Greater Big Bend Music, BMI (GBBM) hosts private performance sessions for local songwriters through its SECOND WEDNESDAY program.   GBBM supports the art and craft of songwriting and is a member of Tallahassee's Council on Culture and Arts (COCA).   GBBM is licensed by BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) and is owned and operated by Ron Patrick, based in Tallahassee.

Local songwriters may gather FREE OF CHARGE to perform their original songs in non-public regularly scheduled “listening room” sessions.   Sessions are held the SECOND WEDNESDAY of each month for beginning, aspiring and experienced songwriters to “test drive” new songs and revisit old songs.  These are private non-commercial performances with no audience participation and are by invitation only.

The “listening room” sessions are offered realizing that embryonic performance is essential for writing and performance improvement that is helped by group response, comment, encouragement, and self-awareness.    Writers may present complete or incomplete works, snippets, lyrics only, or a' cappella versions of their works.   Writers participate expecting responses to their songs, and typically may feel free to request peer-group informal feedback on perceived strengths or weaknesses.    Material is presented for group awareness and artistic self-development in a setting that is royalty neutral.   Interested individuals affiliated with participants are welcomed to audit sessions free of charge.

                                                                            NEW PROGRAM FEATURE 1,2
“The Song I Wish I Had Written” is a feature intended to help self-acquired craft and artistic awareness, acumen, and self-discovery among attendee songwriters.
             1. Understanding Musical Royalties: A Comprehensive Guide to Rights and  Payments, Sept 14, 2024
             2.  The Program Follows Fair Use Determination and Practices Intended to  Avoid Income Diversion/Denial or                                           Financial Harm to Copyright Owners.   
                                                                                    CONTACT INFORMATION
“Listening room” performance/writing sessions are held every SECOND WEDNESDAY of the month from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM in the Domi Station Building located at 914 Railroad Avenue, Tallahassee, Florida.   Mailing lists and COCA notices are employed to inform and update.  If you are a songwriter within the greater Tallahassee area and would like to be on our mailing list obligation-free, please provide your email address and name to “songs199@comcast.net” with “Second Wednesday” in the subject line.

"Cost of Livin'" - 20% Complete
"W.M.D." - 99% Complete
"Waiting For You" - 95% Complete
"Song for Ukraine" - 90% Complete
"Where Corn Don't Grow" - 10% Complete
"MaryAnn Sent Me" - 95% Complete
"First Day of School" - 98% Complete
"Everything That Glitters Is Not Gold" - 5% Complete
"Rain Just Falls" -  85% Complete
"Please Come To Boston" - 0% complete
"Tattoos and Scars" - 50% Complete
"Unplug Ron, Please" (Life Before PaxtonRob) - 95% Complete 

Two albums have been released: a 10 song album and a 6 song album.
The 10-song album ("The Songs Remember EXTENDED VERSION") is for digital and physical distribution and includes four new tracks (two of these tracks, "COWBOY" and "NOT ENOUGH JIM BEAM" were recorded LIVE at Songwriter Listening Room events).  The 6-song album ("The Songs Remember") is for digital distribution.

"WHAT YOU ANSWER TO"
5 Stars
Featured Artist: Mr. Lance Miller
Writers:  Robin Branda/Paul Harbin/Ron Patrick
Release Date December 23, 2021
Greater Big Bend Music, BMI
Click the player to listen!

ABOUT THE SONG
"What You Answer To" is a collaboration between primary songwriters
Robin Branda and Paul Harbin, with a finishing line
offered late-night by Ron Patrick. The line was
accepted and the song was recorded in style
as a demonstration project by Nashville
Recording Artist, Lance Miller, in 2004.

THE TEXAS CONNECTION

 KEVIN WELCH SONGWRITING WORKSHOP 
Wimberly, Texas 

For starters let me say to TEAM YouTube... "Thank you" for helping get Texas Connection up and running.  Here are 2 personal videos from this Texas mega-trip featuring Artist/Master Songwriter, Kevin Welch, and son Dustin Welch, Artist/Songwriter, and Dobro-aficionado.  Give them a visit at dustinwelch.com and kevinwelch.com.

Texas Connection 1 -
Kevin Welch  

Texas Connection 2 -
Kevin Welch, Dustin Welch, and
The Great God-A-Mighty Choir

 I am a proud student of this once-in-a-lifetime songwriting workshop in Wimberly Texas, 2015.  I measured the round-trip distance between Tallahassee and Wimberly to be 4 "big ol' jet airliners", 2 rental cars, 4 motels, 2 Excel spreadsheets with 6 Gant Charts, and a mid-night waiter who opened the door for us at a closed Appleby's, fed us, and helped us get our bearings when we arrived in San Antonio.  Said he was a friend of Kevin's.   

