On the beat: Q-C officer pens music

Font Size:

By Thomas Geyer | Sunday, July 9, 2006 9:16 PM CDT | () comments

(John Schultz/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Davenport officer Jason Gillaspie writes country music songs in his spare time.

Jason Gillaspie has had two goals in life, both of them inspired by his dad. One goal has been met. He became a Davenport police officer in 2001, following in the footsteps of father, Larry Gillaspie, who was with the department for about 27 years. A lover of country music, Jason Gillaspie’s second goal is to write songs, and get them published — again, just like his dad.

Larry Gillaspie had some national success with a song he wrote titled “Little Blue Knight.” The song is about a police officer killed in the line of duty. In the song, the slain officer — on his way to heaven — laments he won’t be there for his son physically, but will watch over him.

Jason Gillaspie’s work, too, is on the cusp of going somewhere.

“I’ve always wanted to be a cop,” the 32-year-old, five-year veteran of the force said. “Dad was an influence in that just because I watched him as I was growing up.”

But music really is his life.

“My goal is to ultimately get a song published and cut by somebody,” he said. “And I don’t care if it’s a one-hit wonder. One hit is better than no hits.”

He tried his hand at singing for a while.

“In 1996 I had a developmental deal for singing,” he said. “It was on the Platinum label and I got half an album done before I was cut.”

While singing is fun, he said, songwriting is his true strength.

“I’m better at that than performing,” he said.

“Most of my stuff leans toward the George Strait style,” he added. “I’m not into the twang or the cross-over stuff.”

Currently he sends the songs he has completed, and likes, to Grey House Studio in Nashville, which polishes them up and makes the song demos using studio singers and musicians. He pays for his own studio time and accompanying musicians.

But it’s worth the money.

Wendy Mazur of Grey House Studio said the cop-turned-country writer has potential.

“Jason has talent, and his songs fit mainstream radio, a mainstream style,” she said. “To understand what radio likes to play, and to instinctively write that, or close to that, puts you a step closer to that kind of success.”

The actual craft of writing songs should be fairly easy to a true writer, but competition is stiff, she said.

“There is a lot of competition — Nashville alone has hundreds and hundreds of writers. And being ‘good’ is, unfortunately, arbitrary. The person who gets to decide what songs get cut is the one who determines what ‘good’ is, and that may be different from what you or I think is good.”

Gillaspie gets down to Nashville regularly to listen to the hundreds of bands down there, and learn in which direction the genre is going.

“The talent is really good,” he said. “Naturally, everybody’s trying to get a record deal.”

Gillaspie said he is always looking for ways to improve his writing.

“I’ve written about 25 songs that I really like,” he said. “There are others that are works in progress.”

And there are other songs, an endless amount, that will never see the light of day, he said.

Mazur recommends that songwriters get critiques of their music from other writers, which Gillaspie does. He also gets good feedback from his mom, who has a good ear for music, he added.

Mazur also recommends a co-writer, which Gillaspie is looking for.

“I’m looking for a co-writer who is more efficient with the guitar than I am; someone who can really play and is a good lyricist and possibly a good arranger,” he said. “I’m stronger at uniting the lyrics than I am arranging.”

Gillaspie understand his goal is a lofty one, particularly since he can’t be down in Nashville really pushing his songs and ideas.

“Music is a big part of our family,” he said. “Dad came very close to really making it with his songs. It’s up to me to carry the ball now.”

Thomas Geyer can be contacted at: tgeyer@qctimes.com.

CHECK OUT THE MUSIC

To hear a couple of Jason’s songs, go to www.qctimes.com, or these Web addresses:

Song 1: “(No Such Thing As) A Good Goodbye”

www.qctimes.com/audio/jason_gillaspie.mp3

Song 2: “Surrender”

www.qctimes.com/audio/jason_gillaspie_2.mp3