ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you in part by the City of Danville's Office of Economic Development and Tourism.

And by Santa Cruz Guitars and Santa Cruz Guitar Strings.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

Hello, and welcome to The Life Of A Musician recorded live in the beautiful city of Danville, Virginia.

Tonight's episode is recorded from the Lipscomb House.

Let's step inside and listen.

["Black Diamond Strings" instrumental music] -♪ Way back before I left Faye Ellen ♪ ♪ To chase my make-it-big dream ♪ ♪ All it took to make me happy ♪ ♪ Was this old box And Black Diamond Strings ♪ ["Black Diamond Strings" instrumental music] -All right, man, Black Diamond Strings .

Welcome, everyone, to The Life Of A Musician .

I'm your host, Brandon Lee Adams.

And we have a great show for you here today, featuring the amazing songwriting of Mr. Larry Cordle, Lawrence County, Kentucky, one of my-- -Lawrence County.

Yes, sir.

-Yes, sir.

One of my absolute favorite songwriters.

And just an all-around nice guy from about the prettiest neck of the woods, because it's my neck of the woods too... -Yeah.

-... that there is.

So, hey, how you feeling this?

-I'm feeling great.

-Is that-- that ride in from Nashville wasn't too rough on you?

-No.

You know, rogue dogs like me, we don't... -That was the thing.

Yeah, I was like, doggone, I hope Larry's all right.

And you know, you got in about... got into the house about 11:30 last night.

-Uh, that's early for me.

[laughs] -That's what you said.

And-- and then I've gotten soft ever since COVID and everything.

I'm-- I'm used to going to bed on time now.

-Yeah.

So, you got to get out there.

If you're gonna go out here and pick some music, you have some late nights.

-Well, that's-- that's why I'm doing this.

I'm having y'all come to me, so I can get up at a-- at a decent hour.

-Probably makes a lot more sense than what I do.

[laughs] -Tell me just a little bit.

I want-- I just want to get into picking your brain for the folks at home.

And really, I just, this show is pretty selfish.

I just want to ask the questions I want to know.

-Yeah, well, sure.

-So... -Sure.

Well, I hope I've got an answer.

-Well, if you don't, we'll just pick another song.

That's all.

-[laughs] Okay.

-That works out good that way.

There's a million questions in my mind.

But the thing that-- that I guess I'd like to know the best is, you know, all this songwriting and all these years on the road, and all the amazing success that you've had and things of that nature, what has been the highlight for you?

What's-- what's the thing that keeps you, you know, coming back and still doing it?

-Oh, man, I don't know.

You know, Brandon, when you, um... when you ever... Every winter, I go through, or every end of every summer, I go through this thing.

Well, I don't know if I'm gonna do this next year or not, you know.

But... along about this time of year, you know, Jesus would have a hard time getting along with me because I get antsy to get out here and work again, you know.

And I'll tell you something that really still affects me to this day.

When you're standing on stage, and I don't care if it's a big one or a small one.

And you look out here, and you see the first two or three rows.

And somebody's singing your songs back to you.

I mean, you know, to me, just to get to write songs and do what I've got to do for a living is-- is such a blessing in my life.

And I thank God for it.

But, uh, just that, that you know for a fact that you made a connection with those people, never how many of them that is, and there's always some that are singing these things back to you that you've-- you've connected with somebody.

And I love that.

I love that music is such a uniter of people.

If we-- if we had music, a lot more music, you know, I mean, all these fighting and wars and people aggravated with one another all the time, I don't think... -Yeah.

-I tell this story a lot.

A few years ago, up in East Kentucky, I went back up and played a show at the MAC.

And it was from these guys from Hungary.

With this-- this band from Hungary.

-Mm-hm.

-Only one of them could speak the English language.

Through him, one of the other guys asked me if I would sing a song with them.

And I said, absolutely.

What would it be?

And it was a song of mine, it was called Jesus and Bartenders .

-Wow.

