songwriting
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When Bryce Leatherwood repeatedly outlasted the other competitors each week to win NBC’s The Voice in fall 2022, he experienced music as a raw competition.
As he moves into the next chapter of his music career, Leatherwood is still aware of the scads of artists all vying for the same brass ring, and his first radio single, “Hung Up on You,” is designed specifically to make an impression in a busy music marketplace.
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“The biggest part in today’s country is you got to stand out some way,” he says. “You got to differentiate yourself from the pack.”
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“Hung Up on You” definitely separates itself. The chorus features an edgy, anthemic melody, while the production sports a funky bass part at its open, a squealing guitar near its close and tons of growling, uneasy sounds in the middle. In the process, “Hung Up” fulfills Leatherwood’s competitive intentions.
“The whole time we were in the studio, building it out with the musicians, I was just like, ‘Be as off the wall as you can. Do what you want to do. Do the wildest stuff,’ ” he recalls. “As we got into post-production, I was just like, ‘Crank the guitars up, crank that bass up. Make it just punch.’ And it does.”
“Hung Up on You” has existed for a decade. Brandon Lay, then signed to Universal Music Nashville, had a co-write canceled, but Warner Chappell Nashville got him into a room with Neil Medley (“Made for You”) and former Dirt Drifters guitarist Jeff Middleton (“Drowns the Whiskey”) at Liz Rose Music.
“Thank God you’re here,” Medley said when Lay arrived. “We were about to write a ballad.”
Nearly every artist is looking for something uptempo, and all three writers turned their attention to that pursuit. Lay, it turned out, had part of the hook, and his comrades were able to figure out what to do with it.
“I had half of that title,” Lay says. “I was ‘hungover, hung up’ on something, and then they were like, ‘Hung up on you.’ I kind of was missing the forest for the trees, but I had a general idea of the title.”
Middleton dialed up a phat, scrappy bassline he had been playing with and topped that dark sound with some R&B-infused keyboards. They introduced the story with a vivid line, “Stumbled in with the rooster crowing,” that speaks to a long night of partying. The verse continues with more partying as two people stumble down the hallway to a rolling cadence.
“Brandon Lay’s lyrics are so wordy,” Medley says. “I think he listened to a lot more rap or whatever than I did, but I’ve always loved his phrasing. I would assume that the verses are just littered with Brandon Lay-isms. He’s so good at those lyric phrasings and the meter of everything.”
“The choruses,” Middleton adds, “are a little more settled in country songwriter kind of things.”
Those choruses emphasize the melodic part of the quotient with some longer-held notes as the hangover becomes a greater focus: “Keep the shaaaades down, keep the daaaaay out.” A little more rhythmic phrasing ensues “till the haaaaze clears,” and the stanza finally arrives at its “Hungover, hung up on you” hook.
Verse two started with another line, “Woke up with the room still spinning,” that shows some time has transpired. It continues the hungover theme while underscoring that the buzz from the evening is about the two people as much as it’s about the vices they might have employed.
Middleton guided a long bridge, slowing down the mood a bit before they pick up again at the final chorus. It mimics — perhaps unintentionally — the stop-and-start flow between the song’s two characters, whose relationship is not entirely defined. “I’ve always thought of it as kind of a random hookup,” Lay says. “But it could go either way. I guess that’s open for interpretation.”
Lay sang on the fuzzed-up demo with his voice electronically altered. He turned it in to the label and it got some attention, but not enough that it became a single. It was the heart of the bro-country era, and the funk core and long bridge of “Hung Up on You” were likely a little outside the box for the time. “It kind of fell into that Eric Church kind of lane,” Medley says. “And I guess Eric was the only one doing Eric.”
A few other acts cut it but didn’t release it, and before Lay left the label, he recorded it once more with producer Jonathan Singleton (Luke Combs, Riley Green). That version stayed in the Universal vault.Leatherwood moved to Nashville in January 2023, shortly after he won The Voice, and heard “Hung Up” within his first couple of months in town. He was sold on the spot.
