Due to the wide and differing nature of the work I do, I am often asked by friends and acquaintances, “What are you doing now?” This blog series will keep you informed and up-date-date on some of my bigger projects, blogs, podcast and more! — Douglas
The John Braheny Archive on the Craft and Business of Songwriting
I have been long-time friend with John and JoAnn Braheny and when John passed away 2 years ago, we immediately started discussing an archive of John’s long work as “The Songwriter’s Best Friend.”
“The John Braheny Archives on the Craft & Business of Songwriting, contains audio interviews, videos, photos, documents, articles and miscellany from the early 1970’s to the mid-1990’s.
John, along with friend and partner, Len H. Chandler, Jr., creators and co-directors of The LA Songwriters Showcase (a non-profit organization for the purpose of discovering and promoting songwriters) which held weekly meetings in Hollywood, California, plus The Songwriters Expo, (an annual multi-event conference), from which many others throughout the country were modeled. There are articles and interviews from their monthly publication, The Musepaper.
John was a songwriter and performer in the 1960’s. The music “scene” in LA, during the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s is reflected here with all its excitement, especially driven by the community of songwriters along with those who worked in the industry at that time.
John wrote the best-selling book, The Craft & Business of Songwriting (F&W Publications), still used as a text in music departments of schools and universities.
Our intention is to provide as much info as possible to aid those who wish to do scholarly research, authors, documentarians, and those who wish to know how the industry worked in that time period. — JoAnn Braheny
In a recent push to get John’s archive of work cataloged and made available for researchers, I joined the project as the Acting Archivist for the collection. This has meant diving into documents, cassette tapes, audio, video, documents and publications from John’s long career. One minute I am digitizing a cassette tape interview with Lamont Dozier and later happening upon a photograph of John interviewing Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. I’m never quite sure what I am going to find.
You can check out the first efforts of my work on the archive by visiting The John Braheny Archives on the Craft and Business of Songwriting.