Rick Hall
With the death of Rick Hall, the music world has lost one of its most successful entrepreneurs, colorful personalities and dynamic creators.
The man who put Muscle Shoals, Alabama on the map as a music mecca passed away at age 85 on Jan. 2. He had been battling cancer.
As a record producer, studio owner, engineer, music publisher, songwriter and deal maker, Rick Hall touched the lives and careers of such greats as Aretha Franklin, Mac Davis, Wilson Pickett, Ronnie Milsap, Shenandoah, Duane Allman, The Osmonds, Tom Jones, Paul Anka, Alabama, Liza Minnelli and Etta James.
He rose from desperate poverty to become a figure of international renown. A native of North Alabama, Hall was raised in log cabins with no amenities. His mother deserted the family when he was four. His father was a moonshiner, sharecropper, carpenter and saw mill worker who raised his barefoot children on a diet of wild game.
The future mogul began his musical career as a square dance fiddler. In the 1950s, he started making trips to Nashville to peddle his songs.
Back home in Alabama, he formed a partnership with Tom Stafford and Billy Sherrill. They built a studio above Stafford’s father’s drug store in Florence, AL. Sherrill coined its name, FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises). After two years of moderate success, the partnership dissolved. Sherrill moved to Nashville and became one of the most successful record producers and songwriters in the city’s history.
Hall kept the FAME name and opened his own studio on Wilson Dam Avenue in 1959. There, he produced “You Better Move On” written and sung by hotel bellhop Arthur Alexander. In 1962, it became the first international hit recorded in the Muscle Shoals area.
Using the profits from that hit, plus investment from his father-in-law, Hall built a new studio on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals. This is where he produced 1964’s “Steal Away” by Jimmy Hughes.
Working as his studio’s engineer, Hall helped to craft Tommy Roe’s “Everybody” (1963), The Tams’ “What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)” (1964) and other key pop hits of the early 1960s.
Soul stars began beating a path to FAME’s door. Hall produced or co-produced Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man” (1967) and “Do Right Woman” (1967), James & Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet” (1966), Joe Tex’s “Hold What You’ve Got” (1965), Clarence Carter’s “Slip Away” (1968) and “Patches” (1970), Etta James’ “Tell Mama” (1967) and the Wilson Pickett smashes “Mustang Sally” (1966), “Funky Broadway” (1967) and “Land of 1,000 Dances” (1966).
He molded local musicians into becoming studio professionals. Among the notable graduates of his Muscle Shoals sessions are Jerry Carrigan, David Hawkins, Barry Beckett, Dan Penn, David Briggs, Norbert Putnam, David Hood, Spooner Oldham, Terry Thompson, Jimmy Johnson and Chips Moman.
In 1970, MGM chief Mike Curb approached Rick Hall about producing The Osmonds in Muscle Shoals. The results were such hits as “One Bad Apple” (1971), “Yo-Yo” (1971), “Down By the Lazy River” (1972) and “Sweet and Innocent” (Donnny Osmond, 1972, co-written by Hall) and sales of 11 million.
Hall was named Producer of the Year by Billboard in 1971. Bobbie Gentry (“Fancy,” 1970), Paul Anka (“You’re Having My Baby,” 1974) and Candi Staton (“Stand By Your Man,” 1970) followed The Osmonds to FAME. So did Andy Williams, Liza Minnelli, Lou Rawls, Tom Jones and dozens of others.
Mac Davis came to FAME for “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me” (1972), “Stop and Smell the Roses” (1974), “Texas In My Rear View Mirror” (1980) and “Hooked on Music” (1981) and more. This led Rick Hall back to his first love, country music.
During the 1980s, T.G. Sheppard, Larry Gatlin, Jerry Reed, Gus Hardin, Terri Gibbs, Vern Gosdin, Billy Joe Royal, Tom Wopat and other country stars made the pilgrimage to FAME.
Rick Hall became an inaugural inductee into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985.
Next, Hall discovered the local Muscle Shoals band Shenandoah and brought it to country fame with such hits as “Church On the Cumberland Road” (1990), “Mama Knows” (1990) and “Ghost in This House” (1991).
