''PLAYLIST : ''NOTES'' ON A ''MUSICAL'' LIFE

NOTES ON A MUSICAL LIFE, by LONNIE RAY FOWLER, THE SOUTHERN  SONGSMITH / poet, songwriter, singer

A thousand years and  words or so, ago ,  I wrote a song titled '' MUSIC IS MY LIFE''.And although that's about the only line I remember of it---those words still stand true: music IS my life. And now that this writing Suggestion from Jane Corn comes along, maybe it's time to take a listen to THE SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE--- at least by memory: because I know these songs by heart.

YOU AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A HOUND-DOG, CRYIN' ALL THE TIME'': It's the mid-50's, and a 5 year old me is swinging in the swing-set my Daddy put up one Sunday morning while mama and I were at church. Daddy has the radio on--and this new singer with a new song comes on. No one, but God, could have known that this singer on the radio, Elvis Presley , would from then on become one of the greatest and most powerful influences on my life---for the rest of my life. At that moment, frozen in time, I certainly had no idea.

But after a few more ELVIS hits, I was ALL SHOOK UP, and READY, READY, READY TO ROCK AND ROLL. Those early formative years were  pretty much just a succession of Elvis songs and movies from JAILHOUSE ROCK to IT'S NOW OR NEVER ( the latter which, much later in life ,won me my 1st Karaoke contest>). From BLUE HAWAII to G.I BLUES. Elvis was my hero, my idol, my mentor. But then came the mid-60's, and THE TIMES, THEY WERE A-CHANGIN!

 BOB LIND might have been considered by the music industry as a one-hit-wonder---but that one hit, THE ELUSIVE BUTTERFLY OF LOVE, changed my life, and made me who and what I am today:

Like most nights during that time period of my life ( shy, quiet, bullied in school, introverted, lonely ) I lay in my bed in the darkness ( HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND) of my bedroom, when I was supposed to be asleep---listening to my little white Western Auto transistor radio ( the kind with one earplug)---- when suddenly, my life changed.

My favorite radio station in Fort Wayne Indiana ( you tell me how I picked that up on a transistor radio in Georgia) and my favorite D.J, Art Roberts, played Bob Lind's sole hit, ELUSIVE BUTTERFLY. I was awe-struck. I laid there in the darkness of that little bedroom on a dead-end street and said out loud, to myself: THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF MY LIFE---write beautiful words like that!. The course of my life was set---by Bob Lind's one single chart hit---which since 1965 has been recorded by over 200 artists!!! ( My 2005 composition, THE RHYMESMAN, on my independent c.d., WORKS OF THE HEART, is a tribute to Mr Lind, after I rediscovered him that year on his brand new website ( BOBLINDMUSIC@AOL.COM)-- where I got to email him after 40 years and tell him how his music changed and defined my life. ( Despite the music industry--all of Bob's songs were a hit with me.)

AH, BUT I  MIGHT AS WELL TRY AND CATCH THE WIND./ During those early teenage poet years, another great influence on my life was a mystical, soft-spoken, Scottish Minstrel named Donovan de Leitch ( SUNSHINE SUPERMAN, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, HURDY GURDY MAN).  Along with Bob Lind, Donovan became one of new heroes, and a great source of inspiration in my early poetry ( which won me an award in high school and publication in two national anthologies). But they were not alone--- there was one more major and important, vital and significant, life and musical influence for me in those days : the music of SIMON AND GARFUNKEL, which was mostly written by one of the greatest songwriters in the history of musical composition: PAUL SIMON.

The intertwined harmonies  of Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon were a form of music unto themselves. The sheer beauty of thier combined voices was magic enough ---but oh the songs Paul wrote for those two voices to gently  wrap around and caress : THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE, I AM A ROCK, TO EMILY, APRIL COME SHE WILL,--- all their hits until they all crescendoed into one of the most powerful musical compositions of the last 100 years: their masterpiece, BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER.( The standard by which all music should be judged.)

But also, among my newfound heroes, idols, and musical pied pipers--suddenly, there HE was--THERE HE WAS, singing out,, and shining like a DIAMOND. ''STARTIN' SOFT AND LOW, LIKE A SMALL EARTHQUAKE---THEN WHEN HE LETS GO, HALF THE VALLEY SHAKES---" Brother Love himself, Neil ( shining like a...) Diamond. What monumental contributions to the world of music that now wrapped around me like a security blanket of softest satin and silk: HOLLY HOLY, BROTHER LOVE'S TRAVELIN' SALVATION SHOW, PLAY ME, STONES,SOOLAIMON, DONE TOO SOON, and the list goes on and on. And another musical legend had stirred my soul.!!!

I'LL GO TO MY GRAVE LOVING YOU// COUNTIN' FLOWERS ON THE WALL// SILVER MEDALS AND SWEET MEMORIES// BED OF ROSES.///  Yes, then came the country years. Quite unexpectedly, and only because I started playing drums in a country band--- I woke up one morning in life and realized I had, in the words of Alan Jackson ( who wasn't around yet, then) GONE COUNTRY. But during that period ( which has never ended, and probably never will) I met, quite literally, the greatest country and ( in my opinion) gospel quartet in history---THE STATLER BROTHERS ( Don Reid, Harold Reid, Phil Balsley, Lew DeWitt..The Statler brothers, even though only two of them were brothers, and there wasn't a Statler amongst them. But when you're blessed with that much talent and pure musical genius you can even name your group after a brand of tissues, which they did--and the world won't care.)

