I’ve had a couple opportunities lately to represent the new CD (or my music in general) by one particular song that will go to people who wouldn’t otherwise necessarily be hearing my music. One of those is the Oasis CD sampler, which Oasis, the company that’s doing my CD replication, compiles across different genres and sends to DJs in those genres, as an introduction to the CDs Oasis creates. The second is a CD compilation made by one of the showcases I’m presenting in at NERFA (the folk music conference for the northeast region); it will go into the registration bags of all the people who attend the conference. Both are great opportunities to get my music in front of people who might not otherwise encounter it, but both presented difficult choices. If I could pick one song to represent my CD (or my music generally where it currently stands) it would be Crawfordsville. I’m proud of that song (and the production on the CD). It fits with what I think of as my primary songwriting strength: telling the stories of ordinary people (and doing it in a way that makes broader social observations). It’s also the style of guitar playing I do best. But it’s just under 5 minutes long, and Oasis sampler songs have to be shorter than 4:30 (and the other compilation needed songs to be shorter than 4:00). That also eliminated the other song from the new CD that has gotten a lot of attention (and also kind of fits that mold): Fun Will Find a Way. So I debated, and consulted. Although I considered another fingerpicked story song – like The Best Art, or even Take Me To Tallahassee – I wasn’t sure those fully represented that aspect of my songwriting. (They’re newer than others on the CD and haven’t spent that much time in front of audiences, so I also don’t really know what the response to them will be.) Eventually, for both the Oasis and the NERFA compilation, I ended up going with the Chicken Song. It’s certainly a song that gets a lot of attention when I play it at shows, and it was the clear vote of the people involved with CD production. It’s a quirky song (not least in its name). I like to think it makes a broader point (and it is not unrepresentative of one of my other trends in songwriting – the observations about the meaning of life/agnostic gospel song). And it sounds great on the CD. But it’s probably less accessible to those who don’t listen past the first verse about shining light on chickens. Still, others argued that its quirkiness might be a plus when it’s hanging out with a bunch of songs on compilation CDs; it’s not like all the rest of them. Meanwhile, I also just submitted three of the songs from the CD to Women of Substance Radio, an internet radio station that has played some of the songs from my first CD. And just yesterday heard back about which ones they decided to play. They took two – If I’d Known and Crawfordsville. And guess which one they declined to play? The Chicken Song.