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Songwriter Showcase

R. Ross Horton II — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 23:16:53 +0000

***Flip phone horizontally to view on mobile***

LINKS

Lyric Sheet

The Security Sessions (my book’s soundtrack)

Love Songs and Suicide – Amazon Link

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

R. Ross Horton II

R. Ross Horton is a writer, editor, and musician based in Palm Coast, FL. Last year he published his first book, Love Songs and Suicide: A Travel Memoir, Romance, and Tragic Musical Comedy. At Lovesong.blog, Ross strives to help people find harmony in a chaotic world. Visit this website’s about page to learn more.

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Best Jingle Ever?

R. Ross Horton II — Tue, 09 May 2023 04:57:07 +0000

No, of course “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” is the best insurance jingle ever.

But this one pretty good. It generated some interest from a company that shall remain nameless for now (that company name rhymes with…regressive).

We’ll see. I’m shopping it around as I type.

Title: “Come Bundle with Us”

Runtime: 47 seconds (could easily be reduced to 30).

Special cameo at the end.

Plus a two-word pitch that I’m pretty sure will sell you on the concept.

R. Ross Horton II

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I Could Not Stop for Death – A Song Based on the Poem by Emily Dickinson

R. Ross Horton II — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 03:33:21 +0000

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once said, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

That’s a brilliant quote.

And now I have a friendly “You’re going to die soon” reminder for you as well—and that reminder comes in the form of a song.

It’s an original song I wrote and sang myself called “I Could Not Stop for Death (Nothing but Time).”

The track is an unauthorized and century-too-late sequel of sorts to Emily Dickinson’s 1891 poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” originally called “The Chariot.”

All we have is time

I edit dumpster fire essays for a living currently. A student analyzed this poem (poorly) and I immediately knew I had to write a song based on the title alone. What you’re about to hear is the end result. I didn’t have a big enough range to hit the high notes in this one for a long time, but now I do (or close enough). The poem is below.

Because I could not stop for Death (479)

Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.

We slowly drove—He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess—in the Ring—
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—
We passed the Setting Sun—

Or rather—He passed us—
The Dews drew quivering and chill—
For only Gossamer, my Gown—
My Tippet—only Tulle—

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground—

Since then—’tis Centuries—and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity—

My guitar’s still messed up, but I felt like playing this anyway. You’re going to die. And soon. I hope you find this song as uplifting as I do (it’s meant to be motivational, after all!).

R. Ross Horton II

lovesong.blog

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Grand Finale: Three Unforgettable Days in July (a Story and a Song)

R. Ross Horton II — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 07:58:49 +0000

July 4, 2018. The last day I ever spoke to my grandma. Her last trip around the sun.

I completed the rough demo for “I Can’t Make You Stay,” a song I wrote shortly after learning of her terminal diagnosis (recording below). It’s about death as much as it is about love, to me anyway, and it’s perhaps my best work to date.

In no more than three minutes, I plucked the song’s chorus out of the ether with practically no revisions needed. Definitely the coolest moment I’ve had as a songwriter.

Finally, a little later on an Independence Day run, I encountered a terrified, lost dog wandering the streets amidst the fireworks and chaos. No one in that immediate area wanted to help her so the task fell on me. I improvised…

Using my $9.99 earbuds as a leash, I walked her home — a mile-plus trek — and quickly located her owner via the Nextdoor app.

July 5: My grandma died, around 0900. I was sad and undoubtedly shed some tears, but I knew the prognosis and I was prepared.

She led a remarkable life and enjoyed 84 complete years, along with five tolerable years in a nursing home after her stroke, which she devoted almost entirely to her family and church.

As I said in my eulogy a few weeks later, she was the most selfless and overall the best person I ever knew. Brief, upbeat excerpt attached.

July 6th: Midnight. In grief and running on no sleep, I worked the graveyard security shift at a rural hospital in Northern Washington State — an ill-advised maneuver on my part, perhaps.

During a shift I’ll never forget, the staff sparred over how to manage unruly guests, I smoked my first two cigarettes in as many years, and the frosty 22-year-old receptionist told me I was “too compassionate” to be an effective security guard.

I remember spending a good chunk of the night hiding in the hospital’s boiler room, staring up into rafters and feeling like I was underwater.

Also, the hospital’s house supervisor unknowingly quoted the title of my newest song.

Speaking to a disgruntled, unstable patient who’d sustained a drunken injury on the Fourth of July, he tried to assuage her many concerns as she threatened to leave (again) and sought treatment simultaneously (again).

“I can’t make you stay,” he told her flatly, attempting to conceal his frustration.

Unbelievably, that was the first time I’d ever heard anyone utter the phrase.

