Barbe McMillen

Founding President 1986-92, Current President Emeritus, DALLAS SONGWRITER ASSOCIATION

Founding President of the Dallas Songwriters Association, Barbe is still an active member of the DSA Board of Directors. She has served on the executive board of the Texas Music Association and is an active member of the music community. She has directed five major conferences, the Dallas Songwriter's Association Seminar, DSS1-5, and New Dimensions Festival from 1990 - 95, plus numerous workshops, concerts, open mic events and other activities. Barbe has brought music industry professionals from all over the world to Dallas to provide educational & networking experiences for the DFW music industry. Under her direction, DSA grew from a handful of songwriters meeting within the Texas Music Association, to almost 300 members, when she left office as president. She molded DSA into an internationally known organization that many other groups aspired to imitate. While President, Barbe incorporated DSA into a 501 C3 educational organization with the help of local music attorney, Charles McGarry. She also advised many other founders of songwriter organizations across the country on starting their own regional groups.

Barbe remembers listening to her Dad's recordings and making up songs on the piano at the age of three. She sang in school & church choirs, studied voice and piano, and taught herself to play the guitar. She studied music, Psychology and drama at NTSU and graduated from TWU with a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Therapy. She has worked in clinical settings with the emotionally disturbed, mentally retarded, autistic, and learning disabled. After giving four years of service to county and state agencies as a Music Therapist helping emotionally disturbed teens relate to reality through structured music activities, and running a clinical training program for college students, she turned to entertaining as a full time profession.

Barbe entertained in piano bars, restaurants & theatres from Texas to Florida as a solo artist, and lead singer for several bands. She has played opening acts for such stars as Willie Nelson, David Allen Coe, Asleep at the Wheel, Rusty Weir, Albert Collins, Jerry Jeff Walker, Rex Allen Jr., Reba McEntire, and Red Stegal at major club venues and large outdoor festivals. Besides an extensive solo career, she has performed with such groups as Fertile Dirt, Will Barnes, Lickskillet, Killer & the Showcats, Back Alley, Bugs Henderson, Lynn Groom, Gary P. Nunn, Lil' Anthony, Texas Fantasy, Fantasy, and Rich & Famous.

Barbe has appeared on several local television programs, as well as, the national weekly show, Walker Texas Ranger. She has also produced and hosted her own shows, Texas Music Magazine & Songwriter Spotlight, which featured local talent and special guest celebrities including Rev. Horton Heat and Robert Earl Keen. For the Texas Bicentennial, she produced, Glory Fest, a live gospel music broadcast from the Band Shell at the State Fair of Texas. Contemporary Christian artist and label executive, Chris Christian, hosted the program. Most recently, she produced interviews with Gloria Estephan, Tito Puente Jr. and many other music celebrities at press events and trade shows for Zideo.com.

As a recording artist, she has recorded five albums that have been released by WHIT Records. All were co-produced by Don Ashley; and two were co-produced by Grammy-award winner, Richard Theisen. She has also recorded with other solo artists, bands and for various other commercial projects as lead or background vocalist.

Her composer credits range from album cuts, to television and films credits, which include co-writing the theme music for a syndicated national television program, Billy Bob's Country Countdown, and winning a Mercom Gold Award and a US Film & Video Silver Screen Award for original music & lyrics on other projects.

Besides co-producing her own releases, she has also produced, two albums for Remarkable Records, Songs To Grow By, and When I Was A Dinosaur which features the Dixie Chicks on one number. She has also recently co-produced The Passage with Richard Theisen for Whit Records.

In the early 1990's, Barbe managed Gregg Smith, a blues artist. She was instrumental in negotiating the foreign licensing deal that landed Mr. Smith a current international release, "Party Warrior" on Prestige Records, London. Two of Smith's cuts are also on a current release, "Raw Blues", in the company of Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Etta James & other great blues artists.

Barbe has been editor of Songwriter Notes, and currently remains a columnist for the publication. She has written articles that have been published in Buddy Magazine, Dallas Morning News, Midem Daily, and Texas Music Magazine. Last year she was the creator and editor for the corporate e-zine, Piranha Bytes. Currently she is the editor of Texas Music Magazine which is both hard copy and on-line.

Over the years, Barbe has developed her marketing skills by attending all the important music conferences. As a music consultant, her international client list combines individuals and corporate executives, and includes MIDEM (selling the show at music conferences in the U.S. for over 10 years), Button Eventures (organizing a Texas showcase at MIDEM '93), Colin Raye, (budgeting a showcase at Midem), Liquid Audio (organizing press and public relations events at international conferences), Zideo (print and public relations marketing and advertising), Piranha (branding, marketing strategies, online marketing and event planning), Gardiere & Wynne (consulting on a case involving the Reba McIntire plane crash), JC Penney (performance rights licensing), and many others.

Besides various other free-lance activities such as modeling, film extra, session work, she has also worked as music police for BMI.

Hobbies: Travel, reading, antique & souvenir collecting, crafts, nature hiking, cooking

List of Important Works:	Publisher	Artist/ Medium	Label
Job of My Dreams	Sleeping Giant Publishing	Barbe	Whit Rec ords
Can You Hear Me	Sleeping Giant Publishing	Barbe	Whit Rec ords
Flame	Sleeping Giant Publishing	Barbe	Whit Rec ords
Roll it Over	Sleeping Giant Publishing	Barbe	Whit Rec ords
Gypsy Memories	Sleeping Giant Publishing	Barbe	Whit Rec ords
Whenever I'm With You	Sleeping Giant Publishing	Barbe	Whit Rec ords
Caribbean Love Song	Sleeping Giant Publishing	Barbe	Whit Rec ords
Person to Person	Sleeping Giant Publishing	British dance artist Dannie	Prestige Records
I Never Said	Big Wedge Music	.	.
Are You Ready	Show Cat Music	Title song for award winning film	.
To The Rescue	Show Cat Music	Gregg Smith	Ultrax
Billy Bobs Country Countdown	Show Cat Music	Theme song for national television series International Point of Sale Commercial for Fernand Aubrey	.
Livin' The Life	Livin' The Life/ Flying Red Horse Publishing	.	from the musical, When I Was A Dinosaur Remarkable Records
I Was A Dinosaur	Livin' The Life/ Flying Red Horse Publishing	.	from the musical, When I Was A Dinosaur Remarkable Records
That's What I Like About You	Livin' The Life/ Flying Red Horse Publishing	.	from the musical, When I Was A Dinosaur Remarkable Records

All Materials presented here are copyrighted and may not be duplicated in any form or media without express written permission of Barbe McMillen.

	E-Mail: barbe@texasmusicgroup.com
	http://www.texasmusicgroup.com