-And I said, absolutely.

-Yeah.

-He knew every word of it.

He knew exactly how the song went.

So, he says to me, "Just in--in..." When the song is over, I told the crowd, I said, "You know, you see this here.

Me and this guy can't talk to one another.

But a G chord is the same in Hungary as it is here."

-Absolutely.

-It's the absolute same.

-Yes.

-It's got-- he's gotta put his hands on there just like I do, and he's got a, you know... -Yeah.

-And I didn't know these people.

I may never see them again.

But I mean, we were united in-- in doing that song together even though we never even saw one another.

Never even tried to play together.

Music's a... it's the reason God gave it to us.

-I agree.

I agree.

It builds a lot of bridges, and I agree with you.

If we're all busy making music, we'd be too busy learning how to do Larry Cordle songs, then-- -Well, I don't know about that, but we'd be-- we wouldn't be arguing and racketing around like people do these days and-- -We'd just argue about what guitar was the best for-- -Yeah, which one's the best one?

What's the best string?

-Right.

I agree.

A 100-- 110 percent.

-Right now, this is the best one, you know.

No question about that.

-[laughs] And for you folks at home, that's-- that's a gratuitous plug.

-Yeah.

Yeah, that's it.

-But-- -Hey, I remember when old pickers wouldn't play on nothing else but it.

They'd say, you got Black Diamonds on that thing?

Boy, I tell you, that... nothing else sounds like that, you know, why all 'em old guys loves it.

-Yeah, yeah.

Well, and for me, I think, you know, I learned all these-- these licks when I was young and I'm learning the Tony Rice licks and Jerry Reed licks and just whatever would come along, and I thought I was something.

And my-- -You are something.

That's-- -Well, that-- well back, you know, 13 years old, I thought I was something.

-Oh, yeah.

-And I thought I was the next big thing.

And my grandmother, I played something for her, and she said, if you can't play Wildwood Flower.. .

-Yeah, if you can't play that, you can't play nothing.

-You're not a guitar player if you can't play Wildwood Flower .

-Every-- everybody learned, I think, on that, you know, because my grandmother and them, you know, they played like Maybelle, that boom chicka chicka boom chicki chicki.

-Yeah.

-How they did, they all played guitar that way.

And my grandmother could play anything, I don't care what it was.

She played piano, or they had an old pump organ, she could play that.

She could play fiddle, harmonica, banjo, guitar.

-So, you came by it honest, is that what you're saying?

-Well, uh, and her dad, my great grandfather, who lived until the 1970s was, he would have been an old-time banjo player and dancer, and just greater [indistinct].

And he--he, uh, he got these three fingers cut off, you know, on his right hand in a rail accident, so all he had was his thumb and his little finger.

And since he couldn't really frail, I mean, I guess he kind of needed this, the whole part of his hand to do that.

He could still do it, but not-- not to his standards.

-Right.

-He learned how to play the fiddle so-- so he could put his thumb and little finger behind the frog, but... -Right.

-He was kind of another Sawyer but-but, yeah.

They were-- they were musicians.

I don't think they would have considered themselves professional musicians, but they probably could have been.

-There's a gospel tune that you wrote called Gone On Before .

-Yes.

-And it's-- it's an absolutely fantastic song.

-Thank you, Brandon.

-And I'd love to go ahead and try to do that one, and maybe talk about it for a second afterwards.

-Okay, okay.

Sure.

Sure.