Fate? Happenstance? A message from beyond? None of the above? Who the hell knows.

Three years later I still miss my grandma. And I tell the full story behind it in my book, Love Songs and Suicide: A Travel Memoir, Romance, and Tragic Musical Comedy.

You can check out “I Can’t Make You Stay” below.

R. Ross Horton II

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“Because You Love Me” – How My Grandma and Lady Gaga Inspired the Sentimental Duet!

R. Ross Horton II — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:09:04 +0000

I’m a strange combination of cynic and romantic. And I remember being in a good mood when I wrote “Because You Love Me.” I wasn’t in love or happy at the time, but I was feeling generally okay and sort of playful I guess, for whatever reason.

A Productive Week

I wrote “Because You Love Me” and “Mesmerized Again,” another song from the Love Songs and Suicide soundtrack, within the span of about 5 days. It was perhaps my most prolific burst of songwriting ever. I worked on them both simultaneously and didn’t find extensive editing to be necessary with either song.

The Inspirations

1. Lady Gaga gets a partial credit for the inspiration.

Ooo, La, La, it’s Ga Ga!

I remember really digging her song “Million Reasons.” To me, it was a song more about death than love, but I do have an affinity for all things macabre so my interpretation could be misguided.

2. My Grandma

My damaged college graduation photo, 2010.

At 81-years-old, she was still in remarkable shape in the above pic and had just ascended a gauntlet of outdoor staircases, starting from the Stadium, to see the UW campus. She’s the reason I applied for college in the first place, and undoubtedly the only reason I attended my graduation…

Yeah, pretty random inspirations!

My grandma, of all people, whose presence is felt throughout many of my songs in one way or another (more on that later, perhaps), also played a pivotal role in this song’s creation.

I’ll talk about grandma first, then Gaga…

2012 Stroke

My grandma had a massive stroke in 2012 which eventually landed her in a nursing home. In the immediate aftermath, my dad and I drove 1,000+ miles to see her, knowing there was a chance she’d perish while we were en route.

When we arrived, she was fighting for her life in a hospital, having just had a stent put in her brain via emergency surgery which some members of my family opposed for various reasons.

We entered the room. With an array of tubes and monitoring equipment beeping near her beside, my cousins and aunts surrounded her.

“Here comes Bobby,” they told her; Bobby was my early-childhood name that only a few people on this planet are still allowed to call me. God I hate it….

Before I caught a glimpse of her, she said, “Let me see him.”

I reluctantly waded through crowd, not knowing what to expect. Then, with her voice weakened and slightly slurred from the medications and anesthesia, she said, “He needs a…”

She’d always looked vibrant and young relative to her age, but at that moment, for the first time, she looked emaciated and like the elderly woman she was. She repeated, “Oh, needs a…”

Then finally, she blurted it out, “He needs a haircut.”

And everyone laughed. What an icebreaker!

I had longish hair through most of my 20s — never as long as this! My grandma hated it. To appease her, I would typically get it cut, or at least trimmed, prior to my visits.

The next thing she told me, which I’ll never forget because it’s one of the nicer and more poignant statements anyone’s ever made to me was, “You’re so special and you don’t even know it.”

She repeated while starting to tear up, “You don’t even know it.”

I don’t believe it’s true, but then again, I’m something of an existentialist and I don’t really believe anyone’s special. Dust in the wind, my friends, dust in the wind.

Perhaps I need a more uplifting worldview. That is one of only a handful of memes I’ve ever posted on facebook, for the benefit of my 39 friends, and counting! It received one, very lonely like…

I digress.

My grandma’s one of the few people who believed in me in this life. She died a few months before I completed this song, and I thought I’d include the line, “You don’t know just how special you are” as an acknowledgment to her. It’s not a momentous line or moment necessarily, but as I said, her presence is felt throughout the song. I’m sorry she never got to see me succeed, or be particularly happy, or give her the great grandchild she’d always wanted.

Aroused By Gaga (But Not in that Way)

Prior to writing “Because You Love Me,” I’d just listened to Gaga’s song, “Million Reasons,” a tune that features perhaps the most commonly used chord progression of the last 100 years, the 1-6-4-5 progression (in the key of G, that’s G-em-C-D). It’s been used a million times. And even if you know nothing about music, chances are you know what a G chord is, right? Good.

This 1-6-4-5 sequence is sometimes regarded as the “doo wop” chord progression, due to its ubiquity in the 50s. Some of the most popular songs of the last century use this progression, including “I Will Always Love You,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Stand by Me,” and my favorite song of all-time, “Unchained Melody,” to name a few.