 And with some expert planning by Marie Eileen (my wife and State Senator's Aid, let me say)... the trip came off like clockwork , except for MY getting us lost on the return trip between Pensacola, the town, and Pensacola, the airport.  Go figure. 

This 3 day workshop at Kevin's home-place in Wimberly was a friendly rustic dream amid the picturesque low-lying Mexicali trees between San Antonio and Austin.  While Kevin, and son Dustin, an artist in his own right, double-teamed us "students" with different takes and perspectives, it is fair to say there was friendly and respectful give and take from both sides on the two-way street of all things songwriting. 

The best part for me was one-on-one with Kevin walking around his grounds and hearing his responses to my questions about the story behind "Beneath My Wheels".  Kevin explained the idea for the song was born riding "shotgun" on the way to a gig in a car driven by Gary Nicholson.  Said he watched that rear tire spinning in the passenger door mirror for a long period of time; then said the song was of redemption and was 10 years to completion.  Awesome song.  Wife Marie Eileen enjoyed visiting with Kevin and discussing books they've read. 

The Welches and supporting staff were gracious hosts and made all of the some-odd 12 of us, give or take, feel welcome in their home.  It is a cherished time I look back on fondly.

Kevin Welch Songwriting Workshops
Wimberly, Texas

The 2020 REMIX has modifications to the original version below that significantly changed the vocal presentation as well as the instrumentation heard in the original version.   The original version below is a more traditional presentation of the song many years ago as a bluegrass band demonstration version intended for pitching.

"W.M.D. State of the Union 2008" is a reminder and caution of how easily war can become protracted with unexpected consequences after being started with the best of intentions.  With the Iraq War, there was real concern caused by seeing the actual use of poison gas against innocent Iraqi men, women and children... in the streets of Bagdad... by the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein.  Then markers were laid down by faulty intel that Hussein was building up a nuclear capability.  In the end, that belief was false.
 
The events in this song are true... amid a parade of Talking Points that were excuses and made up shit.  One such Talking Point was "The war was launched to find nuclear WMD."   When that didn't pan out the Talking Point became "We did it for democracy."  This song remembers those years, with some fact checking, and was completed in 2008. 

One of the greatest country songs ever written... any time, any place.
Written by Fred "Butch" Burns and Ken Yon. 
Performed by Fred "Butch" Burns.
 ~Greater Big Bend Music, BMI 

Fred "Butch" Burns, Ron Patrick, and the late Judge Charles Miner.
Performed by Fred "Butch" Burns
 ~Greater Big Bend Music, BMI

          THE SONGWRITER SAID:
"Well, I got this new song here, but I have just the one verse; and I DON'T have the chorus and I DON'T have the bridge!"  
--Rick Ott.
Followed by 10 minutes of audience eruptions of loving laughter, hoots, hollars, clapping, cheers, and general happy audience mayhem for their favorite songwriter who commenced to play that one verse 
over and over amid a ton of skillful Rick Ott HOT LICKS on guitar much loved by all. You shoulda been there!

My partner, Morty Beckman, and I played this "listening room" event in Sopchoppy, the Music Capitol of Florida,  where a savvy and motivated audience attended.  It was a totally FUN night!   Presenting original material were Rick Ott, Kim Thomas, Ron Patrick, and Morty Beckman.  You will probably notice in the video that the event lighting was dimmed for ambience, so please... turn off the lights in your room for better viewing.

This "Original" Tallahassee Songwriters Listening Room was hosted by the Tallahassee  Museum featuring the talented late and great friend... Bill Gay, with Sharla June, Morty Beckman, and Ron Patrick performing in the Old Historic Concord Schoolhouse.  The video is in editing.  90%complete.

COMING SOON 
Up On The Road--Sam Jones' War--Rainy Monday Blue--The Mighty St. Johns

MAYFLOWER--A true story of a small town in Arkansas, POP 2000

WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES IN MEMPHIS-- I never think of Memphis

MOCKINGBIRD LOVE--A love story inspired by a conversation

WIDE OPEN--How my dog thinks

RAINY MONDAY BLUE--Woke up this mornin'- put  shoes on my feet; went down to 

MARY ANN SENT ME--One of the best "wreckage" love songs ever written

YOUR OLD FLAME--An unfinished work remembering Jende

My partner, Morty Beckman, and I founded the "Original" Tallahassee Songwriters Listening Room in 2012.   We modeled our room after the room at the intimate Blue Bird Cafe where the “Shush" factor is the rule in such small intimate music listening rooms.   "Listening rooms" have always been major outlets for songwriters, pro's and unpublished alike. The concept goes back to before the early days of Bob Dylan, and they existed in all the major music hubs:  Nashville, New York, LA.  Miami maybe?  Probably. 