By the close of the 1990s, Rick Hall had produced 24 top-10 country hits, 26 top-10 pop hits and 33 top-10 r&b hits. His songs had been recorded by George Jones, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Otis Redding, Booker T & The MGs, Huey Lewis, Little Richard, Sam & Dave and T. Graham Brown.
In addition, songs from Hall’s publishing company were making regular appearances on the country charts in the 1990s. His staff writers included Walt Aldridge, Tommy Brasfield, Mark Hall, Robert Byrne, Gary Baker and Frank Myers.
“There’s No Getting Over Me,” “I Swear,” “I Like It, I Love It,” “Holding Her and Loving You,” “”She’s Got a Single Thing In Mind,” “I Sure Can Smell the Rain,” “Leave Him Out of This” and “Crime of Passion” are among Hall’s publishing award winners.
Among the albums recently recorded and/or mixed at FAME are Gregg Allman’s Southern Blood, Third Day’s Revival and John Paul White’s Beula.
In 2013, Rick Hall was prominently featured in the acclaimed documentary Muscle Shoals. He was presented with a Trustees Award by The Recording Academy in 2014. He published his autobiography in 2015, The Man From Muscle Shoals: My Journey From Shame to Fame.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Exile Celebrates 55th Anniversary With No Limit Tour
/by Jessica NicholsonSince forming in Richmond, Kentucky, in 1963, Exile has sold more than 8 million records and earned three Gold records. 2018 also marks the 40th anniversary of the group’s hit “Kiss You All Over,” which spent four weeks atop the Billboard pop chart in 1978. The band’s other hits include “Give Me One More Chance,” and “I Don’t Want to Be a Memory,” among others.
“We’re excited and proud to commemorate this landmark achievement in Exile’s history of 55 years as a band as well as celebrating the 40th Anniversary of ‘Kiss You All Over’ this year!” said members of Exile, adding, ”there are some very special plans for 2018, and we cannot wait to share them with all our fans.”
Exile “No Limit Tour” 2018
Jan. 13 – National TV – Huckabee Show – TBN
Jan. 13 – Nashville, TN – Grand Ole Opry
Feb. 10 – Franklin, TN – Franklin Theatre
Feb. 15 – Lancaster, KY – Grand Theater
Feb. 16 – McMinnville, TN – Park Theater
Feb. 24 – Weirsdale, FL – Orange Blossom Opry
Mar. 3 – Norman, OK – Thunderbird Casino
Apr. 14 – Niagara Falls, Ontario – Niagara Falls View Casino Resort
Apr. 16 – Pigeon Forge, TN – Dollywood, Show Street Theater
Jun. 3 – Branson, MO – Silver Dollar City
Jun. 8 – Richmond, KY – Chenault Vineyards
Jun. 29 – Prestonsburg, KY – Mountain Arts Center – Hillbilly Christmas in July
Jul. 22 – Iowa City, IA – Johnson County Fair
Aug. 11 – Bevier, MO – Bevier Homecoming
Oct. 2 – Eminence, MO – Cross Country Trail Ride
Oct. 16 – Hiawassee, GA – Georgia Mountain Fair / Anderson Music Hall
Nov. 17 – Federalsburg, MD – Curtis Andrew Auctions Events w/Rhonda Vincent
Nov. 30 – Scottsburg, IN – Ross Country Jamboree
Dec. 1 – Scottsburg, IN – Ross Country Jamboree
Dec. 15 – Bremen, GA – Mill Town Music Hall
mTheory Adds Marketing Manager
/by Jessica NicholsonErica Buchi
mtheory Nashville, the Music City division of the artist management services company, has hired Erica Buchi as Marketing Manager.
Buchi comes to mtheory from Ticketmaster/Live Nation Entertainment, where she was Marketing Services Specialist- National Tours. For over five years, she supported artists like Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line and Carrie Underwood.
mtheory, which was founded in 2010, also has offices in New York and Los Angeles.
Buchi can be reached at erica@mtheory.com
Funeral Services Set For Opry’s Hairl Hensley
/by Robert K OermannPhoto credit: WSM
The life of Country DJ Hall of Fame member Hairl Hensley will be celebrated on Friday – he died on New Year’s Eve, his birthday, at age 81.
Best known as a host of The Grand Ole Opry for 35 years, Hensley also hosted satellite-radio programs, presented bluegrass showcases, worked as a TV announcer and was a regular on Knoxville’s Tennessee Barn Dance.
