Kathy Mattea Songwriting School

Songwriting is a lifelong process for most.  I began writing in college at Northeast Louisiana University (now The University of Louisiana at Monroe)  I’ve had the pleasure of attending several songwriting schools.  These were taught by great songwriters such as Steve Seskin, Tom Prasada-Rao, Cary Cooper and Kyle Matthews.  Most songwriting schools are 1 to 2 days.  In May I got to opportunity to learn from some of the greatest song writers in the business.  The Richardson, Texas event was three full days.

Kathy Mattea was joined by her husband, Jon Vezner and Pat Pattison.  John Vezner performs on his own, but has also written several of Kathy’s hits, including Grammy winning “Where Have You Been.”  The third instructor, Pat Pattison, is a professor at the Berklee College of Music. He has written extensively about the craft of songwriting, including Writing Better Lyrics.   The weekend study was quite comprehensive and covered other topic as wall such as voice.

During one of the breakout sessions Kathy used my old Maple Taylor 615 to demonstrate her point.