Post by Kelly on Feb 22, 2009 14:57:10 GMT -6
From Elvis To Garth
By Pamela Mays Decker, Feb 22, 2009
Mississippi farm boy, Gospel aficionado, solo artist, songwriter, collaborator with Nashville A-list stars, member of the most successful studio group in history – and very soon, published author. Throughout his amazing life, Memphis Boys keyboardist Bobby Wood has worn many hats in the music world. Fortunately for fans, he will soon release a book in which he candidly discusses his faith, family, frailties and his phenomenal career spanning six decades that has found him working with a range of prominent stars “from Elvis to Garth” and just about everyone in between.
Born in 1941 and raised on a farm at Mitchell Switch, a community just south of New Albany, Mississippi – just 20 miles and six years from where and when Elvis came into the world – Wood was one of six children in a musical family that delighted crowds as the Wood Family Gospel Group. He recalls that it was his grandfather Walter Wood’s passion for music that inspired his heirs’ musicality.
After studying classical music through mail order lessons, the elder Wood decided that genre wasn’t for him. He then mastered and went on to train others in the American folk music tradition of shape notes. In rural areas of the American South and Appalachia, the shape note method of teaching and singing is tightly woven into the deeply traditional culture. From the 1800s to mid 1900s, the classes were often a rare opportunity for people to learn music, practice the vibrant, dramatic harmonies and strong rhythm of congregational singing.
The roots of most Southern Gospel quartets and performers sprang from this more than 200-year-old tradition (shape note singing experienced a resurgence in popularity after being featured in the 2003 motion picture "Cold Mountain" – the soundtrack of which garnered worldwide acclaim). Wood’s grandfather taught the seven-syllable "do re mi" system to countless children in communities he reached by horse-drawn buggy and the $2 tuition was paid sometimes with baskets of vegetables. After completing several days of lessons, the musically-enriched children gathered to perform a concert for an audience of proud parents.
Beginning in 1948, Bobby’s father Leslie hosted the Pap Wood’s Gospel Radio Hour and the Singing Convention of the Air, beaming the sounds of praise to the northeast Mississippi masses on Tupelo’s WELO. Before long, the show – featuring singers brandishing their Stamps Baxter and Vaughn shape note songbooks – was broadcast remotely from the Union County courthouse. Each child in the Wood household (Maxine, Irene, Etoye, Billy, Bobby and Jamie) sang and mastered an instrument. For Bobby, the organ was his forte. From years of singing with his family, he developed amazing vocal abilities. Already an accomplished musician by his late teens, he set forth on Bankhead Highway to Memphis after high school graduation. It was there in the burgeoning Soul capital of the universe where he became Sun Studio producer Stan Kesler’s protégé. Kesler is known best as the man responsible for the formation of the two most successful studio groups of all time: Dixie Flyers and the Memphis Boys.
In 1964, Bobby released a song on Joy Records – “If I’m a Fool (For Loving You)” – penned by his mentor. It became a hit. Among the song’s many fans was none other than the Presley paterfamilias, Vernon. With a very promising future as a solo artist, the handsome young singer’s plans were violently derailed by severe injuries from a tragic car accident that almost claimed his life while touring in Ohio to promote his breakthrough single. After enduring several agonizing surgeries and months of recovery from his painful, debilitating injuries, he is quick to this day to credit his strong, abiding Christian faith for not only getting him through those struggles, but for guiding him to the next level of his career.
But what lay ahead was far beyond anything he could have ever visualized in his wildest dreams or asked for in his humblest prayers. As Wood is quick to share, “The Lord has really blessed me.” And to music fans, those blessings wrap our world in an array of sounds that stir our very souls and deeply touch our hearts. The devastation that would have easily turned a man of weaker character toward a life wracked with torturous self-pity and brooding echoes of “what might have been” was indeed conversely the genesis of a new phase of success for the very grounded and resolute Bobby Wood. The stability of studio session work better suited his need to focus on physical recovery, so he became Sun’s staff piano player. But it would be his motorcycle riding buddy from another Memphis studio who would soon offer the opportunity not only to make records, but also to set records.