A native of Madisonville in East Tennessee, Hairl Hensley initially aspired to be a musical performer. Born Dec. 31, 1936, he learned to play guitar as a teenager. He joined a country band that was regularly featured on WDEH in Sweetwater, TN. When the station’s morning DJ was promoted, Hensley took that job.
He worked his way up through the country ranks to become an announcer on WNOX in Knoxville. His duties included co-hosting the station’s Tennessee Barn Dance show. Its cast included such future Nashville stars as Jim & Jesse, Don Gibson and Archie Campbell.
Hensley’s first big job in Nashville was as the voice-over announcer on Porter Wagoner’s widely syndicated TV series. During the late 1950s, he also became the overnight DJ on WKDA in Nashville. He served a stint at WMAK in Music City before being named the program director at WLAC.
In 1972, he joined the staff of WSM, the host station of The Grand Ole Opry. He worked at the station and/or the Opry for the next 35 years. Hensley became known as “the dean of Grand Ole Opry announcers” and was one of the most familiar voices in the annals of country radio.
He was named Country Disc Jockey of the Year by the CMA in 1975. In the early 1980s, he became WSM’s program director.
Hairl Hensley was inducted into the Country Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 1995. The following year, Hensley was named Bluegrass DJ of the Year by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music. His daily WSM radio series included “The Early Bird Gets the Bluegrass” and “Orange Possum Special.”
He won the Radio Personality Award at the 2000 Golden Voice Awards. Hensley left WSM in 2004, but continued to announce Opry broadcasts. In later years, he also hosted a daily show on the Sirius “Roadhouse” satellite radio channel.
Ill health forced his retirement in 2007.
Hairl Hensley was inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame in 2014.
He suffered a heart attack and underwent triple-bypass surgery on September 17, 2017. He died on December 31 in Mt. Juliet, TN.
Visitation with the family is scheduled for Friday, January 5 from noon to 2:00 p.m. at the Spring Hill Funeral Home in Nashville. A Celebration of Life service will follow at 2:00 p.m.
Muscle Shoals Music Producer Rick Hall Dies
/by Robert K OermannRick Hall
With the death of Rick Hall, the music world has lost one of its most successful entrepreneurs, colorful personalities and dynamic creators.
The man who put Muscle Shoals, Alabama on the map as a music mecca passed away at age 85 on Jan. 2. He had been battling cancer.
As a record producer, studio owner, engineer, music publisher, songwriter and deal maker, Rick Hall touched the lives and careers of such greats as Aretha Franklin, Mac Davis, Wilson Pickett, Ronnie Milsap, Shenandoah, Duane Allman, The Osmonds, Tom Jones, Paul Anka, Alabama, Liza Minnelli and Etta James.
He rose from desperate poverty to become a figure of international renown. A native of North Alabama, Hall was raised in log cabins with no amenities. His mother deserted the family when he was four. His father was a moonshiner, sharecropper, carpenter and saw mill worker who raised his barefoot children on a diet of wild game.
The future mogul began his musical career as a square dance fiddler. In the 1950s, he started making trips to Nashville to peddle his songs.
Back home in Alabama, he formed a partnership with Tom Stafford and Billy Sherrill. They built a studio above Stafford’s father’s drug store in Florence, AL. Sherrill coined its name, FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises). After two years of moderate success, the partnership dissolved. Sherrill moved to Nashville and became one of the most successful record producers and songwriters in the city’s history.
Hall kept the FAME name and opened his own studio on Wilson Dam Avenue in 1959. There, he produced “You Better Move On” written and sung by hotel bellhop Arthur Alexander. In 1962, it became the first international hit recorded in the Muscle Shoals area.
Using the profits from that hit, plus investment from his father-in-law, Hall built a new studio on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals. This is where he produced 1964’s “Steal Away” by Jimmy Hughes.
Working as his studio’s engineer, Hall helped to craft Tommy Roe’s “Everybody” (1963), The Tams’ “What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)” (1964) and other key pop hits of the early 1960s.
