Tag Archives: Class Country Music

Steve Dean: Multi-Platinum Selling Songwriter (PART TWO)



Persistence is the key to success. Not giving up.  – Steve Dean 
 
We were having so much fun talking to hit songwriter Steve Dean, we had to divide it into 2 parts.   Over the past few years, we’ve learned that when you are interviewing an artist in their own home, you get to know them on a deeper level and that was certainly the case with Steve Dean.   Steve raised his children in the house where we recorded this interview and when you walk in the door, it feels that way.  Steve and his wife have created a cozy home, where love lives.  He’s a family man who is grateful that he gets to write songs every day.  Steve is a Grammy nominee who has written 6 #1 songs and country artists consider themselves lucky to sing his songs. In this interview, you’ll hear the stories behind some of his biggest hits including Does Your Memory Ever Sleep At Night for Steve Wariner, Reba’s Walk On, The Oakridge Boys, It Takes A Little Rain and Rodney Atkin’s smash Watching You.  Steve also talks about his deep commitment to America’s veterans through a non-profit called FreedomsingsUSA.org. where service men and women take their stories, poems, and memories to create songs that heal with help from hit songwriters like Steve.  His writing room may be lined with plaques that signify his success, but in this interview, we learn that Steve values the kind of success that can’t be measured in dollars and cents.  It comes straight from the heart.

Steve Dean: Multi-Platinum Selling Songwriter (PART ONE)



The competition for songwriters in Nashville is off the charts crazy and there are a lot of great writers coming to town every single day.   – Steve Dean  
Welcome to part 1 of the country music success story of hit songwriter Steve Dean. This Grammy nominee has written 6 #1 songs including Watching You by Rodney Atkins…the most played song on country radio in 2007.  Recorded in Steve’s writing room at his home just outside of Nashville which is filled with guitars, Beatles memorabilia, and BMI awards this episode is full of wisdom for songwriters just getting started.   Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, by musical parents, Steve lived in a home where music was always playing.  His mother taught him how to play the piano when he was about 5 years old and Steve’s dad gave him his first guitar at 9. Teachers in school noticed how well Steve wrote stories and encouraged him to be an author. After earning a degree in advertising at the University of Arkansas, he got his start selling creative to major advertisers until one day, a colleague said:  “why don’t you go to Nashville and find artists who will sing the songs you’re writing?” On February 7, 1980, Steve packed up his Toyota and made his way to Nashville where he started writing hit songs that have earned him a Grammy nomination,  countless industry awards, and six #1 hits including Watching You by Rodney Atkins which would go on to become the most played record on country radio in 2007. Through it all, Steve has mentored countless young songwriters including Jacy. If you’re thinking of packing up your car and heading to Nashville, listen to this episode first. The great Steve Dean has a lot to tell you!

Lorrie Morgan: Multi-Platinum Selling & Award-Winning Artist



It’s not us that makes music.  Music makes us.  My love for music is what inspires me and that is the secret to my success. It’s the song.  – Lorrie Morgan 
This episode may be one of the most personal interviews we’ve ever recorded. Born Loretta Lynn Morgan, Lorrie is the daughter of the legendary George Morgan and his beloved wife, Anna. Recorded at Lorrie’s home in a quiet little town outside of Nashville, she welcomed us into her favorite room which overlooks a backyard that was created by her husband Randy and includes a pool, BBQ, birdhouses perched in trees, and a koi pond. You’ll hear Lorrie’s dog Puddin Marie Antoinette bark, and you’ll also hear her cry as she sits in her favorite chair recalling the ups and downs of her incredible career.  Mentored by the great Jeannie Seeley, Lorrie shares what it was like to make her debut at only 13 on the stage at the Grand Ole Opry.  She reflects on life at home with a superstar father, the stories behind her biggest hits, and what she wishes she knew when she first got started. Recorded on the day after her late husband Keith Whitley was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame by Garth Brooks, this interview is a rare look into country music royalty and the heart of a hugely talented woman who was born to sing. 

