Music Path

World Class drummer, WS Holland provided a steady beat and a sober hand for Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, on stage and off.  A bear of a man with love in his heart, he tells us about his life on the road, from Jackson, TN.

America’s roots music preservation begins with a screen door slam, a beer and a plate of BBQ.  Aubrey Preston’s one-man mission to save America’s music culture, its historic buildings, shacks and stories is an international movement to provide an accurate guide for visitors from foreign lands. .. searchers from the British Isles, France or Sweden on their own Music Path. Now reaching around the world on the web, www.americanamusictriangle.com provides hype-free, authentic exposure for people and places you’d never hear of, with a significant role in America’s music. That means fewer French Canadians lost, looking for Sonny Boy Williamson’s grave or that couple from Copenhagen finds Clarksdale, Mississippi more easily. It’s organically grown, grass roots tourism. Aubrey tells us a world history from a magic place, a triangle with a driving beat heard around the world.

Deborah Allen is a Memphis Girl who woke up one morning in Elvis’s bed with a dream to perform and then lived that dream. With major record deals she wrote and recorded in Nashville, New York and Los Angeles. She lives in Nashville, surrounded by friends, writers and performers. She’s married to Raymond Hicks.

Dave Pomeroy, AFM Leader, named in 1991 Studio Musician of the Year, is a muscian's rights advocate. He's played electric and acoustic base on more than 500 albums in his more than 33 years in Nashville. Dave has established himself as a world class bassist, performer, wrtiter and producer.

Andy Marshall built a business from Tennessee’s most precious natural resource. It's a story of a grocery that became a restaurant that became an important music venue. His affinity for songwriters and performers and their opportunity to engage and connect with their audience, at Puckett’s Grocery, is magic! You hear the story behind the song, but even better, you meet the writer/performer up close and personal… with great food and drink.

Richie Albright tells us about meeting, playing and sharing a musical ride with Waylon Jennings. As Waylon’s drummer from the first Chet Atkins produced album, to the last one, "Never Say Die", Live from the Ryman Auditorium.Along the way we hear about the Dukes of Hazard, Daisy and a musical admission of guilt -- for a fan base that’s still out there listening to the outlaw.

If you listened to Episode 6 you already heard how Ricky Ray came to music and Nashville from the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama. He tells us what he knows about the trees that become guitars and the guitars that become priceless classics of sound reproduction, and a guitar he bought for a friend from the same tree as Trigger. They sing Ricky’s song old guitar to close the show.

Ricky Ray is an accomplished musician, living, writing, producing, and thriving in the music industry in Nashville, Tennessee. His first fuzzy memory is a guitar on his granny’s lap, being played slide with a butter knife. Forty years ago he drove his red 1966 pickup truck from Alabama to Centennial Park in Nashville. Initially, that was his home while he began exploring Music Row during the day and meeting other musicians and performers at night. After 2 years on the road with Tom T Hall, he joined Don Gant, starting Old Friends, Golden Bridges Publishing. He played with a 13 piece band, The Nerve, selling out 4 nights a week, for almost 8 years, but Music City in the late 70’s recorded country music, not whatever this was. No one knew what to do with the Nerve other than celebrate it. His grandmother, who first showed him the guitar, shows him the angels where the music comes from, as her last act.

The Perkins Brothers Band, was formed when Carl Perkins asked his brothers Jay and Clayton, to form a band with him in Jackson Tennessee. In this Episode Carl shares his childhood dream of success in music and his first meeting with Sam Phillips at Sun Records. When Carl met Elvis they discovered they shared a favorite music artist, Bill Monroe. You’ll hear a song from Carl that you’ve never heard performed live or on record, but more important, you’ll get an insight into what made Carl Perkins… Carl Perkins.

James Fron “Sonny” Throckmorton is an American country music singer songwriter who grew up in Texas.  When he came to Nashville and signed with Tree Publishing (Sony ATV), he was fired after none of his songs became hits. He returned to Texas, leaving his catalog of songs and demos behind, but within 9 months, 170 of this songs were recorded, were hits and he was rehired by Tree.  Sonny has more than 1,000 of his songs recorded by various country singers.  He’s a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and was awarded Songwriter of the Year for 3 consecutive years. He credits Don Gant, who left Tree Publishing with creating an atmosphere where he and other songwriters could flourish. Sonny tells us about growing up an evangelist’s son, riding from one revival to another.  He remembers his first song and how it help show him how to write to touch the heart.

John Lee Curtis “Sonny Boy” Williamson grew up in Jackson, TN. He introduced the harmonica as a solo instrument for blues performers and electrified its sound with a $200 public address amplifier. Billy Boy Arnold met Sonny Boy and asked him to teach him to play the harmonica. Before Sonny Boy was killed in Chicago, he taught the eleven year old Bill Boy to play, bending notes and inhaling through the instrument to provide breath to sing and play simultaneously. Billy Boy relates his memories, his visits to Sonny Boy’s house and beginning a life-long career and a blues harmonica player himself.

In 1962 it was unusual to have an international hit record. It was the early stirrings of rock music, and a record named "Hey Baby" rolled out the red carpet for Bruce Channel and Delbert McClinton as the concert headliners in London. Bruce and Delbert shared a dressing room with their warm up act, a talented cover band getting started: John, Paul, George, and Pete. The Beatles, a year or so before adding Ringo. Bruce talks about writing and living and creating in Tennessee. He's been devoting full days to writing music for more than 55 years and has upwards of 300 songs that he brought to the earth. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Christine.

Bobby started performing with the Rolling Stones in 1970.  Between tour dates he returned to Nashville, TN over a 10 year period to compose and perform on an album, produced by his friend Ricky Ray.  In this first episode of Music Path you hear about the process of writing and recording this album and some of the tracks.