On the Record

"I Found a Letter"

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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I feel like I can finally get going in earnest on this project now — not only did you sweet folks on Facebook come through and post links and photos of the artwork to Alabama Song, I found a copy of every album I didn’t have sitting on my shelf on ebay. I now own a physical copy of every album in my catalog and feel much better. I don’t know why I didn’t have them — I could’ve found them already — maybe it’s that I’m more ready to remember it all these days.

“I Found a Letter,” is what I’d call a stone cold country shuffle. I don’t know what song I borrowed that melody from, it might be a composite of some sort, but it’s the achy kind I grew up on, as is the verse, verse, bridge, verse song form. It’s a charming thing, I must admit. As is the recording despite my slightly put on accent. Let’s face it, I’m as country as a stick but I laid it on a little thick even for me in those days — however, that’s a pretty damn good vocal.

The musicians! The singers! Joe Spivey played the fiddle and it is just heartbreakingly gorgeous. A truly stellar group — Kenny and Richard Bennett are together on this track’s guitars, Dugmore’s on the pedal steel, Handsome Harry Stinson on drums and background vocals along with Louis Nunley and Dennis Wilson, Michael Rhodes on bass — I was so very fortunate to be able to record with these masters, especially at such a young age. That’s something I’ve never taken for granted — to get to be a part of such a staggeringly great musical community has always been one of my favorite things about my life’s work and living in Nashville.

I think I felt old in those days. Life felt longer then and like I had so far to go. I had no idea the growing I would do or what life would demand from me — if you’d shown me back then what my life is now I doubt I would’ve believed it. Not that it is grand. It isn’t. I just know how fortunate I am to still have a career that I like — today more than I’ve ever liked it before — and that I like my life too. It isn’t easy, but it’s rich. That’s success, in my opinion.

As flawed as I know I Found a Letter is, there’s something heartening about going back to listen to it twenty-five years later. I simultaneously shudder with embarrassment and beam with pride. I was trying so hard to prove how much I knew when I didn’t really know a thing at all. I want to kiss my cheeks and tell me it’s all going to be alright.

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Personnel:

Kenny Greenberg: Producer; Acoustic, Electric, Baritone guitars

Richard Bennett: Acoustic Guitar

Michael Rhodes: Bass

Harry Stinson: Drums, Background Vocals

Dan Dugmore: Pedal Steel

Joe Spivey: Fiddle

Louis Nunley, Dennis Wilson: Background vocals

Allison Moorer: background vocals

Justin Niebank: Engineer

Graham Lewis: Assistant Engineer

Recorded at MCA Studios, probably early 1998

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 “Easier to Forget.”

AM

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