WEBVTT - Nashville Revolution: Bobby Braddock, Don Schlitz, and Don Henry 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:13.760 Pushkin. Just a quick note here. You can listen to 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.759 all of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist, 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:18.840 which you can find a link to in the show 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.599 notes for licensing reasons, each time a song is referenced 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:27.880 in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect. All right, 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:33.280 enjoyed episode. In the nineteen seventies and eighties, there was 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.599 a revolution in Nashville that was every bit as important 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.880 to country music as the Beatles were to rock and roll. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.519 A new generation of songwriters came along who didn't just 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.160 want to write about cowboys and pickup trucks. They wanted 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:51.599 to write about emotion and conflict and to bear their souls. 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.880 My name is Bobby Braddock and I'm bald, and I 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:01.480 write songs and borderline mentally ill. I'm Don Henry and 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.800 I've been very spoiled being able to enjoy what I 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.880 love doing for the longest time, and I still continue 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.280 to do it to this day. I'm Don Schlitz and 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.959 I'm with no particular talent at all. I was twenty 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.520 years old and eighty dollars and got off a bus 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.840 and I was in Nashville. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:24.120 You're listening to Broken Record. For this episode, I went 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.080 to Nashville and sat down with three of the leaders 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.880 of that revolution. Don Schlitz, who has written some of 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:35.360 the greatest country music songs ever, Don Henry, the junior 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:40.080 member of the Revolution, and the great Bobby Braddock, elder Statesman. 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.959 Those of you who listened to my other podcast, Revisionist History, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.600 know that I can't set foot in Nashville without checking 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.520 in with Bobby Braddock. It would be like going to 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.960 Iceland and not saying Hi to New York. We all 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:58.160 met at Sony Tree Studios on Music Row. We talked 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.040 for hours and could have talked for a lot longer. 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:03.960 In fact, we could devote an entire season of Broken 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:08.600 Record just to those crucial Nashville years. So consider this 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.880 a start chapter one in the oral history of the 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.680 New Nashville. I made sure there was a piano for Bobby, 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.360 and the two dons brought their guitars. I told them 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.079 all they had to sing for their supper. Don Schlitz 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:29.200 kick things off, and it only took two years to 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:34.960 get cut. Why because it was it was too long, 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:43.919 It's too linear melodically, there's no romantic situation. It took 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.600 too long to go to the course. I don't know. 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.359 I liked it. A lot of people liked it, and 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.600 it finally nobody would cut it. And my publisher put 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:57.880 out the demo and send it to radio, and they 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.920 started playing a couple a friend of mine and and 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.080 Hume Moffit cut it and put it out, and Conway 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.840 Twitty's son put it out Charlie Tango, and suddenly there 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.639 were three cuts of it on the on the charts, 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.080 and then it was gone. I was still working as 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.120 a computer operator. Oh you just you was still in 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.239 Oh yeah, yeah, sure, oh yeah, you know, you know, 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:23.960 writers got writers got to eat. But why I think 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.000 is great about that song? It's full of life lessons 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.079 like I don't play poker, but I don't think then 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:34.160 I played a lot of poker, and I would always 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.800 think about the lines in that song. Okay, no wonderful, 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.520 you know, And I use that and and that's like 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.680 a metaphor for the real life lessons that matter more 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:45.840 than poker. And it's it's full of those. And you 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.040 can just you could write that down and carry it 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:49.120 when you and get it out and look at it 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.320 when you're in an a tight situation. You know, does 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.960 that does that song change? Does the success of that 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.000 song change what people consider to be acceptable in a 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:03.640 country song? I think it, I know, and with all humility, 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:08.320 what it changed for me. For eventually Kenny Rogers cuts 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.920 it and with that great voice, they make it up tempo, 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:15.600 they move the chorus up. And that made it so 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.599 I could write whatever I wanted to write the rest 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.520 of my life. And I one thing I did not 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:23.559 want to write was that song over and over again. 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.360 So I got to write different songs. I got to 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:31.320 emulate my pals who were also my heroes, though you 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:35.560 know you wouldn't tell them that. And you write what 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.520 you want to write, and you learn that you can 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:45.320 amazingly enough. You have good taste. There's an an interesting 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:52.400 thing that happened with Braddock and Harlan and Manny Bob 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:57.440 McDill in this town that you can see a difference 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.280 between Nashville songs or the songs that were written on 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:08.320 music Row that stopped being corny, stop being that you'd 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.000 sit on a haybell and sing, or on a barstool 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:15.560 and have to sing, But you could sit by yourself 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.960 quietly in a room and go like that song is 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.400 about me. That song is about real issues that I have. 