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By Andrea Dujardin-Flexhaug
HER angelic voice and songwriting talent have taken a south Okanagan woman all
the way to Music City.
Andi Zack has been making her mark in Nashville.
She spent the last few months in her home town of Oliver, visiting family and
friends. She also renewed a visa for another stint of work in the centre of the
country music universe – where dreams are made.
Zack also has a new CD of songs about life and love, entitled Steady . It is getting air time on the local Giant FM radio station in Penticton with
its single, ‘Unstill.’
This month, she heads back to Nashville to start a new three year songwriting
contract with the ZMG publishing company.
As a Christian, Zack has written her share of gospel songs, and says country
music is very much open to that genre. “There’s so much on the radio and in video that could be totally a gospel song,” she told BCCN .
Zack has not yet had her own gospel songs recorded. She gave BCCN a sample of one, entitled ‘God and You’:
“I’m just a girl in this world trying to find her way through all the obstacles of life. I got a plan where I’m headed, and I sure won’t forget it, when I reach the end of the line, that my Grandpa once said: ‘There’s only two people you have to answer to, and that’s God and you, God and you.’”
“It’s a really family oriented genre, country music,” she said, noting that the gospel music being produced in Nashville studios is
reflected on Sunday mornings in the pews. “The music in the churches is incredible,” she said.
“There are so many great singers, too. Sunday morning, there is such wonderful
music performed in every church in town.” Although Zack herself hasn’t sung at local churches there, she has performed at a lot of benefits over the
years for various good causes.
When Zack first made the move to Nashville eight years ago, she found an amiable
atmosphere. “Nashville is really laid back, and a nice town – and really nice people, and really good values.”
Soon after her arrival, she got a three year contract with Ash Street Music
(ASM) as a songwriter, and got her first song on singer Danielle Peck’s debut album. A host of others followed. ASM is one of many small song
publishing companies on the two avenues of picturesque and well-known Music
Row. “And they’re all little houses, because it used to be a neighbourhood,” explained Zack. “So it’s really neat. Like we’re all in this big neighbourhood of six blocks.”
Up to five days a week, she would head to ASM’s writing room – where she would be put with a co-writer, and they would brainstorm song ideas. “It’s quite crazy, but it’s very fun,” she laughed. Ideas for songs have come from many different sources – everything from her own life experiences to a phrase spotted in a book or ad;
everything is fair game.
In Nashville, Zack networks with other songwriters. She has met country stars
such as Vince Gill, who is married to another big star.
“I haven’t met Amy Grant yet, but she is a wonderful Christian artist. She’s probably my favourite one.”
Zack finds Grant a “good inspiration” for her own gospel music. Two of her new secular songs, being released this
summer, include: ‘Sweet Distraction’ (a collaboration with Josh Thompson and Ken Johnson); and ‘Beer on the Table’ (co-written with Thompson).
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Zack said she would also “love to get some Christian cuts on Christian albums,” either her own or by other artists. “And I’d love to get songs in Christian movies and in Christian television, somehow.
That would be great.”
Zack has written more than 500 songs. Sometimes they come easy, and practically
write themselves. Other times, “you sit there in silence, staring at the wall for hours. When a song comes fast
and easy, it’s so much fun, and I can’t believe I get paid to write songs.”
Zack quoted a saying she once heard: “Love your job and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” She said she has learned the truth of that, and said that even if she can’t come up with lyrics at times, “it’s still great – and I’m so thankful to be able to do what I do.”
Now a proven songwriter, she is also trying her hand as an author. When she isn’t making music, Zack is working on a book entitled Give Up the Ghost , about a tragic loss in her young Christian life when she was just 14 years of
age.
Sadly, her brother Christopher died at age 17; he was her only sibling.
Understandably, she went through a period of anger – and sometimes that anger was directed at God.
Zack’s thoughts often centred on the afterlife, and whether it really exists. “I was so afraid it didn’t,” she mused, “and it made the grieving process so much harder.”
But then, little things started happening, which helped her. For example, the
first Christmas without Chris, her mother gave her a gift of a water-filled
snow globe with a little cottage inside it, and a card that read: ‘This is Chris’ house in heaven.’
After Zack shook the globe and the snow flakes fell softly down on the cottage,
she wound up its knob to play the accompanying tune – which her mother had not known about. Out of all the Christmas songs in the
world, the globe played one especially meaningful to them both: ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas.’ “It was things like that, little signs, that I knew were only possible with God,” said Zack.
Thus, while the loss of her brother caused her to question her belief in God, it
ended up reinforcing her faith. It has been a difficult journey for her – but one which she considers a therapeutic and healing one.
Although Give Up the Ghost was inspired by the real-life death of her brother, Zack’s creative nature has been melded into it as well, and she has added fictional
scenarios.
She expects to finish the book within about six months, and hopes to publish it
as a tribute to her brother.
Contact: www.myspace.com/andizack
September 2009
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