{"id":4824,"date":"2019-09-18T22:01:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T22:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=4824"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:13","slug":"make-a-grown-man-cry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2019\/09\/18\/make-a-grown-man-cry\/","title":{"rendered":"Make a Grown Man Cry"},"content":{"rendered":"

GARY REAMEY \u201977 BRINGS HIS BUSINESS ACUMEN AND A LOVE FOR THE CRAFT TO SNG MUSIC\u2019S MISSION TO MAKE GREAT COUNTRY MUSIC AND DEVELOP THE NEXT GENERATION OF SONGWRITERS.<\/h4>\n

He put a guitar in every room\/So he\u2019d never forget how to play<\/p>\n

If life can be a song, then Gary Reamey\u2019s has those lines in there somewhere.<\/p>\n

At least one guitar graces each of the homes he owns, and there\u2019s one in most offices and writing rooms at SNG Music, the publishing company on Nashville\u2019s Music Row he co-founded after taking early retirement from running Edward Jones\u2019 Canadian operations. There are decorative guitars and guitar art on the office walls interspersed with the gold and platinum record awards earned by SNG writers like Carson Chamberlain, Marty Dodson, and Mark Nesler.<\/p>\n

Reamey grabs a dreadnought guitar from a stand in his office and strums a couple of chords.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I was musically inclined as a kid, but after my mother died I was looking at some old pictures, and at four years old, I had a guitar; at eight, I had a guitar. So there was music\u2014I played some guitar at Wabash\u2014but I never really focused on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then about 20 years ago, he wrote a song for his daughter Adrian\u2019s 15th Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree of my five children were adopted; Adrian was from Santiago, Chile, and we flew down to pick her up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chorus opens with the moment he met her:<\/p>\n

What can you do, when she smiles up at you?\/What\u2019s there to say, when she takes your breath away?<\/p>\n

\u201cI had it recorded and put it on her iPod. She said, \u2018That\u2019s great,\u2019 and she wanted to start playing guitar. She eventually lost interest, but I kept at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote songs for himself and his family and friends, and the hobby became a passion. Adrian\u2019s song would play again as the father\/daughter dance at her wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guitar is a tool to help express what I\u2019m feeling. I\u2019m really a lyricist; I play just enough guitar to write songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noticed soon after he came to Nashville and dove into managing SNG that he was playing less. There were so many amazing guitarists; he got caught up in the business side of the work. And if Reamey played less, he wrote less, and he didn\u2019t want to lose that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re writing, you\u2019re more attuned to everyday life, to what people say, what might become a song. So now I make sure there\u2019s always a guitar around, though Joanne may suggest enough is enough someday.\u201d<\/p>\n

He smiles. Joanne, his wife and SNG music partner, isn\u2019t putting a stop to anything yet. There\u2019s a sheet of songs tucked under the blotter pad on his desk\u2014covers she has asked him to learn so he can play around the house and with guests.<\/p>\n

Six years out from Edward Jones, Reamey calls himself \u201ca music publisher that writes songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve signed 11 songwriters in five years, seven are currently with us, and these writers have a total of 15 No. 1 songs in country music.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also co-written about 160 songs himself in the past five years, some with SNG writers, some with other top writers like Dan Couch \u201989. But he plays down his songwriting credits.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur seven other writers have written about 1,900 songs; my own writing is not my main focus here.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I love it. To be able to sit in a room with writers, start with an idea, and finish with a song that can make a grown man cry\u2014there\u2019s nothing better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was one such session that led to an unexpected partnership with Grammy Certificate-winning song writer Steve Leslie and the founding of SNG.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t even<\/strong> supposed to meet.<\/p>\n

