JCCoe

I’ve often reflected on three incidents from my childhood that might have indicated I was headed for life as a songwriter. Two involve songs. The other, a skunk.

 

As an only child, growing up in Wilmington, Delaware, I entertained myself by listening to my collection of 45rpm records, many of which were songs from Walt Disney films. One day, at about age six, I found myself humming “Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah” while playing in my back yard.
I remember thinking how much I’d like to be able to write a song someday.

 

A couple years later I took a sheet of paper and a pencil out onto the back porch. I hummed the melody of Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” and  wrote my own words to it.
I titled it, “Happy That Day, That Bright Summer Day.”

 

Then, at age 12, while at summer camp, my friend John and I participated in a scavenger hunt. While other teams were dispatched in search of edible berries, earthworms or crawdads, we were given a more formidable challenge. We were sent to bring back a skunk.

 

It seemed like an impossible quest.  I’d never even glimpsed a skunk at camp. But despite our limited expectations our search presented us with an element of adventure and daring that the other scavengers had not been given.  So we headed down a path into the surrounding woods.

 

Less than an hour later we returned, beaming, a dangling skunk grasped firmly by the tail and held high for all wide-eyed, disbelieving campers and counselors to see.  As soon as we were close enough for the counselors to verify it was, indeed, a skunk, we were waved to a halt, warned by shouted command to proceed no further and instructed to return our captive to the woods. The distant woods. Which we did. We walked back to camp victorious and, amazingly, smelling no worse than the average 12-year-old camper.

 

Looking back, I believe that scavenger hunt may have been a formative moment in the life of a boy who would later seek a career as a songwriter, a moment that revealed to him that no matter how unlikely or perilous a goal may seem, well, you just never know….

 

As a teen I began playing guitar in a variety of cover bands which taught me a lot about song structure. I left home to attend the University of Richmond majoring in journalism and taking a creative writing class. After graduation I worked for two years as a reporter in Delaware before moving to Los Angeles where I wrote for a music trade journal and then a radio syndicator while pursuing a songwriting career on the side. Occasional trips to Nashville to pitch my songs to publishers eventually landed me a job at one as a staff writer. I’ve since been fortunate enough to have enjoyed hits on the country charts, received three BMI awards, including a Million Air Award and an Emmy nomination. My wife and I live south of Nashville in Franklin, TN. The Far Ends is my first release as a recording artist.