Canaan pitch!

Tonight was the ever-awesome Christian writer night at NSAI, and this was the most exciting kind of night they have:
Pitch to Publisher.

Our publisher tonight was songwriter, Dave Clark, of Canaan Music. I've heard Dave speak several times at Write About Jesus and Stamps-Baxter. And I actually look at his photo several times a week - he sang with the Speers for several years, and he's in several of the older publicity photos.

Tonight started in the typical Pitch to Publisher fashion - Twice as many people show up for the meeting, and we all have to allow extra time to find parking. Each writer brings a demo on CD, plus 2 lyric sheets. We check in, find a seat, and start to pray! I've now decided to start calling these nights Pitch and Pray. Just seems more appropriate...

So, my song was "Do You Wanna Be My Neighbour in Gloryland". We've had the track for weeks, and I did that single take yesterday with Aaron. My turn came up near the end of the night. I really enjoyed listening to everyone's songs, cause there was some truly great stuff, but my stomach was just in knots waiting for my song to play. I prayed early in the evening, "God, do what you want with this song." It didn't stop all my nerves, but it changed it from fear to excitement.

Arg! I gotta start with the results, cause it's just too good - He took my song!!!!

When they read out the title, it got a really happy reaction from the room. For every song, they would only play a verse and a chorus. My song starts with the chorus. As the vocals started, I could see Dave reading the lyric and smiling. He got a few nice expressions of surprise as the melody moved. And then just as the last note of the chorus landed, he said, "I'll take it.". He didn't even listen to the verse! It was so fast and awesome! He called it very "cutable", and asked me a little about what artists I listen to. After the whole thing, I introduced myself properly, and we got to talk about the Speers a little.

I'm still just so excited and a little in shock! Yes, I love that song, and I think it's probably the most solid song I've written to date. But it's still just so exciting to get this reaction from non-friends. We always assume our friends will like things at least a little, so this is very awesome to get this reaction from someone who's just about the music and not about pleasing me.

So, what happens next? Dave takes the song back to Canaan Music, and he'll try to get it cut. I don't know if they'll do a new demo, or who will get the pitch, or anything! All I know is that I song of mine is being considered by Canaan Music, and I'm one step closer to my first Nashville cut! Whoo-hoo!!!!