When a Strong Catalog Makes the Last Two Spots the Hardest
Earlier this year, I started putting together a group of songs that represented the strongest work in the Nashville Lyrics catalog.
The first five became the Nashville Lyrics Top 5.
Five more recently joined them in The Next 5.
That left two.
And strangely enough, those final two selections may have been the hardest.
Not because there weren’t enough songs to choose from.
Because there were too many.
What Does “Top 12” Actually Mean?
I’ve never wanted the Top 12 to simply represent my twelve favorite songs.
That’s too easy.
The bigger question is:
If someone asked me to show them what Nashville Lyrics can do, which songs would I want them to hear?
That changes the evaluation.
A great catalog needs more than twelve versions of the same successful idea.
It needs:
- different emotions,
- different tempos,
- different perspectives,
- different commercial lanes,
- and different kinds of storytelling.
The goal isn’t just quality.
It’s representation.
And that’s what made the final two selections important.
Room 104
Some songs work because they’re universal.
Others work because they’re incredibly specific.
Room 104 falls into the second category.
The title immediately creates a location.
A room number.
A place where something happened.
That specificity gives the song an identity before the story has even completely unfolded.
It’s one of the things I value most in narrative country songwriting: giving the listener somewhere they can actually picture.
🔊 Tip: Check your volume before playing the preview.
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Read more about Room 104 [here]
Why Room 104 Belongs
What ultimately earned Room 104 a place in this group was representation.
The Top 12 already contains commercial songs, relationship songs, family songs and larger emotional concepts.
Room 104 brings something different.
It brings the listener into a confined setting and lets the story develop inside it.
That’s an important songwriting lane.
Not every song needs to race toward a radio hook.
Some songs need enough room for the listener to discover what’s happening.
Those songs can become album tracks.
They can become deeper cuts.
And sometimes they’re the songs listeners remember because they feel like stories rather than singles.
Room 104 represents that part of the Nashville Lyrics catalog.
Checking Shadows
Then there’s Checking Shadows.
This selection represents something entirely different.
It represents competition.
Checking Shadows wasn’t sitting comfortably inside the original group waiting for its number to be called.
It earned its way into the conversation as the catalog continued to evolve.
And that’s exactly how I want this process to work.
🔊 Tip: Check your volume before playing the preview.
Read more about Checking Shadows [here]
Why Checking Shadows Belongs
One of the easiest traps in songwriting is becoming overly protective of older work.
We remember how difficult a song was to write.
We remember when we finished it.
We remember how proud we were when we first heard the recording.
None of that should guarantee it a permanent position near the front of the catalog.
New songs should challenge old songs.
Rewrites should challenge finished songs.
Better recordings should change evaluations.
And occasionally, something new should force its way onto the roster.
Checking Shadows did that.
Its accessibility and commercial potential gave the Top 12 another dimension while demonstrating something even more important:
The standard is allowed to move.
What About the Songs That Didn’t Make It?
This may be the most important part of the entire exercise.
Songs outside the Top 12 aren’t necessarily bad songs.
Some are very strong.
Some may fit a particular artist better than songs inside the twelve.
Some may eventually be rewritten and move forward.
And some song that hasn’t even been written yet may eventually knock one of these twelve out.
That’s not a problem.
That’s the goal.
A catalog should become harder to rank as it improves.
The Top 12 Isn’t a Trophy Case
That’s why I don’t think of these twelve songs as trophies.
They’re a working pitch portfolio.
They’re supposed to compete.
They’re supposed to change.
And they’re supposed to represent the best combination of quality, range and opportunity available in the catalog at that moment.
If the same twelve songs are still sitting there years from now, I probably haven’t pushed hard enough.
he Twelve
At this point, the twelve-song showcase includes:
My Greatest Win
Mother Over 40
The Bank and the Barn
Day by Day
Dreaming for Two
Followed by:
Four Sundays
One Look, One Chance
Why Didn’t I Listen
The Silent Language
You Let Me Go
And now:
Room 104
Checking Shadows
Twelve songs.
Different stories.
Different emotions.
Different opportunities.
One catalog.
Final Thought
Choosing the strongest song is relatively easy.
Choosing between several strong songs is where the real evaluation begins.
That’s what the final two taught me.
The goal isn’t to find twelve songs and protect them.
The goal is to build a catalog strong enough that every new song threatens to take somebody’s place.
Because the hardest Top 12 to choose…
is probably the one worth pitching.