NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Lance Carpenter was a student at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville when he decided he wanted to learn how to play the guitar.
In high school, the Ozark native had friends who played guitar, but “sports, hunting and fishing was my life back then,” Carpenter said. But something made Carpenter, who was an offensive lineman for the Wonderboys football team from 1999 to 2002, decide to pick up the instrument.
His grandfather, Kenneth Smith of Ozark, was skeptical about Carpenter’s attempt to learn the instrument at first, he said.
“He always thought I was crazy to try to learn to play that thing,” Carpenter said.
His grandfather made him an offer that proved to be valuable - if Carpenter learned to play well enough to play some songs for Smith, he would buy Carpenter a new guitar. Within a year or so, Carpenter had learned enough chords to be able to make his way through some songs. Smith took Carpenter to Olsen’s Music Center in Russellville.
“I didn’t know anything really about guitars,” Carpenter said. “So we went in, and the owner said I could play anything I wanted in there, just pull it down and play it. I played eight or 10 guitars. I could play three or four chords. I found one I liked.
“We were fixing to pay for this thing. We thought it would be a couple of hundred dollars, and the guy was, ‘That will be $1,800.’ It was a Martin V-18. My grandfather put away the cash he had and pulled out a credit card and bought it. He said he told me he’d buy me a guitar, and he did.”
Carpenter, 30, said he keeps that guitar at his grandparents’ house in Ozark. He had his grandfather and grandmother, Virginia, sign it.
“Every time I go up there, I play them a couple of new songs ...,” he said. “I was home just the other day and pulled it out and played a new song. I said ‘Pawpaw, that was one of the best investments you ever made.’ He said, ‘I think you’re right.’”
That $1,800 investment made in Carpenter by his grandfather may be about to pay off big time.
About four years ago, Carpenter decided to move to Nashville to try to break into the country-music business as a songwriter. On Monday, he said, he was weighing an offer for an exclusive publishing agreement for his songwriting. The agreement would give the publishing company, which he didn’t want to name because he hadn’t accepted the deal yet, access to Carpenter’s catalog of songs and allow him to become a staff writer for the company, which would then pitch his songs to various artists.
“About 10 to 15 years ago, there were 1,300 to 1,500 staff writer jobs,” he said. “Now it’s been cut down to about 350. Lots of people here are busting their tails trying to get one. I feel fortunate.”
He was inspired to move to try to make it on Music Row in 2007. Carpenter works for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, helping to respond to disasters throughout the country. In 2007, he was working full time for the agency and was in Portland, Maine, for his job. While there, he met a singer/songwriter named Ben Kilcollins, who invited Carpenter to perform some songs at one of his concerts. Carpenter took him up on his offer, playing four or five songs,including a few originals.
“A few people stopped doing what they were doing and started listening,” Carpenter said.
That experience made him start thinking about trying to make the music business his full-time job. Several people told him he would have a better chance of doing that if he moved to Nashville full time.
In 2008, he decided to work part time for FEMA and move to Nashville. Once he arrived, he became a member of the Nashville Songwriter Association International organization. It offers songwriters a place where they can learn how to write songs and network with other songwriters and producers. The group also offers songwriter camps, where aspiring songwriters can receive advice from established songwriters and producers.
“After my first songwriter camp, I said, 'In 10 years, I want to be doing this for a living,’” Carpenter said.
Having the dream to become a full-time songwriter and achieving that dream are two very different matters. Carpenter said he recently did some research on the number of people in Nashville who list “songwriter” as their profession on the U.S. census. The numbers were in the tens of thousands.
“There are only about 350 full-time positions, and only about 50 or 60 people each day making money as a songwriter [off songs receiving radio play],” he said.
In addition to his possible publishing deal, Carpenter said a new artist has also recorded one of his songs. He said he knows the song has been cut but hasn’t been released yet. He said the song could be released as a single. There is also always the chance the song won’t be released or even placed on the singer’s album, if an album is even recorded.
“You’re never sure until [the CD] gets on the shelf if it makes the album,” he said. “It’s humbling to think that someone took the time to take something you did and make it their own.”
