On the Record

"The One That Got Away (Got Away With My Heart)"

This series, “On the Record,” will be a weekly Substack exclusive in which I’ll go through my recorded catalog song by song starting with my first album, Alabama Song, which was released on MCA Records in 1998. Photos will be attached if available and tolerable.

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Most singer-songwriters who are steeped in country balladry and folk traditions struggle with creating or finding quality up-tempo tunes. I am certainly no exception to that rule and have feared that every time folks see a new record coming from me they might think, “What depressing scheme has she dreamt up now?” but true to my word, I am true to my vision, which often moves like a summer rain in slow motion. All of my records are ballad heavy, and I set the precedent with “Alabama Song,” right out of the gate.

But I clearly needed some tempo on the album, my first for MCA Records. I struggled to write anything that wasn’t slow that was simultaneously any good and that also fit in with the rest of the songs on the record. And as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like singing songs that have a ton of words. Convincing up tempos already in existence that I actually liked were few are far between too: Dwight Yoakam could do it, The Mavericks could, Kim Richey pulled off greatness with her melodic, smart, up tempo songs which is no easy feat, but the direction I headed in during that time was straight to Bakersfield and Buck Owens. His songs were the template for tempo for me then — maybe they were a bit formulaic, but with Buck and Don Rich performing them, they were exciting and authentic. Enter Kostas.

I met Kostas over lunch at this cool old restaurant called The Nashville Country Club that is long gone now — if I remember correctly it was on the corner of Division and maybe 19th Ave? I forget who set up the co-write but it was probably my publisher — sometimes these things run together for me. Anyway — Kostas and I met at the restaurant, got acquainted, went to his writing office, and knocked out “The One that Got Away (got away with my heart),” in about two hours. He had the title, which I thought was great and classic sounding, and we came up with the melody and the rest of the lyrics together. It isn’t a groundbreaking song — in fact, when I listen to it now it sounds like more of a study than anything genuine — but I didn’t really know how to rock yet, not in a country way. Not really in any way.

As a recording, I think it’s pretty cool. Smoking hot, actually, with a down modulation for the instrumental section and then up again when we go back to the verse. HA! The guitars are killer — Kenny Greenberg & Richard Bennett (Richard played the solo plus that whole cuckoo amazing surf-y thing on the outro — Richard is one of the classiest guys I’ve ever worked with and is nothing short of a genius musician and producer. Plus Buddy Miller’s singing on it with me. One thing — we tried overdubbing trumpet on it a la “Ring of Fire,” but it didn’t work. Oh, the things that are on the cutting room floor!

Thanks to my Facebook people who came to the rescue with liner notes today. No, I don’t currently have a copy of “Alabama Song,” and just today went on ebay and bought copies of all of my records that I didn’t have — I think I needed four out of the ten. The record is out of print, as is “The Hardest Part,” and “Miss Fortune.” Most of my records are probably out of print, come to think of it. I don’t guess keeping them in print is why I make them. Anyway — I thought I could do this from memory but I was wrong — apologies for the mistakes I made on the first four songs — especially to Rick Plant, who I failed to credit correctly on “Pardon Me.”

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Personnel:

Kenny Greenberg: Producer, acoustic and baritone guitars

Richard Bennett: electric guitars

Larry Marrs: bass & background vocals

Greg Morrow: drums

Dan Dugmore: pedal steel

Buddy Miller: background vocals

Erik Darken: percussion

Recorded at MCA Music by Justin Niebank. Mixed by Richard Dodd.

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Thanks for reading these “On the Record” installments. I’m so enjoying writing them. I’ve made ten studio albums so that means I’ll end up covering more than one-hundred songs! More to come next week with “I Found a Letter.”

AM