269. How to Write About a Music Scene with Jean Burgess

Author Jean Burgess discusses how to incorporate music into your book, what research goes into it, and reveals a few secrets about her book That Summer She Found Her Voice along the way.  
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Visit Jean's website:
https://www.jeanburgessauthor.com/

Find her book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/That-Summer-She-Found-Voice/dp/1627204857

Transcript

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Jennia: Hello, I'm Jennia D'Lima. Welcome to Writing and Editing, the podcast that takes a whole person approach to everything related to both writing and editing. Have you ever thought about incorporating a music scene in your manuscript, but you weren't sure where to start, what research is involved, or how to do it in a way that feels integral to your story? Author Jean Burgess is here today to help us answer those questions and more. This is "How to Write About a Music Scene."

Jennia: Thank you for being on the show, Jean! So glad to have you here!

Jean: Thank you for having me!

Jennia: If you'd like to start by telling us about your interest and personal history in the music scene, because I know you do have some personal history.

Jean: Indeed I do! And I'm happy to share that with you. Let me start by saying that I come from a theater background, a musical theater background. So that's a good place to start. I spent 40 years as an actor and a director, and that sort of morphed into teaching. Another 20 years of teaching. When I retired, I was finally able to do some writing. That led to two books, actually. A nonfiction—my nonfiction was called Collaborative Stage Directing, which was a textbook for students.

Jennia: Oh okay!

Jean: But then this is my debut fiction. And most of my works have to do with the performing arts, so here I am (laughs).

Jennia: Makes sense! (laughs)

Jean: Right? Indeed, indeed. But I will share a secret about this book. Let me maybe start by explaining the backstory a little bit.

Jennia: Oh, yeah, that'd be great.

Jean: And we'll keep the listeners on edge about my secret.

Jennia: There we go. We've got a lead in! (both laugh)

Jean: So this book is That Summer She Found Her Voice: A Retro Novel. Oh, what's a retro novel?

Jennia: Yeah, there's another good question! (both laugh)

Jean: So the book is set in 1978. Retro.

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: And it tells the story of a 23-year-old named Margie Stevens, who grew up in a very small town on Maryland's Eastern Shore. And when the readers meet her, she is just depressed. She's spiraling because she caught her boyfriend cheating.

Jennia: Ooh.

Jean: A trope that everybody can relate to, at least the women listeners (laughs). And the problem is that she was a college graduate, and she set her dreams and aspirations to the wayside to follow his, right?

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: So what's she going to do now? She's rudderless. Whatcha going to do? So she opens the newspaper, the local paper, and there is a small audition notice for a touring swing band, of all things. And, totally out of character for her, she decides to go for it. And it's located in Baltimore. And she jumps in her car, auditions, and gets into this touring swing band and begins a journey of self-discovery. So, yeah, so that's kind of what the book is about. Now—it sort of sounds like, "Oh, it's just going to be a bunch of peeks backstage, episodes of touring. Sort of like Daisy Jones and the Six. And—

Jennia: Right, yeah. Or [The Final Revival of] Opal & Nev, yeah.

Jean: And yes, it does have a lot of that, and that's fun. But I've also woven in some other 70s themes, and we can talk about those. So here's the secret, though. Inspiration for the book—I mentioned I have a theater background. My very first professional job, right out of college, I actually was a singer and a dancer in a big band that traveled around the country.

Jennia: Ooohh!

Jean: Yeah! So I had a lot of source material. Now, this occurred in the Midwest, where I'm from, and I—everything is fictionalized in this story. I want to make that perfectly clear (both laugh). The characters are conglomerates of people that I've known through the years, so they're all creations. There's a little bit of criminal intrigue that I've written into the story. I also want to make it clear that that never happened in the band. I've totally made that up, completely.

Jennia: Also good to note (both laugh).

Jean: Yeah, for lawsuits, right?

Jennia: Right, exactly! A whole other episode on that (both laugh).

Jean: But yeah, so that was the inspiration. And what do writers do? They pull from their life experiences, and then they expand on it and make creations, right? That's what we do.

Jennia: Yeah, exactly!

Jean: But by putting it into a new environment like Baltimore—Baltimore is a wonderful music town, and a lot of people don't know about that. So that was one of my reasons for writing the book and expanding and researching to make that part of the story as authentic as possible.

Jennia: Yeah. So what kind of research did you do? Because you must have already had an inkling of what to include in each step along the way, even knowing how she would have found out about the audition, for example. Because I would imagine if you weren't certain of that ahead of time, that alone would be a tidbit you'd have to research. But how did it differ, since you already knew some of this going in, but by moving locations?

