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Howdy. I'm Travis, I'm 26, and I moved to Nashville from a town in Arkansas you never heard of in August of 1997 with a guitar, a duffel bag and a notebook full of songs I thought were finished. (They were not finished.) Two years later I work days at a guitar store on the west side of town restringing other people's instruments, and nights I play writers' nights anywhere that will have me. I haven't gotten a cut yet. This page is the story so far, plus the songs, plus what I've figured out that I wish somebody had told me the day I got off the bus.
On this page: The Songs • Writers' Night Diary • Advice for New Writers • My Gear • Demo Tape News
The Songs
All words and music by Travis L. and they're mine, so please don't copy them anywhere without asking, but DO play them at your kitchen table. Chords are written above the words where the change happens. Capo wherever your voice lives. These are all in easy keys on purpose; the good ones usually are.
1. Two-Lane Home
Key of G. Mid-tempo. The first one I wrote after I got here, in the parking lot of the store on a break.
Verse 1
G C
I left with the radio on and the windows down
G D
Told my mama I'd call when I hit town
G C
Eight hundred miles of trucks and rain
G D G
And a notebook full of somebody else's pain
Chorus
C G
But it's a two-lane home, and it goes both ways
D G
And I know every curve and I know every place
C G
Where the pavement ends and the gravel starts
D C G
It's a two-lane road right back to my heart
Verse 2
G C
Now I'm sleeping on a couch on the west side of town
G D
Playing songs for a room where the lights are down
G C
Nobody's clapping but the girl at the bar
G D G
And she's only clapping 'cause she knows who you are
(Chorus)
Bridge
Em C
Mama says the porch light's on
Em D
Dad says the truck still runs
Em C D
I say give me one more year and one more song
(Chorus, twice, slow the last line down)
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2. Coffee Cup Sunday
Key of C. Slow waltz, 3/4 time. Wrote this one on a Sunday morning when it was raining and I was thinking about somebody.
Verse 1
C F
Coffee cup Sunday, the rain on the glass
C G
Your sweater on the chair where you left it last
C F
The paper's still folded, the phone's off the hook
C G C
And I'm still on the page where you closed the book
Chorus
F C
Some Sundays are made for staying
G C
Some Sundays are made for gone
F C
This one's just made for the coffee
G C
And the sound of the rain going on and on
Verse 2
C F
I could call up your sister, I know she would tell
C G
I could drive by your mama's, I know that road well
C F
But there's something to say for a quiet old room
C G C
And a cup that stays warm till a quarter past noon
(Chorus)
Tag (slow)
F C G C
Some Sundays are made for staying, and this one's for me
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3. Dollar in the Jar
Key of D. Up-tempo, a little bit of a grin in it. This is the one that gets the best reaction at writers' nights. Play it with a shuffle.
Verse 1
D G
Got a job selling strings to the boys with the dreams
D A
They come in from Texas and Kansas and Queens
D G
They ask me "How long you been trying, my friend?"
D A D
I say "Long enough to be the one selling to them"
Chorus
G D
There's a dollar in the jar and a song in the tape
A D
And a landlord who's learning the meaning of "late"
G D
But I'd rather be broke on a Tuesday night stage
A G D
Than be rich anywhere else and be counting my days
Verse 2
D G
My daddy said "Son, get a trade you can keep"
D A
I said "Daddy, I got one, it just don't pay for sleep"
D G
He laughed and he handed me twenty for gas
D A D
Said "Play one for your mama, and play it real fast"
(Chorus)
Bridge
Bm G
Someday some singer with hair and a hat
D A
Will sing one of mine and I'll say "how about that"
Bm G
And I'll still be here with the strings and the picks
A (stop)
Selling dreams by the dozen for eight ninety-six
(Chorus, then the first two lines again, big finish)
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4. Porch Light 
Key of G. Ballad. Newest one, co-written with my buddy Denise from Tuesday nights (she wrote most of the second verse and fixed my chorus). This is the fourth song on the demo.
Verse 1
G Em
Every house on the street's gone dark
C D
Every dog has given up his bark
G Em
But there's one bulb burning on Maple Lane
C D G
Like a little star that knows my name
Chorus
C D
Leave the porch light on for me
G Em
I might be late, I might be free
C D
Might be years, might be tonight
G D G
Leave me a porch light
Verse 2
G Em
You don't ask me where I've been
C D
You just move the coffee pot again
G Em
Set a plate and don't say a word
C D G
That's the loudest "welcome home" I ever heard
(Chorus)
Bridge
Em C
Sixty watts of steady grace
Em D
Moths and all, it's still my place
(Chorus, last line three times, softer each time)
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Writers' Night Diary
Newest first. A writers' night, if you don't know, is where a bar or coffeehouse lets four or five songwriters sit in a row with acoustic guitars and take turns playing originals, "in the round." Nobody gets paid. Sometimes there's a free soda.
Sept. 21, 1999 (Tue.) - The Tin Cup, back room. Played "Porch Light" live for the first time with Denise singing harmony on the chorus. A woman came up after and asked if we had a tape. WE DO. Handed her one. Didn't ask who she was. Denise says I have to start asking who they are.
