Chip's Tips: Tips For Songwriters And Life
ABOUT THE AUTHOR......... Chip Hardy is an ol' veteran of the Nashville music business...."35+ years!!!."  His career has ranged from songwriter, to producer, to A&R; at a major record label, to working with songwriters in music publishing.   He was born and raised in a small town in Western Kansas "out in the middle of nowhere".  His mother is an accomplished keyboard player and his dad loved to sing.  At the age of 4 Chip was spinning old 78 rpm records of Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Doris Day and Hank Williams, Sr.  Around age 7 his mother taught him the basic chords on ukulele and he began playing and singing for various school and community events.  At 12 he took up guitar and began writing songs.  Throughout his high school years Chip played in a Pop-Rock cover band that covered Western Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, the Texas panhandle, parts of Eastern Colorado and Western Nebraska.  He attended college at Fort Hays State University and was a music education major until his senior year.  "I just wanted out" was his quote about college "because I knew I wanted to go to Nashville and write songs."   As a songwriter Chip's songs have been recorded by Dionne Warwick, Dean Martin, Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride and The Whites.  His production credits include Loretta Lynn, Dann Rogers, The Vega Bros., Rick & Janis Carnes and Joe Barnhill while being assistant to the producer on projects by George Strait, Reba McEntire, Waylon Jennings, The Oak Ridge Boys, Mac Davis, Roger Miller, Glen Campbell, Barbara Mandrell and numerous others.  He was also in charge of artist development for MCA Records.  During his publisher career Chip recorded over 1,200 song demos for Hamstein Music including the demos for "Just To See You Smile" by Tim McGraw and "I'll Think Of A Reason Later", the first hit by Lee Ann Womack.  He also helped develop Jerrod Neimann while running Marathon Key Music Publishing Company which was a joint venture between Billy Joe Walker, Jr. and Warner Chappell Music.   Currently Chip is producing indie projects and songwriter demos at THE 515 Studio in the Berry Hill section of Nashville......."and loving every minute of it!!!"