Talking “The Hook” on Tony Mantor’s “Almost Live … Nashville” Podcast

On Labor Day September 1st in Nashville, the next installment of the songwriting showcase The Hook is set to happen. It’ll be held at the Eastside Bowl in the ’58 room from 7:30 to 9:30, with doors opening at 6:00. Songwriters who want to sign up for a chance to perform should get there by 7:00. This will be the final test run of the show ahead of an official pilot taping on September 29th.

What is The Hook? It’s a songwriting showcase filmed live that features established songwriters, and ANYONE else who wants to perform for a live audience and a panel of experts. For more information about The Hook, you can check out savingcountrymusic.com/thehook.

Recently, I (Trigger) talked to producer and musician Tony Mantor on his “Almost Live … Nashville” podcast about the inspiration behind The Hook, and what folks can expect. We also talked about Saving Country Music and the origins of the website. The podcast can be heard anywhere podcasts are found, and on the YouTube player below.

Below are some of the biggest points.

Tony Mantor: What was the inspiration for The Hook?

Trigger: Well everything is moving to social media. Everything is moving to video. AI is going to take over everything in so many years. How can we build something that is going to answer all these questions? What can we build for the future as a forum to launch artists? That’s where The Hook came from. It’s not a signing competition. It’s not a competition at all. It’s simply a song showcase.

Tony Mantor: That sounds like a really interesting concept. Can you expand on how it works?

Trigger: It’s basically a two hour program—podcast, video-form program. We’re going to highlight some established songwriters for sure, people that already have a career in music. And then after that we are going to throw the barn doors completely wide, and let anyone who wants to get up there in front of a microphone perform a song. If they’re a great singer, that’s awesome. But mostly this is really about the song.

There are so many songwriters out there that still feel like they’re not getting the attention they deserve. So the idea is, let’s open up the forum to everyone, and see if we can’t find the next greatest songwriter. And by doing that, we’re going to have some very very bad songs. But even if it’s just once or twice, or three times during the two-hour period, some random person will get up there that nobody’s ever heard of and will just blow our mind. Because we’ve all been there. Someone performs an original song, and it changes the synapses of your brain. You’re a different person after you heard this song.

That’s the power of song. I really believe that songs can change a life, they can change someone’s perspective, and they can change the world. And so by creating a forum for these songs, hopefully we can do all of those things.

Tony Mantor: People get up and they sing their song. What happens after that?

Trigger: The hope is that we build The Hook into something that a lot of people are paying attention to. If we can do that, then it will hopefully stimulate people to go and find out more about this particular artist. There’s a few ways we’re going to do that. Obviously we’ll be releasing the episodes in podcast form. We’re starting from the ground floor here. The other thing we’re going to do is clip out a moment, or a chorus of a song—a moment that touches the audience—and we’ll share these things on social media. That way we can find people, and people can find us. This will also give some value to the performers.

These days it’s not just enough to have a good song. It’s not even enough to have a good recording or to have a label behind you. If you’re not able to create the visual media—it’s really had for these independent artists to do that. So we’re going to create those resources for them.

Tony Mantor: That sounds really good. What are the plans for putting that all together?

Trigger: This is going to be a full video production. We’ve got the people that used to do Music City Roots behind us, so some really great video people. It’s going to be like a TV show. We’ve invited people from the labels, booking agents, publicists, A&R people, and fellow songwriters are all hopefully going to show up to this thing. In the room itself there will be an exposure component. And if someone comes up and they do really good, we’re going to invite them back, and we’re going to try and give them that ground level career opportunity.

There’s a ton of songwriter showcases out there already. And songs can be inherently boring, and I say that as a fan of songs. So we are going to use comedy to spice things up. Along with sentimental songs, we hope people get up there and sing funny songs. There is also going to be a cutoff element. If somebody’s really bad, a bell is going to ring telling then ‘Hey, you’ve got to wrap this up.’ And if somebody’s REALLY bad, they’ll get ‘The Hook.’ And we’re probably going to get some hucksters who show up to purposely to get hooked.

The other problem with these songwriter showcases is they’re all kind of fluffy. We’re going to be critical. If a song is really bad, we’re going to be respectful about it, but we’re also going to give our honest opinions. There’s going to be a panel that will start with me and this great songwriter named Caitlin Cannon. She’s an award-winning songwriter, and she’s also worked in a lot of songwriting clinics. She’s worked with Veterans that have PTSD, and she’s also worked in prisons. She’s gone into maximum security prisons with convicted felons and taught them how to write songs.

I’m a critic. I have written and published songs, but I’m mostly a journalist and a critic. Caitlin Cannon really brings the songwriting credentials. She can tear a song apart, and then put it back together. We’re also going to invite other big name songwriters for the panel. We’ll also have other journalists, influencers, and maybe people from the industry.

For more information on The Hook, check out savingcountrymusic.com/thehook.