Kids, cars, dogs, dads, wives, moms and lost loved ones. Dobro from Frank Michels (Nashville) to superb acoustic (Dale Crockett, London, Ohio) and Dale's smoking Electric in What Would Jesus Drive. Laughter and tears from 'Irish Too' to 'Real Soldierman.

21 MP3 Songs in this album (67:53) !
Related styles: Country: Americana, Kids/Family: Kid Friendly, Mood: Fun

People who are interested in Brad Paisley, content wise Hank, Jr. done by David Ward John Prine, story wise should consider this download.


Details:
Jon Hanson: October 2010 Artist of the Month! (This is interview is from Songramp.com) By: Staff

Who is âJon Hanson?â

Blessed, a sinner saved by grace. The best part of my life began in 1982 when I met my wife Nita; we have been married for 27 years. I marvel at how a chance meeting can totally change your life; I relive our meeting in one of the first songs I posted on the ramp I Like Me Best When Iâm Next to You. The waitress in that song in some 20 years has gone from pouring coffee to paralegal to attorney. She continues to inspire me because she has followed her dream of going to law school and becoming a respected attorney (versus the other kind). We have a 19 year old son, Aubrey, deployed to Iraq serving in the US Army. Our 15 year old daughter Paige, is a Junior in high school. These three are the reason I wrote in I Like Me Best: âAll of these memories I keep putting away, thatâs why Iâm going to die a rich man someday.â
I was bed side a year ago when my best friend of 29 years died. All he had was memories. That is all any of us can have in the end. Perhaps reason enough to strive towards making good ones.

I have been in the real estate business for the past 28 years and operate a few small warehouse/business type projects that we own. I probably spend too much time thinking about songs. I have a B.A. in Psychology and Education Minor and an MBA I earned in 2008. Naturally, I am a songwriter I love song writing.

How and When Did You Get Started Writing and Performing Music?

I wrote a book that was published by a major house in 2005, Good Debt Bad Debt (Penguin, USA). To help promote the book, I wrote a parody of Surfinâ USA as Chargin USA. It turned out great, but was such a hassle to use even though I paid the mechanical fees to the publishers. Sometimes radio interviewers would play it but often they would not. By 2008, I had a lyric for Credit Card Junkie, my original work Danny Jones (a new ramp member) helped create the melody and composed the music. It was my first original song. Even though Danny is in Atlanta, I talk to him 2 or 3 times a week and he continues to do vocals on several of my songs. Look for People of Wal-Mart I am working on with a Danny Jones vocal in 2011.

Right away I got involved with local songwriting groups (a place where you get 3,000 words of advice for a 12-syllable problem). I made lots of trips to Nashville and did plenty of seminars and workshops. Steve Seskinâs was one of the best. Pursuing songwriting is like pursing a woman, if you love her you do everything you can to be with her. I love songwriting.

My first time singing in public was about a year ago at a political rally of 2,000 folks. I wrote a song for the governor-to-be. The campaign loved the song but was horrified to find out a fellow from Georgia (Danny) was singing it. They asked me to sing it and I said âmaybe.â We sent them a track with Dale Crockett singing all but 4 lines that I sang. They asked us to provide entertainment for the event. From never singing to doing three songs (2 solo), and Dale did a whole set, It was a fantastic and fun experience. For your listening enjoyment I only sing two of the songs on this CD " You're Probably Irish Too" and "Dobro Doggy." Though I did write the entire album.

With my Songwriting group occasionally I will sing at local venues, if Dale is there to back me. I write goofy stuff like Heartless, to sing out a funny song helps cover for a bad voice. At this point, I can play one song on my guitar, so I wrote three sets of words for that melody. I can still play a little trumpet. I think and write with melody but sometimes need help with chords.


What Inspirations Do You Draw From in Your Writing & Performing? Who are some of your influences or musical 'heroes'?