This is one of my most requested songs actually, Brandon, on the road and-- ["Gone On Before" by Larry Cordle] ♪ Son I'm home safe ♪ ♪ That was the message ♪ ♪ She sent in a dream ♪ ♪ To give me some peace ♪ ♪ She said all is well ♪ ♪ Now that I've seen Jesus ♪ ♪ His healing is perfect ♪ ♪ Don't weep for me ♪ ♪ I'm not really gone ♪ ♪ Just gone on before ♪ ♪ Not dead but alive ♪ ♪ Forever more ♪ ♪ Just look around ♪ ♪ You can be sure ♪ ♪ I'm not really gone ♪ ♪ Just gone on before ♪ ["Gone On Before" instrumental music] ♪ Well I'm in the songs ♪ ♪ That you still love singing ♪ ♪ I'm in your daughter's hair ♪ ♪ And the fire in her eyes ♪ ♪ I'm in the wind ♪ ♪ That blows through The hollers ♪ ♪ And the bible that I left ♪ ♪ By your bedside ♪ ♪ Well I can't come back to you But you can still come to me ♪ ♪ There's no tears in heaven ♪ ♪ And once you get here Then you'll see ♪ ♪ I'm not really gone ♪ ♪ Just gone on before ♪ ♪ Not dead but alive ♪ ♪ Forever more ♪ ♪ Just look around ♪ ♪ You can be sure ♪ ♪ I'm not really gone ♪ ♪ I'm just gone on before ♪♪ -Beautiful.

-Thank you.

-Almost wanna just sit here and clap.

-Well, thank you, brother.

I appreciate it.

-That's absolutely beautiful, man.

How does it feel, just that-- that emotion?

Because I know I could sit here and ask you a million times, how do you write something like that.

But it's a mystery.

-Well, that, I had a dream about my mom.

-Mm-hm.

-An odd thing about it is, she'd already been gone a couple of years.

And, you know, my mom was a powerful Christian.

So, I mean... -Yeah.

-...believing what we believe that we are going to see these people again.

I mean, it wasn't, I have no idea why I had the dream.

But I had a dream.

And I heard this in the dream, I dreamed that I was laying on a couch or something in one room, and I heard a bunch of laughter like in another room.

And I thought, "Man, one of them sounds like my mom."

And so, I got up and went through this kind of doorway.

It was nothing fancy or anything.

And when-- when I got in there, I saw that well, it was my mom and there was-- there was like a table.

And there was maybe eight or ten, I don't know, eight or ten people.

I think they were all women.

-Yeah.

-And they were just enjoying themselves.

And you know, when I saw it was my mom in this dream, I began to weep.

And Mom said to me kind of-- kind of sarcastically, but with a question.

She said, "Honey, what's wrong with you?"

And immediately, I woke up and I could not, I tried to go back to sleep for 30 minutes so... just so I can see the rest or more, you know, and tell her, "Hey, you know, I'll be alone here while..." The odd thing about it is, you know how musicians have songwriters all on the road.

They'll say, "Hey, let's get together and write sometime."

Maybe we, you know, well, this had been going on for years.

-Right.

-Every songwriter, every musician I know, they say, "Hey, man, we got to get together sometime."

Me and Ronnie Bowman have been doing that for... -Yeah.

-We've got to get together and try to write.

We'd planned a show in Iceland, so we booked a date to write.

And I'd already had this dream.

But Ronnie's mom died suddenly.

And here's the unique part about it.

The day that we wrote this song, I told Ronnie about the, told him just what I told you about the dream.

And he was telling me about his mom dying.

And I said, "Well, man, I'm not sure we can sit in this room and do this."

Because I could already tell it was going to be emotional for me.

But he said, "No."

He said, "I think we can."

So, we wrote that in one day.

And I didn't know if I would ever-- because I thought I was gonna have to excuse myself two or three times from being so broke down tryin' to write it, I couldn't-- -Right.

-The emotion of it would overwhelm me.

I think it was worse for me really than it was for Ronnie.

But... playing it for my family was the test for me.

I'd say that song was probably... maybe ten years old now.

And after I played it for, at one of our gatherings, maybe Thanksgiving, first Thanksgiving after we'd written it, I think, all-- most of my family was there at my dad's house when he was still alive.

And I said, "You guys..." Phew, I can hardly even talk about it.

-Yeah, yeah.

-I said, "You all come in here.

I need to-- I need to-- I've got something I need to play for you, you know."

