Category Archives: Vern Gosdin

(In Memorium)

As country music swung back toward traditional styles in the 1980s, an inheritor of the soulful honky tonk style of Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard rose to the top of the business and notched hit after barroom hit. Sometimes he was known simply as “the Voice.” Born in Woodland, AL, Vern Gosdin idolized the Louvin Brothers and the Blue Sky Boys as a young man and sang in a gospel quartet called the Gosdin Brothers. When he was in his late teens, his family moved to Birmingham and began hosting The Gosdin Family Gospel Show on a local radio station. Gosdin and his brother, Rex, moved to Long Beach, CA, in 1961. They began performing bluegrass music in the milieu that gave birth to country-rock, joining a group called the Golden State Boys that evolved into the Hillmen, featuring future Byrds member Chris Hillman. Vern and Rex teamed up to sing country music as the Gosdin Brothers once again, had a Top 40 country hit in 1967 with “Hangin’ On,” and opened for the Byrds on occasion.

Gosdin moved to Atlanta in 1972, raising a family and running a retail shop. But he never gave up on music completely. He performed at local clubs and began to gravitate toward Nashville, where Emmylou Harris, a friend of Gosdin‘s from his California days, was laying the foundation for a neo-traditionalist style of country music. Around 1976 Gosdin and Harris cut a demo single consisting of “Hangin’ On” backed with a newly written song, “Yesterday’s Gone.” The demo got Gosdin signed to the Elektra label, and both songs cracked the country Top 20. In the late ’70s he notched several major hits, including “Till the End” (with Janie Fricke), “Mother Country Music,” and a remake of the Association‘s “Never My Love.”

Alone

In 1980, after the demise of Elektra’s country division, Gosdin quickly moved through several contracts and landed with the independent Nashville label Compleat. He made the Top Ten consistently in the early ’80s, really hitting his stride when he teamed with Max D. Barnes as a songwriting collaborator. The pair specialized in songs of cheating and barroom romance, often delivering an over-the-top emotionalism that got Gosdin compared to the ultimate legend of honky tonk vocals, George Jones. In 1983, Gosdin had two Top Five hits — “If You’re Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)” and “Way Down Deep.” The following year he had his first number one single with “I Can Tell by the Way You Dance (You’re Gonna Love Me Tonight)” and had two additional Top Ten hits. His career hit a lull in the mid-’80s, but in 1987, with the new traditionalist movement in full swing and Warner Bros. artist Randy Travis roosting at the top of the charts, he was tapped by the Columbia label. He bounced back into the Top Ten that year with the tortured “Do You Believe Me Now,” and in 1988 he hit number one once again with the perennially popular Ernest Tubb tribute “Set ‘Em Up Joe.” Gosdin‘s “Chiseled in Stone,” co-written with Barnes, won the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year award in 1989. His 1989 album Alone was a rarity: a concept album in a traditional country style. It chronicled the dissolution of Gosdin‘s marriage. Gosdin‘s popularity declined as rock-influenced country styles surged forward in the 1990s, but he continued to record on small labels and never abandoned the pure country vocalism he had cultivated for so long.

Artist Biography by James Manheim

NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME TO INDUCT VERN GOSDIN, JIM MCBRIDE, WALT ALDRIDGE AND TIM NICHOLS

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Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame 2017 Inductees

Vern Gosdin, Jim McBride, Walt Aldridge and Tim Nichols will be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in October, according to an announcement made today by Hall of Fame member Pat Alger, chair of the organization’s board of directors. The four new inductees will join the 203 existing members of the elite organization when they are officially inducted during the 47th Anniversary Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala on Monday, October 23, at the Music City Center. “The quality of the songs that emanate from the legendary Nashville Songwriting community is most often the standard by which songwriters measure their success,” says Alger. “Iconic songs from its eminent songwriters help make this town the musical sanctuary it has become and in turn, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame celebrates the illustrious careers of those songwriters each year by inducting four new members, the highest honor that any Nashville songwriter can hope for. This year we are extremely proud to welcome the class of 2017: Walt Aldridge and Tim Nichols in the songwriter category; Jim McBride in the veteran songwriter category and the late Vern Gosdin as our songwriter/artist.” Walt Aldridge’s songwriter credits include “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me” (Ronnie Milsap), “Holding Her And Loving You” (Earl Thomas Conley) and “Modern Day Bonnie And Clyde” (Travis Tritt).  Tim Nichols’ resume is known for “I’m Over You” (Keith Whitley), “Heads Carolina, Tails California” (Jo Dee Messina) and “Live Like You Were Dying” (Tim McGraw).  Jim McBride is the tunesmith behind “Rose In Paradise” (Waylon Jennings), “Chasing That Neon Rainbow” (Alan Jackson) and “Chattahoochee” (Alan Jackson).  Vern Gosdin popularized many of his own compositions, including “Set ’Em Up Joe,” “I’m Still Crazy” and “Chiseled In Stone.” The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala is one of the music industry’s premier events of the year.  The evening features tributes and performances of the inductees’ songs by special guest artists.  In recent years artists such as Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, Ronnie Dunn, Emmylou Harris, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, Marty Stuart, Taylor Swift, Josh Turner and Trisha Yearwood have performed at or participated in the event.  Fellow songwriter organization the Nashville Songwriters Association International also participates in the evening by presenting its annual awards for the year’s Best Song, Songwriter and Songwriter/Artist, as well as the Top 10 “Songs I Wish I Had Written” as determined by their professional songwriters division. Tickets for the Hall of Fame Gala are $250 each and benefit the nonprofit Nashville Songwriters Foundation. Select seating is available to the public and may be purchased as available by contacting Executive Director Mark Ford at hoftix@nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com or 615-460-6556. About the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame: Induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame is one of the nation’s most highly prized songwriting achievements.  Since 1970, the Hall has enshrined more than 200 of the greatest writers from all genres of music ever to put words to music in Music City, including such luminaries as Bill Anderson, Bobby Braddock, Garth Continue reading NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME TO INDUCT VERN GOSDIN, JIM MCBRIDE, WALT ALDRIDGE AND TIM NICHOLS→