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.760 It is not uh and and we While we have 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:34.120 heroes from that era like Randy Newman, Bob McDill, Bob McDill, sorry, 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:39.159 Bob Dylan and as you know, Gordon Light for those 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:45.560 and great writers Joni Mitchell, I know you were, Paul Simon, Yeah, 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:47.880 Paul McCartney and John Lennon and the Keith Richards and 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:52.840 Emma Chair who we're writing songs that we love. There's 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.880 an awful lot of and Holland does your Holland do 0:05:56.000 --> 0:06:01.000 not leave out notice writing a motown and stack that 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.960 were feeling feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, and we're 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:10.480 writing a story. I think Christofferson had an awful lot 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:12.800 to do in popularizing that. I think Braddick had a 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.080 lot of doing popularized that there is a sequence of 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.800 events that happens. And as opposed to telling you I 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.320 feel this way, I feel this way, we're saying this 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.560 is what happened, period. And I think feelings go beyond words. 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.400 That's why some of my me it's hard to differentiate 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.440 between maybe if I say my favorite song, it might 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.839 be one of my favorite records like I put Gold 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.000 Restou on that Mountain on my list because just what 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.880 happened in that studio and Ricky Skaggs and Petty Lovelace 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.480 was singing with Vins on that thing. I still get 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.200 tears in my eyes and chilled much when I hear 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.800 the thing, And you know, it's a great story, but 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.720 they could be singing it in Greek, you know, and 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.520 I still love it. Well. You know. We also had 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.360 the advantage, at least Don and I did it of 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.000 tuning in the country radio and having people like like 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:08.120 Christofferson or Tom T. Hall who were writing stories and 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.960 a lot of times you had to sit in that 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:12.600 chair and listen all the way to the end to 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:16.280 get the payoff. So you had people that is unlike 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.120 today where you want to payoff in ten seconds. Uh. 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.400 People were willing to listen a little longer for something. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:28.400 There's there's there's a collective ADHD now where people don't 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:33.400 want to I mean A and R people that they'll 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.800 if it takes too long, like I song he started 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.720 levering her today, whichever curly putman, nobody would possibly cut 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:42.440 that now because it takes too long to get to 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.440 the payoff. They even they're even wanting now the second 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.600 verse to be just a little tiny verse, you know, 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.120 whereas the second verse for us was, you know, we 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:52.840 were told if we had a great first verse, that 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.400 might be your second verse. Yes, it has to be, 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.960 because you want something to build up to mean, what's 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.280 what's a what's a A great example, another great example 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:08.360 of a a song with a delayed payoff. Well, that 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:13.360 that was one for sure. Is long? Is long? Is longok? Vail? Well, 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.640 you you find out pretty quick that it's his best friends. 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.680 He was in the arms of his best friend's wife 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.400 kind of by the second and yeah, so you know 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.840 he can't he's got a decision to make. And well, 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:28.720 and then you know that if she wants do you 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:30.840 guys know that song well enough to play it? John 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.160 probably can you. The most powerful part of that, I 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.439 think is when you say she walks these hills in 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.920 her long black veil. Danny Dill and Mary John welcome 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:44.000 Danny deal. I think was primarily the lyricist on that 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:46.840 I heard they now is this true or not? They 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:48.760 wrote it on the way of the session. Is that true? 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.080 I don't know if that's true or not. But but uh. 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.000 I had a song called Golden Ring. We were talking 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:00.959 about where we should sue Conway when you had I 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.280 Love to Lay You Down, and I said, and I 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.480 told my publisher, I said, but they do that. Then 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.440 Danny Dill and Mary John Welcome may sue me for 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.200 stealing the melody from Long Black Veil. And I told 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.760 that story to Mary John Wilcom. She said, we came 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:19.760 pretty damn close to doing. Really, my goodness, that's strange. Well, 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.120 I like this theme that we're on well, of these 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.960 kind of story that are because a lot of you 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.040 guys are seemed to be have worked in that well. 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.520 I was a huge and still I am a huge 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.640 Randy Newman fan. And the thing that struck me about 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.440 Bobby before I even really got to know him, was 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.959 that he was basically the country music version of that. 