Jean: Right. So people do say, "Well, why did you pick Baltimore?" Here's also another secret. Oh, your listeners are getting all the secrets! I'm married to a musician,

Jennia: Ahh, so we should marry musicians (both laugh).

Jean: I live in central Maryland, so I don't live in Baltimore. But of course, he plays all over the place in Maryland and on the Eastern Shore, so that kind of helped. We do know musicians and, you know, they'll say, "Oh, I played at this place... I played at this place." But my job—or at least personal job—is I wanted to make all of the places that were mentioned in the Baltimore music scene authentic to the year I chose that.

Jennia: Oh yeah.

Jean: So if Margie and some of her bandmates on their days off in 1978 went to a jazz club, I wanted to make sure it was a real jazz club. I could have cheated and just made up a name of some little hole in the wall place, but—

Jennia: True! (both laugh)

Jean: I wanted it to be real. And so that was where some of the research on the music scene in Baltimore, where some of that effort went in.

Jennia: Ahh.

Jean: And also the bands that were playing there, the local bands. I researched that those were real bands that were local to Baltimore at that time. That was important to me. Just a mission, personal mission, a lot of hard work. But it was important to me.

Jennia: I think that's a really great thing that you've brought up. Just because even if you've seen any live performances at all and you think about how the people on stage interact with each other, interact with the audience, what is their performing personality like? All that's really going to go into setting that scene and even just the atmosphere and contributing to what it's like, not just for those on stage, but for those in the audience. That all makes a difference.

Jean: That is so true. And you know, we as writers talk about creating the world, right?

Jennia: Yeah!

Jean: So there's two clubs that I mentioned, and I just described that Margie and her two bandmates go. And one club is a smoky, tiny little jazz club. And describe that the other is called the Famous Ballroom. And it was a ballroom where in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, some of the greatest jazz players—like Ella Fitzgerald—was hosted there. Duke Ellington's band came down from New York and classy, classy (COME BACK TO) back then. Cab Calloway. Some of the greats. That's not who they were seeing when they visited in 1978. But even John Coltrane—if any of your listeners are into jazz cats, right (Jennia laughs)—played there in 1967. So I described these two diverse—

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: —music scenes in Baltimore even as late as 1978. Now those two places are not there anymore. And I felt kind of a—I wanted to describe legacies too, that aren't there anymore. So, I mean, it was a little bit part of my mission. Was it important to the story? In a way, because I wanted my readers to maybe get introduced to some genres of music and to understand a little bit about Baltimore's music scene. So it was a little sub-mission (laughs).

Jennia: And even the historical significance of these places and what that would have meant to a character of that time who's encountering these and understands that they're places of importance.

Jean: Yes, absolutely. You get it! (Jennia laughs). Yeah, so the feedback that I'm getting from the book is that it is a woman's fiction in a sense. So it's about Margie's story and about what she's discovering about herself. And the title is That Summer She Found Her Voice. There are issues where she doesn't know how to express herself.

Jennia: Ooh.

Jean: So we were talking about these themes. There's three themes of the era that I've woven in. One is emerging feminism in the late 70s. So this is the second wave of feminism. You know, "Yay! Women have the right to vote!" Right?

Jennia: Right.

Jean: But what else? And this was when they were struggling to get equal pay and other kinds of rights. And we're still working on that (both chuckle).

Jennia: Yup.

Jean: Another theme that I wrote about that Margie is dealing with is she's seeing this racial intolerance. She came from this teeny tiny town, and now she's out in the whole world, and touring across the country, and she doesn't know what to do with this new knowledge and how to speak up about it.

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: And then the third is a sort of seeking spiritual question. She was raised in a very strict Catholic home, and she's got a lot of questions about that and she's searching for some spiritual. And the late 70s was the time from transcendental meditation and sort of Eastern philosophy. And so she was kind of dabbling.

Jennia: Which we see in a lot of music from that time period. So that actually leads into something that I've been thinking about as you've been talking about theme: how does music play into that theme? And then how do you get that across in a way that's subtle?

Jean: Yeah. So the spiritual question I didn't really explore in terms of music, although I probably could have!

Jennia: Oh yeah, just thinking about some of the bigger songs and then artists that were around in the 60s or the end of the 60s. And then as they moved into the 70s, you see that shift even in their lyrics and their style of instrumental use.

Jean: That is such a great point. And I hope that people maybe read the book and sort of make those connections just as you have. I mean, that's lovely. Thank you! I love it!

