IN THE SPOTLIGHT BY STEPHANIE BEAUMONT
Every summer, Gordie Sampson comes home to Cape Breton for a vacation. But for this Nashville-based Grammy-winning songwriter, there really is no such thing as down time. Naturally, his annual return is flush with sold-out gigs around the Maritimes and for the sixth season, he played host to aspiring Nova Scotia songwriters at the Gordie Sampson Song Camp. On the day we connected, he was en route to Lakewind Sound Studios in Point Aconi, the studio he’s co-owned for nearly 20 years. He was in the midst of a songwriting weekend with Port Cities, a band whose album he’s producing. Sampson (44) slips seamlessly between Music City and the homeland which he says isn’t all that different. “Nashville has the same rural mentality: work hard, play hard, strong love for music. The way we interact with people, the way we treat each other, the way we respect each other, the way we hold doors open for each other — it’s all very similar.” After co-writing hits for everyone from Keith Urban to Faith Hill, Dierks Bentley to Carrie Underwood (including her smash Jesus Take the Wheel), Sampson has secured a coveted place in the Nashville network. A position he’s determined to keep – and that means a whole lot of hustle with a session-filled calendar. A typical workday includes at least one four-hour session with one to three other songwriters/ artists resulting in a song, which is then pitched by a publisher and cut or held by an artist or “...lost forever. The shelf life of a song is very short. You learn to let them go fast.” He’s also been learning to adjust to the ever-shrinking industry and CD extinction, while writers’ returns have been limited to radio play. Sampson reports “none of us could exist on the streaming royalties now. I’d have to get another job. By the time they figure out a solution for streaming that keeps the writers happy, there’ll be a whole new technology.” Yet Sampson remains optimistic. “There are less writers, less publishers and maybe the record companies make a little less. What you’re left with are the people in the industry who really love it. It kind of weeded out everyone else.”
Gordie Sampson hails from Big Pond, Cape Breton. He has received many awards and accolades, including a Grammy, a Juno, two ASCAPs, 14 East Coast Music Awards, and honorary degrees from Cape Breton University and St. Francis Xavier. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Helen Musial, and their daughter Amelie. For more, visit www.gordiesampson.com and follow on Twitter @Gordie_Sampson
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