The art of songwriting has never ceased to amaze me. As a lover of words, I’ve always wondered how someone could take ordinary words and string them together in an extraordinary way. And then put a melody behind that poetry that takes it to the next level.
It’s a gift.
And now I know what it feels like to be in the room with that gift.
Jeremy Spillman, one of Eric Church’s longtime collaborators, recently shared his thoughts on social media about how much he cherishes those days in the writing room with Church.
“Writing songs with Eric Church feels like an invitation to be a part of music history,” Spillman wrote. “The legacy he has created has withstood and will stand the test of time far beyond song charts and come-and-go popular music. To be a part of that legacy, to be fortunate enough to sit in the room with Eric and lyrically spar until a song is finished, gives a weight and a purpose to those songs that I seldom (if ever) get to experience outside of a room with him,” he said, adding that Church’s latest album Desperate Man is nominated for a Grammy for best country album. (Church’s “Some of It” is also nominated for the Grammy award for best country song of the year. More on that in a minute.)
But Spillman is not just singing the praises of Church’s current music. The two go way back, so Spillman is a Church loyalist, through and through. On Church’s 2006 debut album Sinners Like Me, Spillman and Church co-wrote two of the biggest fan favorites, “Before She Does” and the title track.
Jeff Hyde, another one of Church’s writing compadres who has been a fixture on his album credits since 2009’s Carolina, echoed Spillman’s thoughts.
“Ideas, hooks and unique melodies are precious commodities in the world of songwriting,” Hyde said. “If you’re lucky enough to be blessed with a great one, you learn to be protective of it and to share it only with a co-writer you are confident can help craft it to its best potential. Eric Church is one of those rare craftsman, a songwriter’s songwriter, who has that most important quality in recording artists of the highest quality…. vision.”
Like Church’s “Some of It” says, I know I don’t probably know what I think I do, but there’s something to some of it.