Once I got past playing it for them, I figured I could play it for other people.

-Right.

Well, that's, that's, you know, everybody was so close to it.

You know-- -There's never a show that I do that it's not in there.

There's never a show that I do this somebody doesn't come and ask me if I'm gonna do it.

-Yeah.

-When there-- when it's always like this.

You know, we played your song at Daddy's funeral, or we played your song at Mother's funeral, or whoever, whatever the case is, and I wonder if you'd do that for me.

-Yeah.

-So, you know, I feel like God meant for me and Ronnie to have the song because of that, because the song has a sad theme, and it was overwhelming for me emotionally to write.

But really, if you listen to the word-- lyric of the song, there's a lot of hope in the song.

-Yeah, it's a happy tune.

-It actually is.

It actually is, you know.

Should have put a banjo on it, son.

-[laughs] If you put a banjo on it, they may be-- maybe a little cowbell or something like that.

-Yeah.

Should have been-- should have been because there's really a lot of hope in it, you know, and... -Yeah, it's a-- it's a fantastic message.

And I think when-- when you can tell something that you're feeling, something that's coming from inside of you, people pick up on that, and they've got their own way to relate to that.

-They do, and everybody, you know, one thing about it is, everybody's got their own story that you're playing for.

I mean, you may not know what it is, but it's... -Yeah.

-The... losing family members and people you love is part of living.

-Yes.

-I mean, it's-- it's gonna happen to everybody.

It's gonna affect everybody's lives, so, you know, I mean.

-We talk about, you know, the music business and the music industry, and in writing, and you have those magical moments with, you know, that song.

-You do.

-I guess this would be the song that got you-- got you kind of on the map, on a national level.

-This is the song that... and I tell people this all the time because it's true.

If it hadn't been for this song, all these others would probably never happen.

-Yeah.

-Because I was writing songs every once in a while, but not...

I didn't know, I had no earthly-- I had no direction or no earthly idea what I would ever do with them.

But you know, Ricky was, had progressed.

By the time I come back home out of the Navy, Ricky Skaggs was, uh, I guess he was getting ready to move to Washington and go to work for the Country Gentleman .

And then one day he-- he and I were finishing up on the hood one day and he told me he was gonna take the gig with J.D.

Crowe.

You know, Rick, he quit playing music for a space there, about a year, and tried to work a regular gig, and it led to... drove him crazy, I think.

Anyway, he goes to work for Crowe and Dottie, John.

Works for Emmy and, and gets to know them kind of people, and I had written these songs.

I was-- I was trying to be a CPA.

I had a degree in accounting, and I was trying to do that, but that straight life worked about six months for me right after I got out of college, and I stuck with the work, but I-I-I continued to-- I got back in the music business and started playing with a local band in Hazard three nights a week, too.

So, which is no easy deal to have a day gig and have to drive through-- -Yeah.

-From Paintsville to Hazard was about 60 miles, I'd say, but there was no easy way to get there.

You had to go up-- drive down to [indistinct] Elk Horn, [indistinct] and up-- whatever that is, for 36 or whatever that little old road is that goes to Hindman and-- and then down 15 to Hazard.

I mean, it was a-- it was a journey.

-Yeah.

-So, I was doing that three nights a week.

On one of those trips back, something less than a 100 percent, you might say.

I had this little song, melody that was stuck in my head for... -Mm-hm.

-[humming] I had that little song, whole chord changes and everything, stuck in my head.

And I lived on Kentucky State Route 40.

I live just between Paintsville and Inez, that's 40.

And that little spurt you turn on to go out there to Thelma, there was a sign there, "Kentucky State Route 40" sign.

And when I came in from Hazard, it must have been two o'clock in the morning.

We didn't get off till 12, so however long it took me to load up and get back through there.

-Yeah.

-When I got to right there, the whole first verse of that song fell out on me.

There was a big wide place in the road there on the riverbank.

And I pulled right over right then, and started looking for a pencil.

