Prompt Queens

Tale as old as time, am I right? My boyfriend left me for the circus. Tune in for this episode's romp beneath the Big Top and find out what happens when two scrappy songwriter take on the challenge of love vs. circus. 

Hello Prompt people! Yes, we WILL bring you a higher love and we will bring it to you today with our prompt, Steve Winwood. We are always glad to be back on the pod talking songs and life and what not. THis one features special surprise co-write guest, Hope's son, Sam Dunbar. 

Lawn games and cold beer a plenty in this episode. Let the summer begin! Our prompt was "Cornhole."

We're back and loving every minute of it- including making this new episode just for you beautiful people. The prompt was "arrangement."

OK so I forgot to load this episode cuz I got distracted. YOu wanna have way to get alert? Open Flame.  So here we are writing songs to the theme "Torch Songs." 

Our prompt was "magic words," and then we were off to the races. Join Hope and Emily for another episode of Prompts and songwriting as we all navigate the waters of creativity together. 

Wherefore art thou, e.e. cummings? It's poetry and stuff and yes, you can blame Hope for this prompt. In Hope's defense, she was pressed for time.  We wrote songs using the prompt, e.e. cummings and personally? I think we did a great job. 

With this episode we decided to write songs to the prompt, "Class you would only audit." Did you ever audit a class in college? Neither did I. But it seemed like a cool thing cool people did who just loved learning. Well, we're making up for lost time and talking about the idea of auditing classes MORE than actually auditing classes.  Can you tell there are no lyrics here? That's because we're a p...

It's us again. We're here. Emily and Hope Dunbar at your service serving up hot takes on new songs and also other stuff too. The prompt this week? "Strawberry." Enjoy. P.S. We think Thad did better this go around. 

This is Hope and Emily coming at you from the jingle jangle advertising agency of your dreams.  It's the Jingles episode. Join us this time where we pick two products each and write jingles for the accounts. We're in the advertising executive suite doing our best to up our sales and land the contract.  

THe prompt? A tried and true pop staple of a non-verbal song tool, of course.  Come a, come a, come a. This is my interpretation of how to represent this thing in print and I did not look up any helps or guides.  Shimmy shimmy don't worry about it. Listen in on this episode and how something so free from definition can really free up one's creativity. 

You oughta know. You oughta know that we'd like a chance to respond, please. And make it rhyme and put it out there to share with all of you.  It's a response song. Listen to the source text and then respond. WE chose to respond to none other than Alanis Morissette's hit single, "You Oughta Know" from her massively successful album, "Jagged Little Pill." COunt on us to always have one toe in the 9...

We are in this to win this AND go in and review what we did with the winning the first time in order to see what could be improved, up-leveled, cleaned up, what have you, for next time.  IT's the Season 4 Edit episode. We went back to Season 3 work and each picked something we thought would be worth the second look and that's what we did. Enjoy. Don't think of editing as a judgment on your first d...

Well I guess we're gonna call this episode 1 of SEASON 4! And I'm going to apologize that I seriously thought I had this all cued up but I didn't so it's a little late to the party,  but aren't we all? 

It's our Christmas episode that drops on Christmas Day 2025! We thought up something holiday and, it turns out, we were both thinking Christmas as our selected holiday.  Thank you to all our faithful, funny, friendly listenership. We are so glad we got to share the songs and the songwriting with you in 2025. See you in 2026!

And we're back and it's time for another Prompt Queens episode which means it's time for a new song and a new prompt. Today's prompt is "Hello/Goodbye." 2025 is winding down, we've made it smack into the final stretch and isn't that the time we start reflecting on farewells and greetings AND how Hope didn't get hired as a seasonal employee at Target? All those things. And so much more on this epis...

Happy Thanksgiving!! It's a Thanksgiving miracle cuz this year you got two turkeys writing songs and sharing them on this podcast. Our prompt was MADONNA and we had a time getting into the groove.  Listen in!

Hello again! Just a quick reminder that we'll be posting every other week for now just so we don't get behind on posts. We love you and thank you for listening.  If you've been listening, you might already know that Hope and Emily love Colorado, have had lots of good times there and so, to honor our admiration, we wrote a couple of songs.  COLORADO. I need healing. And a new song prompt. 

Hello Prompt Peeps! We're back. Thank you for your patience while we drove about and didn't write some songs because we got busy, but not we're back and we missed you and today's episode is "Colored Pencils." That's right. The school supply that, to parents everywhere, garners the response, "Really? Again? Do you guys even use these besides that one geography assignment where you have to color in...

The prompt today is "THe NFL" because you know us. We love sportsball.  And this is our way to write the thing. The prompt's not the thing, the song's the thing. And we wrote two songs this week.  What. Will. The. Dunbars. Do? Gotta listen to find out....  

This prompt came from the previous episode when Emily said something about "good time Charlies" so there ya.  And here we are. It's fall, it's already the back half of September and wow, the songs keep coming.  Give this one listen, keep up the writing, thanks for listening, we love you all.  There's some crackling audio to this one and I have no idea why, THAD!!!

Because we recorded this episode on the last day of August, we are feeling the pull for a change in the weather AND a change in the prompt.  So this episode is brought to you by, AUTUMN/FALL. That's right. If you look in the back catalog you may find a previous episode with a "fall" prompt but, fear not, this is a new day and these are new songs. We're different people now. And so are you. Write t...

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys OR podcasters who just barely know what they're doing.  This is the repost of the previous episode that was experiencing technical difficulties.  Willie Nelson is a dang American Treasure with a catalog of hits never to be forgotten. And then us two PLay Arounds thought we'd try our hand at being the road doggin' outlaw like he is in this one. 

Like the beach. Muscle Beach, but on a podcast, but not sweaty, but not in California, and not actual muscles.  The prompt? Muscle. Cuz why?  Cuz. Why. Not.  Give a listen, feel inspired knowing if these two yahoos can crank out some songs, anybody can. 

Plath, Lorca, Whitman, OH MY! And now..the Dunbar sisters. Yes, indeed, 'tis POEM week and this is the poem prompt for the poem episode.  We're back from summer break and diving into the deep end with this week's Prompt: Poem.  Who didn't love the poetry portion of your beloved Literature classes? Who among us doesn't long for those days of iambic pentameter, sonnets and haikus?  Well, we didn't d...