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.960 And I think the thing that really woke me up 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.760 to that was, Unfortunately, when I heard he Stopped Loving 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.600 Her Today. I knew the title of it before I 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.319 heard the song. I wish I'd heard it without knowing 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.000 what the name of the song was, because the first 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.839 line is he said I love you till I die, 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.800 and I I just started laughing. So hard. I took 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.320 the record off, I went because the title is he 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.280 Stopped Loving Her Today, and the first line is he 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.200 said I love you till I die. And I went, oh, 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:17.960 he's dead. This guy's dead man instantly, and I just 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.080 started and I think, what I loved about Bobby and 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.599 what I loved about the Lubin Brothers and Tom T 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.959 Holmes so much stuff. Is that a threat of irony 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.400 that you wouldn't call it laugh out loud humor, but 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.079 it's it's just so ironic, And to me, that's what 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.800 Randy Newman taps into constantly. And so when I heard 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:39.920 that song, and you know, every verse of he Stopped 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.720 Loving Her Today ends with a joke. I mean, you know, 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.840 you know we all went to see her, she we 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.120 all wondered if she would It kept running through my 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.240 mind those time he's over her for good. And then 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.480 the thing about the smile, first time we'd seen him 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.839 smile in years, Well, that's a joke. It is. Those 0:10:59.880 --> 0:11:02.440 are joke, and almost every one of them ends with that. 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.120 But by the time you get that joke, it doesn't 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.760 make you laugh. It makes you just get this biggest 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.480 lump in your throat and you realize what a comedy 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:15.640 tragedy life is. See. I always love the juxtaposition between 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.400 something that me too, and I have written songs that 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:21.640 I thought were funny songs and people took them very 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.960 seriously and vice versa. Absolutely, it's happened to me over 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.600 and over for year. I love writing a song that 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:33.520 it's it's really very serious, but it's kind of taboo 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.319 subject matter, so people laugh nervously over that. And that's 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:38.880 what happened to me when I heard he stopped Loving 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.280 Her today, and I use it today to this day. 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.520 I get to tour and teach on some of these 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.600 shows that I do, and I put that song up 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.040 right away because I show people what you can do 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.280 in such a short amount of time, how you can 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.400 tell a huge story. And it uses all the little 0:11:54.440 --> 0:12:00.319 technical things about about that little running joke, even theduction 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.480 of it, which is brilliant. Billy Cheryl, I think to me, 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.000 I hold it up there with a song like we 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:08.959 talked about earlier, like sale Away, which you can almost 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.720 use and show students or anybody who's interested how you 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:17.160 can unfold a story. We'll be back with more of 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:21.800 my conversation with Bobby Braddock Don Schlitz and Don Henry. 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:31.240 We're back with Bobby and the Two Dons. Don Henry, 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.720 a self described hippie from California, wrote a hit record 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.920 from Miranda Lambert with songwriter Philip Coleman, who's from West Tennessee. 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.719 The song All Kinds of Kinds is an ode to diversity. 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.800 I asked Don to play it for us. You know, 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.080 we knew when we wrote that we had to kind 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:53.360 of as oddballs go. We were odder than the people 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.520 we were picking out the front, so we had to 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.600 put ourselves in there at the end to show you that. 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.360 It's that you know that we were there too. Otherwise 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.600 it's just a you're getting on a soapbox and you're 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.600 pointing fingers, and you really got to pay attention at 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.600 point and the finger at yourself to make that kind 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.520 of stuff work, at least from my experience, and that 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.440 that's how it finally came together at the end for us. 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.560 I love what she did. She she twisted it around 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.080 a little bit. One of the things she said on 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:24.079 that tag was and sent to some point of fingers. 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.680 She says at some point the finger. Yeah, that's why 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:28.720 she says it, which I think is great because she 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.199 kind of owns that song. It sounds like she wrote it, 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.360 and I like that. She's she's impish, perfect song for her, 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.199 She's perfect. It sounds and that's what she told frank Lydell, 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.120 who produced that record. She said, it just sounds like 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.079 something I would write. And that made me feel good 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:44.520 because she's a really good writer. Yeah. Yeah, were you 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.440 thinking about her when you well, you know, we were, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:48.679 in fact when we wrote that. It was it was 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.120 probably probably ten years before she moved to town. She 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:54.880 was probably fifteen years old. Do you guys, do you 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.880 when you're when you're writing songs and if you're not 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.960 writing with the artist, but you're writing a song, do 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.640 you have in your head anybody singing it other than yourself? No? 