So yeah, I’d never written a song that employs that chord cycle, and I just decided after hearing “Million Reasons” that I needed to take that progression for a spin. Perhaps genius would strike and I’d write an undeniable, million-dollar hit song!

No such thing happened, but the end result was respectable nevertheless.

Not Enough Great Duets

I’ve always wanted to write a quality duet — that was my other motivation at the start.

Let’s face it: There simply aren’t enough great songs for love-drunk and just-plain-drunk couples to butcher on karaoke nights! Sure, there’s “Shallow,” another Gaga song, and “I Got You, Babe,” and “Endless Love,” and all those cheesy Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers numbers. But what the fuck else is there? Not much!

I came up with the line “I’ve always been hard on myself” and the rest of the song followed pretty quickly. I was in a receptive mood and didn’t feel like too much editing was necessary once the initial “flow” was complete. I could be wrong in my assessment. It’s my least favorite of all I paid 3 grand to have produced professionally, by a considerable margin. But it’s mine, and I stand by the words and music.

And that’s the story behind, “Because You Love Me.” The song is below.

R. Ross Horton II

lovesong.blog

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The Two Step of Deceit

R. Ross Horton II — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 10:19:46 +0000

After an extended sabbatical from songwriting, I began composing new music again in the winter of 2019.

“The Two of Deceit” was my first new song in at least five years, maybe more.

I originally composed the track in a major key. It featured bizarre references to missions and politicians. President Obama received a shout out in this line: “Maybe you can give me some hope and some change.”

I didn’t make extensive revisions to the verse lyrics, but I moved the song from a major key to a minor key and subsequently altered the melody. On a sleepless Friday night, with two long weekend shifts ahead of me, I rewrote the song’s chorus.

Don’t you look away

Give me a chance

I’m dazed, I’m confused,

and I just wanna dance

No, this ain’t my wedding

I don’t need a gown

But man

you know I love it

when you spin me around

One more time

Blow my mind

and get up on your feet

Let’s do

the two step of deceit

In those lyrics, you may have noticed my allusion to Dazed and Confused, the classic 1993 film that chronicles a group of sex-crazed teens on their last day of high school. There’s a great scene in the movie where a character named Mike, played by Adam Goldberg, comes to terms with being a misanthrope while cruising around town with his friends, Tony and Cynthia.

Mike’s original career goal was to become a civil rights attorney and help marginalized people. Then he takes a fateful trip to the post office, where he’s repulsed by what he sees: dudes in wife beaters, exposed butt cracks, and so on. As he waits in line to send his package, he realizes he despises people and therefore has no interest in helping them.

Tony and Cynthia ask Mike what he intends to do with his life, if he’s not going to be a lawyer.

Mike leans forward and then dramatically declares his ambition. “I wanna dance!” he exclaims.

The line “I’m dazed, I’m confused, and I just wanna dance” is my tribute to Mike, the misanthrope, my favorite character from the movie Dazed and Confused.

“The Two Step of Deceit” also contains a nod to the top-selling “Girl Power” group of the ‘90s.

We can forget

about the future

Oh, I wanna be . . .

I wanna be your lover

but not under the covers

right here, honey,

you and me

The “wannabe” line is a reference to the 1996 smash hit “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. I pretended not to like it, but I was lying. I love everything about the song—the piano intro, the interplay between the singers, the infectious groove, and the cheap and cheesy, awesomely terrible music video.

It took me ten years to finish “The Two Step of Deceit.” Given the amount of time I spent on it, the song should be exponentially better than it is, both musically and lyrically. But the result is still respectable, I think. Track below.

R. Ross Horton II

lovesong.blog

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My Apocalyptic Party Song (and the Pitch I Wrote for it way Back in 2020)

R. Ross Horton II — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 10:40:22 +0000

Of all the songs I’ve written, this is one people seem to like the most. I’m not sure why.It’s fun. And most of my material isn’t necessarily “fun,” just as I am not necessarily fun.But yeah…I’m just gonna post it…No edits. Original post title below.

Now or Never, a Post-Corona Party Anthem – The Top 10 Reasons to Record “Cuttin’ The Backwoods Down” TODAY!

Posted on April 10, 2020

I need to get something off my chest. I really don’t care (very much) if you or the artist you represent record this song. But I feel like it deserves to live and not rot in obscurity on my vacant blog and YouTube channel, so that’s why I’m making this pitch.

Video is below….check it:

If you’re intrigued but skeptical after hearing the song, this post is for you. Here are the top 10 reasons to consider recording “Cutting the Backwoods Down.” The song is at the top of this post, the pitch is below — plus a second acoustic version that I perform myself, with a little help from a virtuoso musician from the Netherlands.

