Delivering A Song
by Mike Moutoux, Western Entertainer
& Cowboy Poet
Photo: Steve Jones courtesy of Bill Patterson

A performer can sing at you or even to you, but when they really deliver a song, they sing for you. Recently, I’ve been bouncing the idea of delivering a song off some people I respect and their answers have been quite insightful. I’m defining “delivering a song” as the intent to perform a song with emotion so that the bridge between artist and audience dissolves and everyone is pulled into the song.  This has been my goal since the beginning; to take listeners to a time and place they may not know any other way. Some artists make this look easy, but do not be fooled; it takes a good bit of work.

A first, crucial step, according to Jon Messenger, (and one of the best at delivering a song in my mind), is to take the time to digest the song and embrace it, “and attempt to be…that song, that story. I have to feel the feelings and transmit the result. If I don’t feel it, how can I hope to have another feel it?” He reminds us all that we must first connect with a song in an emotional way before we can transmit the meaning and emotions to a listener. This is as important as memorizing the words and melody and the music. This is really at the heart of singing a song for the listener.

Another good friend and award winning songwriter who weighed in on this is Marvin O’Dell. Marvin pointed out how much rehearsing needs to go into a song before it’s ready to be delivered. He says “I like to rehearse a song until I know it so well that I can stop thinking about it and start communicating it. I’m not sure you CAN communicate song until you’ve reached that point.”  If we’re focusing on the words or in not making mistakes instead of delivering the song with feeling we’re singing at you or to you, but not for you. It takes a lot of rehearsal time to deliver a song that may be only three minutes long.

Marvin also stressed the importance of removing any barriers between the artist and the audience. He likes to greet folks before a show and believes that helps a lot.  Which brings me to Donnie Blanz who offered up the advice he got once from Minnie Pearl.  She said, “Honey, you just love those folks out there and they’re gonna love you right back.” To that he adds, …do it honestly and from the heart and you can’t go wrong.”

Also in the discussion was Steve Jones of the Yampa Valley boys. I asked him about the risks involved in delivering a song that affects him emotionally and trying to convey that emotion. He said, “ I sometimes find myself so engrossed in delivering the “feeling” that I forget where I am! I keep striving to reach the point where I can put all of my soul and emotion into the lyrics, keep the tune and still manage to play the guitar on a song. When you put a new song into a show, you go through the entire drill again.” His other bit of advice has to do with preparing an audience for a song.  He likes to prepare them for the delivery by giving them some background about the song. Sort of like laying out a map before he takes them on a trip. If you have not taken such a trip with the Yampa Valley boys you need to put that on your bucket list. Steve and his partner, John Fisher, are wonderful tour guides into the life of the cowboy.

Maybe that’s what we are, really: tour guides into a world not often experienced by our audiences. Fortunately, there is no crowded bus belching diesel fumes as we go and no itinerary that demands you be back on the bus at a certain time. And there isn’t a bored narrator with a cheap sound system giving you the same information you already have in the brochure in your lap. Instead you have an artist pulling you along with a delivery so compelling that you forget where you are and remember things you thought you had forgotten. You get a rare opportunity to pull back the curtain and see the West: the tough horses and wild-eyed cattle, the real deal cowboys and self-less ranch wives and a thousand other things that make you glad that for a few minutes someone on a stage brought them to life for you. They delivered all these because they love you for being there and they knew how to do something really special. They could deliver a song.