Dad's Songbook Music is owned and operated by Paul B. Svenson. Its primary purpose is to promote publication of country, folk and worship songs written by Paul and collaborators. At the present time, Dad's Songbook's catalog includes several songs which are actively being promoted to artists and other publishers in Nashville. We are affiliated with BMI.

You can take a look at our current catalog as well as a description of the songs and lyric sheets.

WHAT ELSE?

Dad's has an office and recording studio to take care of our publishing, demos, tape duplication, promotion, advertising, business etc. We use Macintosh computers running Allegro and Performer software to create press-ready leadsheets and MIDI accompaniment files.

Our digital recording studio is centered around the Roland VS880 integrated multitrack recording system. Our equipment and instruments serve a practical function, but the truth is that Paul is a vintage instrument and techo-junkie.

ABOUT THE NAME?

I learned to play guitar and lead group singing at the age of nine. At that time, my father was the director of UCLA extension. He felt very strongly that people should learn "social guitar playing" for the purpose of leading sing-along sessions at gatherings with family and friends.

He enlisted the expertise of renowned musicologist Bess Hawes to assemble the curriculum for the the course. By the end of the class, students has ammassed a notebook filled with wonderful songs - nothing fancy, just ditto sheets of typed and hand written lyrics and chords (we're talking 1960). Anyway, I learned many of those songs and have spent my life promoting social singing in a wide variety of settings.

The name of my company comes from that notebook (which was unfortunately stolen from me several years ago), and is in honor of my Dad who strummed and played those songs as I was growing up.