“If you decide to trust heart over cleverness, you not only get a song that moves you, you get a song that moves you toward being who you want to be.” – David Wilcox

Join us for a three-night retreat that will provoke creativity and inspire both professional and aspiring songwriters. Spanning a wide range of approaches depending on each person’s experience level, David will carefully push and help edit pieces of songwriting. For more advanced songwriters, David will take apart each element of writing to guide and push you in a positive direction. If songwriting is more of a means of self-expression or a diversion, David will take a more empathetic role in helping you to achieve what you want to get out of songwriting. Open to all different experience levels, this retreat is for anyone who is passionate about songwriting and wants to surround themselves with a group of like-minded, musical people.

Full Retreat Includes:

• Three nights of lodging
• 7 meals with non-alcoholic drinks (starts with dinner on Monday and includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday) *See Below For Full Details
• Gratuities for all meals
• Welcoming Session with David Wilcox
• Daily Songwriting Sessions with David Wilcox (details below)
• Evening Jams
• Intimate Concert with David Wilcox

Pricing for Full Retreat (before taxes and fees):

• Starting at $1,400/Single
• Starting at $2,200/Double ($950/Person)

Retreat Itinerary

Monday, October 23rd
4 PM: Check-In
5 PM: Welcome Session Meet and Greet, Followed by Dinner in the Broad Axe Barn
8:30 PM: Evening Jams

Tuesday, October 24th
Breakfast at Your Leisure
9:30 AM: Morning Sessions
12 PM: Lunch
2–4 PM: Afternoon Sessions Dinner at Your Leisure
8:30 PM: Evening Jams

Wednesday, October 25th
Breakfast at Your Leisure
8:30 AM: Hike with David
11 AM: Morning Session
12:30 PM: Lunch
2–4 PM: Afternoon Sessions Dinner at Your Leisure
8 PM: Concert

Thursday, October 26th
11 AM: Check-Out

To Book, Call our Reservation Team at (970)-726-7000

Songwriting Session Topics
Each session will be approximately 1.5 hours

• Song Doctor – Bring with you a work in progress. Something you’re stuck on. We will brainstorm the many different emotional directions that the song could go.
• Word Puzzles – Starting with a known melody, we clarify how to fit a lyrical phrase to the contour of a melody so that the inflection of the words naturally matches the melodic rise and fall. Playful exercises make practice fun.
• Find the Emotional Contrast – Use the form of a song to your best advantage by mapping out the contrasting ideas in verse, chorus, and bridge.
• Begin Where You Are – Any inspiration, whether melody, chord, or lyric, can be the seed that a song grows from. We will perform exercises that build from all three.

More About David Wilcox
By so many measures, David Wilcox is a quintessential folk singer, telling stories full of heart, humor, and hope, substance, searching, and style. His innate sense of adventure and authenticity is why critics and colleagues, alike, have always praised not just his artistry, but his humanity, as well. “I started to write songs because I wanted to find a way to make my life feel as good as I felt when I heard a great song. I don’t think I’d be alive now if it had not been for music.”

Over 30 years and more than 20 records — whether with a major label, an indie company, or his own imprint — Wilcox has continued to hone his craft, pairing thoughtful insights with his warm baritone, open tunings, and deft technique. He’s also kept up a brisk and thorough tour itinerary, performing 80 to 100 shows a year throughout the U.S., and regularly deploying his talents by improvising a “Musical Medicine” song for an audience member in need. In recent years he’s taken that process a step further, carefully writing and recording dozens of his “Custom Songs” for long-time fans who seek his help in commemorating and explaining the key milestones in their lives. Not only does the song cycle find him delving into mental health, family legacies, spiritual contemplations, and topical concerns, the song “We Make the Way By Walking” also won him the Grand Prize in the 2018 USA Songwriting Contest.

*Savor a variety of ranch-raised, pasture-to-plate options including Devil’s Thumb Ranch signature Wagyu beef, 100% pure, high mountain honey, fresh, local produce, and more. Alcohol is not included in the package.

Heck’s Tavern (inventive ranch fare with a bit of western flair)
Breakfast: 7:30am – 10:30am
Lunch: 11:00am – 2:30pm
Dinner: 5:00pm – 9:00pm
Bar Stays Open Till 10:00pm (alcohol not included in package)

Ranch House Restaurant (pasture-to-plate dining and award-winning wine list (alcohol not included in package)
Wednesday–Sunday: 5:00pm – 9:00pm

Hallowed Grounds Coffee Shop (grab-and-go breakfast, snacks, and coffee)
Daily: 7:00am – 2:00pm (Not included in package)

*Reservations are required. Specific meal inclusions: 2 – Breakfast, 2 – Lunch, and 3 – Dinners (includes a starter, entrée, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverages). Additional costs apply to Wagyu steaks over 3 ounces. Alcohol is not included in the package. Taxes and Gratuities are included in the package.