Award Winning Country Music Singer Song Writer Jeffrey Steele Rocks The Cutting Room in NYC

You don’t always know everyone on the card when you get hired to photograph a performing artist. Talent agent Jeff Krasner hired me to capture the performance of his client Don Most at The Cutting Room in NYC. It had recently opened by the Empire State Building in Mid-town. I am pretty sure Jeff K told me I was going to photograph Don, but I could not swear to it. 

Early is on time, especially when you are risking the Long Island Expressway and the Mid-Town Tunnel. The Cutting room is fairly new and state of the art both for music and for hospitality. You enter into a bar/restaurant that opens on either side of the theater, with stairways to the balcony. Fairly small and intimate, there are no bad seats and the room sounds fantastic. I think the drum set is always on stage and some guy in a white New York tee-shirt was doing a sound check.  Early is on time, right?  I asked the sound guy who it was, and I thought I recognized the name, Jeffrey Steele, but the sound check was Zeppelin, so I figure it must me a different Jeffrey Steele. It wasn’t.

Jeffrey Steele, if you don’t know him, is one of the greatest all-time country music song writers of all time. He writes on his own and on a commissioned basis for artists at all levels in the recording industry. Not only does he write, he produces, and platinum frequently comes from his efforts. Wikipedia lists more than 60 songs written by, just through the letter I. Even if you don’t follow country music, you have heard his songs sung by Cher, Rascal Flatts, Billy Ray Cyrus, Brooks and Dunn, John Travolta, Montgomery Gentry, Zac Brown and Jimmy Buffet, to name a few.

But anyway, the sound test ends, nobody else gets on stage, and Jeffrey starts playing and singing. Almost all rock, we all know the bands, but in his own way. After all, when it is one guitar player who is also the singer, he has total control. He played a few songs he authored but made famous by others, such as Love Somebody and What Hurts The Most, a number one song for Rascal Flatts.

Between songs, Steele shared some of his story, having grown up in California, and starting music at an early age, how he loved rock but chose country for his career. He was proving right in front of us that the passion that drives his song writing did not hurt his passion for rock. I have to tell you, some of my favorite in person performances have been by solo artists and Jeffrey Steel should not missed as a solo act or playing with any band.

Song writing is a passion and a skill. Skill can be taught but the passion has to burn inside. If you have a passion for songwriting and are trying to get to the next level, you can sign up for the Jeffrey Steele Songwriting Bootcamp. Started in 2006, Steele took his experience and crafted a series of online coaching programs that range from motivational and mentorship videos. To private online coaching.  Songwriting benefits not just from passion and skill, but also different ways of thinking and using language, spoken and musically. If you have the passion, you can learn more at http://www.jeffreysteeleacademy.com .

You missed him at The Cutting Room, but there are many performances on youtube!