A Song Traveler's Welcome!
From Wyatt Easterling

                  You may show up with just the desire, but you’ll leave as a songwriter.

 

I am so pleased to invite you to our eighth Song Traveler’s Songwriting Retreat traveling this year to North East, Maryland where we will gather at Eagle Point Retreat Center

 

My first experience with songwriting retreats began from a different angle back in 1992 when I approached my business partner Miles Copeland and suggested we create a songwriting retreat hosting his artists on IRS Records and Firstars Management with our Bugle Publishing Group staff writers in Nashville. The idea was to give both the songwriters and artists an opportunity to meet in a beautiful location minimizing noise from the outside world so their songs could be created without distraction.

 

At the time my thoughts were to bring artists into Nashville to an event center or state park; little did I know at that meeting that Miles owned a beautiful Chateau in the South of France then known as Chateau de Marouatte. The event we launched a mere three months later in October 1992 was named Printemps de Troubadours but quickly became referred to simply as “The Castle.”

 

The Castle became one of the most sought after invitations in the music world and hosted such music legends as Carole King, Keith Urban, Cher, Olivia Newton-John, Peter Frampton, Bon Jovi, Ted Nugent, Stuart Copeland (Mile's brother and founder of The Police,) Jars of Clay and the list impressively goes on. These artists came to “The Castle” and collaborated with our Bugle Publishing Group writers and Firstars artists from Nashville such as Paul Thorn, Keith Urban, Paul Jefferson and a host of other Nashville writers and artist. We held our event twice a year in the spring and fall for twelve plus years. I’m proud to say we were the first such retreat and I take great pride in seeing so many other retreats spawn off around the world using our event as a template.

 

The Song Traveler’s Songwriting Retreat has a mission, which is to provide guidance for our participants from the beginner to the accomplished songwriters in a setting that is a safe and conducive environment for learning and creativity.

 

And finally the most lasting and perhaps the most important take away from one of our retreats is the genuine relationships we’ve seen develop between participants time and again. I myself have produced numerous albums for singer/songwriters I’ve been privileged to work with at one of the Song Travelers Retreats and I am as proud of these recordings as I am of any projects I've done for major record labels, maybe even more so because these recordings are born from these retreats and show the growth of my fellow songwriters.

 

See you in November,

 

Wyatt Easterling