Moe Monsarrat

Ric, I'm happy to help if I can. Songwriting is often a skill that is learned from other songwriters as well as mining one's own talents. People like Sonny & Freddy are the guys I learn from at present. Sonny's style is very simple. Songs like " Smooth Sailing", "The Cowboy Rides Away", & "Looking For A Rondezvous" are all 3-4 chord songs. Yet they were all hits. Freddy Power's songs are much more jazz & swing oriented & you better be paying attention to the changes or he'll leave you lost in the woods pretty quick.Even so, he wrote plenty of hits..."I Always Get Lucky With You", "Friend In California" " Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn" & Texas & Oklahoma" "Little Hotel Room" There are all kinds of ways to make it happen. For myself, I'll pick simple, but won't rule out sophisticated.

My name is Moe Monsarrat & I have been a professional singer, bassist & composer for 42 years. I started playing in nightclubs in Tokyo in 1964 when I was 13 years old. I started writing poetry when I was in elementary school & somewhere along the line started putting music to it. I'm not sure how many songs I've written, but it's a lot. I was a staff writer for a publishing firm for a few years & write something nearly every day. I get calls to (of all things) come into a studio where a cd project is ongoing.They have an entire track recorded with all the instruments & vocals, but the producer has decided that he now hates the melody & lyrics.They take the vocals out before I get there & my job is to listen to the track & write a new song to go with what's there. Kind of a last ditch effort to salvage a track. A lot of times it works pretty good, but you can't really wait for inspiration. This weekend I will be in Gulf Shores, Alabama for the International Songwriters Festival @ the FloraBama Lounge on the beach. I will be playing with some friends of mine, Sonny Throckmorton(18 #1 hits) & Freddy Powers(6 #1 hits). These guys are some great writers for sure. I currently front two bands, Stop The Truck (original country...www.stopthetruck.com) & The Mau Mau Chaplains (roots reggae....www.maumauchaplains.net) I also am the bassist for Brittni Hoover/Patsy Thompson Band/Steve Carter's Little Big Band. Day gig is a studio bassist.