You won't find a more fun format anywhere than "listening rooms."  This form of entertainment has rebounded in Tallahassee and surrounding areas  as the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 has subsided, thanks to vaccinations and regular booster shots.  Most of these rooms generally practice the "Shhhhh" factor taken from the world-famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee where almost every night new songs get heard and new deals get made.  http://www.bluebirdcafe.com      (You can also catch this “listening room” experience anytime  Ron and friends are playing in a “round”  by  checking out the coming events section of this website).                         

OLD BLUE JACKET

LONG HAULERS

"Speech is free; lies cost you."-- Final statement by attorney prosecuting Alex Jones, conspiracy theorist and false-monger extraordinaire.

"The Freedom bestowed by a Democracy is a fragile thing and is but one generation away from extinction.  It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it, have never known it again." --Ronald Reagan

"You shall know the truth, and it shall make you odd."--Flannery O'Conner 

"Be careful what you say and see; for you can never unsay or unsee it." --Anonymous

 What would loyal Americans of 2020, and today, likely express in gratitude for the United States of America… that was created by the Visionary Founding Fathers on July 4, 1776… with a government created by the Constitutional Convention of 1787… and with a Bill of Rights authored by James Madison in 1789?

"I am grateful to have lived my life in a stable
Democracy that is able to self-repair through the
vote of its citizenry, even as hostile demagoguery
and fomenters of hate spread untruths
that tear at the fabric of the
American spirit."

"I am grateful for every American Citizen of 2020 
who came to understand that they
were "We The People", and the 
very Democracy of which
the Founders spoke."  
 
"I am grateful for the majority in our country who stood
and voted together in November 2020 to keep
our Democratic Republic... in the final 
hours of Her Great Test:
The leaders. The rank and file. The Media. The Courts."

"For these, and the Citizens, were the firewall against 
out-in-the-open domestic aggression 
and multiple on-going seditious 
and evil attacks to burn 
down our institutions 
and erase the very
Constitution we 
have lived by
for over two 
centuries."
 
"I am grateful for the Americans of 2020 who put
Self and Safety aside to stand together 
as Democracy's brick wall in the 
battleground states of
Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia." 

"I am grateful that, on January 6, 2021, in our nation's
Capitol Building, the Capitol Police Force stood their ground alone, in the face of a mob numbering
 in the 1,000s that was an over-whelming
 insurrection;
and defended our Capitol against
 these overwhelming odds." 

"That Capitol Police
Force, both survivors and those who lost
their lives, have shown us what love
 of Constitution, Democracy,
and Country… looks like."

"I am grateful for the Americans of 2020, in uniform and not, 
who stood firm against the planned mob-attack
from populists ill-advised by the reckless 
and poisonous logic born from
the warped mind of the 
previous President 
of the United States…"

"…a President who not only expatiated Martial Law 
but did spawn murderous intentions of force 
against the Vice President and the 
Speaker of the House with the
goal of over-turning the free 
and fair Democratic 
election of 2020...
an election found by multiple
audits upon audits to have
been fairly won by the
supporting votes of 80
million Americans."

"I am grateful for the bi-partisan investigation by
the January 6, 2021 Committee that did,
 in June of 2022, make public the truth of 
what happened the day insurrectionists, 
disguised as patriots, attacked our
 Capitol Building and very nearly 
eradicated Democracy in the
 United States of America
by a violent Coup d'état."

"In America 2020, it was the "WE", empowered by law and 
informed by the Spirit and Sacred Words the 
Fathers put to parchment paper,
that saved this Republic... 
pray we can keep it."

In loss of treasured Tallahassee Songwriters and "Friends of NSAI", 
we dedicate this space for remembering.

Jende
Mike Schwendinger
Jimmy McKenzie
Bill Gay
Dennis Dunn
Kent Hutchinson
Rudy Jones
Mick Mann
Lois Hinners
The Honorable Judge Charles Miner
Charles Miner was the engine behind "Pale Blue Cadillac"
Linda Hargrove 
Linda Hargrove was the Official NSAI Mentor, 
Tallahassee Chapter, and pro-songwriter of many hits
including co-writer with Dean Dillon of  
"Tennessee Whiskey" 
(arguably the greatest country song over 35 years)

Website: greaterbigbendmusic.com

“PaxtonRob The Songs Remember" is a songwriter brand valuing

Conceptual Truth   
For everything humankind forgets, the songs remember.

Modern "Song Forms"
The drop-down menu of present-day genres tells the story:
 NOW is the best of times.

Musical Genres
They have the power to relate and move life's experiences.

PaxtonRob is an independent songwriter available for working solo or in listening rooms with other songwriters.