SNG 4000 Songwriting Seminar, Wed. Sept. 30 @ 5:00 in the Quonset Hut studio , 34 Music Square East (16th Ave.) with Big Yellow Dog Music Songwriters Natalie Hemby & Daniel Tashian.
NATALIE HEMBY
You know when you hear a song and it takes you back to a memory? That’s what I want. I want to give people moments to remember.” Singer/Songwriter Natalie Hemby makes those moments through songs that have a style and intensity that are uniquely hers. Sometimes quirky, sometimes sarcastic, she has a talent for making brutal honesty sound like a pat on the back. Raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Natalie signed her first publishing deal at the age of 19, and began writing with the likes of Jay Joyce (Patti Griffin, Shelby Lynne) and wrote with artists such as Rachael Lampa (When I fall, You Never Know) and the Wilkinsons (L.A.). Natalie’s song “Sweet Girl” was featured in the television show “Felicity” during the fire episode. In March of 2008, she signed a deal with Carnival Music Publishing and has had cuts by Lee Ann Womack (The Bees), Eli Young Band (Mystery in the Making), Miranda Lambert (White Liar, Only Prettier, The Airstream Song, Virginia Bluebell), and more recently the title track to Carrie Underwoods 3rd album (Play On). Drawing inspiration from real life and make believe, she is able to tap into an emotional vein of everyday struggle and turn them into songs of pain, passion, and grace. Armed with support and talent of her family, Natalie is making waves in Nashville’s eclectic music pond. She is moving ahead enthusiastically, and will be making plenty of memories on the way up.
DANIEL TASHIAN
Daniel Tashian may not be a household name, but chances are, you've heard him somewhere. It may be merely by reputation as the son of sought-after Nashville artists Barry and Holly Tashian, the former being the leading man behind the seminal, if short-lived, Boston outfit The Remains in the mid-60s. It could be for his work with alt-pop group The Silver Seas, or simply the lilting tune of "Imaginary Girl" that was recently picked up for a Kenmore ad campaign. Wherever it might have been, Daniel Tashian likely has his musical thumbprint rattling around somewhere in your consciousness.
Tashian's songs, though stuffed to the brim with his own quirky and restless creative spirit, are somehow entirely universal. His ability to skip lithely between '80s underground pop, soul and, of course, a cross-section of Nashville country, has kept this songwriter constantly at the drawing board for much of his life. In other words, it wasn't on a lark or the result of industry nepotism that Tashian was picked up for a publishing deal by Polygram Music at the ripe age of 17, and released his debut Sweetie on Elektra Records with producer T-Bone Burnett (Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch) not a few years later.
From there, Tashian quickly diverted from his solo career into art school, where he jump-started The Umbrellas and began lending his talent as a mutli-instrumentalist to country artists such as Patty Griffin (Flaming Red, 1998), Dean Miller ("The Long Way Home," 1997) and Mindy Smith (One Moment More, 2004).
It wasn't until after he formed his current band, The Silver Seas – originally named The Bees –and began recording for Cheap Lullabye Records that Tashian truly found his stride, both creatively and professionally. While their 2004 debut, Starry Gazy Pie, earned them an opening tour spot with Guster, Tashian collaborated with folk-pop luminaire Josh Rouse to co-write a number of songs for Nashville (2005) and Subtítulo (2006) and accompanied him on a European tour. In 2006, The Silver Seas released their follow-up, High Society, which AllMusic described as "pop as it never really was, gentle, but glorious, lavish, but never glossy, a set filled with fabulous arrangement and instantly memorable melodies ... A stunning achievement."
Tashian's always infectious, and yet refined, pop sensibilities have not only piqued critics' ears, but also the likes of Lee Ann Womack and Keith Urban, who optioned his song "The Bees" for Womack's Call Me Crazy in 2008. Such collaborations have opened up Tashian, he says, to a broader craft to write songs that "everybody can relate to."
At 34, with half of his life now spent hunched over his guitar or singing his heart out into a mic, Tashian isn't even close to being spent: "Now I just write all the time. I've discovered that I can write any kind of song. I can write in the morning and I can write at night; I can write when I'm awake and I can write when I'm sleepy. This is really a great job."
