Eddie Reeves

Longtime Warner Bros. Records Nashville executive Eddie Reeves died on Sunday, Nov. 18, in Texas.

Reeves, 79, had a varied music business career, having worked in song publishing, as a recording artist and in personal management prior to his record label leadership. He was also a hit songwriter.

He was a native of Amarillo, Texas, who began playing guitar and writing songs as a high school student. He attended the University of Texas in Austin. Reeves formed a band there called The Nighthawks, and it recorded two singles for the Dot subsidiary Hamilton Records.

In 1964, Reeves went to New York to be the representative of Norman Petty Productions. While on the East Coast, he was hired as a song plugger, recording artist and songwriter by United Artists. Most of his career over the next two decades took place in L.A.

In 1968, he joined UA’s Los Angeles office. During his subsequent tenure with the publishing company, he worked with such singer-songwriters as Billy Edd Wheeler, Andy Kim and Mac Davis. His own songwriting career took off around this same time. His co-written “Rings” was initially a 1971 hit for pop’s Cymarron and country’s Tompall Glaser & The Glaser Brothers. The song was revived by Lobo in 1974. Reeves co-wrote “All I Ever Need Is You,” a pop hit for Sonny & Cher in 1971 and revived as a country duet by Kenny Rogers & Dottie West in 1979. He also co-wrote the Ray Charles 1971 hit “Don’t Change On Me.”

In 1974, Reeves was hired as a West Coast vice president at Chappell Music. While with that firm, he signed a then-unknown Jim Ed Norman, among many other singer-songwriters.

He launched his own music publishing company, Quixotic Music, around 1977. His sideline business, Eddie Reeves Music, managed such pop stars as Kim Carnes and Jules Shear.

After a hiatus from the industry, Eddie Reeves moved to Nashville. Jim Ed Norman was now the head of the Warner Bros. Records Nashville division. He named Reeves as General Manager of the Warner-Nashville office in 1984.

Eddie Reeves became a Warner vice president in 1989 and an executive vice president in 1999, when he retired. He became a board member of the CMA and was a 1991 graduate of Leadership Music.

Following his retirement, he moved back to Texas. He died in Houston after a brief illness. Eddie Reeves is survived by his wife Lena, and three children. Arrangements are pending.

Roy Clark

Roy Clark, the legendary ‘superpicker’, GRAMMY, CMA and ACM award winner, Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry member and co-host of the famed ‘Hee Haw’ television series, died Thursday (Nov. 15) at the age of 85 due to complications from pneumonia at home in Tulsa, Okla.

Roy Clark’s decade-defying success could be summed up in one word — sincerity. Sure, he was one of the world’s finest multi-instrumentalists, and one of the first cross-over artists to land singles on both the pop and country charts. He was the pioneer who turned Branson, Mo., into the live music capitol of the world (the Ozark town today boasts more seats than Broadway). And his talents turned Hee Haw into the longest-running syndicated show in television history.

But the bottom line for Roy Clark was the honest warmth he gave to his audiences. Bob Hope summed it up when he told Roy, “Your face is like a fireplace.”

“A TV camera goes right through your soul,” says the man who starred on Hee Haw for 24 years and was a frequent guest host for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. “If you’re a bad person, people pick that up. I’m a firm believer in smiles. I used to believe that everything had to be a belly laugh. But I’ve come to realize that a real sincere smile is mighty powerful.”

For a man who didn’t taste major success until he was 30, the key was not some grand plan but rather taking everything in its own time. “Sure,” he said, “I had dreams of being a star when I was 18. I could’ve pushed it too, but it wouldn’t have happened any sooner. I’m lucky. What’s happened has happened in spite of me.”

In fact, that’s what Clark titled his autobiography, My Life — In Spite of Myself! with Marc Elliot (Simon & Shuster, 1994). The book reminded many that there is much more to Roy Clark than fast fingers and a quick wit.