American Studio’s Memphis Boys
Wood met ace guitarist, Rockabilly veteran and soon to be iconic producer Lincoln “Chips” Moman, a Georgia transplant to the Bluff City, in 1963 while he was still manning the board across town at Stax Studios. After an acrimonious split from Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton over their failure to properly credit and fairly compensate him for his role in the studio’s successes, Moman embarked with Don Crews on a venture that would attract some of the industry’s most prominent and beloved performers as well as turn raw talent into hot international acts. The unrivaled success of American Studios was a combination of Moman’s abilities as a sharp, plainspoken producer, the poignant product of his assembly of talented songwriters… and the seamless sounds of the rhythm section comprised of a half-dozen Southern music men who moved the earth in a way the region hadn’t experienced since the New Madrid Fault Line temblors that caused the Mississippi River to flow backward some 155 years earlier.
In addition to Wood on keyboards, the Memphis Boys were rounded out by Reggie Young on lead guitar, Bobby Emmons on organ and keyboards, Tommy Cogbill and Mike Leech on bass and Gene Chrisman on drums. With the utter ease of an autonomic bodily function, this talented smattering of country boys spewed forth the funky, signature Memphis mixture of Soul and Country – a sound as rich and gritty as the delta soil beneath their feet and as murky, rhythmic and rollicking as the muddy river that snaked nearby. Together, their natural abilities and dedication to cranking out some great sounds resulted in 122 hits emerging from the studio at Chelsea and Thomas from 1967 to 1971 – a feat yet unmatched. To this day, the strong bond of brotherhood they forged more than 42 years ago remains unyielding.
Of all the successful artists fortunate to have been backed by the Memphis Boys over the years – including Dusty Springfield, Neil Diamond, Wilson Pickett, The Box Tops, B.J. Thomas, the Sweet Inspirations, Dionne Warwick, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Merrilee Rush, Sandy Posey, Billy Swan, Joe Tex, Herbie Mann, James and Bobby Purify and countless others (gracing four separate charts in the process) – they are most proud of their role in helping usher Elvis back to chart-topping prominence during their January-February 1969 collaboration that served as his creative rebirth.
But that wasn’t the first time Bobby Wood met Elvis. Around the time “That’s All Right Mama” was released, the Wood family was recording demos at Sun. Sam Phillips introduced the Union County boy to the young man from Lee County – who no one could have possibly fathomed at the time was about to change music history and turn popular culture on its ear. A few years later, Elvis invited him and the future Mrs. Wood to one of his infamous overnight excursions at the fairgrounds.
Beyond the obvious connection in their rural upbringing in neighboring counties, Wood and Presley felt a kinship. They shared a deep Christian faith, love of spiritual music and they were both intimately acquainted with hard work and hard times. Elvis often spoke in somber tones of how his mother kept him on the straight-and-narrow. His loss left an abyss of loneliness – and Wood knew he was reaching out, seeking a deeper friendship from his fellow Mississippian. In retrospect, he expresses remorse that his round-the-clock studio schedule left no time for the Graceland visits to which he was often invited. “I felt like we really connected,” Wood said. “He wanted to become closer friends. So many times, he tried to get me to come to his house, you know, just to talk. But I never had time. I’m sorry now that I never went out. I really wish I’d have gone. He just wanted and needed true friends.”
