SMITH ONGS ON
WRITER JOHN DAVID PALMER | PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED BY ANACRUSIS
This summer has been a season of songs here on Smith Lake with a multitude of concerts and musical events taking place, some of which, like the Smith Lake Concert Series, drew sizable crowds. But one group
of musicians came to the lake this summer to create new songs instead of performing preexisting ones. In July, Anacrusis, a Nashville-based publishing and licensing company that specializes in non-country songwriters, hosted a week-long songwriters retreat on Smith Lake. The focus of the week was writing songs for synchronization – the use of music in film, television, advertising, theatrical trailers, and video games. The 12 songwriters worked alongside six music executives from corporations including Microsoft and McDonalds to write and record 20 completed songs. The songs that were written at the camp varied greatly in style and genre, ranging from epic and cinematic, to lighthearted acoustic, to “powerful” rock.
“We chose Smith Lake because it’s accessible to Nashville while still feeling like a remote lakefront getaway.” Anacrusis has been hosting quarterly songwriting retreats at locations across America for a number of years now in an effort to give both emerging and established songwriters opportunities to perform and connect with music supervisors. The retreat on Smith Lake was sponsored in part by Pinnacle Bank and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). “We chose Smith Lake because it’s accessible to Nashville while still feeling like a remote lakefront getaway,” said Liz Rogers, Founder and Creative Director of Anacrusis. “We strive to create memorable experiences through these writing camps that both foster creativity and deep relationships. The idea of a summer camp was perfect because what says bonding more than bunk beds and late night swims in the lake?”
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