That he was raised in Washington, D.C., often surprises people. Born Roy Linwood Clark on April 15, 1933 in Meherrin, Virginia, his family moved to D.C. when he was a youngster. His father played in a square dance band and took him to free concerts by the National Symphony and by various military bands. “I was subjected to different kinds of music before I ever played. Dad said, ‘Never turn your ear off to music until your heart hears it–because then you might hear something you like.'”

Beginning on banjo and mandolin, he was one of those people “born with the music already in them.” His first guitar, a Sears Silvertone, came as a Christmas present when he was 14. That same year, 1947, he made his first TV appearance. He was 15 when he earned $2 for his first paid performance, with his dad’s band. In the fertile, diverse musical soil of cosmopolitan D.C., he began playing bars and dives on Friday and Saturday nights until he was playing every night and skipping school–eventually dropping out at 15. “Music was my salvation, the thing I loved most and did best. Whatever was fun, I’d go do that.”

The guitar wizard soon went on tour with country legends such as Hank Williams and Grandpa Jones. After winning a national banjo competition in 1950, he was invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, which led to shows with Red Foley and Ernest Tubb. Yet he’d always return to D.C. to play not only country but jazz, pop, and early rock’n’roll (he’s prominently featured in the recent book Capitol Rock); to play with black groups and white groups; to play fast, to even play guitar with his feet. In 1954, he joined Jimmy Dean and the Texas Wildcats, appearing in clubs and on radio and TV, and even backing up Elvis Presley.

But in 1960, he was 27 and still scrambling. An invitation to open for Wanda Jackson at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas proved to be his big break. It led to his own tour, on the road for 345 straight nights at one stretch, and when he returned to Vegas in 1962, he came back as a headliner and recording star, with his debut album The Lightning Fingers Of Roy Clark. The next year, he had his first hit, The Tips Of My Fingers, a country song that featured an orchestra and string section. “We didn’t call it crossover then but I guess that’s what it was,” he says. “We didn’t aim for that, because if you aim for both sides you miss them both. But we just wanted to be believable.”

He was–on record and on TV, where his first appearances in 1963 on ‘The Tonight Show’ and ‘American Bandstand’ showcased his easygoing attitude and rural sense of humor. “Humor is a blessing to me. My earliest recollections are of looking at something and seeing the lighter side. But it’s always spontaneous. I couldn’t write a comedy skit for someone else.”

Throughout the ’60s, Clark recorded several albums, toured constantly, and appeared on TV variety shows from Carson to Mike Douglas to Flip Wilson. “I was the token bumpkin. It became, ‘Let’s get that Clark guy. He’s easy to get along with.'” Then came ‘Hee Haw.’ A countrified ‘Laugh-In’ with music, shot in Nashville, ‘Hee Haw’ premiered in 1969. Co-starring Clark and Buck Owens, it was an immediate hit. Though CBS canceled the show after two-and-a-half years, despite ranking in the Top 20, the series segued into syndication, where it remained until 1992. “I long ago realized it was not a figure of speech when people come up to me and say they grew up watching me since they were ‘that big’.”

A generation or two has also grown up listening to him. In 1969, Yesterday, When I Was Young charted Top 20 Pop and #9 Country (Billboard). Including Yesterday, Clark has had 23 Top 40 country hits, among them eight Top 10s: The Tips Of My Fingers (#10, 1963), I Never Picked Cotton (#5) and Thank God And Greyhound You’re Gone (#6, 1970), The Lawrence Welk-Hee Haw Counter Revolution Polka (#9, 1972), Come Live With Me (#1) and Somewhere Between Love And Tomorrow (#2, 1973), and If I Had It To Do All Over Again (#2, 1976). In addition, his 12-string guitar rendition of Malaguena is considered a classic and, in 1982, he won a Grammy (Best Country Instrumental Performance) for Alabama Jubilee.

A consummate musician, no matter the genre, he co-starred with Petula Clark at Caesar’s Palace, became the first country artist to headline at the Montreux International Jazz Festival and appeared in London on ‘The Tom Jones Show.’ Clark was amazed when guitarists from England credited his BBC specials and performances on variety TV shows with the likes of the Jackson 5 for inspiring them to play. But the highlight of his career, he said, was a pioneering, sold-out 1976 tour of the then-Soviet Union. “Even though they didn’t know the words, there were tears in their eyes when I played Yesterday. Folks there said we wouldn’t realize in our lifetime the good we’d accomplished, just because of our pickin’ around.”