Carpenter is also in the midst of recording a debut album. He used the fundraising site kick starter.com to raise funds for the album. The website allows people to try to raise funds for creative projects. In exchange for any donation to an artist’s project, the artist agrees to offer an incentive for his supporters. In Carpenter’s case, he had varying levels of incentives, ranging from receiving an early copy of the album before it is officially released to a thank-you in the liner notes to Carpenter writing and recording a song just for that person. Through the site, Carpenter raised more than $11,000 from 165 donors, including a few he doesn’t even know.
“I never thought I’d make an album,” he said. “A lot of people comment on my voice and said that I should. I was afraid that if I put 50 percent of my time as an artist and 50 percent of my time as a writer, I’d fail as both.
“It’s been a fantastic learning process to learn how a record is made. And now I know what my voice can and can’t do.”
The album will include 12 of his original songs, including 10 Carpenter has co-written with other songwriters.
Some people may look at Carpenter’s music career thus far and call it lucky. Carpenter recalls a saying from his former football coach at Arkansas Tech, Steve Mullins.
“He said luck is where preparation and opportunity meet. You can have one or the other, but if you don’t have both, it won’t work,” Carpenter said.
Some people may consider having to have knee surgery not so lucky. During his second year in school, Carpenter had to have surgery and missed spring practice. During the spring game, Carpenter was responsible for leading several recruits on a campus tour. Several academic departments were holding an open house.
While at the open house, a representative of the emergency management department handed an information packet about the program to Carpenter, who was undecided on his major. He looked at the information later and became interested in the program.
During college, Carpenter worked part time for emergency management offices in three counties, including Pope and Yell counties and Franklin County, where his stepfather, Joe Powell, serves as county judge. Carpenter also had an internship with the state Office of Emergency Management in Conway.
After Carpenter graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in emergency administration and management, the internship led to a full-time job at the state office, where he stayed 2 1/2 years. When Hurricane Katrina hit, he and several other members of the state office made the move to the federal department in 2006.
“If I hadn’t got injured, I wouldn’t have ended up in the program that led to my degree and to Maine and to becoming a songwriter,” Carpenter said.
But as he said before, luck doesn’t come without preparation and opportunity. Carpenter works hard at both. He still attends events at NSAI, often gathers with some of his other songwriting cohorts to work on songs and takes any opportunity he can find to make new friends in the business.
The latter is key to success in the Nashville community, he said. He emphasizes that he tries to make friends, not just connections, in the business. He said Brent Baxter, who wrote “Monday Morning Church” for Alan Jackson and is also from Arkansas, gave him that advice.
“He said the worst thing you can do is go up to someone and say ‘Hey, I’m a songwriter. Can I play you a song?’ There are so many songs out there that people in the business don’t necessarily need another song right now, but they could use a friend. I want to let them learn who Lance Carpenter is first. It shows them your integrity and that you’re not here to step on people,” he said.
Carpenter uses that same approach to finding a group of songwriters to write with. He said the best thing to do is find seven or eight songwriters on your level, as well as engineers and producers. By finding people on that level you can work with, it could lead to bigger things, he said.
When he announced that he was moving to Nashville, several family members were concerned that he might be giving up a good career.
Carpenter is the son of Janet and Joe Powell and Richard and Charlotte Carpenter, all of Ozark.
“My mom has always been behind me 110 percent,” Carpenter said.
But just as his grandfather invested in the guitar in that Russellville store, Carpenter saw his move to Nashville in a similar fashion.
“I have been investing in myself,” he said.
Staff writer Donnie Sewell can be reached at (501) 918-4527 or dsewell@arkansasonline.com.
Q&A with Lance Carpenter What was the first song you wrote? It was a song called “Main Street” my freshman year of college about a guy who just got into a fight with his girlfriend and walked down to the local bar to let off some steam. There he meets an old man who was in a similar situation years back and regretted the decision he made, so he gave the young man some advice, which the young man wisely took.
Which song do you wish you had written and why?
“Amarillo by Morning” [by George Strait] because it is and will always be my mom’s favorite song.
If you could hand-pick one artist to record one of your songs, who would it be and why? George Strait would definitely be at the top of that list. His music has been on the radios in my family’s house and my mom’s car all my life, and she is one of his biggest fans. ... I know it would make my mom happy.
How many songs have you written? 500-plus, but you have to write a lot of bad songs before you find a good one.
What song/artist would people be surprised to hear that you like? I am a big fan of Pink’s song “Perfect,” and I have always been a fan of Eminem, Metallica and AC/DC.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 139 on 05/27/2012