Paying Your Dues Is Never Overrated

Paying your dues is what you do to get to your final goal.
Paying your dues often leads to heart break.
Paying your dues often leads to your dream job.
Whatever it takes right?

When I moved here in early 1986 I immediately got a job at Target on White Bridge Road unloading trucks. I also worked at a local mom and pop video rental store in Green Hills long before BlockBuster and all the other video chains. And I was also a bar back at Applebees on Elliston which is now a Hampton Inn. At that time my main goal was not to go running back home with my tail between my legs complaining that things just didn't work out for me. That's the last thing I wanted to do.
I was hanging with my amazing friend singer songwriter Kevin Welch who had introduced me to other amazing songwriting musicians like Gary Nicholson, Mike Henderson, Wally Wilson, Gail Davies, Pam Tillis and a few others. Kevin took me under his wing. It was amazing that I was able to hang in this circle. I took nothing for granted. I worked my shifts and went out where these guys were hanging, singing and playing as much as I could. I wanted to be in their world real bad. I eventually played with Pam Tillis in her band long before she got her Arista records deal that made her famous. That gig led to the Marty Haggard gig which started a snowball of gigs for me that would be my life until 1995 when I got off the Tracy Lawrence bus to work A&R for Columbia Records.
Kevin also introduced me to a new band at the time called Sweethearts of the Rodeo. 2 singing sisters that had just gotten a deal on Columbia Records. One of the sisters was married to Vince Gill at the time. They were having auditions to kick off their first tour to start promoting the new record. I managed to get in on it and went thru the process and got the gig. I quit my real job gigs. We rehearsed 2 full days at S.I.R. to get the show in place to hit the road. It was my first big time gig. They had just been offered 25 opening dates with Willie Nelson and the first gig was in Cleveland Oh that coming weekend. I was freaking out to say the least. Having grown up on Willie back home in Texas I couldn't wait to meet him and eventually tell him about all the times I saw him growing up. I told all my friends and family back home that I landed my dream gig.
So after our 2nd full day of rehearsal I drove back to my garage apartment to start packing. We were leaving that night at midnight. About an hour later there was a knock at my door. It was the Sweethearts manager Chuck Flood.  He had his hat in one hand and an envelope in the other. He asked to come in at which time he started to explain to me that the girls had changed their minds about me and had decided to take Vince Gills drummer out and didn't need my services. He handed me the envelope that had a check in it for my troubles of going thru the rehearsals and left. My world came crashing down around me. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. What was I gonna tell my friends and family back home? They were so excited for me. It was devastating to say the least. To say I cried that night is an understatement. I was heart broken.
I woke the next morning and drove back to the Target and asked for my job back. My dream was not over and I was not going to let that knock me down. Don't get me wrong. It hurt, It hurt a lot. I just had to learn to get back up after I got sucker punched and knocked across the room. That's what it felt like. The manager at Target said I could come back the next morning. I'm sure he had seen my movie before. I walked in the next day to my old gang and they were all cracking up at my misfortune as any guys would do. Since I was new again on the line they made me crawl all the way to the front of the truck and start throwing boxes on the conveyer belt.  We had some spot lights that we would hang in the truck so we could see up toward the front so I asked for some light up in there because I couldn't see way up there in the dark.  I'll never forget this as long as I live.  One of the guys said to me, "Here you go rockstar, this is the only spotlight you're ever gonna see!" I swear I felt an arrow ram though my chest but I sucked it up and finally made it out of that store and never looked back.
So how bad do you want it? Bad enough to hurt like never before? That's what its about because when you get what you want. When you get what makes you complete. Then...

Paying Your Dues Is Never Over Rated.

RAMBLIN' FEVER

Caught this ramblin' fever long ago,
When I first heard a lonesome whistle blow.
If someone said I ever gave a damn,
Man, they damn sure told you wrong.
I've had ramblin' fever all along.

