Special Report by Mike Greenly
Along with Eileen Bluestone Sherman – playwright, lyricist, theater producer and more – Grant Maloy Smith founded the Indie Collaborative, which is how I met him. This wonderful organization is for people involved in the music business – as musicians, artists, composers or in my case, simply as a lyricist. Grant is a Billboard Top 10 recording artist in a genre often called “American Roots” or “Americana.” Personally, I think of it as a cross between Country and Folk but he’s the authority. Because I admire and appreciate him as much as I do, and because I love writing lyrics, I approached Grant one day and asked if we could write a song together. I’m proud of the result, but I also wanted to learn and share more about him in general. As both friend and collaborator, Grant is an Irish American which represents the best of the Irish diaspora.
Q: For the readers of the Irish Examiner USA, what part of your background is Irish?
GMS: According to my DNA analysis, I’m 55% Irish and Scottish with an especially high concentration of ancestors in Munster, North Munster and West Clare in the southern half of Ireland. That area starts just below Galway on the west coast, ranging down to Waterford and Cork on the east coast, in a large area including Limerick. I have third cousins today in Munster. We made a family trip to Ireland in 2007. What a beautiful, incredibly green country – the best vacation I ever had. The next time I visit Ireland I will appreciate it all the more, now that I know how much Irish blood I have coursing through my veins. I suppose that explains my love of Guinness. (We visited the Guinness Store House in Dublin, which was amazing.) I hope that some talent buyers read this and want to book me to do some concerts in Ireland. I’d be more than happy to bring my music back to where American Roots really came from.
Q: What connected you to American Roots music? How old were you and how did you get involved with music in the first place?
I was very young when I was exposed to American Roots music by my maternal grandmother, Shirley McIntyre Colwell. She called it “mountain music.” It was based on folk music that the Irish, Scot and English immigrants had brought from their homelands to our young country. In the isolation of central Appalachian hills, it took root and formed the basis of what today has become Country Music, American Folk Music, Bluegrass, and then the ineffable stew called “Americana” or “American Roots” music, which is what I do.
Q: I read that you played Beatles songs on your guitar when you were a boy.
GMS: Yes – I was “torn between two lovers” back then. In addition to old-time country and mountain music, I got infatuated by the Beatles like the whole rest of the world. So here I was, a five-year-old blonde-haired boy living on the Florida panhandle 15 miles from Alabama. Somehow, I got the idea that if I had a guitar, I might be able to play with the Beatles on television. OK, I was just five years old. But the music bug had bitten me hard and what I would do with the rest of my life was a foregone conclusion before I knew it. I’ve got a few somewhat embarrassing pictures of me at that age, playing along with records in my living room. I think my guitar strap was just a piece of string, placed completely wrong around my shoulder. I really had no idea what I was doing! At that age, my LP collection was an interesting combination of Beatles, Bill Monroe, Carter Family … along with Captain Kangaroo, Beanie and Cecil and other children’s records.
Q: Your “Man of Steel” has been named the official theme song of the National Veterans Foundation. Say more about that and your support for our Vets.
GMS: I once met a young man at the Charlotte airport. He’d lost his leg in the war in Afghanistan and now wore a prosthetic leg. He was very affable, and we talked quite a bit. The plane kept being delayed so we ended up having a very deep conversation about his experiences in the Middle East and his appreciation for everything he has back at home. I was struck by this Veteran’s positive, buoyant spirit. He wasn’t bitter about missing a leg. In fact, he was going to be the first in his family’s history to go to college and was now on his way to a campus visit. The opportunity was only possible because of his military service. Finally, the plane started boarding and I never saw him again. But what he told me left a powerful mark on me and I thought about him for days. I got home a week later and was practicing the guitar. I played some random chords and, as happens a lot, I found some that I really liked and began to write a song. After only a few minutes, I realized I was writing about the young man from the Charlotte airport. By an hour later, I’d written most of it.
I hope people understand that the song is not to glorify war at all. That is the worst thing man does to himself. Soldiers who’ve seen war up close understand this truth in a way that only they can. This song, though, is about service, sacrifice and stepping up when others don’t. I dedicate “Man of Steel” to all the brave men and women who serve their countries – past, present and future. When I play it for audiences, I get incredibly emotional reactions. I’ve had a woman come up and tell me, with tears streaming down her face, that she’d lost two of her three sons in the Middle East. I’ve had World War II and Vietnam era veterans come up to me, also with tears running down their faces. I’ve played at VA hospitals where I could barely get through it myself with all the emotion in the room. I was so happy when the National Veterans Foundation chose as their official theme song, because thousands more people would now be seeing and hearing it. I hope everyone will look at the video because it’s so powerful. You can watch it on www.nvf.org.
I was also lucky enough to be in a movie called “Oildale” which is about music and how we treat our veterans. It’s in festivals and industry screenings now. In it I play my song, “I Come From America”, from my “Dust Bowl” album. But on the soundtrack CD for the current Heartland Tour, the producers have included “Man of Steel” because it’s perfect for the movie’s theme. Ironically, I wrote that two months after the filming.