When he returned in 1988 to now-Russia, Clark was hailed as a hero. Though he’d never bought a joke and doesn’t read music, the self-described, and proud of it, “hillbilly singer” was that rare entertainer with popularity worthy of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and respect worthy of the Academy of Country Music’s Pioneer Award and membership in the Gibson (Guitar) Hall of Fame; an entertainer who could star in Las Vegas (the first country artist inducted into its Entertainers Hall of Fame), in Nashville (becoming the 63rd member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1987), and at Carnegie Hall. Roy was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Roy’s many good deeds on behalf of his fellow man led to him receiving the 1999 Minnie Pearl Humanitarian of the Year Award from TNN’s Music City News Awards. In October, 2000, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, and he was actively involved with school children who attend the Roy Clark Elementary School in Tulsa, Okla.

From his home in Tulsa, where he moved in 1974 with Barbara, his wife of 61 years, Clark continued to tour extensively. For him — and for his legion of loyal fans — live performance was what it was all about. “Soon as you hit the edge of the stage and see people smiling and know they’re there to hear you, it’s time to have fun. I keep a band of great young people around me, and we’re not musically restrained. It’s not about ‘let’s do it correct’ but ‘let’s do it right.’”

At the end of each of Roy’s concerts, he would tell the audience, “We had to come, but you had a choice. Thanks for being here.” With responding smiles, audiences continued to thank Roy for being there, too.

Roy is preceded in death by his beloved grandson Elijah Clark who passed at the age of fourteen on September 24, 2018. Roy is survived by Barbara, his wife of sixty-one years, his sons Roy Clark II and wife Karen, Dr. Michael Meyer and wife Robin, Terry Lee Meyer, Susan Mosier and Diane Stewart, and his grandchildren: Brittany Meyer, Michael Meyer, Caleb Clark, Josiah Clark and his sister, Susan Coryell.

A memorial celebration will be held in the coming days in Tulsa, Okla., details forthcoming.

John T. Benson III

By Robert K. Oermann

Visitation and services for Gospel Music Hall of Fame member John T. Benson III will be held today, Nov. 2.

He died on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at age 90. The executive was the former president of the John T. Benson Publishing Company and a longtime leader of the Gospel Music Association. At various times, he served as the GMA’s president, secretary and board member.

The Benson Company is Nashville’s oldest permanent music business. It was founded in 1902 by the deceased’s grandfather, John T. Benson. Following the death of the firm’s founder, John T. Benson Jr., took over the company in 1931.

Between 1948 and 1951, the company’s revenues increased tenfold. This was also the era when John III entered the family business. He initially worked in its commercial-printing division.

John III’s brother, Robert, joined the gospel company in 1960. He added recording to the firm’s publishing business. By 1965, The Benson Company was grossing $500,000 a year.

In 1969, John III joined the gospel firm. This coincided with a period of even more growth for the business.

As a publishing firm, the company already had songs recorded by nearly every Southern Gospel act. Its catalog includes thousands of copyrights, many of them standards in the field. “He’s Coming Back,” “He Looked Beyond My Faults,” “I Go to the Rock,” “If That Isn’t Love” and “Somebody Prayed for Me” are just a few representative titles.

Its record labels — HeartWarming, Benson, Greentree, RiverSong and other imprints — had been specializing in Southern Gospel sounds since 1960. Affiliated artists included The Speer Family, J.D. Sumner & The Stamps, The Singing Rambos, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Lewis Family, The Hemphills and The Imperials.

John III’s arrival occurred just as the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) movement exploded in the 1970s and 1980s. To Benson’s publishing division, he signed the early works of such top CCM composers as Michael W. Smith, Gary Chapman, Brown Bannister and Gary McSpadden.

