Today we’d like to introduce you to Dennis Welch.
Hi Dennis, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have always been a word guy. I could read and spell before I started elementary school and they wanted to start me in the third grade instead of the first. My mother declined that offer, and so the school principal, Ms. McRee came up with a life changing idea.
On the first day of the school year she came to my class when my reading circle was about to begin and she kindly walked me down to the school library. She told me that I could excuse myself every day and come down to the library and read ANY book for an hour until the reading circle was finished.
What a gift! I read most of the works of Mark Twain, and Charlotte’s Web and other great works before I got out of the sixth grade. I fell in love with words and books and prose and poetry.
I became a published songwriter and I have penned more than 500 songs through the years. My wife and I have owned a book publicity firm for 15 years and I get to work with terrific authors and thinkers.
The seeds of all this work started back at Janowski Elementary School in Houston and with one daring principal willing to think out of the box.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have determined that the only people who don’t struggle are people who are not trying difficult things.
Yes. There are always struggles of one kind or another.
There are roads that appear to be safer, but I believe safety is only an illusion.
I haven’t gotten a regular paycheck for many years and yet I wouldn’t be anywhere else. Why? Because I know I am where I am supposed to be. There’s great joy in that, even on the most difficult days.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am in the middle of a musical renaissance that began in my mid-sixties. After 18 years away from the recording studio, I began to work with long-time Little River Band guitarist, Rich Herring.
Our work together began with just one song and grew to an album in 2021 (What Love Makes Us Do), another one in 2023 (If I Live to Be a Hundred) and one last year (Strong).
All three of these albums made the first Grammy ballot in at least 4 categories.
We are currently working on the next album. It will release in summer of 2027.
I am also on tour around the country doing house concerts far and wide.
I’m 70.
It’s never too late.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Find your calling and do it.
That sounds easy as I write it it, but I know it’s not. We live in a world filled with distractions. Years ago I read that the average knowledge worker is interrupted every 11 minutes by some form of communication. It’s probably much worse now.
Kind of crazy, isn’t it?
But if we are ever to find what we are here for and figure out how to do some version of it every day, we have to get quiet and get to know ourselves. We have to be honest about what we love and what we only tolerate. And we have to take action on what we learns about ourselves.
Recently, I did a show in Houston to celebrate my birthday. It was sold out and we had a wonderful evening. Later that night on our drive back to the host home, my wife said this: “Sometimes when you are in your writing room and rehearsing for these shows, I peek in and it looks like you are serious and working very hard at it. But when you come out on stage and sit down in front of an audience, your countenance changes to joy.”
Exactly. Here’s why: I wouldn’t be anywhere else in that moment. I’m in the very center of where I am supposed to be and doing the work I was built to do. It doesn’t get better than that!
That absolutely can happen for you, too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://denniswelchmusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poo_welch/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100039129166414
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisrwelch/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmX3RPqUqZutpCIaWtF525w
