Meet Jan Buckingham | Twice Grammy nominated hit songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jan Buckingham and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My thought process for starting my own business was two fold.
First of all, I had a single coming out with Pam Tillis, CLEOPATRA-QUEEN OF DENIAL,
and I needed to have the song in a publishing company, so that I could get paid.
I had been a staff writer in many different publishing companies before (Warner Chappell,
Lorimar, Windswept Pacific), but I was not signed at the time, so I had to start one.
Also, I had read that publishing earns quite a bit of money, so I figured that if I owned the company,
I would get all that money!!!
I also want to add that I had learned a lot, being signed to the other publishing companies,
and now I felt that I knew enough to know what songs to demo and pitch…

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is writing songs, producing them, performing them, and getting them cut by artists, as well as by myself!!!

I believe that perhaps what sets me apart from other writers is that I love what I do.
(Of course, most song writers love what they do, or they’d be doing something else!)
Also, I am very persistent and organized.
I keep an appointment book, and I write down what I will be doing every day, and I do it.
All my co-writing appointments and song demos are in that book so I that I don’t forget a thing.
I also write down when I am going to pitch something, and when and where my gigs are going to be.
I call that book “the Bible of my life,” as I look at the book the night before, and then, the next day,
to everything that I have written down to do. That’s organization.

I guess what you could say I am most proud of is getting all the cuts I have gotten…
but also that I have continued to write songs, even when so many songs were never cut!!!

I like to say that God’s greatest gift to me was the gift of “bumbling.”
By that, I mean that I have often “bumbled” into a good situation,
like writing a song or getting it cut in a way I had never imagined.

The best advice I ever got was from an old friend who once told me this:
“You don’t have to know which way you’re gonna go when you get to the corner.
Just start walking towards the corner.
You’ll see which way to go when you get there.”
So, every day, that is exactly what I do…
I get up and start walking towards my dreams in the music business,
and taking advantage of each opportunity as they present themselves.

No, it has not always been easy to stay in the music business.
So, to always have enough money to get by, I have also had a lot of “day jobs.”
While I was a staff writer, I also flew as a flight attendant for several airlines (Eastern and Pan Am),
taught school, sold real estate as a Realtor, and did a lot of acting on television and in films.
I did not resent these jobs.
I looked at them as getting paid to do “research,” to get more good song ideas out of living life.

I believe what has helped me get by most for all these years in the music business is this:
A positive attitude and a good sense of humor.
It says in the the Bible, “All things work to the good, for those who love the Lord.”
So, even if I got rejected, or something bad happened, I would think positively,
that it would lead to something good happening… and it usually did!!!
I also believe that if you can laugh at the bad things that happen to you,
you will stay a happy person!!! That is the secret to success, in my opinion,
and the best lesson I’ve learned in life.

What I’d like the world to know about me and my “brand” of doing things,
is that I am a positive person…. and that being positive leads to a successful and happy life

For example, my hit song CLEOPATRA-QUEEN OF DENIAL,
is a funny song about something that was not so funny back when it happened.
They say that “pain plus time equals humor,”
and in this song, listeners laugh, even though it is a story of being cheated on.

When you can laugh at life, it’s a lot easier to be happy!!!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Since I am a songwriter, I would love to take a visitor to some of my favorite music venues in Nashville, Tennessee.
Of course, downtown, on Broadway, are all the bars and rooftop bars with tons o bands and songwriters doing cover tunes.
I also love venues that showcase new songs and songwriters.
Several of my favorites are the Bluebird Cafe, the Commodore, the Local, and the Maxwell House.
All of those places have good food too!!!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I learned a lot about the music business when I read the book THIS BUSINESS OF MUSIC.
I also learned a lot more when I was signed as a staff writer to the Warner Chappell,
Lorimar and Windswept Pacific publishing companies.
And, I learned a lot from all the kind co-writers I worked with back in the day.
Another thing that really helped me learn was my common sense,
given to me by my encouraging parents!!!

Website: https://www.janbuckingham.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jan_buckingham

Linkedin: https://linkenin.com/in/jan-buckingham-604484288

Twitter: N/A

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jan.buckingham1

Yelp: N/A

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@janbuckingham

Other: https://reverbnation.com/janbuckingham

Image Credits
Joseph Wandass and Sarah Mae Chilton took the photos