Wood received a tremendous honor when the singer recorded the song that had been such a hit for him five years earlier. “He brought Vernon with him (to American) one evening,” Wood recalled, “and he said, ‘Daddy, I'd like you to meet somebody here.’ He brought him over to shake my hand and he said, ‘Do you know who this guy is?’ Vernon said, ‘No, I'm not sure.’ So Elvis asked him, ‘What's your favorite record?’ Vernon said, "If I'm a Fool." Elvis told him, ‘Well, this is the guy who sang it.’ And his dad just said, ‘Whoa!’ On February 20, 1969, after a long night of recording with standouts such as "It Keeps Right On a Hurtin’" and "Any Day Now," he and Wood were sitting at the piano, talking about spirituality and music around 4:30 a.m. Everyone else was tired and there were few remaining numbers on their song list. Elvis recorded “If I’m a Fool (For Loving You)” – and played the piano – because it was his father’s favorite song.
Another memory stands out involving Elvis’ generosity during the sessions. “He was wearing this big diamond ring that was encrusted with rubies and emeralds,” he recalls. “I couldn’t help but stare at it. It caught my eye. Without thinking, I said, ‘Man, I love that ring!’ Before I knew it, he pulled it off and handed it to me. I thought he did it so I could get a closer look at it. When I handed it back to him, he said, ‘No, man… It’s yours.’ But I couldn’t take it. I said, ‘Elvis, I just can’t accept this.’ That’s just how generous he was. Would give you anything he had – even buy people cars. But the friendship meant more to me than anything.”
He recounted a personally moving story about Elvis’ reaction when he learned Wood was undergoing a grueling series of reconstructive procedures following the collision that came very close to ending his life. “He offered to pay for my plastic surgery,” he said. “He even offered to set me up with his doctor in L.A. I was really touched. I just said, ‘That’s really sweet. I appreciate it.’ That’s just the kind of guy he was.”
Wood says one other entertainer he has worked with for the past 20 years has that same generous spirit Elvis had. “Garth Brooks is like that,” he said. “He’d give you the shirt off his back. If he knows people are hurting, he’d do anything for them. He’s a lot like Elvis in that respect.” He also draws parallels between the amazing talent both superstars were blessed with. “I remember talking to Garth many times when, a lot like Elvis did, he’d ask, ‘Why me?’” he said. “I told him that I feel that God chooses certain people and says, ‘Let’s see what he’s gonna do with it.’ That’s the only way to explain that level of success.”
A devastating event that occurred across town on a hotel balcony at 450 Mulberry Street on April 4, 1968 not only stunned the world, but also dealt a stultifying blow to R&B music as it had been played within the studios of Muscle Shoals, Alabama and in Memphis up until that point. Beyond that point, the feeling was different – with a thick, stifling tension hanging in the air like a negative vibe.
For decades, the impoverished and working-class throughout the rural agrarian South labored side by side in fields, sharing the same oppressive lot whether they were of Scots-Irish, Native American, African or other descent. The work was backbreaking… the living was hard… and toiling shoulder-to-shoulder, skin color was of no significance. No one had either the time or the condition to pass judgment. Underneath the hot sun’s glare, laborers sang to pass the time and ease their burdened bodies and souls. As Wood recounts, “There was great singing in those cotton fields. Everybody worked hard.” Bonds of friendship were shared – as was the sorrow, pain, joy and exaltation of their shared God. By stark contrast, the media images viewed by the rest of the world did not show this side of Southern living, but instead shaped long-standing, narrow perceptions that all white Southerners were seething racists. Those heavily circulated images did not accurately or fairly reflect the unity that was pervasive in so many areas.
It was from that sense of hardscrabble concomitance that emerged the shapings of mid-century popular music through the melding of traditionally “white” music and traditionally “black” music. In the 1950’s and 1960’s studios of Muscle Shoals and Memphis, Caucasians and African Americans worked as equal players, just as they had done together in the fields under the boiling Southern sun. The resulting sounds reflected the tightly intermeshed culture, faith and unity that existed between so many of all races. (Further adding to the musical menagerie – a veritable Mulligan stew of cultures, it was an atheist Jew from New York City named Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records who would be instrumental in the wide distribution of this sound to the masses during this time.) These facts may very well fly in the face of some long held perceptions of life in the American South. But those who lived it know it well.
