So, you've decided to quit your day job, sell your house in Denver, or Dallas, or Bismarck, or wherever you're from, jerk your spouse and kids clean out of their comfort zone, and drag them halfway across the country to pursue your artistic dreams in Nashville- and hope they re-adjust. Or, you've already made the plunge and it was you who grabbed that last egg salad sandwich before my hand got to it at Virginia's Market on Music Row, leaving me with only a beef jerky and a Coke.

At any rate, whether you're already here or still just thinking about it, I was asked to share some of what I've learned during my time in Nashville. It's my perspective, one guy's opinion, so take it for what it's worth. I heard a preacher once say about one of his sermons, "You gotta be like an old cow sometimes; eat the hay and leave the sticks."

Whether you're a songwriter, a musician, a producer, or a singer- if you're serious about it, each one those is a fulltime job in itself. If you don't want to confuse anyone about who you are or what you do and you are interested in only one of the fields I just mentioned, then it will probably be a little easier because people in the business will always know you as a singer, if that's what you do, or a song-plugger if that's what you do, and you won't confuse anyone.

I know songwriters who have been here for ten or years or more, hammering away at Music Row and just now getting their songs recorded because they've been consistent and kept at doing that one thing- writing. But, if you're like me and some of my Nashville pals who have other interests within music, for example in my case- writing, playing, and producing- then you may flounder a bit trying to fit in because you will have to prove yourself in each of these areas- and that's not easy.

Fifteen years ago, I was serious about my songwriting, so I started making frequent trips to Nashville from Minnesota, staying for a month at a time and trying to move mountains to get my songs recorded. I did a lot of networking, co-writing, performing at writers' nights (open-mike networking opportunities), and set up as many appointments as I could with publishers. Well, after two years and 50,000 extra miles on an already-old car, I came home and told my wife, "We need to move to Nashville." The next two weeks were rough, but she finally got used to the idea and two months later we "loaded up the truck and moved to..." well, Nashville!

I came here to be a songwriter and that's pretty much all I did for the first five or six years. I even had a staff writer's deal with a small publisher for about three years who got me a cut on a soundtrack for Casper's Haunted Christmas. They also got me a cut with a major artist but he lost his record deal before the album was released. Oh well.

But I'm also a session guitar player and I like to produce, and since I moved here I've produced some thirty-five records for other artists, five guitar records of my own, and played on hundreds of songwriter demos.

I didn't do any producing or session work when I first moved here, however. That came later. During my staff writer's deal, I hadn't gotten any major country cuts and felt I was getting stagnant as a writer. I'd been working up a bunch of solo guitar pieces and recorded a fingerstyle guitar Christmas CD which produced the cut that ended up in the Casper soundtrack. Recording that record was a rediscovery of my true passion, my guitar, and made me question if I was really cut out to be a nine-to-five songwriter. I love to write, but I function much better with a little variety.

The only problem with variety is that most people in the music business see you as a "fill in the blank", i.e., a songwriter, producer, publisher, a singer, or whatever- because each job in the music business requires most of your time to make any headway. It's not a bad idea to concentrate on just one thing to establish yourself and not spread yourself too thin at first. I think it shows people that you're serious about your music career. If you have other interests you want to pursue, you can ease into them. But it's still a battle because as I said earlier, you'll have to prove yourself in each area, even to your friends.

Let me illustrate:

After years of writing, I started producing, and since I played guitar on most of the things I produced, I began trying to get session work as a guitar player. Now, there are plenty of session players in Nashville, but I'm the eternal optimist and figure there's always room for one more. But to make my point- a producer friend of mine I'd known him for about four years finally called me to play on one of his sessions. I had told him previously that I was looking for more guitar work; when he contacted me for the session, he told me that he hadn't called before because he'd always thought of me as a producer rather than a player, because at the time I met him, I was producing a project.

If you do have the skills to do various jobs, I believe you can eventually use all of them. It just takes time to establish yourself in each area. The longer you're here and the more people get to know you, the more you'll work.

Some things take a little longer than others to generate any income, however, and songwriting is probably the toughest. To put it in perspective, at present, there are about 300 staff writers in Nashville that are paid a weekly draw to write for a publisher. When I moved here thirteen years ago, there were three times that many because country music was booming. But the numbers have dropped dramatically since then. Anyhow, let's say that those 300 staff writers co-write a song with each other every day. That's 150 songs per day times five days a week; that's 750 songs per week. Times 52 weeks a year, that's 39,000 songs per year. That's not including unsigned writers that used to have deals AND hits, and it doesn't include all the new writers moving here every day. If you think about it, you probably stand a better chance of getting hit by lightning than getting one of your songs recorded in Nashville. But the creative soul will not be daunted!

I'm not saying all that to discourage anyone. I'd be the first to tell you to pursue your dreams. Go for it! I think there's room for everyone who is inclined to move here and work at it. However, like me, you may change directions after you've been here and learned more about yourself.

I've become a better fingerstyle jazz player since living in Nashville because I've taken all the principles of songwriting to heart- like getting to the point and not carrying too long so as to lose the listener, keeping the story interesting, and trying to apply them to playing instrumental jazz. If you have one of my records, you can be the judge of whether it's working or not.

In conclusion, I love Nashville. It's home and I'd need a good excuse to leave. At present, I enjoy a nice combination of touring to promote my guitar records, session guitar work, producing other artists, and songwriting for specific projects; oh yeah- and writing music-related articles- but each of these had to be tackled one at a time and with a lot of focus.

I don't know everything about Nashville, but you can't live here for nearly fifteen years and not learn a few things. One night about a week after we moved here, I was at a writer's night. The bartender asked me how long I'd been in town. I told him, "About a week," and he said, "Welcome home!"

So, if you're a musician or songwriter and still thinking about moving to Nashville, I'd say, "Life is short," but if you already live here, then I'd say, "Welcome home!"

Tim Thompson plays a guest spot at the July 2006 Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention.

As a professional musician working in a competitive industry, Tim Thompson has learned to play his strengths in more than one area of the business. Not only is he considered a guitar virtuoso and talented singer/songwriter, he's also a much sought after independent producer and session player.

Thompson grew up in a musical family in Minnesota and began playing piano at age nine, then trombone, and eventually picked up the guitar. Ambitious and focused, he practiced and challenged himself and by age fourteen was playing guitar professionally.

Since moving to Nashville in 1993 Tim has released six albums and produced records for artists such as Kerrville Folk Festival winner Mike Brandon, and finalist Nelda Sisk. Tim's newest release, Revved Up contains five new original compositions plus complex arrangements of "Josie", "Eleanor Rigby" and an entertaining version of "The Flintstones".

Learn more about Tim Thompson and his music on the web at: http://www.timthompsonguitar.com