As far as songwriting goes, there's no direct way to do it really. People co-write, which means three or four guys get together and come up with ideas. Or it could be a song that one guy writes on guitar with a simple chord structure and simple ideas, and then the band helps to put it together.
I brought a couple of songs to the band by myself—a ballad and a really bluesy number that the guys enjoyed—so we ended up deciding to record those. The fiddle player and I ended up co-writing two other songs on this project.
As far as the songwriting process with us, it’s been pretty much me and Jimmy Van Cleve, the fiddle player, talking with the guys and seeing what kind of gap we need to fill on the project, as far as whether it needs to be a ballad or an up-tempo song, or this kind of song, this kind of feeling, whatever. We go in and co-write and work together until we get something that fills in that hole. So that's how it's been so far and, like I said, it's only been four songs since the first of the year, so there's not a definite way to do it. You can write with hundreds of people or you can write all by yourself.
Is there a track on this record you're most proud of?
There are several that I'm proud of. One that I'd say is one of my favorite songs. A very classic country song that reminds me of Vince Gill, actually, [is] "Who's the Fool Now?" I wrote it when I was like 18, I was still living with my mom. It's a broken-heart tear-jerking, tugging-at-the-heart-strings kind of country ballad.
I wrote it a long time ago and had it kind of tucked back, and I was playing with some rock and pop groups, country acts and all these other bands, and never could play this song. Then, when I came into [Mountain Heart], I had 11 years of my material, and they liked this song. We ended up doing it the first night I was with them which, maybe we can talk about some, was at the Grand Ole Opry.
We just got a huge, huge response out of the song, so we knew right then we had to record this song. That would be something I’m proud of in terms of the response. People really loved the song since the first time we did it. And we ended up getting a very good recording of it [at the Ark]. It goes over very well. That's a song that's been kind of close to my heart since the first time I wrote it.
So that, I guess ... there are other things about this project that I'm really proud of, but as far as the songwriting thing, "Who's the Fool Now?" would probably be the most favorite, I guess.
So, you said your first gig with the band was the Grand Ole Opry?
It sure was, January the 3rd [2007].
Well that’s a good place to start [laughs].
Well, yeah it was a bit scary for me, because like I said, I'm a piano player. I've spent, since I was in junior high school, I graduated and started playing piano full time. So, I've spent my entire musical career pretty much behind a piano or standing up front holding a microphone or singing and playing piano, so that's what I'm used to doing. I went from December 31st, I played New Years Eve with a big horn section down in North Carolina. Then January 3rd, between New Years Day and January 3rd, I came to Nashville to rehearse with [Mountain Heart] and then play at the Grand Ole Opry.
So it was my first show and, basically, it was the first time I'd ever been onstage with the guys. It was probably the first week that I'd ever really gotten to know several of the guys. So it was very scary at the time being, but also a very special night. It was probably one of the most memorable nights of my career, I guess ... We all handeled it so well, but we were all so nervous at the time. I look back at it now and I can just see the guys' faces in the back of my mind—their eyes are all sort of beatie with [this sense of,] What is this guy gonna do?
We went out there and we did this song "I'm Just Here to Ride the Train," so that's how we opened the show. You know, at the Opry you only do like two songs, so it was a very quick set. We did a very fast song called "Here to Ride the Train," and then we did this ballad I've been telling you about, "Who's the Fool Now?" and, you know, I was kind of a little bit shaky and nervous about the whole thing. I just closed my eyes and sang my heart out for the duration of the song. When I got done, I heard people just going nuts. I opened my eyes and they were all standing up and giving us a standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry. We wound up going back out and doing another song. We were just very, very well-received and that was another magical night.
So what is next for y'all? Are you on the road now, or are you taking a break?
I don't think there's really ever [such as thing as] getting off the road. But, as far as breaks, sometimes we'll get a week, sometimes a couple of weeks, sometimes it's a day at home. This is a full-time band, so they play year-round.
To answer both questions, we'll still go out—we're on the road December and November—but we're slowing down from the festival season from summer and fall. We're slowing down for the holiday season. So it's kind of ... right now we're basically regrouping and trying to nail down what our next adventure's going to be, as far as what we're going to tackle next year. We'll put a lot of rehearsals together, do a lot of publicity and commercial stuff for this record. We're going to be doing some radio shows and some stuff on the Grand Ole Opry. I think ... even though we have downtime, we'll be in the studio or a radio station somewhere working on the goal [of promoting this record].
For more information on Mountain Heart and a list of their tour dates, visit their Web site.