The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deeply affected African American artists – and the devastating crescendo of tension that ensued in Memphis and resonated everyone beyond drove a wedge among the racially diverse R&B champions who had together worked harmoniously for so long. There was no way to turn back time. The brotherhood… the mixing and melding… was permanently changed. The soul that Wood proudly reflects “was born in Memphis” was somewhat ironically altered permanently by the shattering events in spring 1968. It wasn’t very long until all the American Studios players made a reluctant mass exodus from Memphis to begin the next stage of their careers in another Tennessee city some 210 miles due east.
Nashville, Memphis-Style
In the early 1970s, Wood was invited to Nashville by Elvis’ Blue Moon Boys guitarist Scotty Moore as well as by all-around Music City mogul Buddy Killen. Then he invited fellow American alum Johnny Christopher (who wrote “Mama Liked The Roses” and co-wrote “Always On My Mind”) to join him. Before long, the Memphis Boys were doing their thing in Nashville – and often on projects with Chips Moman – for stars such as Willie Nelson, B.J. Thomas, Johnny Cash, Ronnie Milsap, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Royal, Waylon Jennings, Tammy Wynette and a parade of Country and Pop luminaries while they still worked with the occasional R&B star. The magic that was born in Memphis continued as a stream of #1 and Top 20 hits poured from their efforts.
It was during this time that Wood put pen to paper to begin songwriting, which he said was inspired by another American brother-in-arms Dan Penn. In 1974, Billy “Crash” Craddock covered his "Still Thinkin' About You." Since then, he has written or co-written many tunes such as "What's Your Name, What's Your Number" (co-written with Roger Cook and recorded in 1978 by Andrea True Connection), Crystal Gayle’s Top 20 Pop and Country hits "Talkin' In Your Sleep," and "Half the Way," Ronnie Milsap’s 20th #1 Country hit (also #1 on the AC charts), “He Got You” (co-written with Ralph Murphy) and many others.
By the end of the 1980’s, Wood was introduced to Garth Brooks through their mutual friend Allen Reynolds and thus emerged yet another longstanding musical partnership and friendship. Wood has played keyboards on all of Brooks’ recordings – and in February 1998, the Country megastar and his future wife Trisha Yearwood won a Best Country Collaboration with Vocals Grammy for their #1 hit duet, “In Another's Eyes,” co-written by Brooks, Wood and John Peppard. The song, from Brooks’ RIAA certified Diamond album “Sevens,” also received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song. When the Memphis Boys were one of six inaugural groups of studio musicians inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007, Brooks introduced them with his observation, "There's very few records an artist makes, but there are a hell of a lot of records musicians make."
Making his mark in Memphis and continuing with 36 years of success in Nashville, Wood has played on some of the most vital R&B, Pop and Country records ever released – even making a foray into Disco and Jazz. Looking back on a lifetime of music, this north Mississippi boy remains a genuine soul, ever close to his spiritual roots that have guided him on a very interesting ride through music history. He may have Nashville earth beneath him, but the heart of a Memphian music man beats inside him. And this truly gentle spirit is quick to express his deep appreciation of the fans – sharing that as the 40th anniversary of those landmark sessions with Elvis have come and gone, the group has often reflected upon those historical sessions. While they remain very busy as highly sought-after working studio musicians, they would still like to do more to commemorate their work with the King of Rock & Roll. But time is so often not a luxury for them.
Long content with his role of helping some of music’s biggest stars sound great, this gracious, humble man steps forward with plenty to say – and he does so very eloquently. His forthcoming book will surely be an eagerly anticipated must-read not only for Elvis fans, but certainly for ardent music fans the world over. The expected release of Wood’s memoir (the title yet to be announced, but definitely subtitled “From Elvis to Garth”) is slated for later this year, with no firm date as of yet. As more news develops, updates will follow.