Soul stars began beating a path to FAME’s door. Hall produced or co-produced Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man” (1967) and “Do Right Woman” (1967), James & Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet” (1966), Joe Tex’s “Hold What You’ve Got” (1965), Clarence Carter’s “Slip Away” (1968) and “Patches” (1970), Etta James’ “Tell Mama” (1967) and the Wilson Pickett smashes “Mustang Sally” (1966), “Funky Broadway” (1967) and “Land of 1,000 Dances” (1966).
He molded local musicians into becoming studio professionals. Among the notable graduates of his Muscle Shoals sessions are Jerry Carrigan, David Hawkins, Barry Beckett, Dan Penn, David Briggs, Norbert Putnam, David Hood, Spooner Oldham, Terry Thompson, Jimmy Johnson and Chips Moman.
In 1970, MGM chief Mike Curb approached Rick Hall about producing The Osmonds in Muscle Shoals. The results were such hits as “One Bad Apple” (1971), “Yo-Yo” (1971), “Down By the Lazy River” (1972) and “Sweet and Innocent” (Donnny Osmond, 1972, co-written by Hall) and sales of 11 million.
Hall was named Producer of the Year by Billboard in 1971. Bobbie Gentry (“Fancy,” 1970), Paul Anka (“You’re Having My Baby,” 1974) and Candi Staton (“Stand By Your Man,” 1970) followed The Osmonds to FAME. So did Andy Williams, Liza Minnelli, Lou Rawls, Tom Jones and dozens of others.
Mac Davis came to FAME for “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me” (1972), “Stop and Smell the Roses” (1974), “Texas In My Rear View Mirror” (1980) and “Hooked on Music” (1981) and more. This led Rick Hall back to his first love, country music.
During the 1980s, T.G. Sheppard, Larry Gatlin, Jerry Reed, Gus Hardin, Terri Gibbs, Vern Gosdin, Billy Joe Royal, Tom Wopat and other country stars made the pilgrimage to FAME.
Rick Hall became an inaugural inductee into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985.
Next, Hall discovered the local Muscle Shoals band Shenandoah and brought it to country fame with such hits as “Church On the Cumberland Road” (1990), “Mama Knows” (1990) and “Ghost in This House” (1991).
By the close of the 1990s, Rick Hall had produced 24 top-10 country hits, 26 top-10 pop hits and 33 top-10 r&b hits. His songs had been recorded by George Jones, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Otis Redding, Booker T & The MGs, Huey Lewis, Little Richard, Sam & Dave and T. Graham Brown.
In addition, songs from Hall’s publishing company were making regular appearances on the country charts in the 1990s. His staff writers included Walt Aldridge, Tommy Brasfield, Mark Hall, Robert Byrne, Gary Baker and Frank Myers.
“There’s No Getting Over Me,” “I Swear,” “I Like It, I Love It,” “Holding Her and Loving You,” “”She’s Got a Single Thing In Mind,” “I Sure Can Smell the Rain,” “Leave Him Out of This” and “Crime of Passion” are among Hall’s publishing award winners.
Among the albums recently recorded and/or mixed at FAME are Gregg Allman’s Southern Blood, Third Day’s Revival and John Paul White’s Beula.
In 2013, Rick Hall was prominently featured in the acclaimed documentary Muscle Shoals. He was presented with a Trustees Award by The Recording Academy in 2014. He published his autobiography in 2015, The Man From Muscle Shoals: My Journey From Shame to Fame.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Weekly Register: Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, FGL Top Charts
/by Jessica NicholsonTaylor Swift‘s latest Big Machine Records album Reputation returned to No. 1 on Nielsen Soundscan’s overall albums chart, with 107K for the final chart week of 2017.
On the country albums rankings, Garth Brooks‘ Anthology Part 1 tops the chart this week, with 36K in total consumption. At No. 2 is Chris Stapleton‘s From A Room Vol. 2 with 33K, followed by Luke Bryan‘s What Makes You Country at No. 3 with 33K. Thomas Rhett‘s Life Changes is at No. 4 with 22K, followed by Kane Brown‘s self-titled album at No. 5, with 19K.
On the country digital songs chart, Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line‘s “Meant To Be” is at No. 1, with 52K. Thomas Rhett’s “Marry Me” is at No. 2, with 31K, and LANCO‘s “Greatest Love Story” is at No. 3 with 21K. Kane Brown ft. Lauren Alaina‘s “What Ifs” is at No. 4 with 21K. Sam Hunt‘s “Body Like A Back Road” is at No. 5 with 17K.
