Muse/Parsons Songwriters: “Time Sharing Plan” – a classic aesthetic
Muse/Parsons Songwriters is a collaboration between Donald Muse, lyricist, and Jamie Parsons, composer. Muse and Parsons are both from Roanoke, Virginia and have been writing together since 2000. They have won awards in The Billboard World Songwriting Contest as well as The UK Songwriting Contest. Their latest collaboration has forged a Country flavored song about a secretary with a serious crush on her boss. And as can be expected, the track narrates the joys and woes of such a “Time Sharing Plan”, which is also the clever song title. Amazing songwriting. Muse/Parsons Songwriters have never sounded better.
I don’t know which to rave about more: the female singer’s authentic voice, the homegrown words, or the no-nonsense music. It all comes together in pure roots Americana artistry. Nothing on this track sounds like anything on top 40 country radio right now – and that’s a beautiful thing.
All wrapped up in an acoustic driven soundscape, organic instrumentation, and sweet harmonies, the track pushes along a bittersweet melody that will worm its way into your ear and stay there for quite a while. It pretty much takes us through every emotion experienced by ‘the other woman’, in this relationship situation.
“Time Sharing Plan” is a story we have all heard about on countless occasions, or may even have experienced first-hand in our lifetime, yet Muse/Parsons Songwriters keep us glued to their storyline until the end. This is a great reflection on the project as a whole.
It works, regardless of the well-known 3-way relationship tropes. Muse and Parsons make it sound like the first time you’ve ever heard this story. I think maybe it’s how thoughtfully they treat the female lover’s perspective in the song that makes it so alluring. Not many could pull this off. Muse/Parsons Songwriters do, because they have the talent and the insight to deliver the goods.
Packaged and presented to consumers as the commodity it now is, modern country music has lost much of the soul and honesty it once possessed, but Muse/Parsons Songwriters give us a taste of that classic aesthetic again with “Time Sharing Plan”. And they also prove that you don’t need a banjo and a fiddle to achieve it either, because the soul of the music is in the songwriting.
Muse and Parsons create relatable, emotionally resonant songs at once specific and universally thematically relevant. Being able to see something of yourself or in the people that surround you, within a given song, helps ensure the track’s longevity and the transcendence of passing fads. Muse/Parsons Songwriters have nailed it here!