© 2009 Pamela Mays Decker
By Pamela Mays Decker, Feb 22, 2009
Mississippi farm boy, Gospel aficionado, solo artist, songwriter, collaborator with Nashville A-list stars, member of the most successful studio group in history – and very soon, published author. Throughout his amazing life, Memphis Boys keyboardist Bobby Wood has worn many hats in the music world. Fortunately for fans, he will soon release a book in which he candidly discusses his faith, family, frailties and his phenomenal career spanning six decades that has found him working with a range of prominent stars “from Elvis to Garth” and just about everyone in between.
Born in 1941 and raised on a farm at Mitchell Switch, a community just south of New Albany, Mississippi – just 20 miles and six years from where and when Elvis came into the world – Wood was one of six children in a musical family that delighted crowds as the Wood Family Gospel Group. He recalls that it was his grandfather Walter Wood’s passion for music that inspired his heirs’ musicality.
After studying classical music through mail order lessons, the elder Wood decided that genre wasn’t for him. He then mastered and went on to train others in the American folk music tradition of shape notes. In rural areas of the American South and Appalachia, the shape note method of teaching and singing is tightly woven into the deeply traditional culture. From the 1800s to mid 1900s, the classes were often a rare opportunity for people to learn music, practice the vibrant, dramatic harmonies and strong rhythm of congregational singing.
The roots of most Southern Gospel quartets and performers sprang from this more than 200-year-old tradition (shape note singing experienced a resurgence in popularity after being featured in the 2003 motion picture "Cold Mountain" – the soundtrack of which garnered worldwide acclaim). Wood’s grandfather taught the seven-syllable "do re mi" system to countless children in communities he reached by horse-drawn buggy and the $2 tuition was paid sometimes with baskets of vegetables. After completing several days of lessons, the musically-enriched children gathered to perform a concert for an audience of proud parents.
Beginning in 1948, Bobby’s father Leslie hosted the Pap Wood’s Gospel Radio Hour and the Singing Convention of the Air, beaming the sounds of praise to the northeast Mississippi masses on Tupelo’s WELO. Before long, the show – featuring singers brandishing their Stamps Baxter and Vaughn shape note songbooks – was broadcast remotely from the Union County courthouse. Each child in the Wood household (Maxine, Irene, Etoye, Billy, Bobby and Jamie) sang and mastered an instrument. For Bobby, the organ was his forte. From years of singing with his family, he developed amazing vocal abilities. Already an accomplished musician by his late teens, he set forth on Bankhead Highway to Memphis after high school graduation. It was there in the burgeoning Soul capital of the universe where he became Sun Studio producer Stan Kesler’s protégé. Kesler is known best as the man responsible for the formation of the two most successful studio groups of all time: Dixie Flyers and the Memphis Boys.
In 1964, Bobby released a song on Joy Records – “If I’m a Fool (For Loving You)” – penned by his mentor. It became a hit. Among the song’s many fans was none other than the Presley paterfamilias, Vernon. With a very promising future as a solo artist, the handsome young singer’s plans were violently derailed by severe injuries from a tragic car accident that almost claimed his life while touring in Ohio to promote his breakthrough single. After enduring several agonizing surgeries and months of recovery from his painful, debilitating injuries, he is quick to this day to credit his strong, abiding Christian faith for not only getting him through those struggles, but for guiding him to the next level of his career.
But what lay ahead was far beyond anything he could have ever visualized in his wildest dreams or asked for in his humblest prayers. As Wood is quick to share, “The Lord has really blessed me.” And to music fans, those blessings wrap our world in an array of sounds that stir our very souls and deeply touch our hearts. The devastation that would have easily turned a man of weaker character toward a life wracked with torturous self-pity and brooding echoes of “what might have been” was indeed conversely the genesis of a new phase of success for the very grounded and resolute Bobby Wood. The stability of studio session work better suited his need to focus on physical recovery, so he became Sun’s staff piano player. But it would be his motorcycle riding buddy from another Memphis studio who would soon offer the opportunity not only to make records, but also to set records.