The recording division kept pace, too. Benson-affiliated labels’ big acts in the new genre included DeGarmo & Key, Sandi Patty, dc talk, Yolanda Adams, Larnelle Harris, Bob Carlisle, Dallas Holm and Carman. It also marketed the records of The Bill Gaither Trio, Gold City, 4Him, The Archers, The Cathedrals and The Kingsmen Quartet, among many others.

In 1976, The Benson Company moved into a Metro Center building that was then the biggest music headquarters in Nashville and boasted the city’s largest recording studio.

John III rose from a vice presidency to becoming president of the firm. Brother Robert died in 1984.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the company changed hands via acquisitions by Paragon, Zondervan, Harper Collins, the Music Entertainment Group and the Zomba Music Group. Family control of the business ceased.

But the song-publishing arm of The Benson Company continued to thrive. By that time, it held more than 42,000 copyrights, including the catalogs of the defunct Stamps-Baxter Music and Singspiration Music.

In 2001, the record labels were folded, and Zomba merged Benson with Brentwood Music. Benson celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2002 by being named ASCAP’s Christian publishing company of the year.

Today, Brentwood-Benson specializes in printed choral, worship, Sunday school, choir, Christmas and church music arrangements. It is estimated that half of the people now working in Nashville’s CCM industry learned the business by working at Benson at one time or another.

John T. Benson III served as the president of the GMA in 1978-80, during which time the association established its now annual Gospel Music Week convention in Nashville. He was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

The executive is survived by his wife of 70 years, Jane Cartwright Benson. Also surviving are children Ann Benson Vincent, John Benson IV, Joe Benson and Tricia Benson, as well as three sisters, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. on Nov. 2 at Spring Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery, 5110 Gallatin Pike. It will be followed by a Life Celebration and Graveside service.

By Robert K. Oermann

Internationally known Nashville singer-songwriter Tony Joe White has died at age 75.

Equally known as the recording artist behind classics such as “Polk Salad Annie” and as the songwriter of “Rainy Night in Georgia,” among other chestnuts, White was known as “The Swamp Fox.” His distinctive style drew equally on blues, country and rock traditions.

Tony Joe White was one of music’s great minimalists. He needed nothing more than his smoldering baritone voice and “whomper stomper” guitar to hypnotize an audience. His husky, growling voice, sinuous guitar leads and colloquial Southern manners mesmerized crowds in Europe as well as America.

Born in 1943, he was one of seven children raised on a cotton farm in Oak Grove, Lousiana. Inspired by a Lightnin’ Hopkins album, he began playing blues guitar at age 16. After his high school graduation, he played clubs in Louisiana and Texas as Tony & The Mojos, then Tony & The Twilights.

In 1968, he came to Nashville and auditioned for Bob Beckham at Combine Music. Within hours, the Music Row executive had him in the studio with producer Billy Swan for Monument Records.

White’s first few singles went unnoticed. Then the label got a cable from overseas requesting a rush shipment of Tony Joe White records, bios and photos. Radio stations in France were playing his disc “Soul Francisco.” Then stations in Belgium picked up the tune, and fans there began clamoring for White to appear in their discotheques. Radio stations in Germany, Spain, Japan and the Philippines started airing the single as well.

Once overseas fans got a load of his charismatic, brooding, sexual appeal his transformation into international music idol was complete. He continued to tour Europe regularly for the rest of his life.

Back in the states, Tony Joe White began promoting his single of “Polk Salad Annie” in the clubs around Corpus Christi, Texas. The record had been out for nine months, and Monument had written it off as a dud. But Texans began buying the single. Then a radio station in Los Angeles began broadcasting it.

“Polk Salad Annie” entered the U.S. charts in July 1969. By early fall, it was in the top-10 on the pop charts. White followed it with “Roosevelt and Ira Lee” and “Save Your Sugar for Me” in 1969-70. He toured with Steppenwolf, Sly & The Family Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Eric Clapton and other big rock acts of the 1970s.

