I was your age when I was learning to play the guitar. Obviously, I still play and continue to write songs; which I record and publish on my YouTube channel.
Your entire life, I have reminded you: “Once you are ready to learn to play the guitar, you get free lessons from me!”
So far, you haven’t taken me up on my offer.
I was happy to see that you at least enjoyed learning a few songs on the ukulele during music class at school.
Maybe in a year or two, you’ll be ready for my award-winning free guitar lessons!
Realizing it was 30 years ago that I started playing guitar and how Tom Petty’s music served as a major influence on my songwriting style, I easily threw together a song about it.
I am very proud of how this song turned out. Sometimes, it takes a couple of months for a song to come together. In this case, I wrote it and recorded in a matter of just a couple of days:
In the spring of ’94, I turned thirteen – I was practicing guitar chords while trying to sing – The best eleven dollars I had ever spent was a cassette tape of Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits – I was learning to fly into the great wide open – I was free fallin’, runnin’ down a dream – Oh my my, even the losers believe you don’t have to live like a refugee – That’s what Tom Petty taught me – Well it’s good to be king when you’re only thirteen thinking, “You don’t know how it feels to be me”- I grew up tall and I grew up right – Now it’s time to move on – Yeah, it’s wake up time – I’m gonna listen to my heart – No, I won’t back down – I’ve got a room at the top of the world right now – I’m still learning to fly into the great wide open – I’m still free fallin’, runnin’ down a dream – Oh my my, even the losers believe you don’t have to live like a refugee – That’s what Tom Petty taught me
When I moved to Nashville on September 11, 2005, it was because I wanted a chance at a career in music; writing songs, singing, and playing guitar.
The problem was, I had earned my college degree in English and was naturally thousands of dollars in debt. Therefore, I accidentally got a full-time job in HR; where I ended up working over a decade of my life.
Obviously, along the way, I found the love of my life, got married, had two kids, and moved to the suburbs.
But my love for doing music never stopped. It was just on hiatus.
Then when my office branch got shut down this past October, forcing me to become a stay-at-home dad, I had to find creative ways to exercise my mind while caring for my young daughter.
Fortunately, she didn’t mind playing on the floor while I played my guitar.
Just the week before I lost my job, I had taken a couple of days off work and met up with a new friend, out in Los Angeles. He also sings and plays guitar. As a souvenir from Nashville, I brought him a very Johnny Cash themed t-shirt.
That stuck in my mind.
So I figured, why not play a Johnny Cash song and put it on YouTube? And that happens to be the video featured at the top of this blog post.
I think part of the strange appeal of “Folsom Prison Blues” is that it’s told from the perspective of a convicted murderer who openly admits he committed the crime, despite his mother’s proactive warnings from the time he was even too young to understand he apparently was predestined for a life of crime.
The song challenges the listener to have compassion on the kind of person most people easily ignore.
As time allows, I definitely plan to record more songs on this new YouTube channel, Nick Shell Music; which is actually my 3rd YouTube channel. Eventually, I plan to release some new original songs of mine.
If nothing else, I am simply doing this for me. Just because I enjoy it.
Perhaps my inspiration is Phoebe Buffay of Friends when her song “Smelly Cat” was bought out by a major cat food brand.
In the age of YouTube, what can stop me from using my own time and talent to write and record jingles for free, and then promote them on my blog and YouTube channel?
Who knows, maybe I can eventually become a jingle writer full time? I’m making a habit of self-appointing myself as “jingle writer” for Toyota, as well as other brands.
I’ll show you what I mean…
Three weeks ago, our family was sent a 2015 Toyota Corolla to review here on Family Friendly Daddy Blog. One of the things I decided to do with it was to shoot a “homemade commercial”.
So I wrote “Down Low in a Corolla”:
Can’t ya see that we’re Corollin’?
Down low in a Corolla
Gotta keep that family flowin’
Down low in a Corolla
Can you keep up with us?
We’re no Kardashians
But we can lay it down if you can pick it up
Jammin’ to grooves of Walk the Moon
Kids’ car seat in the back
Before that, I recently wrote “Family in a Camry” while we reviewed the 2015 Toyota Camry:
I got my family in a Camry
And we’re happy campers trippin’ to your town
Here we go!
This same video also features the jingle I wrote for Monterey Bay Aquarium:
Hey, hey! It’s Monterey Bay Aquarium
Hey, hey! It’s an underwater adventure
I immediately afterwards wrote a jingle for the 2015 Toyota Avalon:
Come along, in an Avalon, we’re gonna make it great!
In July, Scion (which is part of the Toyota family) sent me to Grand Rapids, Michigan to check out their new Scion iM and IA. Here’s that jingle:
I’ve got my eye on Scion
Try on Scion
Experience what Millennials already know
The first Toyota jingle I wrote was back in May, when my son and I made a homemade commercial for the Toyota Sienna, which doubled as a trailer for our Jack-Man series.
Jack-Man rides in a Toyota Sienna minivan
His getaway car is driven by his dad
I also wrote a jingle for Philips Norelco:
In your face, 9700
In your face, you’ll be glad you found it
It cleans itself like a smart razor should
The percentage display shows the charge is still good
In your face, Philips Norelco
In your face!
We’ll see where this takes me. I enjoy writing and recording jingles for companies, for fun and for free.
You never know when it may get the right person’s attention.
Eating food can easily become entertainment, in of itself.
This Saturday, my wife will finish her final class for her Master’s program. We’ve been anticipating this day for a year and a half- specifically, we’ve been planning to go somewhere nice for dinner to celebrate. Though we’ve had our sights set for months on Stony River for a good steak dinner, we remembered recently that we don’t really like steak. So we instead have discovered a quaint “only in Nashville” sort of place that looks to be more our speed: http://www.12southtaproom.com/
Something I’ve been realizing now more than ever is why eating out is fun. There are obvious reasons for this, like not having to cook, set the table, or clean the dishes. And the fact that when you eat dinner out, you have many choices of what you will eat. All valid reasons. Yet very obvious.
Here are more subtle reasons:
Environment: Whether or not you truly are a “people person”, or are one and just don’t realize it (People Watching 101), part of the allure of going out to eat is to be around people you don’t know, who serve as background noise and sometimes accidently, as entertainment.
Of course aside from the strangers we like dining near (not with), there also is something soothing/weird in looking at the random memorabilia hanging on the walls- whether it’s old pictures of sad, creepy looking people from the 1920’s, a goofy moose head, or a canary yellow guitar that Tom Petty used to record his Wildflowers album in 1994. Ultimately, whatever it is, it’s something else to look at.
Activity: Eating good food that we enjoy is more than just about “getting full” or about nutrition. It’s simply a fun activity. Yes, we could make the same menu items on our own (with enough Internet research for recipes) and they may taste similar. But aside from the fact that we’re not cooking it, there is something fun about having someone else serve you. When someone else waits on you, it gives a sense of “I deserve this” (Password).
Ignorance to calories: Yes, we are overaware that fast food is a killer. But we turn a blind eye to the nutritional facts at nicer restaurants, essentially all of them. Even when the meal is low-fat, and even more difficult to pull off, low-sugar, it is still almost guaranteed to be high in sodium- which is linked to heart disease and hardened arteries. But no matter how nice the restaurant it is, it’s pretty much given that there’s at least 75% of your daily sodium in the meal, at best.
And of course, the serving portions are typically at least twice to three times what a meal should be. But turning a blind eye to all these nutritional facts makes it much more fun.
So go now, and celebrate, with strange wall decorations, quirky people sitting at the table next to you, and a meal prepared by the salt gods.
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 