American Studio’s Memphis Boys
Wood met ace guitarist, Rockabilly veteran and soon to be iconic producer Lincoln “Chips” Moman, a Georgia transplant to the Bluff City, in 1963 while he was still manning the board across town at Stax Studios. After an acrimonious split from Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton over their failure to properly credit and fairly compensate him for his role in the studio’s successes, Moman embarked with Don Crews on a venture that would attract some of the industry’s most prominent and beloved performers as well as turn raw talent into hot international acts. The unrivaled success of American Studios was a combination of Moman’s abilities as a sharp, plainspoken producer, the poignant product of his assembly of talented songwriters… and the seamless sounds of the rhythm section comprised of a half-dozen Southern music men who moved the earth in a way the region hadn’t experienced since the New Madrid Fault Line temblors that caused the Mississippi River to flow backward some 155 years earlier.
In addition to Wood on keyboards, the Memphis Boys were rounded out by Reggie Young on lead guitar, Bobby Emmons on organ and keyboards, Tommy Cogbill and Mike Leech on bass and Gene Chrisman on drums. With the utter ease of an autonomic bodily function, this talented smattering of country boys spewed forth the funky, signature Memphis mixture of Soul and Country – a sound as rich and gritty as the delta soil beneath their feet and as murky, rhythmic and rollicking as the muddy river that snaked nearby. Together, their natural abilities and dedication to cranking out some great sounds resulted in 122 hits emerging from the studio at Chelsea and Thomas from 1967 to 1971 – a feat yet unmatched. To this day, the strong bond of brotherhood they forged more than 42 years ago remains unyielding.
Of all the successful artists fortunate to have been backed by the Memphis Boys over the years – including Dusty Springfield, Neil Diamond, Wilson Pickett, The Box Tops, B.J. Thomas, the Sweet Inspirations, Dionne Warwick, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Merrilee Rush, Sandy Posey, Billy Swan, Joe Tex, Herbie Mann, James and Bobby Purify and countless others (gracing four separate charts in the process) – they are most proud of their role in helping usher Elvis back to chart-topping prominence during their January-February 1969 collaboration that served as his creative rebirth.
But that wasn’t the first time Bobby Wood met Elvis. Around the time “That’s All Right Mama” was released, the Wood family was recording demos at Sun. Sam Phillips introduced the Union County boy to the young man from Lee County – who no one could have possibly fathomed at the time was about to change music history and turn popular culture on its ear. A few years later, Elvis invited him and the future Mrs. Wood to one of his infamous overnight excursions at the fairgrounds.
Beyond the obvious connection in their rural upbringing in neighboring counties, Wood and Presley felt a kinship. They shared a deep Christian faith, love of spiritual music and they were both intimately acquainted with hard work and hard times. Elvis often spoke in somber tones of how his mother kept him on the straight-and-narrow. His loss left an abyss of loneliness – and Wood knew he was reaching out, seeking a deeper friendship from his fellow Mississippian. In retrospect, he expresses remorse that his round-the-clock studio schedule left no time for the Graceland visits to which he was often invited. “I felt like we really connected,” Wood said. “He wanted to become closer friends. So many times, he tried to get me to come to his house, you know, just to talk. But I never had time. I’m sorry now that I never went out. I really wish I’d have gone. He just wanted and needed true friends.”