“It definitely had that funky vibe to it,” he says. “I think it inspired what the final product was in a big way, but it was definitely not what the record turned out to be.”
Producer Will Bundy (Ella Langley, Graham Barham) oversaw the session at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, with Billy Justineau on Wurlitzer, Evan Hutchings handling drums, Ilya Toshinskiy strumming acoustic, Derek Wells playing seering electric guitar and Mike Johnson manning pedal steel. “That always helps just bring it back in country land,” Bundy says of the steel.
Jimmie Lee Sloas ran his bass through a fuzz pedal, approximating the tone on the demo. “Buckley [Miller], who engineered it with me, he whizzed up a big fuzz on that bass and just made it sort of nasty and made that sort of the backbone of the song, which I feel like is a high risk, high reward,” Bundy says. “It’s definitely different, but it’s cool to see people love it.”
The writers were pleasantly surprised when they learned their 10-year-old song had been cut and even more pleased to discover it was Leatherwood’s first radio single, which Mercury Nashville/Republic released via PlayMPE on Sept. 5. Imitating the demo, Leatherwood’s cut has his voice electronically altered during the verses, though it shifts to its natural tone as the haze clears in the chorus.
“I love the way Bryce sings it,” Middleton says. “It feels country, even with all that stuff going on. He’s a country singer, and that song pushes the boundary a little bit.”
Leatherwood performed “Hung Up On You” during his Grand Ole Opry debut on Sept. 14, and he hopes to keep singing it for years to come. It definitely gives him a chance to be noticed. “There’s nothing like it,” he says. “I think it’s go big or go home. If you go to country radio, you don’t want to leave any stone unturned, and I think this song leaves no stones unturned.”
Supremely gifted songwriter, singer and actor Kris Kristofferson died Saturday (Sept. 28) at his home in Maui, Hawaii, at age 88.
Born Kristoffer Kristofferson in Brownsville, Texas in June 1936; he family soon moved to California. Kristofferson’s short stories were published in The Atlantic Monthly and soon after, he became a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford University in England. His life also included time as a Golden Gloves boxer, and an Army ranger who also flew helicopters (and famously once landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash’s lawn in order to get Cash to listen to a demo tape), an A-list actor, a writer and a creator equally inspired by the works of William Blake as Bob Dylan. In the Army, Kristofferson rose to the rank of captain, but when he was commissioned to teach English at West Point, he abandoned that opportunity in order to head to Nashville to pursue songwriting.
He began working as a janitor at Nashville’s Columbia Studios, which allowed him to listen in on sessions including Dylan’s 1966 Blonde on Blonde album. His nuanced, elegant lyricism style led to Kristofferson earning multiple No. 1s as a writer of songs made famous by other artists, including Ray Price, Johnny Cash, Roger Miller and Sammi Smith. In 1970, he issued his eponymous first album, Kristofferson, which included his own versions of the hits “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through The Night” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” all of which he originally penned.
He also earned his own No. 1 country hit with “Why Me,” and another as part of the country supergroup The Highwaymen, with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.
As an actor, he starred in films and television series including Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, A Star Is Born (in a Golden Globe-nominated performance opposite Barbra Streisand), Blade (opposite Wesley Snipes), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Stagecoach, Convoy, Songwriter and Fire Down Below.
Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004 — and a decade later, earned the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Below, we look at 11 songs or albums that Kristofferson had a hand in as an artist or songwriter that reached No. 1 on various Billboard charts.
“Why Me”
The musician has worked with Sabrina Carpenter, Selena Gomez and more.
Saturday Night Live has no fewer than eight songs in contention for outstanding original music & lyrics at this year’s Primetime Emmy Creative Arts Awards. The roster includes Maya Rudolph’s “Mothers Day Monologue,” in which she sings a “Vogue”-inspired song that pays tribute to the women of SNL as she strides through Studio 8H, and “Dune Popcorn Bucket,” in which the show that gave us “Dick in a Box” tries to top itself.
