Your legend, in a ballad
A custom song, written from your true story. From $79.
You send the true story. You get an original song written about it, in whatever genre fits it: an outlaw ballad if that is the story, a love song if it is not. MP3 + WAV, a lyric sheet, and revisions, delivered in 5 to 14 days. Tiers from $79 to $797.
Tell me the story
An original ballad written from what you send. Four sizes, from a short verse-chorus to a slideshow video you can post.
$79to $797
See the four tiersSongwritersAlready wrote the words?
Send your finished lyrics. I write the melody, arrange it and produce it, with full rights assigned to you if you want them.
$127or $297
See both optionsThe PosseRide with the legends
Your name in the song, riding with any of 46 men and women who made the West worth singing about.
$297
Build my riderThe MusterWere you there?
A Civil War ballad that puts you on the roster at any of twenty-two battles, checked against the histories before a line is written.
$297
Muster inOrdering for an anniversary? Custom anniversary songs
Pricing
Pick the size of the story
The Whistle-Stop
$79
A short, sharp ballad about one true story.
- Roughly 2-3 minute ballad, verse-chorus
- MP3 + WAV files
- Lyric sheet PDF
- 1 revision round
- Delivered in 5 days
The Full Saddle
$147
The full story, told the way a ballad should tell it.
- 3-4 minute epic ballad
- Ultra-HD audio master
- Custom cover art
- 1 physical CD mailed to you
- 2 versions to choose from
- 2 revision rounds
- Delivered in 7 days
The Legend
$297
Everything, plus the right to use it commercially.
- 4–5 minute epic ballad
- Ultra-HD audio master
- Custom CD Cover artwork
- 5 physical CDs mailed to you
- 3 versions to choose from
- 2 revision rounds
- Commercial-use licensing with Mippia clearance
- Delivered in 10 days
The Picture Show
$797
Your ballad, made into a video you can post.
- Everything in The Legend
- Your song set to a custom slideshow video
- Your photos or period artwork, edited to the music
- Formatted for YouTube and social
- Delivered in 14 days
Custom anniversary songs
Most of the famous anniversary songs are wedding songs that got repurposed. I sorted ten of them on the anniversary songs page and only four are about a marriage that has lasted. None of them is about yours.
A custom one is. You send the year you met, the thing she still says, the road trip that went wrong, the house you almost did not buy, and it comes back as an original song about the two of you. Country if that is the two of you, folk, blues, gospel, rock or something cinematic if it is not. Anniversary is one of the twenty occasions on the order form. Pick it, and tell me the date it needs to arrive by, because most of these are gifts and the date is the whole point.
Before you order
We'll write about almost anything true, remembered, imagined or hard-lived. We won't write anything that attacks a group of people, targets a private person, sexualizes a minor, or helps somebody break the law. If a living person is named in your song, we'll ask you to confirm they know about it.
Songwriters: the words have to be yours. We can't set lyrics taken from an existing song, a poem, or a hymn still under copyright, and we can't put new words to somebody else's melody.
The Posse: we write you into history; we don't rewrite it. We won't depict you harming a real, named person, or glorify a specific real crime against a real victim. If an order crosses any of these lines we refuse it and refund you in full, same day.
Read the full content policyCommercial use requires The Legend tier. See licensing.
Before you order
Hear it from someone who did
A custom song is a strange thing to buy sight unseen. So don't. Watch somebody talk about theirs first.
Chuck and Cam Thollon "The Three Legged King"
See all customer stories →Already Wrote the Words?
If you've got finished lyrics and no way to record them, send them to me. I'll write the melody, build the arrangement around your words, and hand you back a finished, mastered song. No studio to book, no band to hire.
The Songwriter's Cut
$127
You wrote the words. I'll write the music.
- Original melody and full arrangement built around your lyrics
- Studio-produced and mastered
- MP3 + WAV files
- 1 revision round
- Delivered in 7 days
- For personal use, demos and pitching
The Songwriter's Release
$297
Ready to put out under your own name.
- Everything in the Songwriter's Cut
- Custom cover art
- 2 revision rounds
- Plagiarism clearance through Mippia
- Full rights assigned to you - release it as your own
- Delivered in 10 days
Your lyrics stay yours. On the Songwriter's Release, all rights are assigned to you - put it out under your own name, with your own artwork, on any platform. I may suggest small edits for meter; you always approve them.
Want to Ride With Them?
Every other song on this page is a gift for somebody else. This one is for you. Pick who you ride with (Jesse James, Doc Holliday, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, forty-odd more), describe your horse, your rig and the job, and I'll write you into the story. Your name, in the song.
The Posse
$297
Your name in the song, riding with the men and women who made the West worth singing about.
- 3 to 4 minute original western ballad, with you in it
- Ride with any of 46 legends, or name your own
- Ultra-HD master (MP3 + WAV)
- Custom cover art + lyric sheet PDF
- 2 revision rounds
- 1 CD mailed to you
- Delivered in 10 days
Build your rider first. You pay after. Ten minutes, and it's the fun part.
