No thanks, close this window
Love the bluesy, country, rock sound of your music, Charles! You are phenomenal with lyrics too. Excellent storyteller. Really enjoy Whiskey Never Lies...
Brandi, you are only the second person to really comment on any place I have shared. I have over 400 songs written, most are not great but It's great therapy. I spent 30 years in the Army and the next 10 training foreign militaries mostly before finally settling into a normal life. Over that year plus I've dealt with some issues from combat tours and the single biggest therapy besides talking with other vets is writing. I have 2 books published, 6 more ready, over 200 songs / poems and I write articles for an online news outlet called SOFREP. I started working on the books, poems and songs years ago of course. I got a new batch of ten songs based on a short story I wrote about a Sheriffs Daughter and Outlaw I'd love you to hear. My dream is that someone like an agent would get my songs into the hands of really talented folks like you or even just a few artists wanting to perform them. here's a song sample: [Intro - Boom-Chick Rhythm] [Verse 1] Black smoke on the northern rail Depot roof is burning down Orson rode the cattle car Brought his iron into town Elias counts his paper cut Hides the lockbox in the floor Pike has smelled the silver trail Standing at the timber door [Chorus] Black smoke rises high Pike is in the yard Wants his thirty cut Striking cold and hard Orson Pike's brand Orson Pike's brand [Verse 2] Forty tons of cedar ties Cracking in the depot flame Saddle horn of beaten brass Every bullet carved with shame Pike don't ask for unpaid debt Pike just shoots the latch away Elias grabs his Spencer gun Ain't no time left here to pray [Chorus] Black smoke rises high Pike is in the yard Wants his thirty cut Striking cold and hard Orson Pike's brand Orson Pike's brand [Telecaster Solo] [Verse 3] Locomotive hiss of steam Boiler iron turning red Grease and ash along the switch Pike wants him alive or dead Cinder falling in the mud Lever cocked and hammer drawn Two old men with nothing left Only one will see the dawn [Final Chorus] Black smoke rises high Pike is in the yard Wants his thirty cut Striking cold and hard Orson Pike's brand Orson Pike's brand [Outro Tag] Black smoke rail Depot burned Orson Pike No return Orson Pike's brand
I'm putting all ten songs on here. I'll contiinue to add stuff. If you know anyone that might be interested in my music, I have the lyrics, music and my version they can listen to. I never started this for me to create, it belongs in a pro's hands.
Iron Cold is a ten-song dark outlaw country album set in a frontier mining-and-railroad mountain town. It follows outlaws, a lawman and the people caught between them, and it ends at a graveside. The summary comes from my draft transcriptions, not your original lyrics. How the songs connect is my reading, so correct anything I've got wrong. The world The setting is the 1800s West, in snow, pine timber and red dirt, with a rail line and a telegraph. Recurring imagery: iron, cold, tin, silver, blood and a ledger. The tone is bleak, with no redemption. Debts get paid in blood, and the law cannot fix what the outlaws and the lawman have done. The main characters Sheriff Vance: the lawman. He carries a tin star and a county ledger, and by the end he buries the dead himself. Elias: an outlaw. He is wounded, hunted and tied to the stolen money. Orson Pike: a ruthless railroad boss who "shoots the latch away" and wants his man alive or dead. Clara: a woman near the center of the betrayal, who is protected in one song and dying in another. Ada and Jesse: Vance buries Ada beside "the thief." Jesse appears as a runner. How the story runs Iron Cold at Sangre Pass: a hunted man makes a last stand in the snow. Tincture and Telegraph Wire: a wounded man is stitched up while the telegraph taps out news in the next room. Timber and Tenpenny Nails: the working-man side of the town, building flumes and rail in the timber. The Sheriff's Tin Star: Vance sets his star on the table and weighs which side of the county line to walk. Floorboard Gold: after forty years, floodwater lifts a floorboard and exposes stolen federal money from a train robbery where a watchman died. Orson Pike's Brand: Pike hunts Elias along the rails. Dead Mule Ridge: a man buries his guns and swears to protect Clara from five pursuers. Muzzle Flash in the Timber: hounds close in on a cornered man who decides to make his stand. Red Dirt Communion: a dying confession over Clara. "I sold your brother to the sheriff's men" for thirty silver pieces. Vance's Ledger: the reckoning. Vance buries Ada and the thief in two pine boxes and walks away alone. Themes Guilt that doesn't go away: the forty-year secret, the betrayal for silver, the sheriff's own part. Law versus outlaw: both sides lose people and neither side comes out clean. Debt and consequence: nothing is paid for without cost. Mountain and cold as judgment: the weather and landscape are punishing in every song. Sound and genre It is Dark Outlaw Country and Western Gothic, with some Red Dirt and Southern Rock in the faster tracks. Seven of the ten are in minor keys, and the album gets faster and darker toward the end. It sits next to your "Timberline Pine & White Sulphur" and appeals to listeners of Colter Wall, Colton Bowlin and Tyler Childers.