Four of the videos accompanying these songs feature major recording stars. Chris Stapleton shows personality and an unexpected flair for comedy in “Get That Boy Back.” Travis Scott is featured in “We Got Too High,” in which three kids are try in vain to keep up with the rap star’s marijuana use. Billie Eilish has some silly fun in “Tampon Farm.” Dave Grohl has a cameo as a minister at the end of “Lake Beach.”
These catchy and satirical songs are overseen by SNL’s music director Eli Brueggemann (who won in this category in 2018 for co-writing “Come Back Barack”) and music producer Jake Procanik.
Three SNL songs have won in this category over the years – “Dick in a Box,” the 2007 song from a Justin Timberlake-hosted episode that somehow managed to be both audacious and kinda sweet at the same time; “Justin Timberlake Monologue” (2011), in which JT sings a song about how he absolutely won’t sing that night; and “Come Back Barack,” a Boyz II Men-style ballad from a Chance the Rapper-hosted episode about how people in the Donald Trump years missed his more even-keeled predecessor.
SNL is currently tied with the annual Tony Awards telecast for having the most winners in this category. Three songs from the Tonys, all performed by host Neil Patrick Harris, won the award in 2012-14 – “It’s Not Just for Gays Anymore,” a sensational opening number from the 2011 show; “If I Had Time,” a very clever closing number from the 2012 show; and “Bigger!,” from the 2013 show, quite possibly the biggest opening number on any awards show ever. Who said less is more?
The outstanding original music & lyrics category originated in 1970. Notable winners over the years have included EGOT recipients Marvin Hamlisch and Robert Lopez; Broadway powerhouses Kander & Ebb and Lin-Manuel Miranda; Hot 100 chart-toppers Timberlake, Melanie, Walter Murphy, David Paich (Toto) and Ed Sheeran; and TV stars Seth MacFarlane, Sarah Silverman, Seth Meyers and Kenan Thompson.
Nominations for the 76th annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced on July 17. The 2024 Creative Arts Emmys will be held on Sept. 7-8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The primetime Emmy telecast will be held on Sept. 15 at the same venue.
Here you can watch the eight SNL songs that are in contention for this year’s Primetime Emmy for outstanding original music & lyrics.
“Lake Beach”
Country Music Hall of Fame member Alan Jackson is one of country music’s most iconic artists, thanks to his sturdy catalog of hits. But Jackson is also known as a songwriter and artist in equal measure, having been a writer on the bulk of his 26 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay chart hits. He’s the […]
Lana Del Rey will receive this year’s NMPA Songwriter Icon award, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) announced today. The award will be presented at the organization’s annual meeting at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City on June 12.
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Del Rey, 38, has received 11 Grammy nominations (but, surprisingly, no wins yet). Her nods include three in songwriting categories – “Norman Fu—ing Rockwell” and “A&W,” both for song of the year, and “Young and Beautiful” (from Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby) for best song written for visual media. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe for co-writing “Big Eyes” from the Tim Burton of the same name.
“Lana Del Rey defines being iconic,” NMPA president and CEO David Israelite said in a statement. “Her influence is felt across all genres and has inspired the biggest artists in the business. Her songwriting is deeply personal, and she continues to innovate – bringing fans thought provoking lyrics and indelible style.”
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Savan Kotecha will receive the NMPA Non-Performing Songwriter Icon award. Kotecha has received Grammy, Golden Globe and Oscar nods in songwriting categories. He received a Grammy nod for best song written for visual media and a Golden Globe nod for best original song for “Love Me Like You Do” and an Oscar nod for best original song for”Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.
“Savan Kotecha is virtually unmatched in his impact on pop music,” Israelite said in a statement. “He has helped craft the sounds for so many of the biggest hits of the past decade. We are thrilled to honor his continued success.”
The timeless ballad “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” co-written by Luigi Creatore, Hugo Peretti and George David Weiss, will be honored as an NMPA Iconic Song. Elvis Presley’s original hit version of the song, recorded for his 1961 film Blue Hawaii, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. UB40’s reggae-tinged cover version, recorded for the film Sliver, spent seven weeks at No. 1 in 1993.
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) will receive the NMPA President’s award for his work to support creators.
