Good men die like dogs.

This morning (and throughout the afternoon) we visiting a few places around town to continue our initial overview. First, we visited Reggie Hamm's house and talked with him for awhile, absorbing all that we were able to. Reggie wrote David Cook's "Time of My Life" and countless other songs. This guy is a songwriting monster and yet he mostly preached about how hard it is, even for him (having over 20 number one hits), to make a living at it.

Next, we headed over to Nathan Lee's house, or rather, warehouse. Nathan is a piano player, singer, composer, and artist. He's cut over 150 full-quality master recordings and released I think 8 albums and yet, he's only actually made money on one song (and only 2 - 3 thousand at that). He played a few songs for us and offered his warehouse to hang out for a while, which was great. Despite seriously struggling to pay rent every month, he was joyous and happy with his life. This song here is amazing. He wrote it about being done with the music business. Being fed up with the state of affairs. By the way, this was filmed in his house/warehouse - an awesome place.





Afterwards, we headed to SESAC headquarters on music row. We met with Tim Fink, the Vice President of SESAC. SESAC is one of the 3 American Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) along with ASCAP and BMI. He pretty much gave us an overview of what a PRO, and specifically SESAC, does and how we fit into that (or maybe how they fit into us).

I'll be perfectly honest. I'm feeling discouraged here. It's rather disheartening when giants are struggling and failing and you're only starting to open your eyes. The only hopeful part is the music itself. Maybe this only means I'll have mediocre "success?" Maybe none? God knows.


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"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There's also a negative side."

- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson