The Austin Songwriters Group Symposium Returns With Country Hitmakers

Nine years ago, Russell Sutton was working a job at Dell and writing songs on the side. The Austin native had grown up around the music industry, with his father playing guitar and tour managing for Rick Trevino. But for Sutton, music existed somewhere between a hobby and a dream.

Sutton had been a member of the Austin Songwriters Group (ASG) for a couple of years, writing and workshopping songs with fellow amateurs and the organization’s impressive roster of mentors and professionals. With the 2014 ASG Symposium approaching, Sutton quit his job to focus on his writing and the opportunity to pitch the industry publishers coming to Austin.

The AGS Symposium returns this week, January 11-15, at the Holiday Inn Austin Midtown in North Austin. Songwriters can register at austinsongwritersgroup.com.

“I wrote songs for six months, and then I went to the symposium. I figured that that would be a good chance to know either, ‘Is this a pipe dream or a dream?’” offers Sutton. “So I went and pitched my songs to these publishers, and they all kind of had the same feedback for me, which was, ‘We think you need to move to Nashville. We're not ready to give you a publishing deal, but we see something in you – if you decided to really pursue this full-time, you've got the tools to maybe do it.’ So I just took that and ran with it.”

This year, Sutton returns to the ASG Symposium as a speaker. After nearly a decade in Nashville, Sutton has a publishing deal with Sony, and his first #1 single under his belt with Elvie Shane’s 2021 hit “My Boy.” Russell wrote the song with Shane and fellow ASG alum Lee Starr, who followed his friend to Nashville and will also join this year’s symposium. Sutton’s latest success, Nate’s Smith’s “Whiskey on You,” has already topped the Canadian charts and is rising in the top ten of Billboard’s country charts.

The ASG Symposium kicks off its 19th year next week, after COVID-19 forced cancellation the past two years. Although the group was informally organized by Austin singer-songwriter Christine Albert in 1987, it wasn’t until Executive Director Lee Duffy and President Rick Busby created the symposium in 2004 that ASG really began to come into focus beyond local songwriting workshops. The annual gathering helped the organization become a bridge to the Nashville industry and opportunities for members to pitch their material to publishers.

"They're at all different levels," Duffy told the Chronicle of the group's membership in 2009. "There are people that do it for money, people that do it for therapy, and people that do it just 'cause they have to. The goal isn't to get everybody to the same level. There are realistically maybe 10 writers that could break through to another level. We just want them to have every opportunity and access to outlets for their songs."

That ethos largely remains true for the group’s annual symposium, even as attendance has grown over the years to also include a regular international contingent of songwriters. Along with song pitching and workshopping with professionals, the event focuses on valuable industry education for songwriters – from publicity and contracts to recording and licensing.

“If it wasn't for ASG and bringing those industry people to Austin for me to meet with, I'm not sure I would've ever made the move. Just showing up in Nashville and trying to get somebody to listen to you, when you don't have even the smallest connection, is just really, really hard,” attests Sutton. “Lee Duffy and all those guys there were just so good to me, and it was just good to have a community and a place to go play your songs and people that would listen.”