You should consider submitting to lyric contests because your lyrics are unique and great! Some contests can get you in front of industry A&R and some prizes can get demos cut with high tier demo studios that also get you into their demo library. Applying for sync ops through here can get you in front of music supervisors as well. It's hard to reach music supervisors directly (unsolicited). Also, you can run promo here and it can get you some visibility and possibly on the charts which gives you more visibility. Submitting to the song contests here also get you some visibility as well. That's where a lot of my success started. The Broadjam Song of the Month and Hot 100 gets heard by fellow artists on here. And Songwriter Universe gets your song heard by Dale - he has an impressive resume as an industry executive. You can read about that on his songwriteruniverse.com magazine. He also offers some consulting services and has a directory there. I hope some of this helps! I look forward to exploring more of your library, esp your new uploads soon!
Thanks for the feedback, let me know if I'm writing to much. I ended up submitting over 200 queries to get my first book published, got pretty smart on it but I am very new to this. Really just looking to share my stories, I don't care who tells them. They come from my Appalachian roots, 30 years in the Army, lots of Combat Tours and of course my difficulties along the way. Oh yeah, Congratulations on "Summer Moon Shining" winning Broadjam Song of the Month!! Your bio mentions co-writing as a bucket-list item and you love songs about places that have changed, moments that have passed and the people we miss. Below are eight of my originals that I think suit your voice and your storytelling. Each song has a one-page sheet with genre, tempo, key, mood, arrangement and vocal notes. Each one is followed by a full lyric and chord sheet, so you can see how it is built and try it on guitar. Everything here is an unpublished original. I'm glad to adjust keys or lyrics to fit your voice, including the family names in "Anywhere With You" and "Frances,". They are yours if you want them. No strings or however it works to pass them on. I'm not smart on these things.
SONG SUBMISSION Eight original songs for Brandi Simpson THE SONGS A summary of what is enclosed and why each one fits 1. CARNIVAL LIGHTS Country Pop · 120 BPM | C Major · ~2:50 A bright, giddy county-fair love song. Ferris wheel, funnel cake and a stuffed bear, about falling for someone you never planned on. It sits in the same warm, major-key, melodic country-pop lane as "City Lights," with vivid place detail. 2. ANYWHERE WITH YOU Bluegrass / light Southern Rock · 118 BPM | G Major lifting to D Major · ~3:00 A grateful family anthem about a military family that has moved more times than it can count, with faith and each other as the only address that never changes. Its home-and-connection theme matches your bio, and G major is the key of "Summer Moon Shining." The lyric names my own family, so I will gladly adapt those names for you. 3. SMALL TOWN SATURDAY Country / Country Pop · 118 BPM | G Major · ~2:50 A warm, upbeat song about everything that hasn't changed back home: the diner regulars, the Friday lights, grandpa's truck. It has a catchy hook, and it pairs naturally with your songs about places that have changed. 4. GRANDADDY HAD A RAMBLER Bluegrass · 104 BPM | G Major · ~4:45 A tribute built from real family history. Since your grandfather and his songs are part of your own story, I think you will recognize the craft in it. The tender bridge tells his passing through images alone. 5. FRANCES (Still Saying Yes) Bluegrass / Country · 84 BPM | G Major lifting to C Major · ~4:15 A true-story tribute to a military wife: an after-prom meeting, a 1984 wedding, eight duty stations, and today still together on a Florida beach. It is very personal to my wife, so names and details can be adapted to suit your voice. 6. STILL HERE WITH YOU 90s Acoustic Alt-Rock / Pop-Rock Ballad · 84 BPM | G Major · ~3:20 Sitting with someone you love through their hardest moments without trying to fix them. It builds from fingerpicked verses to a full-band chorus, with a near-spoken bridge. It suits your pop and Southern-rock influences. 7. CARRY HER COLORS Southern Rock Ballad · 68 BPM | E Minor lifting to G Major · ~4:00 A veteran carries the memory of the soldier he loved. A flag folded in triangles, boots by the door, a graveside talk about who made sergeant. It speaks to your "people I miss" theme and ends unresolved on purpose. 8. AMBER WINDOW PANES Lo-Fi Soul / R&B · 84 BPM | C Major · ~2:56 A late-night mood piece about the stillness of a rainy Sunday, with dusty lo-fi drums and a detuned piano. It is a deliberate departure from the rest of the set, included for range.