Candy & Jacy: Looking Back on 2022



Our goal has always been to take you with us as we go inside the homes and onto the back porches of country music icons as we discover what makes these talented people tick! 
-Candy O’Terry & Jacy Dawn Valeras    
Welcome to a recap of some of Candy and Jacy’s favorite 2022 interviews. Chockfull of behind-the-scenes stories that didn’t make the final cut, this episode includes Jacy’s terrifying flight from Nashville to Palm Springs, California to visit Candy, what it was like to be served espresso in a room full of guitars at Anthony Resta’s 1920’s hunting lodge/studio in Laurel Canyon and the thrill of interviewing industry heavyweights TK Kimbrell, Mike Borchetta, Julian Raymond and Kim Campbell LIVE from the Rhinestone Stage at the Glen Campbell Museum. Plus, there’s the trip to the craftsman-style home of songwriter/producer and former American Idol judge Kara Dioguardi, the green room meeting during CMA week with actress and singer Rita Wilson (which ended in tears), and the revealing 2-part interview with multi-Grammy winner Pam Tillis who Jacy met in an elevator ten years ago. Download this fun episode for your next car ride.   You’re welcome!  

Pam Tillis – Grammy & CMA Award-Winning Artist (PART TWO)



In the early days especially, I really did have a fire.  I was very self-motivated.  I wanted it so bad and I pushed that internal override button and just got on with it.  – Pam Tillis 
Welcome to part two of our exclusive interview with multi-Grammy winner Pam Tillis. Recorded at the Glen Campbell Museum, this part of our conversation includes the stories behind some of Pam’s greatest hits including Mi Vida Loca, Maybe It Was Memphis, Shake the Sugar Tree, and Don’t Tell Me What To Do.  Pam also reveals the vocal performance she is most proud of, and how it felt to stand beside her father on the stage at the Grand Ole Opry to sing their duet, Waiting On The Wind.  What makes this episode so special is Pam’s willingness to be “unvarnished” as she shares the details of an iconic career of her own, and as the daughter of the legendary Mel Tillis. 

Glen Campbell Tribute: Part Two – An Exclusive Interview with Glen’s wife, Kim Campbell



Dear God, please send me a southern, good looking Christian millionaire who I can be in love with and he can be in love with me…and there I was, having dinner with Glen Campbell.  — Kim Campbell 
Welcome to part two of our interview series on the life and music of Glen Campbell, recorded before a live studio audience at the Glen Campbell Museum in Nashville, Tennessee on April 21, 2022.   This episode is your chance to experience what life was like behind the scenes, including the kinds of details only his wife Kim Campbell can share.   Married to Glen for 34 years, the couple had three children together, and all of them are accomplished artists in their own right. In this interview, Kim shares her life as a dancer in New York City and how she met Glen on a blind date and married him 6 months later.  Kim is very honest about Glen’s addiction to drugs and alcohol, sharing that it was their deep Christian faith that pulled them through, making it possible for Glen to be sober and the best husband and father she could have asked for.  In 2011, despite a diagnosis of Alzheimers Disease, Glen set out on an unprecedented tour across America. He thought it would last five weeks but would go on to sell out 151 shows over 18 months. With his children Cal, Shannon and Ashley performing on stage with him, and Kim in the wings, the family was able to make Glen’s Good Bye Tour a glowing chapter in his success story, garnering an Academy Award nomination and the Grammy in 2015 for Best Country Song for I’m Not Gonna Miss You. From that first blind date to Glen’s death in 2017,  this interview is a deep dive into the life of a country music icon, told as only a loving wife can tell it.  

Glen Campbell Tribute: Part One – TK Kimbrell, Mike Borchetta & Julian Raymond



There was never a more wonderful human being on the planet than Glen Campbell. – Mike Borchetta 
Generations of artists count Glen Campbell as one of the greatest artists who ever lived. He was gifted with the kind of voice that connected to the lyric and the listener in a memorable way. Experts say that Glen Campbell was the greatest guitarist to ever play.  In fact, he was a member of the famous Wrecking Crew, an outstanding session guitarist who played on some of the greatest records ever made like Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra, Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley, and You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling by The Righteous Brothers, Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon & Garfunkel.  Willie Nelson once said:  “When the good Lord was passin’ out talent, Glen Campbell got on the line twice.”
 
This episode was recorded LIVE at the Glen Campbell Museum on April 21, 2022 as part of a week long tribute to the man and his music. Glen died of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2017 and the museum is a place where you can experience his talent and his legacy firsthand.  It’s a Nashville treasure where you’ll see his guitars, his awards, his costumes you can even sing along to Rhinestone Cowboy with Glen Campbell in a soundproof booth.  
 
As our audience took their seats, the goal was to uncover details about Glen Campbell from three of his lifelong friends:  manager TK Kimbrell, Grammy winning songwriter and producer Julian Raymond and recording industry giant, Mike Borchetta. From humble beginnings as the son of sharecropper in Delight, Arkansas, Glen Campbell made the kind of music that will never die.