October 1st 1971 I saw Merle Haggard the first time at the South Plains Fair in Lubbock Texas. My dad took the whole family to see him. Tickets were $2.50, $3.50 and $4.50. All reserved seats. I was 9 years old. I remember being there. I remember seeing him.
By 1971 he already had 11 number one songs.  He was already the CMA and ACM's Entertainer of the Year and was riding high on Album of the year with "Okie From Muskogee." I also remember how amazing that audience sounded. That's when I fell in love with the sound of applause. There's nothing like it.
When I was playing drums for Tracy Lawrence in '93 '94 and '95 and he was selling out 16 thousand seat areas, there was nothing more amazing to me than feeling the wave of applause noise that would wash over us as we kick off hit after hit. It was my job to count us in on every song and I remember waiting till the perfect time right before it dies down and then counting us back in and how it would literally start from the back of the room and come right over us on stage. Amazing feeling! I miss that so much.

They say you should never really ever meet your heroes because they will let you down. I was lucky enough to be able to meet Merle one time. Well I didn't really meet him but I was at his house in California with his son Marty Haggard when I played drums for Marty in the late 80's. We had been there for a while and Marty kept saying he was going to come down to the game room where we had all gathered and hang with us. We got to the house mid afternoon. It was way past midnight when he finally came into the room. He walked in with a guitar and sat down on some stairs that lead into the room and started playing for us. Literally a private acoustic concert with a Hall of Fame Country Music Legend. He played songs I had never heard before. Non of the hits. 30 mins later he was gone. No words were spoken. We were all in shock basically. We plugged the juke box back in and started shooting pool again. An hour later we decided it was time to go so we headed out. The sun was coming up and we had a gig that night somewhere outside of Bakersfield. We were all standing on the front porch waiting for Marty to say goodbye to him when they both walked out and stood on the porch with us.  He didn't say much but I do remember he was kind and cool and funny. We finally said goodbye to him and he smiled and flicked a non-filtered Camel out onto the driveway and slipped back in the house. When we all walked out to the Van we were driving I bent over and grabbed his cigarette and put it in a safe place. I still have it in a box put away.
I saw Merle a few night ago at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville Tn. It was built in 1843. It was the original Grand Ole Opry from 1943-1974. The perfect place to hear a country legend. He was having fun. Sang all his hits. Looked great! He had his cool white cowboy hat on and his white ostrich boots. The band was perfect. The audience sounded like 1971 in the walls of the mother church. I was 9 years old again.
I miss playing music, I miss touring. I miss the sound of the bus tires on the highway. I miss the hotels. I miss the band. I miss the applause.

Ramblin' fever,
The kind that can't be measured by degrees.
Ramblin' fever,
There ain't no kind of cure for my disease.
 

Every Tom, Dick and Bubba!

Other than Music I love the game of Golf. I've been playing the game since I was in High School. I love everything about it. My son Cooper played a ton when he was a kid in many Jr. tournaments. We traveled everywhere to watch him compete. I taught him the game. I've seen him pull off a few hole in ones and some "Bubba Shots" that were amazing. I really believe it's what the new generation does more than just solid basic shots from the fairway. They are way more creative than the old school guys were. I used to watch all these kids Coop hung out with and they would try and out do each other with trick shots. Coop used to love to hit out of the woods and over trees and any obstacles. It was more fun for them.
I'm a Bubba Watson fan. More so now not because he won The Masters but because of the way he reacted to the win. No Ego, cockiness or arrogance. Just sweet surprise and humility. Plus he never took a golf lesson!
What I'm not a fan of is I get this bad feeling that everybody now is gonna think that they can play golf just because Bubba can. They will get in their heads that they do not have to take lessons and that someday they too will be able to win The Masters. That they can just step on any course and play. I can only guess what this will do to golf courses around the U.S. It's hard enough to play a decent round these days without being held up by the hackers. Now this! My big fear is now all golf courses will be filled with every Tom, Dick and Bubba that think they to can play.

FORE!!!!!

The Will To Win

The will to win starts long before you do. You have to set yourself up to win. You have to take chances, reach for the stars, go for the gusto. Its the steps you take that put you in that position. It's reluctantly, fearlessly, never saying never!

I've put myself in position to win many times. I didn't always win but I was in the game. Sometimes that's just as much fun. No matter what you do. It's fun to be in the game. I actually joke around my office about it a lot. I make fun of the fact that at my age I'm still in it. Still going for it. I'm still in the game.
Music is my game. What's yours?

I've been to The Masters 4 times in my life now.  Its supposed to be the hardest ticket to get. But yet I've managed to be there because I put myself in position to get there. Twice on Sunday!