Additionally, Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl will sit down for a keynote conversation. Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter will discuss the current challenges of protecting intellectual property.
Anti Social Camp is returning to New York City this summer, featuring a roster of over 200 artists, writers and producers. Perhaps the largest annual songwriting camp in the world, Anti Social Camp is a five day camp and festival, and this year, it will host artists like Jacob Collier, Alec Benjamin, Miranda Lambert and Rob Thomas.
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The team at Anti Social Camp hope to offer a more inclusive approach to the concept of a writing camp, which are typically private affairs tailored to the needs of one artist or project. Anti Social, by contrast, is a front-facing event that celebrates New York’s music scene.
In recent years, many of New York’s top talents have dispersed to other creative hubs, like Los Angeles, Nashville, and Austin, and to help grow local opportunities, Anti Social Camp is part of a larger effort each June to celebrate New York Music Month.
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“We want to put a spotlight on New York as a music capital of the world,” says Anti Social Camp Founder Danny Ross. “Artists are going to walk away with new hit records, access to key industry players, and new collaborators who will be influential in their careers far past the six days of Anti Social Camp. We’re making a real impact on creators and the New York music scene. What else can we ask for?”
That same month, the Big Apple will play host to a bevy of music industry events, including the Songwriters Hall of Fame, American Association of Independent Music (A2IM)’s Indie week conference, the Libera Awards, Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) Annual Meeting, the National Music Publishing Association (NMPA) annual meeting, and more.
Anti Social Camp
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Anti Social Camp is supported by New York City council member Carlina Rivera, chair of the committee on cultural affairs and libraries, who says “New York City is a beacon of creativity and the return and impact of Anti Social Camp demonstrates our city’s role as the music capital of the world. The music sector has an outsized economic output of over $20 billion and contributes to the vibrancy that makes our city one of a kind.”
The camp is continuing last year’s traditions and adding in new ones. This year, the camp will once again put together a compilation album of music created at the event, released with the help of Amuse. It will also be adding a new Anti Social ICON Award at this year’s opening ceremony. This year’s inaugural pick is multi-hyphenate musician Jacob Collier.
Other artists include: Lawrence, MICHELLE, Rosa Linn, Rachel Grae, Overcoats, Thutmose, Tim Atlas, Jukebox The Ghost, 41, Joe West, Kamino, Meryll, Riell, Chandler Leighton, Marian Hill, Ant Saunders, Morgxn, Kevian Kraemer, CID, Public Library Commute, Verite, Kidd Kenn, The Happy Fits, Haiden Henderson, Jared Benjamin, Zoe Ko, Madalen Duke, Jillian Rossi, Dezi, Norma Jean Martine and more. Platinum writers/producers include Doug Schadt (Maggie Rogers, Claire Rosinkranz), Andrew Maury (Shawn Mendes, Lizzo), Idarose (Joji, Becky G), Noise Club (Hailee Steinfeld, Tate McRae), Brent Kolatalo (Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey), Chelsea Balan (AJ Mitchell, lilyisthatyou), Ebonie Smith (Janelle Monae, Cardi B) and hundreds more.
Partners include: Title Partner Grayson Music; Presenting Partners Amuse, TIDAL, SoundExchange, DistroKid, Audio Technica and SESAC, The New York City Mayor’s Office of Media + Entertainment, SNGL, Ilegal Mezcal, YouTube Songwriters, Sound Royalties, Cloud Microphones, The Orchard, ONErpm The MLC, BMI, Amazon Music, Samply, Audiomovers, Topo Chico, Spotify; and Contributing Partners The Perfect Wines, ASCAP, Twitch, Groover, Duvel, Recording Academy New York Chapter, Jammaround, Bandsintown and New York City Tourism + Conventions.
Legendary country songwriter Cindy Walker, whose most famous song is the cross-genre classic “You Don’t Know Me,” was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) in a special event on April 19 at historic Columbia Studio A in Nashville.
The ceremony took place during a SHOF Master Session with Liz Rose, a 2023 SHOF inductee. Rose spoke fondly of her close relationship with the late songwriter and presented the award to Walker’s niece Molly Walker. Rose’s daughter Caitlin Rose performed “You Don’t Know Me,” which Walker co-wrote with Eddy Arnold, who had the initial hit with the song in 1956.
