songwriter workshops

Marouatte Castle is perhaps best known in recent times for its songwriter workshops which have launched careers and inspired writers and music publishers to copy it.  Artists like Carol King, Jon Bon Jovi, Keith Urban, Zucchero, Squeeze, The Go Gos, Bangles, Howard Jones, Jeff Beck, Peter Frampton – the list goes on – and on – an on. 

The first number one written there was with an unknown punk girl in LA, an unknown country artist from Nashville and a Belgian guy who played bass for a little known band in Belgium.  Aaron Tippen cut the song and it went to Number one in the Billboard Country charts in 1995.  “That’s as Close as I’ll Get to Loving You” written by Paul Jefferson, Sally Dworsky and Jan Layers.  Carol King, Mark Hudson and Greg Wells wrote “The Reason” which Celene Dion cut for her biggest album and then her best of selling 40 million albums combined.  Lets not forget Keith Urban with Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of the Go Gos, and the Miranda Lambert duet with Carrie Underwood.

Britney Speres cut “Man on the Moon” which actually mentions Marouatte in the Lyrics.   

It all ended with Covid…BUT it is now being resurrected by Nashville hit writer Chris DeSteffano on October 26 to November 3 in honor of Bret James who, along with Chris, came to the castle to write many times and died in a plane crash last year.  Together they wrote the Lambert/Underwood hit that reached number 1 on the Billboard Country charts.    

Hopefully the Marouatte Castle songwriter workshops will continue in 2027 and beyond.