Robert George
Posted on August 7, 2014
Robert George grew up in Salinas, Calif. He had an older friend who got him "hooked on the Beatles," at about age 13. "I heard 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,' and I was totally into it," he said. George said he really wanted to play keyboards, as his friend did. But playing music was not in the cards. He had hurt his hand at age 10 by falling on an orange juice bottle, which severed two nerves and all of his tendons in his right wrist. "I lost my dexterity to play and I wasn't able to make the chords with my right hand. I was very discouraged. So I fell into writing," he said. "When I was older I took my friend some lyrics. I was really excited. I thought he'd tell me they were great. After he read them, he came back and told me they stunk. "Fortunately, I followed his advice; I knew he was right, so I appreciated it!" he said. "He told me to listen to the 45 of Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Sound of Silence' and 'Homeward Bound.' I learned how to meter from there - It took me a long time, but it really made the difference." Now, for close to 30 years, George has been writing songs - and even some poetry in the '90s. "When we got a computer in 1999, my wife Valerie encouraged me to put some of my lyrics on the Internet." "I put one of my songs in a poetry contest, 'Superstition Highway,' and it got an offer for publication from a small company. Nothing ever happened, but it gave me hope," he said. George said Valerie is his "No. 1 fan", and has always been very supportive...
Cameron Earnshaw
Posted on August 7, 2014
"We get teased about being the Elton John and Bernie Taupin of country music, but when I got my first lyric from Rob in 2009, I really felt like I had found my Bernie Taupin" says Cam. That lyric was for the song "Roadside Rest", which soon won praise from some of Nashville's top publishers. Cam was born in New Zealand and moved with his family to the U.S. at age six. Early musical influences included the Beatles, Elton John, Carly Simon ("vastly under-rated as a writer" says Cam) James Taylor and Steely Dan, and he later became captivated by the music of country legends such as Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs and Waylon Jennings. "If you listen closely, you'll hear elements of all of these greats in my music" Cam says. He was also greatly influenced by legendary Nashville songwriters Alan Reynolds and Bob McDill, and cites the Reynolds song "Dreaming My Dreams" and McDill's "Good Old Boys Like Me" as key elements that led him to becoming a Nashville songwriter. "I took piano lessons as a kid, and though I always loved the music, I was a lousy student, as I'm sure my instructors would be all too keen to tell you if you ran into them today" he laughs. "Later, when all my friends were forming up bands, I started playing the piano by choice. I'm sure that my mother would now be thrilled to know that all the money she spent on piano lessons didn't go to waste!".