Information courtesy of Nielsen Soundscan.
Mark Your Calendar—January 2018
/by Eric T. ParkerSingle Add Dates
Greg Hudik/Back In Love With You Again/Platinum Records Nashville
January 4
Tim Elliott/I Got You/Boggs River Entertainment
Candy Fernaux/Gone Fishin’/Sunny Day Records
January 5
Brothers Osborne/Shoot Me Straight/EMI Records Nashville
January 8
Luke Combs/One Number Away/River House/Columbia
Sugarland/Still The Same/Big Machine
January 15
Ry Bradley/Hard Not To Feel/SMG Records Nashville
Cort Carpenter/Again
January 16
Walker McGuire/Lost/Wheelhouse Records
Josh Gracin/Nothin’ Like Us/Revel Records/1608
January 22
Alan Jackson/The Older I Get/EMI Nashville
Jillian Jacqueline/Reasons/Big Loud
Kid Rock/American Rock ‘N Roll/Red Bow
January 29
Cash Creek/Make Your Momma Proud/Heartland Records Nashville
Raleigh Keegan/Lookin’ Like That/Nine North Label Group
LOCASH/Don’t Get Better Than That/Reviver Records
Album Release Dates
Anderson East/Encore/Low Country Sound-Elektra Records
Walker McGuire/Walker McGuire/Wheelhouse Records
January 19
LANCO/Hallelujah Nights/Arista Nashville
Devin Dawson/Dark Horse/Atlantic-WMN
Moon Taxi/Let The Record Play/RCA Records
John Conlee/Classics 3/Rose Colored Records
Industry Events
Nashville Grammy Nominations Party
January 12-15
30a Songwriting Festival
January 15
Submissions for ACM Radio Award categories and Video of the Year close
January 17-20
Luke Bryan’s Crash My Playa in Riviera Maya, Mexico
January 28
60th annual Grammy Awards at New York City’s Madison Square Garden
January 29
Hats Off for High Hopes, feat. Jonathan Cain of Journey & Friends at 7pm, Ryman Auditorium
January 31
ACM Awards first round voting closes
CMA Streaming Study Panel Added To CRS 2018 Agenda
/by Lorie HollabaughJustin Timberlake Announces New Album
/by Jessica NicholsonJustin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods video trailer.
Justin Timberlake is set to release a new album next month, and judging from a video clip previewing the project, Timberlake’s homestate of Tennessee has a big influence on the new project.
The album, Man of the Woods, releases Feb. 2, with the project’s first single releasing Friday, Jan. 5.
“This album is really inspired by my son, my wife, my family but more so than any other album I’ve written, where I’m from. It’s personal,” Timberlake says in the trailer clip for the album. Timberlake is originally from Memphis, Tennessee, and in 2015, he purchased a home just outside of Nashville, in Leiper’s Fork. After his collaboration on “Drink You Away,” with Chris Stapleton at the 2015 CMA Awards, the song was promoted to country radio.
In September 2017, he headlined the third annual Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival in Franklin, Tennessee, after signing on as a partner and producer for the festival in 2016.
Michael W. Smith To Release Two New Album Projects in February
/by Lorie HollabaughLeading a diverse chorus of voices, Michael’s new worship album features 12 tracks, including the declarative “Surrounded (Fight My Battles),” which released Dec. 29 as a single and is available as an instant download with each iTunes album preorder. The video for the song world-premiered Christmas Eve on Michael’s Facebook and website, and is streaming now on Spotify and other outlets internationally.
“I feel God moving through His Church and He is calling us together to be one voice and one heart. One bride. Every nation, every tribe and every tongue. Every social class, every denomination,” said Smith of the spirit of the new album. “What if we bring Him the thing that pleases Him most– our unity. We may each have different stories, and skin, and songs, but we all share His same Spirit.”
Surrounded is available now for pre-order everywhere while A Million Lights is available for pre-order now at digital and physical retailers globally, with multiple instant song downloads available from iTunes. Special, limited edition autographed versions of both albums are also available for preorder now from Amazon.com.
Two instant downloads from A Million Lights are also available now with each iTunes preorder: both the Yahoo! Music–premiered “Love Always Wins” and the album’s title track, which is also the first video from the album.