Q: It was only a few months ago that I approached you with the idea of our writing a song for the older people in our society. Share what made you think immediately of our title, “I See You”.
GMS: A few years ago, I was playing shows across Texas. One night I went to a mall’s food court just outside Houston to get dinner. The table next to mine had five men and women in their 80s and 90s. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but it was impossible not to hear them. They were comparing notes about being older, and how they felt about it. One lady with an oxygen tank and a walker said she feels “invisible” when she walks down the street. Her observation hit me like a brick. The oldest of them added that younger people see him as a frail, useless old man. “They don’t know that I was once in a knife fight with a Nazi in France…and I won!”
That comment was also sobering. As a songwriter, these are the kinds of nuggets, large and small, that I file away in my brain for future reference. So, when you asked if I wanted to collaborate on a song about ageism, I immediately remembered those people and how invisible they felt. I knew that our song had to be based on that lyrical hook. Anyone watching the video will see an actress playing that lady with the walker right at the beginning of our song. The title – “I See You” – is my way of telling older people that we do recognize that they built the world we live in today, and that we are grateful for what they’ve done for us and all posterity.
Q: I’ll share a few lines from the song’s chorus and the video Grant created:
You feel fragile – but you’re strong
Think you’re invisible – but you’re wrong
I’ve been inspired by your courage all along
I see your whole life shining through
I see you
I’ve experienced ageism myself, from an agency. Even though execs often say I’m the best writer and speech coach they’ve worked with, the agency wanted to hire someone younger for their pitch to make a “better impression.” They didn’t realize that corporate clients quickly sense that I’ve lived life on their side of the desk, with experience a younger person wouldn’t have had a chance to gain. So the idea of writing a song to help make a difference with prejudice against older people has been tugging at me. After “I See You” was ready, you suggested that we find a partner. What made you think of that?
GMS: That thought came from my experience in connecting “Man Of Steel” song with the National Veterans Foundation. Even before that, my Billboard top 10 album –“Dust Bowl – American Stories” – got a lot of attention because its subject matter connected so closely with people and their families affected by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It involved millions of Americans from the Great Plains to Bakersfield, California. I learned quickly that when songs are about something that connects with people in a direct and emotional way, either through history or personal experience, the result is far more powerful than just “another song.”
Also, it’s easier to get press when your work relates to a specific topic. Like most songwriters I don’t have a huge budget to buy advertising, so I rely on getting editorial press. But reporters and the media in general are not going to write about you or put you on their TV and radio shows unless your work directly relates to their listeners. There’s nothing wrong with a good love song or rock song, but there are a thousand songs released every day, so if you want to stand out, you need connect with people in a deeper, more tangible way.
Q: Fortunately, as you know, my friend Joe McKay suggested that we contact Masterpiece Living – the national organization committed to helping older adults age in a better way. I know you’re as excited as I am to have them as our partners.
GMS: I am so glad that we’ve partnered with Masterpiece Living because their mission is to help older people retire well and live well. They combat the loneliness a lot of older people face. I can’t imagine not having my wife at my side, for example. There are so many emotional, physical and financial stresses at the later stage of life, and Masterpiece Living does everything that they can to address and mitigate those issues.
I know I speak for both of us when I say that we’re proud that they’ve chosen “I See You” as the centerpiece of their upcoming awareness campaign. Our song resonates because everyone has parents or grandparents … people who matter to them, who get older and face the challenges of aging. We all get older. When we’re young, though, the idea of aging seems far away and abstract. Soon enough we realize its reality. As a society we need to handle aging better. Masterpiece Living is helping in a real way.
Q: On behalf of any readers who care about creating songs or know people who do, what should they know about the Indie Collaborative and how should they contact you if interested?
GMS: The Indie Collaborative is a positive and supportive group for independent “indie” musicians (and industry professionals). There’s no cost to join. We deliberately don’t offer awards because we don’t want competition among our members. You don’t have to be a Billboard-charting artist or member of the Grammys, the CMAs or whatever to join the Indie Collaborative. You just have to be serious about making music, writing music or working in the industry. In addition to artists and writers, our members include producers, engineers, radio hosts, publicists, managers, photographers, actors and more.
We have a private Facebook group where our members can share ideas and ask questions of each other. There are more than 2,000 members there now. We don’t allow promotion or commercial posts of any kind in the group. We also have a website where members can have their profiles shown, which helps their rankings on Google and other search engines, and helps them build credibility.
We put on two kinds of events each year that are open to our members. One if focused on showcases, where 20+ of our artists will get five minutes to present what they do. We have these at great venues that many people would otherwise never get the chance to perform in, like the Bitter End or Feinstein’s 54/Below in New York City. Or El Portal in Hollywood, etc. We’ve done showcases in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and more. Also, since 2018, we’ve been doing curated shows with a smaller cast at a major venue, like Carnegie Hall. We did our first one in November, 2018. We’ll host a second and even more ambitious show on April 22, 2020. We’ve got members all over the world – on every continent except Antarctica! And we’re growing. Join us today for free at www.indiecollaborative.com.