Welcome to The Lyricist’s Lens | An Americana Panorama, an independent songwriter’s narrative. Peer through the lyricist’s lens for complete immersion into the vantage point of an aspiring indie Americana artist.
OUR STORY
Back in September 2019, I met Fred Austin at the Hawaiian restaurant where I was a waitress and bartender. A coworker and I had convinced the restaurant owner to let us host an Open Mic Nite on Saturdays.
It was really quite sad. We didn’t have the right equipment and most musicians are busy doing gigs on Saturday nights, so we had a low turnout most weeks. On the second night we hosted, Fred Austin showed up to jam with a fellow musician who had asked him to come out. I asked him if he knew Landslide. He said yes, but having not played it in years, he fumbled through it.
A couple weeks later he showed up again and, before leaving, asked me to write a few songs down that I would like him to learn for me. I looked at him with tears in my eyes and asked, “You’d do that for me?”
I had been out of the music scene for over a decade while raising and homeschooling my son and I deeply longed for that creative outlet to return to my life.
- Storms
- Landslide
- Gold Dust Woman
(Yes, I am a Fleetwood Mac fan.)
At the Oktoberfest celebration at the restaurant the next week, we performed those songs. From that night on, we frequented Open Mic Nites in Northwest Arkansas. In December 2019, my boss gave us a shot at our first gig. The next month, we started writing songs. Then in February 2020, we performed those songs at The Gypsy in Tulsa, OK. We all know what happened to our momentum after that…
This is the first glimpse through The Lyricist’s Lens |
THE CREATIVE FIRE
Some of us live with a fire inside of us. The Creative Fire. It burns for recognition, for release. The roadmap to its fruition is never clear and never easy.
The past year and a half have turned the aspirations of all musicians upside down, for both seasoned and green alike. While highly successful and financially backed professionals may have maintained a holding pattern with their patient fanbase, the indie artists were suddenly left without a lifeline. With all the curveballs thrown at people lately, not many have been searching out music videos from people they’ve never heard of and cannot see performing live.
Emerging artists everywhere have been left waiting in our cocoons.
ESCAPE THE COCOON
No matter what your experience of recent historical events, there are still ways to channel and release The Creative Fire. In many ways, we need great music more than ever. We need that raw, unrefined, REAL artistic expression. I hope that here you can find inspiration, motivation, and direction.
Welcome to The Lyricist’s Lens | An Americana Panarama
Yours truly,
Shira Jane
The Lyricist’s Lens |