Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

Named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, Dann Penn’s impact on the Southern music triangle of Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and Nashville cannot be overstated. In the 1960s he teamed with Chips Moman to create two of Southern soul’s most revered standards: “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” which was recorded by Aretha Franklin, and “The Dark End of the Street,” which was first cut by James Carr. Along with his frequent collaborator, Spooner Oldham, Penn has crafted R&B classics such as James and Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet,” Otis Redding’s “You Left the Water Running,” Percy Sledge’s “It Tears Me Up” and “Out of Left Field,” Solomon Burke’s “Take Me (Just As I Am),” and The Sweet Inspirations’ “Sweet Inspiration.” Additionally, the pair found pop success with Janis Joplin’s recording of “A Woman Left Lonely,” as well as hits such as “Cry Like a Baby” and “I Met Her in Church” that were recorded by The Box Tops, who first broke through to national prominence with the Penn-produced hit “The Letter.” Other artists who’ve recorded songs from the Dan Penn songbook include  Bobby “Blue” Bland,  Jerry Lee Lewis, Clarence Carter, Joe Cocker, Cher, Arthur Alexander, Ruth Brown, Irma Thomas, Bobby Womack, Esther Phillips, Joe Tex, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Gregg Allman, Etta James, Dionne Warwick, Brenda Lee, Willie Nelson, Patti LaBelle, Elvis Costello, Buddy Guy, Arthur Conley, Sam & Dave, Elton John, Wilson Pickett, Roger McGuinn, John Prine, and many more. 

Emi Sunshine is a 13-year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist who first came to prominence in 2014 after a video of her performance at a flea market in her native East Tennessee went viral. Emi, who was 9 at the time, was invited to perform on The Today Show with her family band. Since then, she has released several albums, built up a catalog of over 100 original songs, and has performed on the stage of the legendary Grand Ole Opry over a dozen times.  Influenced by Americana, bluegrass, and Appalachian roots music, Emi has performed alongside personal heroes such as Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, and others. Though steeped in musical traditions of the past, Emi is bringing her music to a new generation. With over a half million Facebook followers and millions of YouTube views, she’s introducing the deepest roots of America’s music to her own generation. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “EmiSunshine is no tween novelty. Emi is a throwback to earlier eras of country music. With a sharp Appalachian streak in her voice, she's a strikingly powerful vocalist with potent phrasing.”  Her brand new album, Ragged Dreams, features 15 original songs produced by Emi and available now on Little Blackbird Records.

Revered by those in the know, David Olney is a prolific master craftsman who The Los Angeles Times once called “the best songwriter you’ve never heard of,” and about whom the San Francisco Chronicle observed, “In the tradition of Johnny Cash and Tom Waits, Olney has become a pioneer of the Americana music scene.” David was one of the few rockers to emerge from Nashville in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, where he launched his career with The X-Rays, who are best remembered for an appearance on the televised Austin City Limits. He went on to transform himself into a folk-infused singer/songwriter with a rootsy rock edge, releasing more than two dozen solo albums since 1986. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Emmylou Harris, who cut “Jerusalem Tomorrow,” “Deeper Well,” and “1917.” The latter was a duet with Linda Ronstadt, who also recorded her take on David’s “Women Across the River,” a song that’s also been covered by The Band’s Rick Danko. Other artists who’ve drawn from the Olney songbook include Del McCoury, who recorded “Queen Anne’s Lace” and Connie Britton, who recorded “Postcards From Mexico” for the hit television series, Nashville. The late great Towns Van Zant once wrote, “Anytime anyone asks me who my favorite music writers are, I say Mozart, Lightnin' Hopkins, Bob Dylan, and Dave Olney." David’s most recent album is called Don’t Try to Fight It, and he can been seen performing and discussing songs every Tuesday on his live stream cast called You Never Know at DavidOlney.com.        

