The co-write with Brian White and Don Poythress went well today.  I brought them a completed chorus melody with hook and the basic premise of the song and we wrote from there.  The hook is “She Don’t Know It Yet.”

Apparently, grammatically incorrect is good in country music.  But sappy is not.  So we struggled with how to write a song about a girl at age two, age seventeen, and age twenty-something, about her transformation from a carefree child to a teen full of insecurities and into a confident woman in love.  How do you do that without being sappy?

We settled on being a little emotional but not to a Butterfly Kisses degree.  I learned that sap keeps songs off the heavily male influenced country radio stations these days.  I also learned that positive is bad at country radio.  We had to add some darkness to the first chorus because of that, which meant sacrificing some of my own preferences and plans for the song, but that’s co-writing. 

You give and you give up and you hope you gave and gave up the right stuff.  And you never know.  That’s possibly the hardest part of a co-write for me.  I always wonder if I could have done just as well or better by myself – not because I’m a great writer – I’m not – but because I’m a different writer from the guy(s) I’m in the room with.  It’s hard to give up on my original vision and trust someone else’s vision instead.

This is probably why I don’t co-write often.  OK, I haven’t co-written anything in seven years.  I took a break.  But I’m back.  And I think what we came up with, when it’s finished next week, could be something great.  We’ll see.  I’ll post audio when I get it.  For now, here’s the first verse and chorus.  I forgot to write down the second one, which is my favorite.

She Don’t Know It Yet

Words and Music by Brian White, Don Poythress, Shaun Groves (Copyright 2007)

Verse 1:

A miracle in flip flops

In the yard Spinning like a top

Two years old and not a care

Golden hair

Wonder in her big brown eyes

Purple snowcone smile

She stands on daddy’s feet to dance

Around her room

She’ll grow up so soon

Chorus 1:

She don’t know it yet

Ponytails don’t last

Or games of hide and seek

And riding piggy back

She don’t know it yet

This tiny heart of hers

Is gonna learn to love

Is gonna learn to hurt

Daisy chains and swings ain’t all we get

But she don’t know it yet

Series: None