Transformative Songcraft Workshop with C.B. Smith

Adult Group Class / Songwriting Program

Transformative can be defined as “causing a marked change”. The goal of this unique workshop is to help participants develop meaningful work that promotes change. In service of this lofty goal we’ll take a hard look at how the best songs help both creators and listeners process life’s challenges and celebrate life’s pleasures.

We will study the work of notable songwriters in multiple genres, as we seek to create our own stories with unexpected twists and characters who evolve in surprising ways. Lyrics will be an important focus, but we’ll also look at building musical vocabularies in genres like folk, Americana, blues, bluegrass, jazz, rock and soul.

Songs we’ll study include:
“A Change is Gonna Come” (Sam Cooke)
“Deeper Well” (Emmylou Harris, Lanois, Olney)
“Deportee” (Woody Guthrie)
“Elllis Unit One” (Steve Earle)
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (Hank Williams)
“In The Dark” (Shemekia Copeland, Parker, Robie)
“Mercy Now” (Mary Gauthier)
“Respect” (Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin)
“Sam Stone” (John Prine)
“What’s Going On?” (Marvin Gaye, Benson, Cleveland)

This workshop’s topics include the role of empathy, the superpower of simplicity, and how the best songs celebrate self-reliance, sobriety, resilience and dignity. We’ll finish by looking at how a songwriting practice can add meaning to our lives while helping us survive issues like aging, addiction, grief and isolation.

A follow up two-hour online session with C.B. Smith will be offered at a future date. This will be designed to dig deeper into skills such as writing from the heart, applying critical thinking, and developing our unique styles. A chapter called “Poetry of Place” will focus on how songcraft can help us appreciate and celebrate the environments we live in, whether they be urban canyons or mountain meadows. The final chapter, “Look to the Sky“, will explore the spiritual (though not necessarily religious) side of songwriting.