Wood received a tremendous honor when the singer recorded the song that had been such a hit for him five years earlier. “He brought Vernon with him (to American) one evening,” Wood recalled, “and he said, ‘Daddy, I'd like you to meet somebody here.’ He brought him over to shake my hand and he said, ‘Do you know who this guy is?’ Vernon said, ‘No, I'm not sure.’ So Elvis asked him, ‘What's your favorite record?’ Vernon said, "If I'm a Fool." Elvis told him, ‘Well, this is the guy who sang it.’ And his dad just said, ‘Whoa!’ On February 20, 1969, after a long night of recording with standouts such as "It Keeps Right On a Hurtin’" and "Any Day Now," he and Wood were sitting at the piano, talking about spirituality and music around 4:30 a.m. Everyone else was tired and there were few remaining numbers on their song list. Elvis recorded “If I’m a Fool (For Loving You)” – and played the piano – because it was his father’s favorite song.
Another memory stands out involving Elvis’ generosity during the sessions. “He was wearing this big diamond ring that was encrusted with rubies and emeralds,” he recalls. “I couldn’t help but stare at it. It caught my eye. Without thinking, I said, ‘Man, I love that ring!’ Before I knew it, he pulled it off and handed it to me. I thought he did it so I could get a closer look at it. When I handed it back to him, he said, ‘No, man… It’s yours.’ But I couldn’t take it. I said, ‘Elvis, I just can’t accept this.’ That’s just how generous he was. Would give you anything he had – even buy people cars. But the friendship meant more to me than anything.”
He recounted a personally moving story about Elvis’ reaction when he learned Wood was undergoing a grueling series of reconstructive procedures following the collision that came very close to ending his life. “He offered to pay for my plastic surgery,” he said. “He even offered to set me up with his doctor in L.A. I was really touched. I just said, ‘That’s really sweet. I appreciate it.’ That’s just the kind of guy he was.”
Wood says one other entertainer he has worked with for the past 20 years has that same generous spirit Elvis had. “Garth Brooks is like that,” he said. “He’d give you the shirt off his back. If he knows people are hurting, he’d do anything for them. He’s a lot like Elvis in that respect.” He also draws parallels between the amazing talent both superstars were blessed with. “I remember talking to Garth many times when, a lot like Elvis did, he’d ask, ‘Why me?’” he said. “I told him that I feel that God chooses certain people and says, ‘Let’s see what he’s gonna do with it.’ That’s the only way to explain that level of success.”
A devastating event that occurred across town on a hotel balcony at 450 Mulberry Street on April 4, 1968 not only stunned the world, but also dealt a stultifying blow to R&B music as it had been played within the studios of Muscle Shoals, Alabama and in Memphis up until that point. Beyond that point, the feeling was different – with a thick, stifling tension hanging in the air like a negative vibe.
For decades, the impoverished and working-class throughout the rural agrarian South labored side by side in fields, sharing the same oppressive lot whether they were of Scots-Irish, Native American, African or other descent. The work was backbreaking… the living was hard… and toiling shoulder-to-shoulder, skin color was of no significance. No one had either the time or the condition to pass judgment. Underneath the hot sun’s glare, laborers sang to pass the time and ease their burdened bodies and souls. As Wood recounts, “There was great singing in those cotton fields. Everybody worked hard.” Bonds of friendship were shared – as was the sorrow, pain, joy and exaltation of their shared God. By stark contrast, the media images viewed by the rest of the world did not show this side of Southern living, but instead shaped long-standing, narrow perceptions that all white Southerners were seething racists. Those heavily circulated images did not accurately or fairly reflect the unity that was pervasive in so many areas.
It was from that sense of hardscrabble concomitance that emerged the shapings of mid-century popular music through the melding of traditionally “white” music and traditionally “black” music. In the 1950’s and 1960’s studios of Muscle Shoals and Memphis, Caucasians and African Americans worked as equal players, just as they had done together in the fields under the boiling Southern sun. The resulting sounds reflected the tightly intermeshed culture, faith and unity that existed between so many of all races. (Further adding to the musical menagerie – a veritable Mulligan stew of cultures, it was an atheist Jew from New York City named Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records who would be instrumental in the wide distribution of this sound to the masses during this time.) These facts may very well fly in the face of some long held perceptions of life in the American South. But those who lived it know it well.