Jennia: You're welcome! (both laugh).

Jean: That's what I'm hoping for the book. I'm hoping that people will have conversations. I've put topics of discussion in the back of the book—

Jennia: Oh, nice!

Jean: —hoping that maybe book clubs or even just two people over coffee will have some discussions. And how is the book relevant today? Even though it's a retro novel, some of these conversations, today, are so relevant as well.

Jennia: Right! Well, even like you just said, some of the themes and how those themes are still present right now, it might not be the exact same set of circumstances, but it is still something that we are working toward. Or even if we look at it with that self-discovery and sense of the self, that's something that we all go through. So that's a theme that's always relevant.

Jean: Absolutely! And this whole overarching idea of authentic voice and how Margie is struggling for her own authentic voice, I'm still working on it (both laugh).

Jennia: And this goes along with it too: So I was thinking about music and how we can hear a certain song, and it takes us back to that time we first heard it. Those feelings might not be as raw and pressing as they were when we were first in that moment, but how do we get that across the music that is felt and heard without having those additional components like the vocals and the instruments? And how do we do it with just writing alone?

Jean: Oh, that's such a great—and I so struggled with that because of course, I would have loved to use lyrics, right? And I had them all the way through until I realized how difficult as a writer it is to use lyrics. Because of course you have to look for permissions, and a lot of times you have to pay for lyrics.

Jennia: Yeah, a lot!

Jean: And, you know, I'm a new writer, I don't have a big publishing, although I have a indie press. This was published by Apprentice House Press, but it's a small—they're not going to pay. So I had to take all the lyrics out, which just about broke my heart. But titles, you can use the titles. So I tried to find songs that were expressive in their titles.

Jennia: Oh, that's good.

Jean: So, and I should give you an example. As she's driving home at the end when she puts an eight-track under the dash—eight-track player, you know, she—

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: —so this is a great retro image of her playing—it's so lovely, an Earth, Wind and Fire tape, "That's the Way of the World." I thought that title sort of summarized her arc as a character, for example.

Jennia: That's clever to look at it that way. Yeah, to even tell a story of her in song titles by doing that too.

Jean: Yeah. And then also when she was going to her audition, there was another, a Jackson Brown tape that she put in.

Jennia: I think a lot of us naturally do that anyway. I mean, at least I have where you go about your day or you're in a certain part of your life that is really hard, or maybe everything's going wonderfully and, you know, every once in a while, you think, "This is the song if this was a movie that would be playing right now."

Jean: Exactly! The soundtrack of your life.

Jennia: Yes.

Jean: And so I had to be very thoughtful about that once I had to let go of the lyrics. The other thing that I had to do, or that I chose to do, is as Margie was exploring new genres of music because she was classically trained for voice. But she wanted to learn about different music, like jazz, and bebop, and funk, which was very popular during that time period, R&B. And so these two bandmates were kind of helping her explore these. She would describe music in her journal. She would describe it. So I had to listen to a lot of YouTube music and then say, ‘Oh, this is where Chicago in "Saturday in the Park,’ where the tempo changed." When I would describe it in musical terms, it was nice to have a husband who was a musician who I could run that past and say, "Am I describing this right in terms of a musician's ear?" And then he would give me some pointers. So that was nice.

Jennia: How did you incorporate some of that jargon that's specific to music in a way that a layperson would understand?

Jean: Well, since I'm a layperson in terms of—(both laugh)—in terms of describing music, I would put it in my terms. And then I would say to my husband, "Okay, am I describing this right?" And if he'd get too technical, I'd say, (*makes buzzer noise*). So we would kind of tag team there.

Jennia: So you are really your own focus group! (both laugh)

Jean: Exactly! Team of two.

Jennia: That's the way to do it, yeah. So that's one thing we've seen across the board when people are doing research, that they talk to someone who's in that industry or that profession or as an expert on that subject. So it just seems very serendipitous that you had your own in-house expert.

Jean: Yes. But one other thing that I used in my research for historical research was interviews. Interviews were essential. So when I was talking about the Baltimore music scene—

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: —in 1978, I talked to both Black and White musicians who actually performed so that I could, you know, I could get the real story.

Jennia: Yeah!

Jean: Baltimore embraced diversity in bands during that time period, except—and one Black musician told me where there were a couple of exceptions.

Jennia: Mmm.

Jean: And so larger band leaders would sometimes not use any Black musicians—

Jennia: Ooohh.

Jean: —because they would then sometimes not be able to get into "elite" private clubs. Even in 1978. Which shocked me. In 1978, there were still restrictions, and I wrote that into the book.

