WHEN THE GODS DO YOUR SONGS
I have about the most amazing life you can imagine. An incredibly amazing woman that endures me, allows me to be around her, an absolutey wonderful Canine that adopted me, and is with me about every step, two really amazing kids who are pretty grown up but every day prove how really adaptable they are to their lives, and an amazing group of friends, associates and aquaintances that make my life unbeliveable.
And on a daily basis, I am involved with, producing, writing, arranging, developing, discussing, and promoting the craft of songwriting, the practical application of the music business, and the art of staying alive doing what you love to do. I am truely my Father's son, who said "Figure out what you love to do, then figure out how to make it pay for you." I did GRB. Thanks.
In a life that you are always moving forward, sometimes it is easy to miss things in the past, or things that are all around you. With the passing of Robin Williams, who I did meet one time in Los Angeles, and the shock that surrounded all that, I wanted to always make sure that I let people know how much I appreciate them. A good thing to remember.
While I popped awake at 3:30 this morning, I checked Facebook and found this. It is a video from my friend and one of my heroes, THOM BRESH. Thom is one of those GODS, we get to get near sometimes. He is the son of Merle Travis, one of the world's greatest guitarists, inventor of the "Thumb picking method", and writer of SIXTEEN TONS, one of my favorite songs that I recorded once. So he has an amazing legacy. But what is astounding about Thom is his own guitar style, which, like his father is a hammer thumb approach. He is extrodinary.
He travels all over, particularly Europe, and is known as a "guitar legend." He was one of Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed's favorite guitarists, has played all over, the Opry, has been featured in documentaries, magazines, and many other accolades. I met him through my friend and fellow amazing person, Lisa Carver, when they dated for a while in the early 2000's. They were around the Frank Brown festival, and I spent several nights, watching late night shows that would simply leave your jaw on the floor. This guy can pick. He is also a pretty damn good songwriter, weaving his unique style in with great lyrics. We played a few songs in guitar pulls and I thnk that is where he heard this song:
THE GRAND OPENING (THE ZIPPER SONG)
This was the one that started out pretty much everything for me. And while I get all the credit for it, it actually first belonged to someone else. RON MUIR, was a man I met during a songwriter's meeting where he played this song, something he had written during his years in Nashville. It was amazing, and I was enamored by it and him. Over the next few months, Ron taught me the finer points of writing for Nashville. We wrote a lot of songs, he took me to Nashville, and produced my first project. And one of the first songs, was this one. My contribution, was adapting it to my style, replacing a few words that didnt' seem relevant. But he was the one who really wrote this. I was adapting. But he included me as a writer on it. I was quite frankly amazed, but accepted gratefully.
That song opened almost every door for me. Doing it on that first writers night in Nashville, at Douglas corner, at a quarter to one in the morning, it made the connection, that got our song, THAT;S WHERE IT HURTS, (written with us and my Dad) to be discovered by Greg Dorshall, who took it to Dan Wilson at Tree Publishing, hit producer Billy Sherril, who took it and recorded it on SHELBY LYNNE, who included it in their contribution to WILLIE NELSON/KRIS KRISTOFFERSON;S MOVIE, ANOTHER PAIR OF ACES. And my Dad was able to see his hero, Willie, two step to his song. Not a pretty sight.
But it became a crowd (and musician favorite). And I was able to take it to places Ron never could. Have played it all over the world, Canada, Belgium, in almost every state, it has become a mainstay in many of my concerts. For a funny song, it has a lot of legs.
But sometimes even I have to hand things off.
When I first found out THOM BRESH was doing it, I got a YOU TUBE video that he had done at the NAMM show in Los Angeles. He is endorsed by multiple instrument and product manufacturers, and so it is quite the honor to have something of yours continue on. His version, of course, is very different from mine, which is different from Ron's, but that is what music is about. A great song should hold up to all of them. And I think this is a great song. Over the past few years, I have been able to hear Thom do this in a bunch of situations. Last year at Frank Brown, he did it just for me in front of a packed audience at the Florabama during Frank Brown. It kills even me. I know the words but still laugh my butt off. Not bad for a thirty plus year old song.
So this morning when I ran across this new video from Thom,who is on a house concert tour of the midwest, I was very pleased. It reminded me of how far some things go and you just miss them. I am so proud and lucky that this and many things I do extend far past me. It speaks to the power of music, and how we all have a part to play in songs, songwriters, artists, and people's lives.
Thought you might like to see it:
MAB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tHIZFYsfMs&feature=youtu.be