I had a little spiral-bound notebook.

I didn't live two miles up the road, but I was afraid I would lose it before-- before I got up there to write it down.

And I wrote the whole first verse of that there, and I came in the house and was not in the best shape.

I threw it down and went on to bed.

And when I got up the next morning, I-- I went in there to it.

I got me a cup of coffee and went in there to it, and I wrote the rest of it.

I never picked a guitar up to see how it went.

I knew exactly how it went.

-And so you knew it's-- it's something?

-And then later, you know, I was able to show it to Ricky.

A couple of years beyond that even, he'd come up there for a car show.

And I said, "Man, I hate to ask."

'cause, you know, I didn't want to be one of them people.

I said, "I hate to ask you this."

I said, "But I got... these songs" and I said, "People will ask me to play them at parties because I've had enough nerve to play one here and there" and I said, "Should, is there-- is there something I should do?"

And he said, "Well, son, you ought to at least have a copyright on them."

And he said, "When you come down home," he said, "we'll tape all of them.

You got..." and he said, "I think you can blanket copyright."

And well, that was one of them.

-I'll-I'll take the note of-- You go ahead.

It's your song.

-You just play the solos up like I'll pick the intro and outro.

How's that?

-Alright, I can work with that.

Here's--here's... what's that?

Highway 40 Blues .

-Yeah.

["Highway 40 Blues" instrumental music] ♪ Well these Highway 40 blues ♪ ♪ I've walked holes In both my shoes ♪ ♪ Counted the days Since I've been gone ♪ ♪ And I'd love to see The lights of home ♪ ♪ Wasted time and money too ♪ ♪ Squandered youth In search of truth ♪ ♪ But in the end I had to lose ♪ ♪ Lord above I've paid my dues ♪ ♪ Got the Highway 40 blues ♪ ♪ The highway called When I was young ♪ ♪ Told me lies Of things to come ♪ ♪ Fame and fortune lies ahead!

♪ ♪ That's what the billboard Lights had said ♪ ♪ Shattered dreams My mind is numb ♪ ♪ My money's gone Stick out my thumb ♪ ♪ My eyes are filled With bitter tears ♪ ♪ Lord I ain't been home In years ♪ ♪ Got the Highway 40 blues ♪ ["Highway 40 Blues" instrumental music] ♪ You know I've rambled All around ♪ ♪ Like a rolling stone From town to town ♪ ♪ Met pretty girls I have to say ♪ ♪ But none of them Could make me stay ♪ ♪ Well I've played The music halls and bars ♪ ♪ Had fancy clothes And big fine cars ♪ ♪ Things a country boy Can't use ♪ ♪ Dixieland, I sure miss you ♪ ♪ Got the Highway 40 blues ♪♪ ["Highway 40 Blues" instrumental music] -Yes, sir.

I gotta-- I gotta clap on that one.

Highway 40 Blues .

-Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

-You've just made a young man's dream come true.

You really have.

-Well, thank you, Brandon.

I've-- I've enjoyed being over here with you, son, and... -Well, we'll-- we'll have you come back.

-Well, I hope so.

You call me, I'll come.

-[chuckles] And I'll let you cook this time.

-All right, I'll make us some-- make us a pot of soup bean.

-Soup?

Uh, yeah.

Soup beans, cornbread, and, uh-- -The onion.

-Onion, yes.

-I'd bake that.

-Raw onion.

Thank you all so very much for tuning in and watching the show.

And please don't forget to catch us on the next episode, and watch this episode six or seven times.

I'm Brandon Lee Adams, and this is Mr. Larry Cordle, and we hope to see you again soon on The Life Of A Musician .

ANNOUNCER: Thank you for being a part of our show.

We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Life Of A Musician.

["Black Diamond Strings" playing] ANNOUNCER: This program is brought to you in part by the City of Danville's Office of Economic Development and Tourism, and by Santa Cruz Guitars an d Santa Cruz Guitars Strings.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

[music fades out]