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Robert Priest, songwriting poet

Multi-talented Toronto poet, novelist, and singer/songwriter Robert Priest brought two great songs to the show. He also brought two talented musicians to back him up – guitarist and vocalist David Hines and guitarist Bob Cohen. We talked about a wide range of things including:

the difference between poetry and song lyrics
collaboration in song writing
song structure
work habits
breaking down the inner critic
“highway” songs
writing for children
a poem about John Lennon
Robert’s website

Watch the live performances

Listen to the show

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Creating songs when you have an unconventional singing voice

by Phil Emery

You don’t necessarily need to have a fantastic voice to write or even perform songs well. We looked at some of our favorite songwriters with unusual voices and how they did it.

Listen to the episode

We talked about

Is pitchy the same thing as unconventional?

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Patrick Ballantyne’s Canadian song picks

by Phil Emery

Popular guest co-host and guest on Song Talk Radio, Patrick Ballantyne dropped by the studio to share two of his favourite Canadian songs. “Help Me” by Joni Mitchell is a great example of her unique combination of melody, structure, and lyrics to evoke a casual conversational tone.… Read the rest

Ed Roman a Canadian original

by Phil Emery

Ed Roman is an award-winning singer/songwriter, performer and multi-instrumentalist from Shelburne, Ontario, Canada.… Read the rest

Michelle Thibodeau moves from opera to pop

by Phil Emery

Michelle Thibodeau is a pop-folk singer/songwriter from Moncton, New Brunswick, now based in Toronto. She performed live for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber (2012) and David Foster (June 2017) as well as recently playing the leading lady “Nancy” in a professional production of Oliver the Musical.… Read the rest

Shelly Peiken – writing the hit song

by Phil Emery

Multi-platinum hit songwriter Shelly Peiken, has written songs for, and with, Ed Sheeran, Keith Urban, Celine Dion, Cher, Reba McEntire, Christina Aguilera, Meredith Brooks, Britney Spears, Natasha Bedingfield, NSYNC, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Idina Menzel and Demi Lovato. Shelly Peiken is also a successful author who has written a book detailing her experiences in songwriting – “Confessions of a Serial Songwriter”.… Read the rest

Pop songwriting with Amir Brandon

by Neel Modi

Pop music singer-songwriter Amir Brandon joined us to talk about two of his upcoming songs, working with producer Thomas McKay, and the stories behind his songs.

We also talked about:

Collaborating with other songwriters
Battle Royale: grammar vs. lyric vs.

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Nolan Hubbard and his happy summer tunes

by Phil Emery

Singer/songwriter Nolan Hubbard, originally from Gananoque, Ontario, brought us some summer sunlight through his stories and two of his catchy, tuneful songs – “Today” and “Sandbanks”. In this informative and entertaining program we talked about:

Douglas Romanow producer
Recording in Nashville
Organizing your own cross-Canada tour (with your Dad)
Metalworks recording studio and school – performance program
Covers on YouTube
“Today” – a call to action, no chorus, whistling, G to G Augmented, C to Cminor
Finding a publicist – Hype Music, Toronto
Collaborating vs.

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