There Goes My Everything

Category: News/Obituary 

The first major sad announcement from the world of country music for 2022 came today (January 14) with the news of the passing of Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Dallas Frazier. 

Frazier’s family announced on Facebook that the songwriting legend died this morning from complications of a stroke he suffered late last year.

Dallas June Frazier was born October 27, 1939 in Spiro, Oklahoma.  His parents went to California, landing the youngster in Bakersfield.  There he discovered the fertile ground of the Bakersfield sound, performing when he was just 14.

His first songwriting hit was hardly a country standard:  the Hollywood Argyles’ novelty hit “Alley Oop.”  The road was paved, however, and soon Frazier was writing and performing songs that would last generations.

One of them was another novelty-type song Frazier wrote and recorded in the late 50s:  “Elvira.” That song is now legendary, thanks to the #1 version by the Oak Ridge Boys in 1981. 

Frazier’s composition list reads like a compilation album of country’s greatest hits: “Beneath Still Waters” (Emmylou Harris), “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)” (Charley Pride), “Fourteen Carat Mind” (Gene Watson), and “What’s Your Mama’s Name” (Tanya Tucker).  

In 1967 he received the first “song of the year” award from the CMA for the Jack Greene hit “There Goes My Everything.”  He was also nominated for a Grammy for that tune.  A devoted Christian, Frazier reworked the song into a praise song, “He Is My Everything.”  It was first recorded by Roy Clark on Clark’s gospel album The Magnificent Sanctuary Band.  Jack Greene frequently did “He Is My Everything” after “There Goes My Everything” while performing on the Opry.

In 1988, a dozen years after his induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Frazier walked away from music.  He became a full-time minister at Grace Community Fellowship in White House, Tennessee.

While he should have been in the Country Music Hall of Fame a good 20 years or so ago, that honor, when it comes, will be posthumous.

Farewell to the legendary Dallas Frazier, who was 82.

Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind

Category: News/Obituary

One of the things that has made George Strait such an enduring figure in country music is his ability to find the great songs by the great songwriters.  He did that with "Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind;" and, later, "All My Ex's Live in Texas."

The songwriter responsible for those songs, Sanger D. "Whitey" Shafer, died yesterday (1/12) after an illness.  His wife, Tracy, was at the funeral for her mother when Shafer passed, according to songwriting friend Corey Frizzell's Instagram post.

After serving in the Army, Sanger D. Shafer worked odd jobs and decided, finally, to move to Nashville, home of his favorite type of music.  He met other songwriters, including "Doodle" Owens and Dallas Frazier, and began writing songs.  The first major success was when George Jones recorded "Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are Wrong" in 1970, soon followed by Johnny Russell recording what has since become a country gospel classic, "The Baptism of Jesse Taylor."

A longtime Lefty Frizzell fan, Shafer struck up a friendship with the legendary singer.  Their collaborations included two of the most enduring songs of the 70s: "That's the Way Love Goes" (originally a hit for Johnny Rodriguez), and "I Never Go Around Mirrors," one of Frizzell's final top 40 country hits.

Shafer went through a series of divorces, leading to songs such as "Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind" and "All My Ex's Live in Texas."  George Strait turned both into country gold.  Another one of Sanger's heartbreak songs, "I Wonder Do You Think of Me," was a posthumous hit for Keith Whitley in 1989.

In 1989 Shafer was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters' Hall of Fame.  His songs continued to be covered by the greats, the up-and-comers, the local musicians, and anyone who appreciated a great song.

Whitey Shafer was 84.

Many Blooms Still Linger There

Category: Obituary/News

There are songwriters, then there are songwriters' songwriters.  Jerry Chesnut was a songwriter's songwriter.

Chesnut, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer, died Saturday (12/15) in Nashville.  Music Row reported that Chesnut's death was unexpected despite the fact that he had been suffering from a respiratory illness for some time.

Born in the eastern Kentucky town of Loyall, Jerry Donald Chesnut enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War, then settled in St. Augustine, Florida after his military service.  He worked as a railroad conductor by day and a country music performer by night.  Moving to Nashville in 1958, he continued a day job (vacuum cleaner salesman) while honing his craft.

And hone his craft, he did.  Beginning with "A Dime At a Time," the country music world became Jerry Chesnut's oyster throughout the late 60s and early 70s.  Among the highly-touted songwriters who turned to Chesnut for songs:  Del Reeves (the aforementioned hit and "Looking At the World Through a Windshield"), Bill Anderson ("Don't She Look Good"), Loretta Lynn ("They Don't Make 'Em Like My Daddy"), Johnny Cash ("Oney"), and Mel Tillis ("Best Way I Know How").