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:07.000 I don't. I mean, I just want to sing it 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.160 at the Bluebird Er. If I'm trying to emulate one 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.360 of my heroes, like a Jonie or something, I'll say, Okay, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.480 what would Jonie do? And I'll try to bring that out. 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.240 But it's not like I'm writing to pitch that you 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:21.240 have Mitchell in your head. I love Joni Mitchell. When 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:23.760 I'm looking to write a song and I can't really 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:25.800 get into the groove. I'll get up early in the 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.560 morning and get things going and put on Joni Mitchell, wow, 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:34.240 Ry Newman, Paul Simon, sometimes people like Van Morrison. I 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:35.960 really liked that because I just like the way he 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.120 writes words. The great music can pump you up and 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.040 make it. If you could only listen to one Joni 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:44.680 Mitchell song in the morning to get you going, what 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.120 would it be well for writing and for working on 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.160 that It's it's a tough one, but but for me 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.360 it's it was on my list, and it's both sides. 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.160 Now it's clouds because I remember distinctly as a youngster 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.240 hearing that song and going, oh see what she did there? 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.080 You know, that kind of a thing, And that's that 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.080 same anchor of a chorus that has a little bit 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.080 of a twist each time it comes back around, and 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.640 I think, well, that keeps the lessener from being bored, 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.320 doesn't it. And yet it's just filled with life lessons 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.880 written by such a young person at the time, and 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.680 I think by hearing something like that at an early age, 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.200 it helped make me wiser quicker, you know, as much 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.160 as I loved bubblegum pop, to hear Joni Mitchell sing that, 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:26.960 it was like, oh, this is what you can do 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.360 with It's pretty cool changes, it's pretty amazing. Yeah. But 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.320 the one Man Man by the Quick Lunch Down, he's 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.320 playing real good for free. I mean, what a great 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:43.400 country song that is. Can you guys do a little 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:49.720 bit of that altogether? Is that possible? I don't know 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.440 enough of it. Clouds from both sides now, from up 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.480 band down, and then give or take and win or lose. 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:06.040 It's cloud clouds illusions. I recall, I really don't know 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:10.280 clouds at all. It's funny because she originally did it 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:15.200 in that day. Yeahbody knows. Well. What I like about 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.920 that thing is is it's kind of it's it's very 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.440 textbooking and it's very technical, but when it's when it's 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:24.960 going down, it's seamless, and it doesn't feel that way 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.080 When you were talking about how to hear that from 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:32.760 someone so young, it's a totally better song written sung 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.560 by someone who's obviously really young, right, because it's no 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:37.920 longer that it's not the cliche of the older person 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.360 looking back. It's this weird, fascinating thing of this super 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.240 young person saying you're not going to believe this amazement. 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.880 But I have looked at life from both sides now 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:52.240 right by constantly, you know, looking at his I mean 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:53.720 it was the first time I heard the Girl from 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:55.960 the North Country. My dad used to sing that one 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:57.920 all the time to me, and I didn't even know 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.000 who Bob Dylan was when he my dad would sing it. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.680 And then he had that Free Willing album, and I 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.760 remember thinking that this was completely different than anything I'd 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.359 heard because this guy was really young writing about such 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.919 wise stuff. It was really cool. We'll be back with 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:22.920 more broken record after this. I'm back with Bobby Braddock, 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:28.760 John Henry and Don Schlitz. Drawing back to you can 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:33.479 you give us? Now? I'm interested in a song that 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.040 really not one of your own, a song that really 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.440 kind of changed the way, transformed the way you thought 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.080 about songwriting, that opened a door for you. Fairly easy 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:50.520 to explain. My first company I went to in Nashville 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.800 when I was twenty was Pete Drake Music because Pete 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:55.840 Drake had played on John Wesley Harding and there was 0:17:55.880 --> 0:18:00.280 a young man named Buzz Raven was listening to song zero, 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.760 but I played, you know, I walked in that hair 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:08.280 down halfway down my back, and I was twenty years 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.199 old and didn't look like a person that would be 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:15.359 in wanting to be a country singer. And so I 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.080 went up and played a few songs for him at 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:19.440 the publishing company and he said, well, I don't really 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:24.520 know what we're doing here yet, what I'm doing here yet, 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:26.280 but let me make a phone call for you. You You 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.640 gave me a number person to go see. He says, 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:30.680 you go see him in a couple of days, he'll 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.439 be expecting you. So I go over this company, this 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:38.160 building walking. I didn't have a car in this hot 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.359 day in April, you know, heavy guitar case. And I 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.399 walk in and back then you could walk in, and 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:48.679 I said, I'm supted to see somebody. My name is 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.200 and somebody yells back, oh, I know what this is about. