I’ve written over 470 songs so far. It all started in 2014. My wife, Denise, died unexpectedly and suddenly. One night I was sitting alone and some words came to me, almost from out of nowhere. These words were the genesis of a song and the kernel that blossomed into over 470 songs now.
Almost from the beginning I wanted to share my lyrics with others. I’ve always been a man of words. I love words! I like to talk, I like to write, and now I really like to write songs. But I wasn’t sure how to get my songs out and share them with others. I shared some of my lyrics with Marti Lantz. Unbeknownst to me, she took some of my lyrics and put melodies to them with her keyboard and voice. One Sunday, I’ll never forget it, she sang one of my songs in church! It was incredibly affirming and people really seemed to like it.
Over time i was encouraged by many people. Most recently, last year, I had a true breakthrough—I put chord progressions and melodies to my lyrics! This was huge! I had taken two years of guitar lessons, which really helped me. Without those lessons I don’t think I could have done it. I have James Lipka, my teaching instructor, to thank. He was patient with me but also hugely encouraging!
Then I went to work setting up my own recording studio. I’m old school, so I wanted an analog mixer instead of computer software or apps. I like a hands and fingers on approach, so analog was the only way for me. I equipped my studio with quality microphones. Then it was just a matter of sitting down with my guitar and working out the chord progressions and singing melodies over them.
Before long, I was encouraged to put my songs out to the world through an EP. At first I hesitated and fought this suggestion. Who me? My voice? Doing what? You can’t be serious! I found every excuse in the book but eventually I succumbed to the idea that my songs and, yes, my voice need to get out for the world to hear. And so here I am: I’ve created a nine song EP, which will drop on May 14th.
There are a few details about this that I was intentional about. First, I wanted an EP of exactly nine songs. EP stands for “extended play,” more than one song—a single. An LP, a record album, is “long play.” The reason I picked nine songs, which is almost an LP, is because 9 was my wife’s lucky number. My number on the high school football team was 81, which she said equaled nine—8 plus 1! I’m so glad I wore that number! I also wanted to include a good number of songs to add value to my EP. Secondly, I chose the release date to be on Denise’s birthday, May 14th. I thought this appropriate and fitting. After all, it was losing her that inspired me to become a songwriter and now a singer/songwriter. I’m not sure if she was here she would believe it!
In the last couple of days, I designed several graphics for the upcoming release of my EP. Here is one:
I also designed a logo for Bob Shank Country. There are several other artists out there who share my name. I thought about going back to the name all my close relatives still call me: Bobby. But that too is shared by quite a few other artists. So in an attempt to separate myself from the others, I came up with Bob Shank Country. Here is the logo I designed:
I put his logo on all the social media that I use: Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).
Then, just yesterday, I redesigned my website for Bob Shank Country:
Hopefully, this and my upcoming EP will all work together to help promote and get my songs out to the world. I admit I’m more than a little nervous about this, but I have a strong desire to share my songwriting with others. I believe I’ve come up with some songs that people will relate to and identify with in their life situations. I hope you will listen to the songs on my EP. I hope you like them. And I hope you will find some common ground and things you can identity with and relate to in my songs.
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