Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Click to hear Episode #17 (time = 20:15, size = 23.8 mb)

The next few episodes of “Songs and Stories” will be interviews with three very different Texas songwriters. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be talking with Patrice Pike and Colin Gilmore. In this edition, we chat with Darden Smith.

Darden talks about the epiphany of discovering what a songwriter is – in his case, it was Neil Young’s “Harvest” and “After the Goldrush” albums, the differences between Texas, narrative-style songwriting (Guy Clark, Willie Nelson) versus the English pop songs (Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe) that are driven by a lyrical or musical hook, and the craft of writing songs (“you have to finish them….it’s like making furniture”).

Here are some links to go with the show. I mention these in the podcast:

• Darden Smith’s official site
• Darden Smith’s CDs
• Chords and lyrics to Neil Young’s “Harvest”
• Chords and lyrics to Elvis Costello’s “The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes”
• Boo Hewerdine