#1 Reason to Record Cuttin’ the Backwoods Down – The Title/Concept

Come on, this is objectively a much better title than “This is How We Roll” or “Up Down” or “Bottoms Up” or any other party song that’s come out lately. Concept-wise, I’d argue there hasn’t been a better party-song idea since “Friends in Low Places.”

#2 – Great Name for a Tour

Luke Combs presents, “The Cuttin’ the Backwoods Down Summer Tour, 2020.” Or if not you Luke, someone else. I know you like to record your own stuff but maybe this song is worth making an exception for. Other possibilities include Jason Aldean, FGL and Morgan Wallen.

#3 – America’s (Almost) Ready to Party Again

And this will be the perfect anthem to crank up once the coronavirus hysteria starts to wane. Godspeed to all my friends who work in healthcare and EVS, as well as all the truckers, police, firefighters, etc. who are keeping this country operational during this pandemic. This too shall pass, I believe that.

Reserve “Cuttin’ the Backwoods Down” now and release it when the timing is right, whether it’s this coming summer or next year (my guess is next Spring will be the ideal release date). Stay safe out there.

#4 – It Stands out a Little, in a Good Way

Look, I hear country music a little differently, for better or for worse. So does an artist like Luke Combs and he has been richly rewarded for bucking industry trends. He’s had quite a few songs approach radio’s unofficial 4-minute death mark, some of which have soared straight to the top of the charts. The tempo could be sped up here easily; my acoustic take (at the bottom of this post) clocks in at under 3:30.

This song wasn’t built on an assembly line and I think people will appreciate its originality, attention to detail, and craftsmanship.

#5 – It’s Funny

With few exceptions, mainstream country music isn’t funny anymore. But as Blake Shelton proved in the not-too-far-distant past with songs like “She’s Got a Way with Words,” and “Some Beach,” a splash of humor can be a welcome addition to a person’s boring morning routine/commute.

#6 – Merchandising Opportunities

I’m talking about alligator hats, boots, shirts, visors, jackets, etc. Maybe sausage too! You could have Backwoods shirts as well featuring the characters in the song, including one-eyed Tommy, etc.! Hell, you could even sell masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and donate the proceeds to research, etc.

#7 – Memorable Lines and Characters

Examples:

* One-eyed Tommy may wrastle a gator

* No backwoods would mean no fishin’, no huntin’, and no kissin’ your cousin

* I’m just kiddin’ Billy Bob, have some corn on the cob.

* Now there ain’t no denyin’, we’re living and we’re dyin’ (it’s an existential party song of sorts, I suppose, ha).

* They’re gonna see this party up in space

Also there’s the main character of the song, who’s like a weird, hetero, Joe Exotic-type redneck party planner.

#8 – Sick Rhyme Spittin’ in Rows

Bob Dylan and Eminem were both masters of the rhyme-overload technique, particularly during their verses. This technique is rarely employed in mainstream music today, which is a shame because it’s a highly effective mnemonic device when used properly. I drop some pretty sick — not to brag, of course — rhyme flows in both verses 1 and 2. Examples:

* Verse 1: “Get your ass up in gear/I said it’s clear/the perfect time of year/and we’re about to party like the end’s already here.”

* Verse 2: “It won’t be catered, but yo/we brought a generator/and a grill then later you know/one-eyed Tommy may wrastle a gator and so”

#9 – The Disclaimer (with a line about social distancing/wearing masks in public if needed)

How many party songs have disclaimers? None that I can think of! That’s super unique and kind of awesome in my opinion.

In light of recent events, I could tweak it a bit and add a line about social distancing or wearing masks if needed, so it’d go like this: “The following recording is for entertainment purposes only. Please party responsibly, practice safe social distancing, and don’t go wrastlin’ no gators.”

I could throw something in about covering coughs and sneezes too.

Undoubtedly, you’ll have to tread a little bit carefully here, given the severity of this pandemic, but I think it’s possible to tastefully and respectfully promote the song — again, when the timing is right. As I said, my guess is the ideal release date will be sometime next spring.

#10 – Arena Ready

Crank the guitars, this one is sure to be a classic, foot-stomping arena singalong for years to come.

#11 (Bonus) – Epic Video Potential

Maybe you invite healthcare workers who are fans of country music to a free concert and produce a music video showcasing the event.

Everyone gets a mask of course. There, you honor the heroes who fought the battle on the front lines and give them an opportunity to celebrate life in a communal setting once again. Just an idea. Or you do the whole thing digitally — a house-party song.

Below is my acoustic take on the song, featuring the only banjo pickin’ and tobacco spittin’ redneck from the Netherlands, Bart Dietvorst, with a fresh disclaimer for the pandemic and impending apocalypse:

R. Ross Horton II

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