Then there was that little song about a man's world falling apart while the garden maintained its beauty:  "A Good Year for the Roses."  George Jones made the song a #2 smash in 1970 and set the stage for others, ranging from punk icon Elvis Costello to country outlaw Johnny Paycheck, to cover the tune.  "A Good Year for the Roses" is a powerful song of heartbreak ("many blooms still linger there, the lawn could stand another mowing, funny how I don't even care") and ranks right up there with "He Stopped Loving Her Today" as one of Jones' finest rip-your-heart-out sad songs.

Chesnut also penned another heartbreaking classic, Faron Young's later-era hit "It's Four in the Morning."  And, just to prove he wasn't solely a heartbreak song man, Chesnut penned the rocking "T-R-O-U-B-L-E," a hit for Elvis Presley in the 70s and Travis Tritt in the 90s.

Chesnut retired from songwriting in the early 1980s but would occasionally still perform.  He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2004, the second induction class for the state's music hall of fame.

Jerry Chesnut was 87.

Kenny O'Dell Dies

Category: News/Obituary

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Kenny O'Dell died Tuesday (3/27) in a suburban Nashville healthcare facility.

Born Kenneth Guy Gist, Jr. in 1944, O'Dell changed his name because of the difficulty people had pronouncing his real last name.  His interest in songwriting began early, writing songs while he was still in grade school.  Moving to Nashville in the late 60s, he recorded three albums of his own music, with his biggest hit as a singer being 1978's "Let's Shake Hands and Come Out Lovin'."

As a songwriter, however, O'Dell attained legendary status in 1973...thanks to Watergate.  He told the Nashville Tennessean in 2017 that he kept hearing about Congressional hearings related to the Watergate scandal being held in secret.  "They're always talking about how no one knows what goes on behind closed doors," O'Dell told Bart Herbison.  "And I'm thinking, I like the title 'Behind Closed Doors.'"

O'Dell played rhythm guitar on Charlie Rich's recording of the song, which became a chart-topping smash in country and pop.  The song won the "Country Song of the Year" Grammy award for the year, as well as the "Song of the Year" award in both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music awards presentations.

His other massive songwriting success -- earning him a BMI "Country Song of the Year" award and a Grammy nomination -- was "Mama, He's Crazy," one of the biggest hits in the career of the Judds.  Additionally, O'Dell wrote or co-wrote other hits such as "Lizzy and the Rainman" (Tanya Tucker), "I Take It on Home" (Charlie Rich), and "Trouble in Paradise" (Loretta Lynn).

O'Dell was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1996.  His wife, Corki Casey O'Dell, was a Musicians Hall of Fame guitarist.  She passed away last year.

Kenny O'Dell was 73.

'Neath the Shade of The Old Oak Tree

Category: News/Obituary

And yet again we mourn as another legend passes.

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Curly Putman died Sunday (10/30) in Lebanon, Tennessee (a suburb of Nashville) after a lengthy illness.

Claude Putman Jr. was born in Alabama and served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge in the Navy.  Nicknamed "Junior" and later "Curly," Putman moved to Nashville in 1964 and was discovered by Roger Miller.  Miller introduced him to Tree Publishing executive Buddy Killen, who signed Putman as a song plugger and a songwriter.

And oh, did he write songs.  In 1966 his mournful ballad "Green, Green Grass of Home" was a huge hit in country for Porter Wagoner and in pop for Tom Jones.  The brilliant story song was about a man celebrating his lovely hometown and his girlfriend only to awaken and discover that he was dreaming because he is a condemned man, getting ready to die at daybreak.  At the conclusion of the song the man promises, "They'll all come to see me 'neath the shade of the old oak tree as they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home."

If that wasn't powerful enough a song to unleash on country music, Putman also co-wrote (with Bobby Braddock) what many consider THE definitive sad song in country music:  "He Stopped Loving Her Today."  Braddock, the subject of a "Poets and Prophets" interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame in the mid-2000s, detailed how Putman helped on another classic song, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," saying that Putman told Braddock no one was interested in a song that sad with such an upbeat tempo and suggested that Braddock slow the song down.  In return for the advice, Braddock listed Putman as co-writer.

Putman was great at story songs, many with a sad twist (such as Tanya Tucker's "Blood Red and Going Down," about a girl who is dragged along by her father on a vengeful hunt for the cheating wife, and the David Houston/Tammy Wynette duet "My Elusive Dreams," about a man who keeps the family moving and endures the death of their child).  He also gave us songs such as Dolly Parton's breakout hit "Dumb Blonde" and T.G. Sheppard's "War Is Hell (On the Homefront, Too)."

Curly Putman also bears the distinction of being one of the very few, if not the only, country music songwriter to be the subject of a rock song.  In 1974 Paul and Linda McCartney and their children visited Nashville for a recording session and stayed at Putman's farm.  In celebration of his time there, McCartney named "Junior's Farm" after Putman.  (That recording session in Nashville also yielded a minor country hit for McCartney, "Sally G.")

Putman was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976.  Sadly, his deserved Country Music Hall of Fame induction, when it comes, will have to be posthumous.

Farewell to Curly Putman, who was 85.