even all of nature is joyful and will repeat joy for eternity.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
As Christians we are to grow spiritually and not carnally
Nor thorns infest the ground.
Jesus' parable of the sower of seeds Matthew 13:3-8 The seeds represent God's Word and the thorns choke it out.
He comes to make His blessings flow
As God's Word grows so do the blessings you receive.
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. (when we receive Christ)
He rules the world with truth and grace,
On His second coming, He will rule over all the Earth. His judgment will be righteous and true. His grace will forgive the sins of all those who accepted Him into their hearts.
And makes the nations prove
We will prove our acceptance of Jesus by what's in our Hearts. We will bow down and worship who He is.
The glories of His righteousness,
In Heaven and on Earth Jesus is Gloriously worshipped and is Worthy to receive all the Honor due to Him.
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
Next year, I'm finally retiring as a songwriter, group organizer and President. It’s been a long road, but I'm still planning on going to meetings, and writing and recording for many years to come. If you’d like, I will send you a compilation Christmas CD I produced called “The Greatest Gift” with 21 artists (including 2 MAS members) for $10. Email me at: promotions@macsmn.org.
Thanks, John Bennett
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