Songwriting and Trickery with J Wagner

This workshop encourages writers to abandon their usual songwriting destinations, step out of their familiar lyrical vehicles, and embark on a mischievous journey through the realm of poetry, figurative language,  mythology, archetypes, and the human psyche.  

J Wagner will be teaching songwriting delving into his endless bag of tricks and his skill as a wordsmith. In this four day workshop, he will guide the group to discover their hidden talents.

Songwriting and Trickery

A multi-day-workshop unlocking the secret language and magic of songwriting

• Welcome to the World of Sound: All the little tricks we use as Songbuilders
• Song Secrets and Discussion
• Language, and Imagery: A Study in Trickery, Translation, And the Re-write
• Cutting into the Present to Find the Future
• Sharing Song Secrets
• Dylan and the Trickster Myth: All Tangled up in Coyote, A Study in Mythology, Thievery, and Desolation Row
• The Unconscious, Symbolism, and the Fear of Failure, A study in Fear, Failure, and Collaborating
• Ending with a Ceremony and Song Performance

Workshop with a stay four-night residency at colony: $860

Workshop alone with four dinners included: $510.

J Wagner is a Long time TX songwriter(and one-time Joshua Tree National Park Ranger) with a multiple of recordings under his name. Cover versions of his songs have been recorded by a diverse array of musicians from country artist Bart Crow to the Denver Symphony Orchestra. Wagner is an avid collaborator with other songwriters too. His collaborative work with songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov has led to their songs being featured in a multiple of TV shows from, Virgin River, The Blacklist, The Haunting of Hill House, and other shows; their co-written song “Was I Just Another One” was on Isakov’s Album, Evening Machines, which landed a Grammy Nomination for best Folk record in 2020