I heard an industry term I'd never run across, when I saw Ellis Paul this winter.
I've been in broadcasting for close to 20 years at this point, but every day I am reminded that (whatever your expertise is) there is always something you don't know.
As an introduction to his tune "World Ain't Slowing Down," Ellis mentioned that "this song is 'On Hold' for Tim McGraw."
I'd never heard the expression "On Hold" but I know what it means.
If you are a songwriter, shopping around your track to Big Name artists, and a Big Name artist is seriously considering recording a particular song, they will ask that you put it "On Hold," meaning that you should no longer shop the song around, so the Big Name artist can be the first to have a Big Hit with your song. It's "On Hold" until they decided to record and release it; a limbo state.
And if you listen to this song, yeah, I can hear Tim McGraw turning this into a Big Hit. And if THAT were to happen, well, Ellis' next album probably wouldn't have to be Fan Funded. I could be Royalty Check Funded.
Ellis has a Fan Funded record out called "The Day After Everything Changed," and mvyradio is giving it away as a Monday Free CD today. Listen to the station for your chance to win.
Hear "World Ain't Slowing Down" and clips from Ellis' new record:
Ellis is my favorite artist. His music, particularly live material, soothes me in a way no other's can. His music helped me through my deployment to Iraq and helped me to sleep at night after particularly rough days. If he had accomplished nothing else in his life, his career at least helped this soldier keep himself whole in the middle of the Iraqi desert during one of the most trying years of my life.
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