American Songwriter Lyric Contest Winner Co-Writes With Rodney Crowell

Updated:

January 7, 2021 10:08 pm

photo by Rachel Briggs

Quinten Collier, the grand-prize lyric contest winner for 2009, flew into Nashville this past week to lay claim to his coveted prize package.

The spoils of victory included an all-expense-paid trip to Music City, as well as a co-writing session with the legendary Rodney Crowell.

The Clifton, Colorado, resident flew into Nashville Monday night. During the co-writing session at Crowell’s house the next day, the duo worked on a song called “The Outsiders,” a tune loosely based on the novel of the same name by S.E. Hinton. Collier/Crowell wrote three-quarters of the song, and plan to finish it over e-mail and phone, with Crowell eventually laying down guitar and vocals on the demo. Look for the song to be streamed on americansongwriter.com in the near future.

Before the writing session, American Songwriter chatted with Collier about his songwriting process, the influence of Gabriel Garcia Marquez on his recent work, and the writer’s experience doing relief work in post-Katrina New Orleans –-among a host of other topics. Be sure to read the interview in the May/June issue of American Songwriter.

Collier, 26, won the grand prize for his song “Roses and Wine,” which took top honors in our July/August issue. Gram Parsons’ “Hickory Wind” served as the inspiration for the tune, he said. “It’s open and it doesn’t have a lot of stuff going on. Everything blends together.”

A poet as well as a songwriter, Collier provided the American Songwriter staff with copies of his book of verse, Fascists, Fanatics And Escapists, which was published by Grand Junction Alternative Media in 2009. The “Roses and Wine” author also completed three full-length plays during the past year and a half and is currently at work on an experimental novel.

Be sure to check out Collier’s American Songspace profile, which features the winning song. And stay tuned to americansongwriter.com to find out which legendary songwriter has been selected for the “Dream Co-Write” for 2010.