On The Record

"Tell Me Baby"

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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Walter Hyatt’s “Tell Me Baby,” played a huge part in getting my career started. I met Walter in early 1995 when he was doing a Monday night residency at The Sutler. Karen Leipzeiger was booking the club at the time (Karen was married to Dennis Taylor, who had played in my sister’s band at one point so file this under Nashville is a small town and there’s only one degree of separation in the music business, if that), and she thought we might hit if off, so she invited me to join Walter one evening for a few tunes. I did. I also dove deeply into his catalog, which I found rich, musically sophisticated, and gorgeous.

I dearly love many of Walter’s songs from his work with Uncle Walt’s Band (which included David Ball and Champ Hood) and The Contenders, to his solo projects. He was a master. I’m not sure I remember how I came to know “Tell Me Baby,” other than from listening to him sing it on Mondays — I was also hooked on another masterpiece of his called, “Too Far To Fall,” and sang that one with Walter often when I began to go see him play every chance I could. After he died in the ValuJet crash of May 1996, I was asked to sing “Tell Me Baby,” at his memorial concert the following June at The Ryman. Of course, I jumped at the chance to honor my friend.

A group of illustrious singers turned up in downtown Nashville on June 23, 1996, to sing Walter’s songs. His band was there to flawlessly back everyone up. The audience was full of industry professionals. It was a glorious night of song and remembrance. And I was intercepted backstage by a booking agent named Bobby Cudd who had grown up with Walter in Spartanburg, South Carolina. What can I say about it except this: if it hadn’t been for “Tell Me Baby,” and Bobby Cudd, I might not be writing this. I might be writing something, but it wouldn’t be this, not in this way. Bobby introduced me around town, accompanied me to meetings with labels and publishers and lawyers and managers, advised me on who and what I needed to be associated with, and was generally my north star at a crucial time. He became my first booking agent, ultimately introduced me to Tony Brown and also my first manager — the rest is history.

It was only right that I record “Tell Me Baby,” for Alabama Song. What can I say about it other than I think it’s pretty sublime? I listen to it now and it’s timeless. There are ways we could’ve done it differently, but none of them would’ve made it any better — it’s one of those songs that’s best left simple as it can do the heavy lifting on its own, without the help of much instrumentation. This was my first chance to do a live string date, by the way, and I remember that being absolute heaven. Kenny and I went over to Glen D. Hardin’s house one day to listen to the arrangement and talk to him about it and I just about died — not only had Glen played with Elvis, he’d played with Emmylou as well.

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Personnel:

Kenny Greenberg: Electric guitar, solo

Richard Bennett: Electric guitar

Rick Plant: Acoustic guitar

Dave Pomeroy: Bass

Greg Morrow: Drums

Dan Dugmore: Pedal Steel

Joe Spivey: Fiddle

Strings: Nashville String Machine arranged and conducted by Glen D. Hardin

Recorded by Justin Niebank at MCA Studios

Strings recorded by Warren Peterson at Javelina

Mixed by Justin Niebank

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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 “Is Heaven Good Enough for You.”

Onward,

AM