Witness to a Murder

Oldís cool: Country music is shifting toward shallow pop/rock, ìbut Fred and Ethel, they know what they are missing,î says Cordle (center). Photo By: Tony Phipps

Larry Cordle is lonesome on country music’s well-traveled road.

by Mary Armstrong

Itís 9 p.m. in Nashville. Larry Cordle parks his bandís tour bus after an all-night -- and, due to construction, all-day -- drive back from a gig in Madison, Wis. He has to get some rest because in the morning heíll have an hourís drive to the studio where heíll be harmonizing with Ken Mellons on a new project. But first, he has to talk on the phone with some reporter.

Life shouldn't be so much work when you're a proven songwriter who had Ricky Skaggs go gold, back when that was a big deal, with the very first song you ever wrote. Yeah, "Highway 40 Blues" was important, but that was 20 years ago, Cordle reminds me. Anyway, in his mind, the legends of bluegrass -- Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers -- had it tougher. They drove all night (no interstates), got out and played, jumped back in the car and headed home. "They did that every night of the week. It had to be 'cause the loved what they did, 'cause they were paid with a sack of quarters at the end of the night." Cordle loves what he's doing, too. The number of times he's quit and come back testifies to that.

Growing up in eastern Kentucky, music was a part of life, with Ricky Skaggs' family and the Cordles often visiting one another for picking sessions. He went on to host Bill Monroe himself in a weekly gig. "I had some long conversations with Mr. Monroe, who would tell me, åThere is a lot of blues in my music, you can hear it if you listen.' I think he told me that cause there was [blues] in mine too. I was literally writing songs on the side of the stage and would run up and play 'em directly. Monroe told me I was getting something."

When Ricky Skaggs came blasting into Nashville, with his roots showing, just like he promised, he recorded "Highway 40." It was such a hit that there's not a bluegrasser alive who can't sing at least part of it. Cordle reflects on his career: "Most people want to hear a big romantic tale, well, it's a short one: I wrote a little ol' song I never knew would make 15 cents and I knew a guy named Ricky Skaggs who was gonna be a megastar. I would've never come here if it hadn't been for him. I wasn't gonna come here and burn shoe leather up and down these streets I knew somebody, and I still think that's the best way. And I still had to work really hard. But I didn't let the door slam on my foot." Ask him about the years of working 9 to 5 as a songwriter for Welk Publishing though, and the tedium of forcing the muse sounds almost as bad as the accounting job he left behind.

As he watched Nashville shift further and further to the pop side, Cordle wrote and recorded a song called "Murder on Music Row." He never thought it would get played with lyrics lamenting the absence of fiddles and steel guitar from today's country stations. "But Fred and Ethel, they know what they are missing," he opines. The grassroots response was such that George Strait and Alan Jackson made the very people who stripped the roots off country eat crow when their version became a huge hit.

Cordle swears he avoids controversy when he can, because life is too short, but he also quotes one of his songwriting heroes, Tom T. Hall, "A man's not writing if he's not writing all that he sees." Here's the chorus to Cordle's latest controversy, "Jesus and Bartenders": "They both know a man in trouble when they see one, and they are both willing to listen when he talks/ Anger and depression, tearful confessions/ Jesus and bartenders hear it all." A man who has had a career playing the clubs can't help but see plenty of that, too.

Larry Cordle performs Sun., Aug. 31, as part of the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, Aug. 29-31, $10-$25 per day or $25-$65 for the weekend, Salem County Fairgrounds, Route 40, Woodstown, N.J., 302-475-3454, www.brandywinefriends.org.

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