Despite his individualistic, tough-to-classify sound, superstars began lining up to record his tunes. Dusty Springfield (“Willie and Laura Mae Jones”), Elvis Presley (“I’ve Got a Thing About You Baby,” “For Ol’ Times Sake”), Brook Benton (“Rainy Night in Georgia”). Jason & The Scorchers (“Polk Salad Annie”), Ray Charles (“3/4 Time”) and Tina Turner (“Steamy Windows,” “Undercover Agent for the Blues”) are just a few of the major pop headliners who were drawn to Tony Joe White’s songs.

His “Out of the Rain” has been recorded by Etta James, Joe Cocker, Jefferson Starship and Elkie Brooks. “Rainy Night in Georgia” has been recorded by more than 100 artists, including The Crusaders, Johnny Rivers, Conway Twitty & Sam Moore, The Persuasions, Little Milton, Boots Randolph, Herbie Mann and Chuck Jackson.

Country artists were equally enthralled. White’s songs have also been covered by George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed, Hank Williams Jr., Charlie Rich, John Anderson, Tim McGraw, Emmylou Harris, Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson and Jessi Colter, among others.

White recorded three LPs for Monument (1968-70), then three for Warner Bros. Records (1971-73) and one each on 20th Century (1976), Casablanca (1980) and Columbia (1983). All of them are considered collectible, since Tony Joe White attained the status of a true cult figure.

A stab at mainstream country success led to the self-penned charting singles “Mamas Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up to Be Babies,” “The Lady in My Life” and “We Belong Together” in 1980-84. In 1986, he began marketing albums on his own Swamp Fox label.

Over the years, White acquired a reputation as a Deep South iconoclast and a brilliant eccentric who inspired passionate reviews and an underground following. He became the subject of the quirky, highly entertaining 1998 documentary film Searching for Tony Joe. He also appeared in the 1974 rock musical film Catch My Soul.

White resumed recording in the 1990s with such CDs as Closer to the Truth (1991), Lake Placid Blues (1995), Groupy Girl (1998), One Hot July (2000), Snakey (2002), Night of the Moccasin (2004), The Heroines (2004), Hard to Handle (2005), Uncovered (2006) and The Shine (2010). His most recent works have appeared on Yep Roc Records — Hoodoo (2013), Rain Crow (2016) and his blues album Bad Mouthin,’ which was released last month.

Tony Joe White was nominated for an Americana Music award in 2004. He made his Grand Ole Opry debut on Sept. 28, 2018.

He passed away suddenly on Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 24) at his home in Leipers Fork, Tennessee. He is survived by his wife LeAnn, by daughter Michelle, by sons Jody and Jim Bob and by several grandchildren. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

By Robert K. Oermann

Few of the obituaries for Burt Reynolds noted that the Hollywood icon was also a “country star.”

The movie great, who died Thursday (Sept. 6) at age 82, only made one country album and appeared just once on the country-music hit parade. But he was massively popular with country fans, incorporated country music into his film soundtracks and cast more than a dozen country stars in his features.

Although Burt Reynolds played many roles, his portrayals of moonshiners, cowboys, outlaws, NASCAR drivers, rebels and other country archetypes became his most famous film characters.

The soundtrack of Reynolds’ breakthrough film, 1972’s Deliverance, yielded the Grammy-winning country hit “Dueling Banjos” by Eric Weissberg. The plots of such Reynolds vehicles as White Lightning (1973), Gator (1976) and Stroker Ace (1983) were rooted in country culture.
Reynolds came to Nashville in 1973 to create Ask Me What I Am as his country LP. Issued by Mercury Records, it was co-produced by Bobby Goldsboro and Buddy Killen. Despite songwriting contributions from Goldsboro, Red Lane, Ed Bruce and Dick Feller, the album was a commercial failure.

Burt Reynolds returned to Nashville in 1975 to film W.W. & The Dixie Dancekings. Its premiere was held in Music City, as well. In it, he portrayed a crook who promotes a country band. The cast included Don Williams, Roni Stoneman, Lorene Mann, Tootsie Bess and several other country personalities.