I've been watching The Masters all weekend. It's my favorite golf tournament of the year. Just the pure tradition alone makes it fun to watch. Today a guy named Bubba won in dramatic fashion on the 2nd playoff hole. Bubba Watson never took a golf lesson. That's right,  he never took a golf lesson. He just put himself in position to win and had

The Will To Win!

What's Your MPH?

How many miles can you get out of your heart?
How fast and slow can you go?
What gets you going to the point you're not looking back.
You're not giving up!

In sports they sometimes say he/she won the battle because they had heart.
I think heart trumps guts and strength.
 
Where do you get your heart filled up? 
Who gets you going?
What gets you going?
What inspires you?
Do you go after it?
Do you conquer?
Are you scared?
Do you crumble?
Do you win...or lose?
Do you have what it takes?

So How many miles can you get out of your heart?

What's Your MPH? 

Liner Notes Were My Google

Produced by Chip Young! 
That's what I read on the back of the first Joe Ely album I bought the summer before my freshman year 1977. My good friend Kelly Turner turned me on to Joe. It changed my life. Every musician has their genesis moment. It's whatever initially inspires you to action. That was mine. The moment where I went from dancing to music to figuring out lyrics meant something. It turned me into a liner notes freak.


Liner notes varied from simply being advertisement to containing the lyrics (this was common from the late '60's on). Sometimes they contained basic recording information or messages from and biographies of the artist(s).  

They were my library, my Google!


Warning! This music contains no overdubbing, no electronic gadgetry, no gimmicks and no bullshit! 
That's what I read on the back of the album "At Last" by The Bugs Henderson Group.  It was 1978, I was 16 and a sophomore at Floydada High School in Floydada Tx. Bugs was a blues guitar slinger from Dallas that would come thru Lubbock at least 2 times a year. Amazing Texas Road House Blues.


Produced by Barry Beckett Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.  I read Barry's name on the back of The Jealous Kind by Delbert McClinton in 1980. Little did I know I would play on a Lionel Cartwright record years later in Nashville and Barry would be the producer! Are you kidding! These people are real? I couldn't believe it! 


Written by John Scott Sherrill.
Printed under cut # 1 "Wild and Blue" - On the Warner Bros Album by the same title for John Anderson. I worked with and pitched John Scott's catalog at Sony Tree Music Publishing years later. 

Piano - Byron Gallimore  
His name was included with the list of musicians on the 1984 RCA Charlie Pride record "Power of Love" that I bought 2 years before I moved to Nashville. Byron ran Charlie Prides studio on Music Row.
I did a session for a guy named Shane Decker in 1991 that Byron produced that also included Brett Beavers and Deryl Dodd on bass and electric guitar. Brett and I started our indie publishing company that day behind Pride Music Group on a hand shake deal.  Deryl and I later played in the Tracy Lawrence band. Chip Young also produced Deryl's record when I was at Columbia Records doing A&R. I revealed to Chip when I met him that his Joe Ely record had changed my life and eventually lead me to Nashville. He just smiled at me.  
Byron later cut the Beavers/Dodd co-write The Great Divide on Tim McGraw. Brett and I owned that song. Brett played me that song the day we met at Prides studio. 

My liner notes were coming to life!


Mastered by Bobby Hata at Amigo Studio
Recorded and Mixed at Pecan Street Studios Austin Texas - Joe Ely's Musta Notta Gotta Lotta 
Stevie Ray Vaughn - first guitar solo on Soulful Dress - Marcia Ball's Soulful Dress 
Liberty Devitto - drums  - Billy Joel's An Innocent Man. I've been working helping produce a film about drummers and we recently shot Liberty for the film. Crazy Surreal!
Caribou Ranch - Studio in Colorado where Chicago, Joe Walsh, Elton John and many others cut records.I wanted to work here real bad.
Cover illustration – Paul Milosevich - Joe Ely's first record.
The Power Station - studio on west 53rd in NYC. I later worked for Gibson Guitars and their NYC showroom is in the original building where this studio was.


I could go on and on and on. I have so many connecting stories with Liner Notes. It blows my mind.
I just literally read the liner notes and followed my dream.

Liner notes were my Google!