Surrounded Track Listing:
1) Your House
2) Light To You
3) King Of My Heart
4) Reckless Love
5) Here I Bow
6) Miracles
7) Do It Again
8) Surrounded (Fight My Battles)
9) Build My Life
10) Washed Away
11) Great Are You Lord
12) Light To You (reprise)
Cash, Dolly, Garth Among Hit-And-Miss Music Books
/by Robert K OermannRecent months have seen a flurry of books addressing Nashville music, from Nashville music writers and about Nashville personalities.
Among those with new memoirs are Charlie Daniels, Wayne Moss, Naomi Judd, Norbert Putnam, Jessi Colter, Rory Feek, Charlie McCoy, Jim Dickinson, Billy Burnette, Jerry Foster and Scotty McCreery. Of these, I’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone by the late Dickinson is the most entertaining. Gathered below are some other notable current music “reads.”
ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM: THE BOUDLEAUX & FELICE BRYANT STORY
By Lee Wilson (Two Creeks Press, $19.95)
If you don’t know who the Bryants were, you should. They founded the Nashville songwriting community and have an incomparable catalog of hits. This clearly written account of their star-crossed life together is a crash course on how we became Music City.
JACK WHITE: HOW HE BUILT AN EMPIRE FROM THE BLUES
By Nick Hasted (Overlook Omnibus, $29.95)
Well researched and thorough, Hasted’s book unwraps the enigma that is rock star White (ne John Gillis). It is particularly insightful in its depiction of his formative years in Detroit. The author romanticizes the Motor City’s gray decay and sneers at Music City’s technicolor success.
COUNTRY MUSIC HAIR
By Erin Duvall (HarperCollins, $16.99)
What a clever idea. What a disappointing book. I knew we were in trouble when a photo of Jeannie C. Riley was misidentified as Janie Fricke.
DOLLY ON DOLLY
By Randy L. Schmidt, editor (Chicago Review Press, $28.99)
Schmidt chronologically reprints key Dolly Parton magazine interviews from her earliest days as a Nashville newcomer through her rise to megastardom. She is, of course, consistently charming. The compiler comments in the introduction that reading the book, “is to witness a slow and steady development of media manipulation, all masterminded by her.” I object to this depiction. In what way does this make her different than every other copiously interviewed superstar?
DON’T GIVE YOUR HEART TO A RAMBLER: MY LIFE WITH JIMMY MARTIN
By Barbara Martin Stephens (University of Illinois Press, $19.95)
The late Jimmy Martin (1927-2005) crowned himself “The King of Bluegrass.” He was a grandiose, gifted, alcoholic, self-pitying, volatile, outrageous, magnificent showman. Stephens bore his children, managed his career, booked his shows and endured his emotional and physical abuse. It’s all here in this extraordinary memoir. And it turns out that this pioneering female music business figure is also a terrific story teller.
GARTH BROOKS THE ANTHOLOGY PART 1
By Garth Brooks (Melcher Media $39.95)
This volume covers the first five years of the superstar’s career. You won’t find many personal revelations in the prose. He comes across as a fundamentally decent and very loyal fellow. It’s mostly an “inside baseball” account of songs, shows and recording sessions. The real value in the book is its cornucopia of previously unseen photos. The package also contains five CDs of 52 songs. Nineteen of these are previously unreleased demos, first takes or new tunes.
FROM CABBAGETOWN TO TINSELTOWN
By Tommy Roe (Tommy Roe, $24.00)
The singer of “Dizzy,” “Sweet Pea” and “Jam Up and Jelly Tight” starts out by defending his honor as “The Father of Bubblegum Pop.” Co-written with Michael Robert Krikorian, the book quickly veers from being an account of the heady days of “Sheila” and “Everybody” into being a right-wing screed. Hollywood is crooked and corrupt. The ‘50s and ‘60s were happy and carefree and white. Society was better then. Our music was better. Today’s music sucks. And hey you kids get offa my lawn.
THE MAN WHO CARRIED CASH
By Julie Chadwick (Dundurn Press, $19.99)
It turns out that manager Saul Holiff was just as intensely complex as his famous longtime client, Johnny Cash. This account of his career is an excellent book, full of insight about what made The Man in Black tick. If you’re a Cash fan — and who isn’t? — this is essential reading.