The film launched the movie careers of Jerry Reed (1937-2008) and Mel Tillis (1932-2017). Both would be featured in several other Reynolds films, and Reed, in particular, would have a successful acting career on his own. Reed’s second feature with Reynolds was Gator in 1976.
Already a sizable movie star, Burt Reynolds ascended to superstardom with 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit. Although panned by critics, it found a massive audience in Middle America and grossed more than $100 million.

Reed again appeared opposite Reynolds in this film. He also co-wrote the movie’s soundtrack and sang its big country hit, “East Bound and Down.”

Also appearing in Smokey and the Bandit was John Schneider, unbilled in a crowd scene. Two years later, he would inherit Reynolds’ redneck/outlaw persona in the smash hit 1979-85 TV series The Dukes of Hazzard. The two became friends in Hollywood, and Schneider succeeded in Nashville via a string of hit country records in 1984-88.

In the 2016 documentary film Bandit, Brad Paisley, John Rich, Toby Keith and others discussed Smokey and the Bandit’s indelible relationship to country music. In the days following Reynolds’ death, Bandit was screened repeatedly by CMT.

Smokey and the Bandit II was issued in 1980. In addition to Reed, Tillis and Don Williams, the cast included Brenda Lee and The Statler Brothers. All five contributed songs to its soundtrack, as did Tanya Tucker, Roy Rogers and The Sons of the Pioneers. Burt Reynolds sang “Let’s Do Something Cheap and Superficial” on the soundtrack, and his single of it made it to No. 51 on the country charts.

The handsome headliner had a long-term relationship with his Smokey movies co-star Sally Field, whom he later described as “the love of my life.” But he also had notable romances with Nashville-bred pop vocalist Dinah Shore (1916-1994), who was 20 years his senior, and with country superstar Tammy Wynette (1942-1998).

The 1981 Reynolds road-race feature The Cannonball Run again featured Tillis. By this time, Burt Reynolds was in the midst of a five-year reign as Hollywood’s top box-office moneymaker. During this same era, he won six consecutive People’s Choice awards as America’s favorite movie actor.

So his pairing with country superstar Dolly Parton in 1982’s Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was headline news. In the film, Reynolds sang “Sneakin’ Around” as a duet with her. Parton’s remake of “I Will Always Love You” became the soundtrack’s big hit. Whorehouse continued Reynolds’ success streak, becoming a huge box-office hit and winning a best-picture Golden Globe Award.

Jerry Reed co-starred in 1983’s Smokey and the Bandit Part 3, with Reynolds taking a backseat via a cameo appearance. The soundtrack included contributions by Lee Greenwood and Ed Bruce. Mel Tillis reunited with Reynolds for 1984’s Cannonball Run II.

Burt Reynolds next triumphed as a television star. His Evening Shade series of 1990-94 was a major hit. Once again, he offered screen roles to his country-music favorites. During its five-year run, the top-rated Evening Shade featured such guest stars as Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, K.T. Oslin, Kenny Rogers and Jerry Reed, as well as Terry Bradshaw.

Similarly, his 1991-92 TV talk show Burt Reynolds Conversations With booked Gill, Parton, Randy Travis and Tanya Tucker as well as Hollywood royalty.

Reynolds and McEntire co-starred in the 1993 TV movie The Man from Left Field. Goldsboro composed the soundtrack music, a job he performed the same year for the TV western movie The Wind in the Wire. This co-starred Reynolds with Randy Travis. The movie star also appeared in the 1993 music video for the Travis tune “Cowboy Boogie.”

The 1997 film Boogie Nights restored Reynolds’ status as a respected actor. The film garnered him his finest reviews since Deliverance, won him a Golden Globe award and earned him an Oscar nomination.

In 2005, Reynolds co-starred in the hit movie update of The Dukes of Hazzard. Willie Nelson and Junior Brown were also featured.

The aging cinema thespian returned to Tennessee to portray a washed-up actor in 2016’s The Last Movie Star. It was shot and premiered in Knoxville and featured the Nashville Film Festival in its plot. Again, his performance was roundly praised by reviewers.

Burt Reynolds had been ill, but his death last week was unexpected. Over the weekend, Parton, Schneider, Travis and McEntire all offered memorial tributes to their fellow “country star.”