“This would’ve made her so proud,” Molly Walker said at the event. “And the thing that gets me is, when we hear Cindy’s songs, she’s still with us. I can’t tell you how much this would have meant to her and her family.”
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The event was hosted by Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. It was co-hosted by SHOF board member Fletcher Foster, who chairs the SHOF Nashville Committee.
The annual SHOF gala in June does not normally include posthumous inductions – though this year’s inductees include Steely Dan, whose Walter Becker died in 2017. The SHOF prefers the June event to have a celebratory mood. But it intends to continue hosting posthumous inductions at unique venues and special events such as this one.
“The ceremony at Columbia Studio A was warm, intimate, and respectful,” Foster said in a statement. “SHOF president and CEO Linda Moran says this now sets the stage for future posthumous inductions.”
Walker, who died in 2006 at age 87, was in the first class of inductees into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1997, she became the first female songwriter to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2009, Walker received the Poet’s Award from the Academy of Country Music.
In 2006, Willie Nelson’s album You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker, received a Grammy nomination for best country album. Fred Foster produced the album, which was released nine days before Walker’s death. The album included “Bubbles in My Beer,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Sugar Moon,” “I Don’t Care and “Cherokee Maiden.”
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Walker’s first recorded song was “Lone Star Trail,” recorded by Bing Crosby, the top star of the era. She wrote 50 songs that were recorded by Bob Wills, dubbed “the King of Western Swing.”
Walker even had a hit record as an artist in 1944. “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again” reached No. 5 on Billboard’s Most Played Juke Box Folk Records, a forerunner to today’s Hot Country Songs.
Walker had numerous No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart across the decades, including “Sugar Moon” (Bob Wills, 1947), “Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me” (Eddy Arnold, 1950), “Cherokee Maiden” (Merle Haggard, 1976) and “You Don’t Know Me” (Mickey Gilley, 1981).
Ray Charles recorded “You Don’t Know Me” on his landmark 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, which topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks. Charles’ version of the song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Walker’s many other hits include “Don’t Be Ashamed of Your Age” (Ernest Tubb & Red Foley, 1950), “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)” (Roy Orbison, 1962) and “Bubbles in My Beer” and “Distant Drums” (Jim Reeves).
Walker unquestionably paved the way for such top contemporary country songwriters as Liz Rose and Hillary Lindsey. The latter is another of this year’s SHOF inductees, along with the aforementioned Steely Dan plus Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley, Dean Pitchford and R.E.M.
In addition to these inductees, Diane Warren is set to receive the Johnny Mercer Award, the organization’s top honor, and SZA is set to receive the Hal David Starlight Award, which recognizes up-and-coming talent.
Walker was a solitary writer. She once explained her approach by saying, “Picasso doesn’t have a co-painter.” But if an artist gave her the idea or title for a song, she would include them in the credits, such as Eddy Arnold, who gave her the idea for “You Don’t Know Me.”
Walker shares that tendency to write solo with Warren, this year’s Mercer Award recipient. Warren collaborates on occasion, but more often than not, she works alone.
Given the threads that link Walker with some of this year’s other inductees and honorees, it’s a shame that her induction was handled separately. The idea should be to demonstrate the common threads that unite songwriters across genres and generations.
A BMI writer, Walker wrote every day, rising at 5 a.m. with a cup of black coffee to start the day in her writing studio. She once said she knew a song was finished “…once I was ready to fight a room full of tigers not to change a single word.”
04/19/2024
R.E.M. will be the ninth collective of three or more songwriters to be inducted. Seven of them are performing groups. The other two teams worked behind-the-scenes.
04/19/2024
Mary J. Blige knows a fellow truth teller when she sees one. The R&B superstar opened up to People recently about Flavor Flav’s comments comparing her to Taylor Swift, in the sense that they both write about relatable life experiences. “I mean, I love Taylor Swift. She sings about what’s going on in her life,” […]