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:56.359 He comes out, and this guy with curly hair and 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.480 wireroom glasses comes out and says, coming back and play 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.639 some songs. So I went back and I pulled my 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.680 guitar out and I've played a couple of songs and 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:06.880 he says, we'll play me another. And I'm pretty sure 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.600 that I'm this guy's big break. You know that I 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.960 am it for him? And I'm going through and I 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.840 play about eight or nine songs, and I'm thinking I'm 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.440 being discovered. This is absolutely amazing and wonderful. I'm twenty 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.280 years old and this is how great for this guy. 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:25.120 He's like ten years older than me. And he says, 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.720 let me show you what I do. And he's coming 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.000 in here. It takes me into the little record room 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.040 and says, well, it's just a single, and I knew 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:35.720 that didn't mean it was very much because it wasn't 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:38.040 on an album and it's a small label. It's a 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.080 friend of mine. It's the B side, And he puts 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:45.879 on this song in the and it starts to play, 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:51.159 and live held it all in me. Lord knows, I've tried. 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:57.320 It's an awful awake now you boys. The song was Amanda. 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:00.480 I wish I could, but I can't do it justice 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.000 because the singer was Don Williams, and it was on 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:10.879 JMI Records. It was its twelve lines, uh, and it 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.200 was a song called a Man. And that he didn't 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.119 tell me that he'd written it by himself, or that 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.320 he'd also written the A side, which was Come Early Morning, 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.159 which was the number one song in America at the time. Uh, 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.159 And I'm sitting there listening, going like, oh, you know, 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:26.680 I've got a long way to go. And I think 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.159 that what had changed for me was realizing that I 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.680 didn't know a whole lot and talk about Bob McDill 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:37.720 was the man, and he became my mentor and basically 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:39.160 the only person that would see me for a few 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:41.320 years when I was first here, and the only person 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.439 I would go in and take songs to. And Gorcy 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:46.959 passed on the Gambler, which was, you know, so he 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.440 everybody makes mistakes, but he went on to write a 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.959 large portion of the Don Williams songs that that that 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:02.040 helped change this town. And I wrote, good old Boys 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:04.680 like good old Boys like Me. It is his masterpiece. 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.840 Give us, give us a taste of it. Hey, we 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:12.600 were we were lucky, at least I was. I had 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:14.879 just come to town at seventy nine, so all this 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:18.199 stuff was happening. The Gambler had just been a huge hit, 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:21.680 and then a year later he stopped loving her. Today 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.600 was of course good old Boys like Me and stuff 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:26.600 like that. So that was the bar that I had 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:28.600 to come in, and I thought, well, that's an impossible 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.959 bar to reach. But It was glorious and it was 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.520 fun to try, but it was a wonderful club to join. 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:40.880 It was it was, And I think that that's frustrating now. 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:43.800 Is that a song that would say something like Hank 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.359 and Tennessee, or a song like he stopped loving her 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:51.760 today or unfortunately the Gambler would not be recorded today. 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.760 And that's frustrating feeling. And so that bar that I 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:57.600 held so high, it's a different bar now. I'm not 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:00.719 saying that I don't know because I don't participate in 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:04.359 that world like I did back then. But what I 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:08.560 wanted to say about Amanda being so simple is then 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:12.480 we ended up going with when Paul over Street, and 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:18.160 now we're writing songs and actually I would find oh 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:22.280 goodness gracious in the in the middle, I would find 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:29.320 an idea, real simple, that's your song? Yeah? Really, yeah, 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:32.080 I had no idea. It hit twice. It's one of 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.920 my favorite songs. I've only ever heard the I think 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:38.080 it's an astounding song. I haven't even heard the version 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:43.639 by Elson kraus Reed. Keith Whitley recorded it first and 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.520 then he passed away. Sadly, he was one of our 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:55.919 great singers and tragically and there was a tribute album 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.840 made it, and Alison Krause sang it, and then there's 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:05.159 this movie comes out, And my understanding is in the 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:09.360 movie The People, Ronan Keating is the guy who's name 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:14.440 from a group called Boyzone, calls Alison Krause's office and 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:18.200 asks for permission to sing the song, at which point 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:20.520 I think they said, you know, you really probably should 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:23.000 talk to the publisher and the writer, and they put 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:24.800