- Tombstone: Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, Doc Holliday, Johnny Ringo, Curly Bill Brocius, Ike Clanton, Texas Jack Vermillion, Turkey Creek Jack Johnson, Sherman McMasters, Big Nose Kate, Josephine Marcus
- Outlaws & road agents: Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Black Bart, Belle Starr, Pearl Hart, Etta Place
- Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Grant Johnson
- Scouts, showmen & Rangers: Buffalo Bill Cody, Bill Pickett, Jack Hays, Theodore Roosevelt
- Women of the West: Calamity Jane, Stagecoach Mary, Annie Oakley, Lucille Mulhall, Sarah Winnemucca, Julia Bulette, Doc Susie, Ena Palmer, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, Lozen
- Apache resistance: Geronimo
- Mexico & the border: Pancho Villa
- Pirates: Anne Bonny, Blackbeard, Black Sam Bellamy, Jean Lafitte
- Prohibition: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Nucky Johnson
- Revolutionary War: Paul Revere, George Washington
Not on the list? Name your own. Rick will confirm before he starts.
Were you there?
Thousands of people spend their weekends as Civil War soldiers: a unit, a rank, a kit assembled piece by piece, an impression worked on for years. This writes that man into a song. Union or Confederate. Your unit the way you say it, your long arm, the one thing you carry, and the battle you would want to be remembered at.
Twenty-two battles on the roster, from First Manassas to Appomattox, Wilson's Creek to the Missouri guerrilla war. Each one gets checked against the histories before a line is written. If what you told me does not square with the record, I write to you about it rather than quietly changing it. The sound is period, not country: fife and drum, fiddle, banjo, the parlor ballads they actually sang.
- Eastern Theater: First Manassas · Antietam · Fredericksburg · Chancellorsville · Gettysburg · The Wilderness · Spotsylvania · Cold Harbor · Petersburg · Appomattox
- Western Theater: Fort Donelson · Shiloh · Vicksburg · Chickamauga · Chattanooga · Franklin · Nashville
- Trans-Mississippi: Wilson's Creek · Pea Ridge · Glorieta Pass · Westport · The Missouri guerrilla war
Somewhere else? Tell me where, and I will tell you honestly whether I can write it.
Both sides are legitimate impressions. The song is the soldier's experience: the march, the waiting, the letters home, the field afterward. It is not a case for the cause, on either side, and there are things I will not write. Those are in the content policy.
The Process
Four steps, ten minutes of your time
- 01
Pick what you want
From $79 to $797. A story song, your own lyrics set to music, or yourself written into the record.
- 02
Tell the story
Ballad tiers get a 10-minute brief by email after checkout. The Posse and The Muster you build right here, before you pay a cent.
- 03
Check out securely
Stripe checkout. Card details never touch this site.
- 04
Get your files
MP3 + WAV and a lyric PDF by email, 5 to 14 days depending on the tier. Cover art from The Full Saddle up, and CDs on the tiers that include them.
The Story Brief
Seven questions
- 1Who is the song for?
- 2What is the occasion?
- 3The story: names, places, dates, the moment that matters.
- 4Tone: proud, funny, mournful, defiant?
- 5Phrases, nicknames, or inside jokes to include.
- 6Three reference songs you love the sound of.
- 7Your deadline.
Gift Occasions
What people commission
Most orders are gifts. Tell us the deadline in the brief and the calendar gets checked before work starts.
In the genre that fits the story
The catalog is western because that is what we have released. The custom work is not limited to it. The order form offers seven genre families, Country, Folk & Americana, Rock, Blues & Roots, Gospel & Spiritual, Cinematic & Score, and Novelty & Other, with 77 styles underneath them. Pick one, or tick the box that says choose for us.
The same goes for the occasion. The six above are the most common, and the form lists twenty, from engagement to military tribute. An anniversary song does not have to sound like a gunfight.
FAQ
Straight answers
How is AI used in my song?+
Honestly and openly. The writing is human: the story and lyrics are researched and written by Rick. The music is produced with AI tools under a commercial license, then edited by hand. On commercial tiers, every finished song is screened for similarity to existing recordings before delivery. Every release carries a DDEX-standard AI disclosure, and synthetic vocals never imitate an identifiable artist.
How many revisions do I get?+
One revision round on The Whistle-Stop, two on The Full Saddle and The Legend. A revision covers lyric fixes, tone shifts, name corrections, and mix notes.
What is the refund policy?+
We don't refund custom songs. We fix them. Every song is written to order for one person, so if it isn't right, tell us what's wrong and we keep working until it is. Revisions refine the song you briefed; a different story or direction is a new song. Full terms are on the Refund Policy page.
Can I use my song commercially?+
Commercial use requires The Legend tier ($297), which includes commercial licensing with Mippia plagiarism clearance. The other tiers are for personal use.
What files do I receive?+
MP3 and WAV on every tier, plus a lyric sheet PDF. The Full Saddle adds ultra-HD audio, custom cover art, and one physical CD; The Legend adds ultra-HD mastering and five CDs mailed to you.
Can you rush an order?+
Yes. Rush turnaround is available for +50% of the tier price. Ask before ordering so the calendar can be checked.
Is there anything you won't write about?+
Not much - but yes. We'll write violence, crime, whiskey, grief and just about every hard thing that's ever gone into a ballad. We won't write hate, we won't write anything sexual involving a minor, and we won't write a song aimed at a real person to hurt them. We also can't use lyrics you didn't write yourself. The full list is on our content policy page.
Can you write a song about my ex?+
Yes, if it's about what happened to you - the leaving, the fool you were, the year it took to get right. No, if it names them and goes after them. We've found the first one makes the better song every single time.
Can I use a verse from my favorite song?+
Unfortunately not. We can only set original lyrics you wrote yourself, and we can't put new words to an existing melody - both need permission from whoever owns the original. Tell us what that song means to you and we'll write you something of your own that gets at the same feeling.
Need music for a film instead?
Original cues composed to your footage with full sync rights, from $995.
Film scoring – from $995