The Songwriting Page
(Listen to Song Samples at the bottom of the page!)
Back before Raven and I were even married, she was encouraging me to get serious about my songwriting. She convinced me to start a publishing company with her as my partner, and we formed Five Feathers Music. We began to publish my instrumental music, which led to doing music for television shows and commercials. Then we published some of my other songs, and finally started writing songs together.
Francine Reed sang on the demo for our song "What Is That Light", and liked the song enough to include it on her first solo CD. Raven and I wrote a song for her second CD called "Been There Done That", which was nominated for Song Of The Year by the W. C. Handy Blues Society. We have written songs for all six of Francine's CDs. After a couple of years, Raven returned to school to finish her PhD, and is now a full time professor at a major research university, and, at least for now, has less time for songwriting. She still comes up with great ideas and passes them to me, but now it's mostly by phone as she drives to and from the university!
Bryan Cole was the drummer in Mose Jones, Out A Hand, and Java Monkey, so he and I have played together since 1973, but had never written songs together! That fact still amazes us. He had mostly given up the rigors of drumming on gigs for his main work as a producer and studio drummer, and a renewed interest in songwriting. He called to tell me how excited he was that he and Jeff Hilyer, who I had employed many times as a studio singer, and Phil Fontana, a well known and excellent Atlanta bass player, were now writing songs together. They were starting a songwriting and publishing venture called The Wednesday Music Group. I immediately asked if I could join, and he said he was hoping I'd ask!
We started getting together at Bryan's every Wednesday. Bryan would cook his amazing homemade pizza, and we'd have show and tell of what we were individually working on. As great as it was having the support and useful suggestions of fellow writers, it was a real thrill on about the third Wednesday to write our first song as a collaboration between the four of us! We finished it so fast that we knew we were on to something! We have just started our second song together as a group, and we'll post those as soon as we finish the demos! Meanwhile, Bryan and I have squeezed in a couple of extra nights and a couple of extra songs! We are not, however, going to change the name to the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday Music Group - it just wouldn't fit on a business card.
Below are some of our writer's demos. There are some from The Wednesday Music Group and some from Five Feathers Music. Some are just one of us singing the song right after we wrote it, some of them have been re-recorded using Jeff or other professional demo singers, and some are album cuts from people who recorded the songs. We'll keep adding songs to the list as we can.
The purpose of having these songs here is that these songs ARE available for people to record. Just get in touch by email and we'll let you know what you need to do for clearance.
Click on the titles to hear the songs
Ready To Love Again
咕ryan Cole/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Demo sung by Bryan Cole)
When I Was
The One
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Michael Jones)
Mercy Road
咕ryan Cole/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Demo sung by Bryan Cole)
I Am Your
Man
咆illyer,Cole, Taylor, Fontana/Five Feathers Music/WMG
Too Much Candy For A Dime
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Michael Cosner)
Long
Long Night
咕ryan Cole and Marvin Taylor/Five Feathers Music/Wednesday Music
Group
(Wednesday Music Group demo sung by Bryan Cole)
My Poor
Heart
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Michael Mason)
(Michael Mason on all keyboards, Marvin on everything else)
The Barrio
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Marvin Taylor)
Running Away From The Past
咕ryan Cole/Five Feathers Music/Wednesday Music Group
(This version sung by Bryan Cole)
Running Away From The Past
咕ryan Cole/Five Feathers Music/Wednesday Music Group
(Wednesday Music Group demo sung by Jeff Hilyer)
Forever
Changed
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Marvin Taylor)
That
Would Be Me
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Jeff Hilyer/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Jeff Hilyer)
Hold Back The Night
命aven and Marvin Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Robyn Mims)
Doubtful
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(From "Mercy Road" CD by Cole/Taylor)
Doubtful
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(From Mike Veal's CD Soul Side - Mike Veal on vocals, produced
by Bryan Cole)
Been There Done
That
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(From Francine Reed's Ichiban/Capitol CD I Can't Make It On
My Own, produced by Bryan Cole, also released on DM
Records American Roots: Blues - Francine Reed)
Been There Done
That (Female Country Version)
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Libby Allen)
Been There Done
That (Male Country Version)
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Ricky Fargo)
I'm A Handful
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(From Francine Reed's CMO/Platinum Entertainment CD Shades
Of Blue produced by Bryan Cole)
Grandma's
Cookin' Christmas
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(From Francine Reed's CMO CD Here Comes Frani Claus)
What Is That Light?
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(From Francine Reed's Ichiban/Capitol CD I Want You To Love
Me produced by Bryan Cole)
What Is That Light?
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Francine Reed)
Too Much Candy For A Dime
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(From the Cole/Taylor CD "Mercy Road")
Let's Get
Real
和arvin and Raven Taylor/Five Feathers Music/BMI
(Five Feathers Music demo sung by Robyn Mims)
Too
Much Temptation
和arvin Taylor and Steve Murrell/Five Feathers Music/Sunbelt
Songs
(Five Feathers Music/Sunbelt Songs demo sung by Steve Murrell)
When Love Comes Over You
和arvin Taylor and Steve Murrell/Five Feathers Music/Sunbelt
Songs
(Five Feathers Music/Sunbelt Songs demo sung by Steve Murrell)
The Road To Enlightenment
和arvin and Raven Taylor/John Scriven/Five Feathers
Music/Prospero Publishing
(From CD Songs From The Road To Enlightenment, sung by Jeff
Hilyer, produced by Marvin Taylor and John Scriven)
Under The
Skin
和arvin and Raven Taylor/John Scriven/Five Feathers
Music/Prospero Publishing
(From CD Songs From The Road To Enlightenment, sung by Wally
Carter, produced by Marvin Taylor and John Scriven)
Blamethrowers
和arvin and Raven Taylor/John Scriven/Five Feathers
Music/Prospero Publishing
(From CD Songs From The Road To Enlightenment, sung by Chris
Long, produced by Marvin Taylor and John Scriven)
Forgiving
Eyes
和arvin and Raven Taylor/John Scriven/Five Feathers
Music/Prospero Publishing
(From CD Songs From The Road To Enlightenment, sung by Susan
Gallion, produced by Marvin Taylor and John Scriven)
Love Gives You Wings
和arvin and Raven Taylor/John Scriven/Five Feathers
Music/Prospero Publishing
(From CD Songs From The Road To Enlightenment, sung by Jeff
Hilyer, produced by Marvin Taylor and John Scriven)
Be True
To You
和arvin and Raven Taylor/John Scriven/Five Feathers
Music/Prospero Publishing
(From CD Songs From The Road To Enlightenment, sung by Randall
Bramlett, produced by Marvin Taylor and John Scriven)