CHANGE OF SEASONS: A MEMOIR
By John Oates (St. Martin’s Press, $29.99)
This Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame member became an international superstar as half of Hall & Oates. He is now a part-time Nashvillian. Written with Chris Epting, his memoir is a fascinating recollection of his journey. The tales are really well told — in his case, being a songwriter is apparently only a step away from being a fine prose stylist. The book comes with a five-song sampler CD of the Americana music Oates makes in Music City today.
WOMAN WALK THE LINE: HOW THE WOMEN IN COUNTRY MUSIC CHANGED OUR LIVES
By Holly Gleason, editor (University of Texas Press, $24.95)
It is a highly readable collection of essays by female music writers dwelling on their heroines. Like most anthologies, it’s a mixed bag. Rosanne Cash’s entry about June Carter Cash is an elegant jewel. Holly George Warren’s love for Wanda Jackson shines through every line. Elysa Gardner’s essay on Taylor Swift made me want to applaud. Ronni Lundy totally gets Hazel Dickens. But the Rita Coolidge piece is incoherent. And I simply did not believe the testimonies of several of these writers. Particularly the ones that pen something like this: I was a New Yorker who loved alt rock, and then I found out about this country female, and she inspired me. A few more Nashville voices would have been welcome. Alice Randall, Wendy Pearl, Gleason and Aubrie Sellers are here, but Juli Thanki, Jewly Hight, Cindy Watts, Kay West, Ann Powers, Beverly Keel and several other worthy Music City journalists are not.
ADVENTURES OF A BALLAD HUNTER
By John A. Lomax (University of Texas Press, $18.95)
This is one of those classic music books that I have always meant to read, but never did. Originally published in 1947, it chronicles the folk song collector’s travels throughout America to find and preserve “Home on the Range,” “Irene Goodnight,” “Midnight Special,” “Git Along Little Dogies,” “Rock Island Line,” “In the Pines” and hundreds of other work songs, lullabies, spirituals, blues songs, fiddle tunes, spirituals, banjo melodies and other American folk music that might otherwise have been lost. I had always assumed that it would read like an “academic” book. It is anything but. It is immensely warm and engaging. Highly recommended.
THESE ARE MY PEOPLE: THE MERLE KILGORE STORY
By Mark Rickert (Writelife Publishing, $17.95)
The flamboyant Merle Kilgore (1935-2005) was a one-of-a-kind, oversized personality. This Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member was a character almost impossible to describe on the printed page. Just about everybody in the music biz has a story about him. Grandson Mark Rickert knows his subject is too big to capture, but he gives it the ol’ college try.
ARMADILLO WORLD HEADQUARTERS
By Eddie Wilson and Jesse Sublett (TSSI Publishing, $34.95)
I don’t know Eddie, but I do know Jesse, and he makes the colorful impresario of the Armadillo jump off the page. By turns rollicking, hilarious, wise and crazy, the story of Eddie and his legendary Austin venue is a real page turner. I would have loved to have been on this trip with this larger-than-life Texas character.
GOING DOWN TO THE RIVER
By Doug Seegers (Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins, $24.99)
Written with Steve Eubanks, this is Doug Seegers’ truly remarkable saga of homelessness, addiction and music redemption. For years, he was a street musician playing for tips on Lower Broadway in Nashville. Seegers performs in a sturdy, hard-country, throwback style that caught the ear of a Swedish documentary movie maker. After the film was shown in Sweden, Seegers and his song “Going Down to the River” went to No. 1 on that country’s charts. The musician tells his harrowing tale in an unsensational, dry, plain-spoken manner that makes it entirely gripping. He’s a walking miracle.
LIVING THE BUSINESS
By Mike Curb with Don Cusic (Brackish Publishing, free online)
The outstanding philanthropist and owner of one of America’s largest, longest lasting independent labels has quite a tale to tell. And it’s loaded with life lessons and show-biz know-how. The book could have used a stronger editor, since there is considerable repetition of its key points. A fact checker would have been useful as well. The title of Glen Campbell’s last Grammy winning song is incorrect. The chronology of Felix Cavaliere’s career is wrong, and there are other factual errors. But this is still an important volume.
GOOD BOOTY
By Ann Powers