Weaver charts course as songwriter

Did Libby Weaver find the path?

Or did the path find Libby Weaver?

Either way, the Jay County native is on her way toward a career in songwriting.

"It's really an interesting time right now," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Nashville last week. "It looks like I'm about ready to sign a publishing deal."

Weaver, the 27-year-old daughter of Rob and Mindy Weaver, Portland, has been making some waves in the music business with her 2008 CD "Vanity Fair."

And she's been even busier writing and co-writing songs. All but one of the pieces on "Vanity Fair" are solo compositions.

"I had no aspiration to make an album or be an artist at all," she said. "My aspiration is to be a songwriter."

It's an aspiration she traces back to age 7 or 8. She was taking piano lessons from Kris Wolford and wasn't much beyond learning to play the scales when her teacher gave her a piece to learn. Some small print on the page said the piece had been composed by a 12-year-old.

"I remember thinking, 'I can't wait to be 12,'" she said.

She didn't wait that long. Soon she was toying with her own variations of jingles and TV themes on the piano, making her own music. "The lyric part of it came later." In school, Weaver excelled academically and athletically. "I tried to ignore the whole music thing."

Her vocal talents didn't surface until high school. Soon she was in choral groups and performing onstage at Arts Place in the chorus of local productions.

"Mr. (Dave) Humbert (longtime Jay County High School band director) was a huge influence on me," she said.

Though music seemed to come naturally, when Weaver graduated from JCHS in 2000 and headed for Wittenberg University in Ohio, she still thought of it as just a hobby. She majored in economics, while maintaining a minor in music.

But the path kept calling her back.

"I ended up starting a music group on campus," said Weaver. It was an all-female acappella group, and soon it was winning awards in regional competitions. "That group is still going strong today. Sometimes I'll arrange music for them."

Still, as a student, music wasn't her primary focus.

"Mom and Dad really felt I should explore music," she recalled. Midway through her college career, her father got tickets to the Country Music Association awards as owner of Jay Country 101 radio. He took her to not only the awards program but to part of the rehearsals.

"I remember thinking, 'I want to be part of this,'" she said.

Wanting a career in the music industry, however, either onstage or as a songwriter, is a little like wanting to win the lottery. The odds are against you.

So Weaver went to work. She started spending summers in Nashville, where she started knocking on doors and - a bit like a lottery winner - landed an internship at a music publishing company.

Another internship followed in New York City her senior year at Wittenberg, but after graduation in 2004 Weaver found herself returning to Nashville, a tough music town but the right place for her to establish herself professionally and personally.

"I'm trying not to have any expectations or plans because I've found that in the music industry the only time anything happens is when you break all the rules," she said. "It can be difficult for me here. The music industry is going through some tough times right now."

Though she prefers to compose solo, she does a lot of co-writing as well. "I have a lot of artists and writers I like to work with," she said. "It challenges you to use your own creativity and use theirs."

Co-writing also gives her the opportunity to work in a variety of different types of music. "Most of the people I work with are up and coming artists," she said. "I get to explore all different genres. I get to write with a pop artist one day and a country artist the next day."

"I'd love to explore other forms of writing," she added. "Music is just where I am right now. ... I still have a lot of other passions in my life."

Her advice to others drawn by the same path: "The only thing that works is whatever's the best for you. You have to trust yourself and be yourself. That's the only way to be successful."[[In-content Ad]]