The official Grace Kelly Blog

The Official Grace Kelly Blog

ASCAP EXPO 2

~By Grace Kelly on April-20-2012 @ 8:11: PM

4/20/12

this last couples of days has been so amazing and incredibly inspiring. A lot of my fans that have been following my shows recently know that i’ve been putting a lot more singer songwriter works of mine into my set list. I’ve changed my band from piano to guitar and I’m going further into the musical direction that I want to go. A lot of people know me as a jazz saxophonist (although I prefer to just sax saxophonist! Some people know me as a blues/ rock saxophonist too!) but I juggle many different things including singing, writing and arranging. I’ve been singing ever since I could talk and I love it. It’s a big part of who I am and why I got into music.

The other thing a lot of people don’t know is I was 7 years old when I wrote my first song. It was a folk song that I later went on to record on my first cd. The song is called "on my way home." I knew three chords at the piano and that’s all I needed. The melody just flew out of my mouth and since then I’ve been hooked! It’s been so great to be at this conference because I’ve gotten to hear the stories, inspiration and musical ideas from songwriters and people who are in the contemporary world of music. It’s been fascinating. I went to see a concert where don Felder (from the eagles) the Go Go’s, Allen Shamblin (he wrote so many big songs but one of his biggest was a song Bonnie Raitt recorded. You might have heard of it "I can’t make you love me" . There were a couple other mega songwriters performing stripped down acoustic versions of their song. And yes don Felder did sing and play "hotel California" with his raging fiery guitar solo that got everyone all worked up!!

I have to say though Allen Shamblin’s performance was incredible. I’m never going to forget it. I was close to sobbing when he sang "I can’t make you love me" along with the other two songs he sang. Please check him out if you haven’t. His words, his music and his songs are so honest and pure they really hit home for me.
There’s something amazing about hearing the songwriter sing their own song. Allan def brought that out, and his version was so different. He played it almost out of time. The chords were strummed oh so quickly and slowly while he sang those words with so much heart. It gives me chills thinking about his performance that night.
I realized that that’s the true gift of music. The biggest compliment someone can give me and saying "wow you really touched me." or "you made me cry" or "I needed to hear that." it’s what I call the "goosebumps effect" when I get goodebumps, I know it’s real because I can’t create that feeling myself.