Not long after he retired, Reamey was getting together with friends from Edward Jones for what had become a tradition\u2014every six months they\u2019d visit a different singer or songwriter and talk about their shared passion. This time the scheduled songwriter had to cancel, so Reamey found a Web site that matched people with advisors from various careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI typed in \u2018songwriter Nashville\u2019 and I saw this guy, Steve Leslie, who looked like James Taylor and had a Grammy certificate,\u201d Reamey recalls. \u201cWe gave him a call, spent the day with him, and then one of the guys said, \u2018Well, let\u2019s write a song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leslie had to leave about half-way through writing it, but he was hooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Let\u2019s get together tomorrow and finish this. It\u2019s a great song.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Garth Brooks thought so. After they finished the next day, Leslie sent him the song\u2014\u201cMasterpiece\u201d\u2014and the music legend put it on hold for his next album.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kept it on hold for three or four months, then sent us a nice note saying, \u2018Hey guys, great song, but not for this album\u2014maybe the next,\u2019\u201d Reamey says. \u201cBut it was enough to tell me, \u2018You know what? You can do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He had been looking for that next step: \u201cYou can\u2019t just retire anymore; you have to retire into something.\u201d A year working on his golf game proved that wasn\u2019t the answer. He\u2019s a Wabash trustee, was serving on other boards, and was a colonel in the Canadian Army, but none of that fit what he was looking for long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to keep doing something that challenges me,\u201d he says. Music publishing in Nashville would combine his love of music, a new field in which to apply his business acumen, and a booming city to work in. So in 2014, Reamey and Leslie opened SNG Music, with a vision to become home to top country songwriters while developing the next generation of talent. Leslie moved on to other projects in 2018, and today Reamey serves as managing partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people start talking about how the music business has changed in Nashville, how tough it is, I tell them, \u2018Well, it\u2019s never been better for me!\u2019 I\u2019ve only been here five and a half years\u2014this is all I know. But whenever I hear someone in Nashville complain about the regulation on licensing rates or other things, I tell them, \u2018This is like the wild, wild West compared to the investment industry I came from.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be work if I didn\u2019t love it so much. There are a lot of other ways you can make a return on your money. But it has felt good to transition out of the investment world to something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Zarni DeVette, photo by Andrew Orth<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That move made all the difference<\/strong> for songwriter Zarni DeVette. Born in South Africa, she earned the highest award for songwriting at the famed Berklee School of Music in Boston, then spent three years and more than 200 shows as a touring musician. SNG signed her as an up-and-coming talent in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cLurking in the depths of my spirit was an undeniable truth trying to come to the surface:\u00a0I don\u2019t want to be a touring artist anymore,\u201d DeVette wrote soon after being signed. \u201cI have a different kind of drive; the drive to write and write and write again. The drive to pitch a song to several artists and carry on until someone records it; the drive to co-write with hundreds of strangers and love every part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hadn\u2019t known positions with publishers like SNG even existed, work she calls \u201cthe coolest damn job in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey go to the grocery store without being hassled by the press, they play intimate shows when they want to, and they turn on the radio to hear Taylor Swift singing a song they wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n

After an interview and a song-writing session with Leslie, she was offered the job by phone while standing outside a Mexican restaurant in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could feel a sense of relief and validation wash over me like never before. I had become so careful about getting excited because more often than not, things resulted in disappointment. For the first time I\u2019ve met someone who believes in me fully and is invested in helping me grow and realize my potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reamey strums the dreadnought<\/strong> and begins to play \u201cMasterpiece,\u201d the song that started it all for SNG. He sings with a strong, warm tenor voice.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still a work in progress, Lord knows I\u2019ll always be\/But inside this old block of marble, she saw a masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Is that his vision for his writers\u2014to find that great song they\u2019ve always hoped to write?<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone we\u2019ve signed at SNG came here looking for something, and signing them was a way to help them be better, help them move on in what they want from their lives. It\u2019s rewarding to give them an opportunity to fulfill their dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will that be his\u2014and SNG\u2019s\u2014legacy?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legacy is that the younger people here take it on and continue to grow it,\u201d Reamey says. \u201cWhen will I be done? I may never retire, just phase out. Not manage the place, but I\u2019ll always be playing guitar and thinking about songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true\u2014once in a while we\u2019ll finish a song and I\u2019ll say to my co-writers, \u2018I\u2019ve been with presidents, I\u2019ve been with prime ministers, I\u2019ve been with heads of Fortune 500 companies and billionaires, but I have never ever had as much fun as I just had writing this song with you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never gets old.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Best Practices<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Reamey may have left the investment world behind, but he brought some of its best practices with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt its core SNG is what I learned at Edward Jones: You hire good people, keep your expenses down, create an atmosphere that\u2019s collegial, and you set the organization up so everyone has incentive for everybody else to do well. SNG is a private partnership, so everybody has a chance to own part of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each writer also develops an annual business plan, outlining what they hope to accomplish in the coming year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time a publisher has ever asked me to do that,\u201d says Marty Dodson. \u201cGary is great at bringing these business principles into what we do\u2026it has helped me become more balanced as a writer.\u201d<\/p>\n

You see the collegiality during an impromptu listening session, when Reamey, creative director Aubrey Schwartz, licensing director Kathleen Mullet, and consultant Mike Sebastian review the latest batch of songs by SNG\u2019s writers and others. The vibe is laid back, the different tastes acknowledged and valued, with a touch of humor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re listening to songs, they\u2019re the ones making the decisions,\u201d says Reamey. \u201cThat\u2019s why you hire good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

His latest project enters even more unknown territory, with more of those challenges he relishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get a country music musical to Broadway\u2014that\u2019s a whole different world, but a fun way to share our music with a different audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three years of workshops in New York City, Reamey\u2019s musical will premiere June 11, 2021 at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeday, if I\u2019m standing on stage accepting a CMA Award, or a Grammy, or a Tony, I\u2019ll thank Joanne\u2014without her encouragement I would never have ventured into country music and theater. I\u2019ll thank my partners and associates at SNG. But I\u2019ll also thank my partners at Edward Jones, because we wouldn\u2019t be here without them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GARY REAMEY \u201977 BRINGS HIS BUSINESS ACUMEN AND A LOVE FOR THE CRAFT TO SNG MUSIC\u2019S MISSION TO MAKE GREAT COUNTRY MUSIC AND DEVELOP THE NEXT GENERATION OF SONGWRITERS. He put a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":4826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-videos","category-features","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/09\/gary-reamey1-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4824"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4839,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions\/4839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}