LEWISPORTE -
"Someone once said, 'Everybody doesn't get to know the exact moment that their dream comes true', but I can now say, 'Yeah, one of my dreams just came true'."
As singer-songwriter Terry Penney looked out at those gathered for the 2009 Music Newfoundland and Labrador (MusicNL) Awards gala, he realized for him that being named the SOCAN Songwriter of the Year Award for "Town That Time Forgot" was "a pretty big deal" to him. SOCAN stands for the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.
"As a songwriter this is the one you want," said Mr. Penney. "It's fuel for the fire to keep you going when you're in a bit of a rut, which happens with any job, including being a musician.
"It's also nice to have your peers (the award is voted on by the MusicNL membership) pat you on the back and say you're doing a good job and keep up the good work."
Mr. Penney started writing around 1986 and got serious about songwriting about 15 years ago when he moved to St. John's and saw that the opportunity was there to make a record. Since December of 1999 he has released four records.
"Between the first release and 'Missing Marshville' which came out in 2001, I really hit a stride as far as writing songs and becoming a songwriter," he said. "For every record you want to maintain a high quality standard of songwriting. You want to get better and better.
"Quality control is important, especially if you are trying to escalate or maintain (a certain level of songwriting). You have to be super aware of what you are putting out there because it never goes away and it's a very personal thing that you have put out there."
With his latest recording effort Mr. Penney feels that stylistically, the songs work well together and the record as a whole makes a statement.
"A lot of the songs, especially on the new record, are a little gritty," he said. "It's easy to get into the studio and overproduce stuff, put a sheen on it and homogenize it.
"With all my records - but especially with this latest one - I've really tried to cut away the musical fat and just have very little instrumentation. It's very organic sounding and that's what I was going for."
Mr. Penney points to some of his musical influences like Steve Earle and John Prine contributing to that feel.
"Some of that obviously rubs off," he said. "Sitting down to write, sometimes it flows and sometimes you work like a dog, You hear people say if you have to work at it, the song comes out sounding stiff, but I don't think that's really true. I think you can work at something and shape it into something."
Case in point is the song from his last record called "Nothing On Me". It was the last song for the record and Mr. Penney recalls wearing out five exercise books with the lyrics before he got it to where he wanted.
"But in the end I think it turned into exactly what it should have been," he said. "I compare songwriting to taking a big log and chipping away all that stuff you don't need.
"That's what songwriting is. You can write a book and have a thousand pages, but for each song you have to give someone a complete story or a complete thought in 30 or 40 lines. That's where the craft comes in. What you leave out is what makes it work and that's the challenge."
As a storytelling songwriter Mr. Penney finds inspiration in other people for a lot of his lyrics. For the last couple of records he has stuck to writing mostly about other people like his mother, father, friends from years ago and of course war veterans.
"For pop writers it's about what the writer is going though and giving people a window into your life - that's what people want from that type of music," he said. "To me there are people out there who have a lot more interesting lives than me."
One example of how one person's story can turn into a Terry Penney song came from a trip to Ireland earlier this year. While travelling to Dublin on a train he met a lady who was in her 80's. They spoke for about a half hour and when he got back to his hotel he thought that he should write a song about this woman.
"She was travelling on the train to see her sister," he recalled. "She was so full of life, talking about horse racing and her excitement about a jockey coming out of retirement who had won a race. She was passionate about it. I got off the train and went to say goodbye and she was already about 200 feet away from me, walking with her head down and her umbrella in her hand and she was just going. I was thinking about how much energy she had."
Mr. Penney said as a songwriter you need to be tuned in to situations that can turn into lyrics.
"Most people who are really experienced and successful songwriters say it all comes from somewhere else - it just comes through you and you get to be the receiver," he said. "If you are tuned in it will come you and you'll be inspired.
"There are times when I write things and I'll look at it the next day and say, 'Where did that come from?' That's the way it works. You feel lucky that you're able to do this."
Mr. Penney also takes cues from his audience to know if a certain song is working on making a connection or not. His best gauge of whether or not his lyrics will work is his wife Angie Wilmott.
"It's always good to have someone else listen to what you've wrote," he said. "If I play Angie a song, I can tell if she likes it or not. She doesn't put on airs - she's sincere. If she doesn't like it she'll say so, but if has tears in her eyes or tells me that something is good then I know I'm on the right track."
Mr. Penney said one of the biggest honours he has experienced in his musical career is winning the SOCAN Songwriter of the Year Award.
"It's probably the biggest award because it comes with a bit of weight," he said. "There's only 10 of those chosen in Canada and I've managed to snag one.
"What it does is validate what I've been doing for the past 20 years or so that I've been writing songs."
What is also special about this award to Mr. Penney is the fact he didn't have to go to Ontario or St. John's to make the song a reality. It all happened in Lewisporte between Mr. Penney and Dean Stairs of Bulldog Records.
"When I started my recording career I was in St. John's and I had won a couple of awards in there, but this just goes to show you, I didn't win this because I was in town (St. John's). I did this in the hometown that I love."
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