SATURDAY THOUGHTS : ALL MY HELP

Steve Ford said we’d be recording at Morningstar Studios with Glen Barratt, and Tom Petroski, near Philadelphia, instead of in Detroit. 

Richard had submitted what he called “an old song of mine”, for my very first project, AND would actually be coming to the studio. (The only other session outside of Detroit was in Atlanta, with THE Kevin Bond.)

I’ve been feeling very nostalgic and thankful these past few days. Situations change. Memories, when they’re good ones, are like a healing gift. You don’t have to edit or embellish them. What you felt, and experienced, made you smile, renewed your confidence, or changed your life.

People don’t have to care, offer to help, believe in you, befriend you, choose you, defend you, or show up for you. I thought about the lyrics of “All My Help”: 

“…if I do his will; if I just keep still, all my battles he will fight…”

I remember how scared I was about the whole recording thing, and whether it was even for me. It’s much more comfortable when someone else’s name is on the cover, and yours is in the liner notes. It’s safer when someone else is out front, and you’re singing in the background. Then, just as you’re strategically hiding, and filling your comfort zone with pillows and popcorn, they unselfishly turn THEIR light on you. They drag you out of the shadows. They see what you either don’t, or have convinced yourself wasn’t valuable, or even there anymore.

Music, I adore. The business of Music, was never my cup of tea. I just like to sing, but even if your attitude is historically lax, like mine, if you’re in the business, even a little bit, LEARN the business. When “they” put on their business cap, you put yours on, too. 

Read. 

Ask questions. 

Don’t stay oblivious, naive, or disinterested. 

Know your worth. Did I say READ?

You only have to look at one episode of UnSung, and see how hard left things can possibly go, as soon as money, or unscrupulous people get involved in what SHOULD be a positive, stress-free, and enjoyable thing. 

I was surrounded by humility, expertise, and excellence, though, and I was at ease in those booths, being directed by giants, while, frankly, channeling everything I ever learned at church. It was all like child’s play. It’s what was lurking OUTSIDE of those booths, when it was time to actually SING those songs, that gave me pause. 

A friend admonished me to conquer my fear, and consider my good fortune: “On your first project, you might get Pookie ‘nem, and your cousin Tee Tee with a “studio” in his closet. You don’t get Richard Smallwood”. 

When he walked into Morningstar, I was good, and he was a taskmaster. “I know you have a better one in you”. 

My Vision family even provided backing vocals they’d recorded in Maryland. 

Richard’s song was the single submitted to radio.

When Jerome Bell called to tell me the Billboard debut number, I asked him, “Is that good? Maybe people thought it was the other Vanessa.”

I can almost hear Richard saying, “Lawd. Help huh.”

What? I didn’t have a Billboard subscription. What did I know? 

See? Richard always said, “Learn the business of what you do”. 

That’s still good advice.

 

All My Help

#memories 

#writinghelps 

#musicmatters 

#RIPRichardSmallwood