Organic songwriting with Bill Bartholomew

Bill Bartholomew is a singer/songwriter, musician, podcast and radio host and television journalist based in Providence, RI.

He cut his teeth in Brooklyn’s DIY scene, NYC clubs like Mercury Lounge and The Knitting Factory and touring internationally as a solo artist and member of the band silverteeth, before relocating to Providence, RI. It is there that he established himself as one of New England’s top media personalities as host of his popular “Bartholomewtown Podcast“, TV at PBS and on regional powerhouse talk radio station WPRO.

2022 saw Bartholomew return to his roots with the release of his latest album, “beij“, what The Independent called “a pure sound quality that highlights the songwriting craft as it is being informed by an original artistic identity…an indie rock foundation with folk and country elements bouncing off of it”.

Bartholomew has been featured on NPR, Vice, Showtime, and MTV.

We talked about:

• starting songs by noodling on your instrument and singing dummy lyrics
• making use of voice memos on your phone to record noodles and sketches of songs
• Our discussion about song lengths with Allister Bradley, and the Time Spent Listening metric
• Blue Rodeo, a quintessentially Canadian band with great guitar work and collaborative approaches
• How to use space and pauses in your songs (and in podcasting!)
• The unusual nature of ending lines with “like that”
• Stacking harmonies like the Beatles
• How to measure success in your songwriting career

See the lyrics to Lonely One to follow along.

Follow Bill

• instagram.com/billbartholomew
• twitter.com/billbartholomew
• https://www.tiktok.com/@billbartholomewofficial?lang=en
• facebook.com/billbartholomewmusic
• https://www.youtube.com/billbartholomewmusic