One of the great tales of songwriting history is the story of Dr. Nadel and Mr. Starr. Dr. Warren Nadel was a successful New York dentist who maintained a dual career as Randy Starr, best known for writing and recording the Billboard Top 40 pop hit, “After School.” He appeared on American Bandstand several times and went on to co-write the instrumental hit “The Enchanted Sea,” which became a charting single for both The Islanders and Martin Denny. He wrote or co-wrote a dozen songs that appeared in Elvis Presley films, including the charting singles “Kissin’ Cousins” and “Almost in Love.” Additionally, his songs have been recorded by Jackie Wilson, Chet Atkins, Kay Starr, Connie Smith, George Hamilton IV, Connie Francis, the Kingston Trio, and many others.

Hugh Prestwood has written twenty charting singles on the Billboard rankings, including eight Top 10 hits. He began his professional career as a folk singer/songwriter in Greenwich Village in the 1970s before finding commercial success as a writer when Judy Collins began recording his songs toward the end of the decade. In the 1980s he appeared on the country charts with the #1 singles “The Sound of Goodbye” by Crystal Gayle and “The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulder” by Michael Johnson. By the following decade Prestwood was regularly topping the charts with titles such as Randy Travis’ “Hard Rock Bottom Of Your Heart,” which earned him the BMI Country Song of the Year Award. Similarly, Trisha Yearwood’s recording of “The Song Remembers When” earned him NSAI’s Song of the Year honors and an Emmy award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics. Other artists who’ve recording his songs include Alison Krauss, Anne Murray, Conway Twitty, Shelby Lynne, John Conlee, Barbara Mandrell, Gene Watson, The Judds, Lee Greenwood, Tanya Tucker, Alison Krauss, Jimmy Buffet, Sammy Kershaw, Don Williams, Kristin Chenoweth, Vern Gosdin, Kathy Mattea, and Collin Raye, who took the song “On the Verge” to the top of the charts in 1997. Hugh recently released his first full-length album as an artist, I Used to Be the Real Me, on Judy Collins’ Wildflower Records. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006. 

Tom T. Hall was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Known as “The Storyteller,” the Grammy winner landed 35 songs in the Top 10 on Billboard’s country chart between 1965 and 1996. Many of those featured Hall as both writer and artist, including “Homecoming,” “Me and Jesus,” “Ravishing Ruby,” “That Song is Driving Me Crazy,” “I Like Beer,” and the #1 hits “A Week in a County Jail,” “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died,” “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine,” “Country Is,” “I Care,” “Faster Horses (The Cowboy and the Poet),” and “I Love,” which also became a hit on the pop chart.   Tom T. Hall songs that hit the Top 5 for other artists include “Hello Vietnam” by Johnny Wright, “How I Got to Memphis” and “(Margie’s at) The Lincoln Park Inn” by Bobby Bare, “If I Ever Fall in Love (With a Honky Tonk Girl)” by Faron Young, “Pool Shark” by Dave Dudley, “You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me)” by Johnny Rodriguez, “I’m Not Ready Yet” by George Jones, “Little Bitty” by Alan Jackson, and “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” which Jeannie C. Riley took to the #1 spot on both the country and pop chart, making her the first woman to achieve that feat.    Hall was named NSAI Songwriter of the Year in 1972, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978, joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008, was honored with the Academy of Country Music’s Poet’s Award in 2010, and earned the prestigious BMI Icon award in 2012. 

Austrian musician, film composer, producer, and screenwriter Harald Kloser began his career in Europe playing in a band and collaborating with pop artists such as Falco. As a musician he appeared on recording projects by Tom Waits, Jose Feliciano, Elton John, Al Jarreau, and others. After a career scoring for television, Harald eventually broke through to national prominence with his work on Alien vs. Predator and the sci-fi disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. Both films were directed by Roland Emmerich, with whom Kloser went on to work on 10,000 B.C. and 2012, starring John Cusack. Though the two films were scored by Harald, he also co-wrote the scripts with Emmerich. In addition to creating the score for the movie Anonymous, Harald served as both composer and film producer on the recent hits White House Down, starring Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, and Independence Day: Resurgence, starring Liam Hemsworth and Jeff Goldblum. He has won three BMI Film & TV Awards for Alien vs. Predator, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012. 

