Brief

Paige Plant, an ambitious singer/songwriter, spends a year making an album with the brilliant but deeply damaged producer John Bustin. They set to create a worldly multigenerational album, but the road to get there has unexpected twists and turns.

What We Liked

- Great music;
- A strong, confident, talented female lead;
- An inside view at the record industry;
- Sex sells;
- The source material is so rich that many more seasons or sequels can be made;
- An epic journey about a young woman finding what she is going to become through the
songs she writes, the people she sleeps with, and the journey she has recording those songs.

Synopsis

Paige Plant is a singer/songwriter. She heads deep into the woods, far from any kind of civilization, to meet with recluse album producer John Bustin, who asks Paige to come live at the house for a year and record an album. The producer had lost his family in an accident years prior; after that, John destroyed all of his work, which was mostly about his family. This inspires Paige to write her next song, “John Fell From Grace” - the name of his wife.

While Paige and John’s relationship starts platonic, a night of drinking after the passing of the studio’s pet leads to them sleeping together. The next morning, John says it was a one-time thing. Paige doesn’t like his stance on the matter but uses the frustration to write more music. They keep recording. She alsos lashes out by sleeping with strangers.

John brings into the studio Ian, a manager/marketing promoter. Instantly Paige feels a “tingle” for him. Over the next week and some days, they hit it off. Ian helps Paige write a song that is more “commercial” to help sell albums. They hook up and Paige is head over heels for Ian - only to discover he was actually hired by John to keep her focused, or at least sleeping with only one guy. Frustrated, Paige finds a letter in John’s room. It’s from Grace. His wife and kids are actually alive and living in Italy. Angry, she grabs a flight to her home in New Mexico. A talk with her dad, however, makes her realize that she needs to finish what she has started.

John comes clean about losing his family because he had gotten obsessed with work. Kindred spirits, John and Paige spend the following months working. Lots of walks, recording, cooking, swimming, and bonding. The album is nearly done and Paige couldn’t be happier with it. She starts playing gigs; fans start to gather. She is, however, attacked after a show - and ends up being shot. She survives, but the experience makes her write one more song for the album, the title track – “The Big Wide Calm”. Paige and John finish the song, knowing that they have completed what they had set out to do.

With the album complete and a year in the books, Paige is about to set out on her tour. She says goodbye to John and has to do one thing first - she gets on a plane and lands in Italy. She sets up in a coffee shop to play. The first song she plays is “John Fell From Grace”. When she says the title of her song, the waitress (mid 50s) perks up and stares at Paige.

About The Author

Rich Marcello is a poet, a songwriter and musician, a creative writing teacher at Seven Bridges' Writer Collaborative, and the author of three novels. Previously, he enjoyed a successful career as a technology executive, managing several multi-billion dollar businesses for Fortune 500 companies.