Sept. 14, 1999 (Tue.) - The Tin Cup. Five writers, eleven people in the audience, three of them the writers' girlfriends. Played "Dollar in the Jar" and "Two-Lane Home." The guy after me played a song about his truck that was honestly better than mine. Wrote down his hook.
Sept. 3, 1999 (Fri.) - Wexler's Coffee & Song, open mike. Not really a writers' night, more of an open mike, so there was a guy who did twenty minutes of jokes. Played "Coffee Cup Sunday" and got real quiet applause, which for that song is the right kind.
Aug. 24, 1999 (Tue.) - The Tin Cup. Forgot the second verse of my own song in front of a publisher's assistant. Faked it. Nobody noticed but me and Denise. Denise noticed.
Aug. 10, 1999 (Tue.) - The Tin Cup. First night they put me in the 8 o'clock round instead of the 10 o'clock round. This is a promotion. Still no soda.
July 30, 1999 (Fri.) - The Blue Heron Lounge, songwriter showcase. A real showcase with a sign-up two weeks ahead. Three songs each. Played my best three. Afterward a man in a nice jacket gave me a card and said "keep writing." I have since learned this is what they say to everybody. I'm still keeping the card.
July 1999 - recording the demo. See below.
Way back: August 1997. First writers' night ever, a Sunday at a place near the store that has since closed. Played two songs, both of which I have since retired with full honors. Shook so bad the capo fell off.
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Advice for New Songwriters (from a guy who hasn't made it yet)
- Co-write. I resisted this for a year because I thought the songs were "mine." Then I sat down with Denise and she fixed a chorus I'd been stuck on for four months in about ten minutes. Two heads. Every good writer in this town co-writes. Find someone at a writers' night whose songs you like and ask them for coffee.
- Keep a hook book. A little notebook that goes everywhere. Every time you hear a phrase that sounds like a title ("dollar in the jar" was something my boss said about the tip jar), write it down. Half my songs started as one line on that list. I'm on my fourth notebook.
- Do NOT pay anybody to "publish" your song. This is the big one. If someone wants money from you to publish, record, promote, or "place" your song, walk away. Real publishers pay YOU (an advance or a draw) and make their money from a share of the song's income. Anybody asking for a check up front is in the business of selling hope to beginners. Same goes for the ads in the back of magazines that promise to set your poems to music.
- Register your copyright. It's a form and a small fee to the Copyright Office in Washington. Not expensive. Do it before you hand tapes out. (The old trick of mailing a tape to yourself is not the same thing.)
- Write every day, even when it's bad. Especially when it's bad. Most of what I write is bad. The good ones come out of the pile.
- Simple beats clever. G, C and D have carried a lot of hits. Nobody in the audience is impressed by a diminished chord. They're impressed when they know what the song's about by the end of the first verse.
- Listen to the other writers. Don't tune your guitar while someone else is playing. It's rude and you'll miss the best line of the night.
- Get a day job that leaves your brain free. Restringing guitars is perfect. My hands are busy and my head is writing.
My Gear
 I play a Takamine dreadnought acoustic with a built-in pickup, bought used in '96 with a summer of mowing lawns. It's got a ding in the top from a bar stool and it stays in tune, which is all I ask. Light-gauge phosphor bronze strings (I get them at a discount, one of the two perks of the job; the other is knowing what everybody's setting their action at). A capo, a stack of medium picks, and a beat-up hardshell case with stickers from every place I've played. For writing at home: a cassette four-track I got secondhand, a cheap microphone, and headphones so my roommate can sleep.
Demo Tape News
It's done! After saving up since Christmas, I booked two evenings in July at a little demo studio out by the airport (the kind with the good cheap rate after 6 p.m.) and cut four songs: "Two-Lane Home," "Dollar in the Jar," "Coffee Cup Sunday" and "Porch Light." Just me, my Takamine, a bass player from the store and Denise on harmonies. Guitar-vocal demos, nothing fancy, because the advice I keep hearing is that a publisher wants to hear the SONG, not the production. The engineer mixed it in August and I got 50 cassettes dubbed with a typed J-card.
As of September 20, the tape is in the mail to eleven publishing companies (the ones I could find addresses for that say they accept unsolicited tapes; a lot don't) with a one-page letter and a lyric sheet in each envelope. I have also handed out nine at writers' nights. That leaves thirty. If you're a publisher reading this, I've got one with your name on it.
I know the odds. Everybody in this town has a tape. But I moved here to do this, and now the tape is in the mail, and that's a different kind of day than the days before it.
Some folks who've been kind to me on the Web: Hometown Pickers Bluegrass Jam (a great Thursday night if you're ever near there), Bluebird Guitar Repair & Setup (he fixed my nut slot for the low E), The Basement Tapes (garage band, nice guys), and the Stage Door WebRing that took me in.
Got a song? Got a co-write idea? Got a cut for me? E-mail [email protected]
(I check it at the store on the lunch break, so be patient.)
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since March 1998
Last updated: September 22, 1999. © 1998-1999 Travis L. All songs copyright Travis L. (and Denise on "Porch Light").
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