The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deeply affected African American artists – and the devastating crescendo of tension that ensued in Memphis and resonated everyone beyond drove a wedge among the racially diverse R&B champions who had together worked harmoniously for so long. There was no way to turn back time. The brotherhood… the mixing and melding… was permanently changed. The soul that Wood proudly reflects “was born in Memphis” was somewhat ironically altered permanently by the shattering events in spring 1968. It wasn’t very long until all the American Studios players made a reluctant mass exodus from Memphis to begin the next stage of their careers in another Tennessee city some 210 miles due east.
Nashville, Memphis-Style
In the early 1970s, Wood was invited to Nashville by Elvis’ Blue Moon Boys guitarist Scotty Moore as well as by all-around Music City mogul Buddy Killen. Then he invited fellow American alum Johnny Christopher (who wrote “Mama Liked The Roses” and co-wrote “Always On My Mind”) to join him. Before long, the Memphis Boys were doing their thing in Nashville – and often on projects with Chips Moman – for stars such as Willie Nelson, B.J. Thomas, Johnny Cash, Ronnie Milsap, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Royal, Waylon Jennings, Tammy Wynette and a parade of Country and Pop luminaries while they still worked with the occasional R&B star. The magic that was born in Memphis continued as a stream of #1 and Top 20 hits poured from their efforts.
It was during this time that Wood put pen to paper to begin songwriting, which he said was inspired by another American brother-in-arms Dan Penn. In 1974, Billy “Crash” Craddock covered his "Still Thinkin' About You." Since then, he has written or co-written many tunes such as "What's Your Name, What's Your Number" (co-written with Roger Cook and recorded in 1978 by Andrea True Connection), Crystal Gayle’s Top 20 Pop and Country hits "Talkin' In Your Sleep," and "Half the Way," Ronnie Milsap’s 20th #1 Country hit (also #1 on the AC charts), “He Got You” (co-written with Ralph Murphy) and many others.
By the end of the 1980’s, Wood was introduced to Garth Brooks through their mutual friend Allen Reynolds and thus emerged yet another longstanding musical partnership and friendship. Wood has played keyboards on all of Brooks’ recordings – and in February 1998, the Country megastar and his future wife Trisha Yearwood won a Best Country Collaboration with Vocals Grammy for their #1 hit duet, “In Another's Eyes,” co-written by Brooks, Wood and John Peppard. The song, from Brooks’ RIAA certified Diamond album “Sevens,” also received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song. When the Memphis Boys were one of six inaugural groups of studio musicians inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007, Brooks introduced them with his observation, "There's very few records an artist makes, but there are a hell of a lot of records musicians make."
Making his mark in Memphis and continuing with 36 years of success in Nashville, Wood has played on some of the most vital R&B, Pop and Country records ever released – even making a foray into Disco and Jazz. Looking back on a lifetime of music, this north Mississippi boy remains a genuine soul, ever close to his spiritual roots that have guided him on a very interesting ride through music history. He may have Nashville earth beneath him, but the heart of a Memphian music man beats inside him. And this truly gentle spirit is quick to express his deep appreciation of the fans – sharing that as the 40th anniversary of those landmark sessions with Elvis have come and gone, the group has often reflected upon those historical sessions. While they remain very busy as highly sought-after working studio musicians, they would still like to do more to commemorate their work with the King of Rock & Roll. But time is so often not a luxury for them.
Long content with his role of helping some of music’s biggest stars sound great, this gracious, humble man steps forward with plenty to say – and he does so very eloquently. His forthcoming book will surely be an eagerly anticipated must-read not only for Elvis fans, but certainly for ardent music fans the world over. The expected release of Wood’s memoir (the title yet to be announced, but definitely subtitled “From Elvis to Garth”) is slated for later this year, with no firm date as of yet. As more news develops, updates will follow.
© 2009 Pamela Mays Decker