I think 50+ folks make the best writers because they have either had a story beaten into or out of them. As I start the second half of my life, I have decided, that money will not be my main focus. I want to follow Godâs plan for me. I donât want to die leaving songs or books unwritten, poems unspoken, loved ones unloved, and lives around me, that I could have changed, unchanged.

My musical influences: run from The Box Tops, Ohio Express (Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I Got Love in My Tummy-âthe lovinâthat youâre givin is whatâs keeping me livinââ) to Yodelady and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I love good honest music of all kinds. I love Grand Funk Railroad, Johnny Cash, John Prine, Paul Thorn, and thousands more.

I am not sure âheroâ means much the way people commonly use the word. You âhero worshipâ someone youâve never met? That sounds idiotic to me and probably unhealthy. The people I can access through my network or the Ramp are my heros. Danny Jones, Paul Reece, James Cain, Greg Fritsch, Julie Springer, Blane Cox, Diane Gee, Dale Crockett, Jim Wootton, and many others from my travels and from the Ramp; those are heros I can access. I love Chuck Berry but I canât call or Skype him. A hero saves you, Chuck doesnât even know me.

What are You Currently Working On?

Greg Fritsch and I are finishing a Santa song about a little girl with cancer that I started in 2009. I always have a melody idea but this one really threw me for a loss. Greg and I got together and came up with a cool chorus melody and once we figured out the opening couple of lines had to be Red Sovine spoken style it came together. I have rewritten verse two to death and we are one line away. Julie Springer got me thinking yesterday with some of her suggestions.
I always have a stack of stuff that I am working on. Some, like Heartless, I write and record in one day. But the deeper stuff can take dozens of rewrites. I rewrote Real Soldierman (a song I think will eventually get cut) about seven times over five months.

I have a cool idea for a banjo and mandolin song, and it is in progress as well as three or four that I would consider âAâ songs that will get full production. Sometimes I wait until I meet the right voice or player, too, before I finish a song. Ideas are everywhere. I am always working on the comedy stuff and involving more and more Rampers in them. Songwriting has to be fun.

If You Could Change One Thing About The Music Industry, What Would it Be?

Thatâs like asking how you would change gravity! It is what it is. I would change me. That is the only thing I can change. When someone tells me they would give anything to play like Dale, I say, practice every day for 30 years; tour and study music theory. Work as hard as Dale did. Then they say, well, anything but that! I think we need to work harder on ourselves and our songs and not complain about the music industry.

What Would You Say is the Most Important Lesson You've Learned in the Music Business that New Artists Should Know?

If anything can stop you from writing, let it. If nothing can stop you from writing then by all means write! Writing songs canât be like mowing the lawn. It takes energy, emotion, and a feel of how to gain a marriage of the words and music so that each is greater together than alone.

Robert Frost said, âNo tear in the writer, no tear in reader.â Would that not follow with song writing? I donât mean folks cry because itâs so bad. I mean if itâs supposed to be funny is it cracking you up? Do you shed tears when writing the ballad? If not you are probably not going to affect the listener. If itâs supposed to rockâdoes it RAWK?

I believe a songwriter should play to their strengths while strengthening their weaknesses. Be willing to collaborate or rent a good player or vocalist if you are not that person. There are many parts to make a song, few do all of them well. 1. Melody 2. Lyrics 3. Chord progression 4. Arrangement 5. Fills 6. Style and feel 7. Mixing-engineering.

Get help, Julie Springer and I bounce ideas off each other all the time via email. She says she is OCD. I am ADD. It is really cool to see your idea through a completely different mind. I just met Julie on the ramp (she Fritsch and I have wiener dogs) sheâs a great person, funny, funny, funny, and a great writer too. Springer (Springtone on the ramp) is like my younger sister that has songwriting in common with me.

Any Last Thoughts?

I want to thank Mary Alice Vanderwaters for being so gracious and supportive last month when I wrote to tell her the tie breaker went to her. She is truly a great artist and super nice lady. As to last thoughts, I am planning on 47 more years before last thoughts. But to end this: âI donât know about my past, but my future is spotless.â

Jon Hanson