By the grace of God, and their kindness, I was able to become slightly involved with The Satlers in the early 70's after I sent them some lyrics to some of my early work. Their career- long secretary, Ann Peters, called me one day, during a very rare Georgia snowstorm and informed me that these gracious heroes of mine had made arrangments with a local radio station so that I could record some demos to send them. I did, and then sometime later; these same wonderful gentlemen kindly made arrangements for me to meet them backstage at their concert in Macon, Georgia, so that I could hand deliver some requested re-writes.

But as history came to teach us all, there finally came a time when for some odd reason, the lawyers took over the music industry-- and so , wonderful and gracious gentlemen, like The Statlers, who were trying to help a young writer out---were told, as were the rest,that  it wasn't legally safe to be kind and help someone up---or in whatever legal terms the lawyers of Music Row drew it up, in small print and triplicate. I never saw the Statlers again, although Mr. Don Reid was again, gracious enough in 2004 to read and respond to a letter from me, which included the lyrics to a song I promised my father on his death-bed I would try to do something with someday ( "I"LL NEVER FILL YOUR SHOES"). But for all my life, I will cherish the fact that once upon a time, in a different musical climate and time, the greatest country quartet that ever sang a song, The Statler Bros., not only gave me the time of day--but took the time to listen to ME. Incredible. In his last letter to me , from that time period, Mr. Don Reid was kind and gracious  enough to call me the best amateur songwriter he'd  heard from in 20 years....words I will cherish all my life.

AMAZING GRACE, HOW SWEET THE SOUND// ON A HILL FARAWAY, STOOD AN OLD RUGGED CROSS./////  For the past 15 years or so, Southern Gospel music has been a major part of my life. I guess technically, by music industry standards,the biggest leap of success I've had  is that in 1994, Chestnut Mound Publishing, a division of Eddie Crook music in Nasville put a writer's contract and hold on two of my gospel songs. At the time, I was walking on clouds---but then, they evaporated right out from under me. Well, sort of.

I signed that writer's contract with Chestnut Mound and never heard from them again. For whatever reason, my songs were never recorded and therefore never published. So years later, I wrote Chestnut Mound to see if I could get my rights back. Here's where the clouds get mushy.---- Along the way, the entire catalog of Chestnut Mound, which included MY 2 UNPUBLISHED, UNRECORDED gospel songs, was bought out by Cal-IV Entertainment in Nashvilee- a major, major Country Publishing House which publishes  songs recorded by the likes of Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill (MRS. Tim McGraw.) The problem?

Being a major COUNTRY House, they don't, or the last I spoke with them didn't " actively promote their gospel catalog" which was simply bought up in some kind of revenue producing buyout. So here's the good news and the bad news all  rolled up in one ( and I guess I should write a song about this): I HAVE 2 GOSPEL SONGS SITTING IN LIMBO IN ONE OF THE LARGEST COUNTRY MUSIC PUBLISHING HOUSES IN NASHVILLE---BUT THEY WON'T ACTIVLEY PROMOTE THEM, NOR GIVE ME MY RIGHTS BACK.!!!////// Don't it make my brown eyes, don't it make my brown eyes blue. ( Yes I have brown eyes. But I wasn't the inspiration for Chuck Berry's BROWN-EYED HANDSOME MAN.)

So yes, as I wrote in that song so many songs ago--Music is my life. Has been, hopefully always will be. Although the past year has been spent working on my first book, poetry and music have been my life since I heard Bob Lind singing his one and only  hit...that  completely changed my life, and sealed my destiny as a writer. If Elvis made me a singer, Bob Lind made me a writer---followed by Paul Simon, Donovan de Leitch, Neil Diamond, Rod McKuen and others.

Tuesday, the deadline for this article, I'll be going into the studio for the first time in 2 years; to record a recitation of a gospel/patriotic poem I wrote titled ONE LONE SOLDIER (copyright 1997, LRF) . I'm not the star I wanted to be. I'm not the famous award-winning poet, song-writer,singer I dreamed of being. But from HoundDog, to Elusive Butterfly, to Sounds of Silence, and Amazing Grace---I inherited from lifelong heroes, a love for the written word, a love for putting my heart and soul into a song; a habit of waking up in the middle of the  night and grabbing a pen when God's inspiration would hit me. I've inherited a legacy of helping the world turn to the rhythm and rhyme, the beat and the time, the lyric and line of the music of life. YOU ARE THE SUN, I AM THE MOON, YOU ARE THE WORDS, I AM THE TUNE---PLAY ME.

Thank you Bob Lind, somewhere in Florida these days. Thank you Paul Simon, whereever you're chasing the melodies these days. Thank you Donovan, overseas in the land of green. Thank you Don Reid of The Statler Brothers , retired from music and writing those books. Thank you Elvis---wherever you're spotted next.

Thank you, God.

Lonnie Fowler, The Southern SongSmith, The Rhymesman