CARNIVAL LIGHTS Country Pop SONGWRITER Charles V. Sasser Jr. CONTACT cv.sasser@gmail.com | (407) 406-9309 GENRE Country Pop TEMPO & KEY 120 BPM | C Major MOOD Romantic & Dreamy TARGET LENGTH ~2:50 RIGHTS STATUS Unpublished original work. All rights reserved. Available for evaluation. THE PITCH A bright, romantic song about an unplanned night at a traveling county fair that turns into something more -- Ferris wheels, funnel cake, and falling for someone you didn't see coming. SONG STRUCTURE Intro → Verse 1 → Chorus → Verse 2 → Chorus → Instrumental Break → Bridge → Final Chorus → Outro INSTRUMENTATION Bright, bouncy acoustic guitar with a hint of accordion-style texture -- playful, fairground energy. Fiddle and a bright electric guitar trade a spinning, carousel-like melody in the instrumental break. Music-box style outro tag, sweet and small. IN THE VEIN OF Kane Brown · Dan + Shay · Thomas Rhett · Carly Pearce VOCAL STYLE Lead vocal: light, giddy, genuinely charmed -- someone still a little surprised by their own happiness. Playful rather than smooth-romantic; this is butterflies, not seduction.
CARNIVAL LIGHTS Lyric & Chord Sheet INTRO (Bright, bouncy acoustic guitar with a hint of accordion-style texture -- playful, fairground energy.) VERSE 1 (C) Ferris wheel's lit up like a carnival constellation (G) Funnel cake and diesel smoke hanging in the air (C) You won me a stuffed bear I definitely didn't need (F) But I wasn't letting go of you or that bear either way CHORUS (F) Under the carnival lights (C) Everything looks like it might (G) Just be the start of something good (C) Cotton candy and a Ferris wheel view (F) I never planned on falling for you (G) Under the carnival lights VERSE 2 (C) Tilt-A-Whirl got us laughing till we couldn't stand up straight (G) You screamed the whole way down and grabbed on tighter than the bar (C) Some nights you don't see coming turn into the ones you keep (F) This one's going in my pocket like a ticket for a star CHORUS (F) Under the carnival lights (C) Everything looks like it might (G) Just be the start of something good (C) Cotton candy and a Ferris wheel view (F) I never planned on falling for you (G) Under the carnival lights INSTRUMENTAL BREAK (Fiddle and a bright electric guitar trading a spinning, carousel-like melody -- dizzy and joyful.) BRIDGE (Am) Every town's got a night like this one (F) Rolling through on wheels that won't stay long (C) But some nights leave more than just a memory (G) Some nights, they leave you a whole new song FINAL CHORUS (F) Under the carnival lights (C) Everything looks like it might (G) Just be the start of something good (C) Cotton candy and a Ferris wheel view (F) I never planned on falling for you (G) Under the carnival lights OUTRO (F) Under the carnival lights... (C) I found you... (Music box-style outro tag on guitar, sweet and small, fading like the fair packing up to move to the next town.)
That's one, let me know if you want the other 7
I appreciate the offer, Charles, but I'm not presenting as a singer. I don't do vocal work or perform, and haven't since my 20s. I only sing as much as it takes to produce my own work to share as a songwriter. Otherwise, I just do things for fun with family and friends. But I do hope you find a singer to tell your stories and that they get a chance to be heard by more people. The recordings you have are pretty awesome too! Thank you, again, for sharing!
No worries
let me know what you think of Iron Cold
If you know anyone looking to collaborate. I just want to get my stories out. If any are truly good enough I'd go 50/50 or whatever to make it happen. All my earnings from my books and short story winnings went to Veteran advocacy groups. I'm blessed not to need the money. My Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles -sasser-767bb489/
Iron Cold is another fantastic song, both sonically and lyrically! Keep writing and making music, friend.