Singer/songwriter Rory Feek has written multiple #1 country hits for other artists, including Collin Raye's "Someone You Used to Know,” Clay Walker's "The Chain of Love," Blake Shelton’s “Some Beach,” and Easton Corbin’s “A Little More Country Than That.” Other songs from his catalog that have landed in the Top 20 are Tracy Byrd’s “The Truth About Men,” Blaine Larsen’s “How Do You Get That Lonely,” and Jimmy Wayne’s “I Will.” Additionally, his songs have been recorded by Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, Mark Wills, Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride, The Oak Ridge Boys, John Michael Montgomery, Terri Clark, and Lorrie Morgan. In 2008 Rory formed the duo Joey + Rory with his wife, Joey Martin Feek, for the CMT show Can You Duet. Their popularity led to an ACM award for Top New Vocal Duo of the Year, their own TV show, eight successful albums, and a handful of charting singles, including the self-penned songs “Cheater Cheater” and “That’s Important to Me.” Rory’s identity as a storyteller extends beyond his songs to include screenplays, TV scripts, and a popular blog, which earned a loyal following as he shared his family’s pain, triumphs, fears, and deep personal faith during Joey’s battle with terminal cervical cancer. The duo’s final album, Hymns That Are Important to Us, was released in 2016, less than a month before Joey passed away at age 40. It debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart, was certified Gold, and earned the duo a Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album. Rory’s memoir, This Life I Live, chronicles his spiritual journey, his love story with Joey, and his disarmingly vulnerable musings on his role in what he calls “God’s larger story.”

Legendary songwriter Mark James is best known for writing the perennial standards “Always On My Mind” and “Suspicious Minds,” the latter earning induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame and named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the Greatest Songs of All Time. Both compositions were originally hits for Elvis Presley, who recorded additional charting singles by James, including “Moody Blue,” “Raised on Rock,” and “It’s Only Love.” Mark’s initial success came with B.J. Thomas, who hit the charts with his songs “The Eyes of a New York Woman,” “Everybody Loves a Rain Song,” and the Top 5 single “Hooked on a Feeling,” which was revived as a #1 hit by Blue Swede in 1974 and was prominently featured in the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy. Additional hits from the Mark James songbook include Brenda Lee’s Top 10 country single “Sunday Sunrise” and previous Songcraft guest Mac Davis’s Top 10 pop single, “One Hell of a Woman.” Mark found his greatest success with Willie Nelson’s revival of “Always On My Mind” in 1982. The record hit #1 on the country chart, became a Top 5 pop single, won BMI Song of the Year, earned CMA Song of the Year two years in a row, and was awarded a Grammy for both Best Country Song and Song of the Year. Other artists who’ve recorded Mark’s material include The Box Tops, Percy Sledge, Lou Rawls, Pet Shop Boys, Julio Iglesias, Helen Reddy, Waylon Jennings, Fine Young Cannibals, Dwight Yoakam, Phish, and Martina McBride. In 2000, BMI named Mark one of the top Songwriters of the Century. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.

Dickey Lee’s early artist career found him scoring pop and R&B hits in the 1960s with songs such as “Patches” and the self-penned single “I Saw Linda Yesterday.” He went on to record seventeen Top 40 country singles, including the major hits “9,999,999 Tears” and “Rocky,” which hit #1 in 1975. Lee is best known, however, for writing “She Thinks I Still Care,” which George Jones took to the #1 spot on the Billboard country chart in 1962. The song has since been covered by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Little Willie John, Connie Francis, Merle Haggard, James Taylor, Harry Connick, Jr., Cher, Anne Murray, and Garth Brooks. Dickey has written an additional half dozen #1 country hits, including “I’ll Be Leaving Alone” for Charley Pride, “You’re The First Time I’ve Thought About Leaving” for Reba McEntire, “Let’s Fall to Pieces Together” for George Strait, and “In a Different Light” for Doug Stone. His long list of additional hits includes Emmylou Harris’ “Someone Like You” and Tracy Byrd’s “Keeper of the Stars,” which won the Academy of Country Music’s Song of the Year award. Other artists who’ve recorded his songs include Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, Marty Robbins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty, Don Williams, Glen Campbell, John Fogerty, Waylon Jennings, Joe Cocker, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Jamey Johnson, and Keb’ Mo’. Ten of Dickey’s songs have earned BMI Performance Awards, and he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1995.