Jennia: Good. Yeah, good. Because I think that especially with a lot of younger readers, it's harder to imagine some of these long-lasting effects that we've seen.

Jean: Yes.

Jennia: You know, you think that all this must have ended by blank because this law was enforced in blank, but they just don't realize.

Jean: Yes, yes. So I wrote both of that. I wrote both the ways that it was embraced—

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: —and what a great town Baltimore was in terms of bands that, you know, they mixed it up, there was no problem. And then the other side where band leaders were not so tolerant.

Jennia: I think that you've given readers a fuller picture of what it was really like by doing that and by not focusing on just, "I'm going to interview these three people who all had similar experiences."

Jean: Right. And I think as a researcher, you have to dig.

Jennia: Oh, yeah.

Jean: Yeah, you can't just accept, "No, yeah, oh, oh, here's a picture of a band in the 70s in Baltimore. And, oh it's integrated. So I guess that's it."

Jennia: Yeah, that's a really good point too, because I think it's too easy to come to our own conclusions and to make up a story to fill in any gaps instead of finding out what it was really like.

Jean: Yes, yes, that is true. Absolutely (laughs).

Jennia: So how did you go about doing these interviews or even finding the people to interview and then contacting them?

Jean: You know, again, one interview leads to another. Who else do you know? Being married to a musician was helpful. "Who do you know, honey?"

Jennia: There's that tip again! (both laugh).

Jean: And resources. I had a great book called Baltimore Sounds. And it's just, it was like an encyclopedia full of all the bands that played from 1950 all the way to 1980. So that gave me a lot of names. It gave me a lot of bands that actually did play—

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: —in Baltimore. Those were some of the real bands I was mentioning earlier that I wanted to place in these clubs.

Jennia: Yeah.

Jean: I do a whole lecture on all these different ways that I researched because you can't just do one type of research, you've got to do it all. I started my research during COVID, and so, you know, it was phone interviews during that time. But these people were generous with their time. They wanted to talk about their experiences. So it was great. It was great.

Jennia: I bet that made it a lot easier too, just in order to find those details and be able to tell those parts of their stories by having people who were so willing and ready to share that.

Jean: That is true.

Jennia: And I would imagine that you also must have visited a lot of places, or at least similar places, in-person to get a feel for them?

Jean: That's true. I mean, now, those two clubs that I mentioned and a couple of the other places that I mentioned, they're not there anymore. So, of course, in that case, you have to do the online research and search for pictures and images in that way to describe them. But a lot of my other research required onsite—

Jennia: Mhm.

Jean: —research, sure, to get a feel for it.

Jennia: Was there anything that you tried to research and you weren't able to find an answer, or you weren't able to describe it to your satisfaction that you ended up having to remove or add a little bit more of that personal speculation?

Jean: No, but what did happen is I would sometimes stray. And maybe I could explain why.

Jennia: Oh, yeah, please do.

Jean: So, for example, for the sake of the story, I might fictionalize something. And here's a great example. On the Eastern Shore, I needed a college that was about an hour away that was a Catholic college, because, as I mentioned, Margie was raised in a strict Catholic home, and there were no Catholic colleges on the Eastern Shore. There was, about an hour away, a private college in a town called Chestertown. So I just created—(Jennia laughs)—I created St. Angela's College. So that might be an example to answer your question.

Jennia: Okay, yeah, definitely works!

Jean: But I would always put a note in the back matter. I'd always explain it because I wanted everything to be authentic. But sometimes for the sake of the storyline, you have to be creative or you have to fictionalize. I mean, it is a fiction, I'm allowed, right? (laughs) So kind of answering your question there.

Jennia: I think that definitely answers it, yes (both laugh). Well, before we go, for those who live in the Baltimore area or will be visiting, do you have any places you recommend them going if they want to go on their own little historical music tour?

Jean: Well, you know, sadly, those places are no longer there. But there are still some great clubs in Baltimore, and they're little places where there's great sound. So in Baltimore, not in Little Italy necessarily, but in a area called Fells Point, you know, you just pick up a local paper and see what's playing and what might be of interest. But sadly, jazz clubs are drying up all over the place. But all kinds of music! It's a great place.

Jennia: Well, thank you again! This was great!

Jean: Yeah, thank you!

Jennia: Thank you for listening! And make sure to check out the show notes for more information. And then please join me next week when author Ari Rosenschein will be here to explain what you should expect when you're working with a small press. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe and share the link with a friend. Thanks again!