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Gary
Nicholson and More Days Like This |
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It is not often that an artist puts out two albums at the same time, but
then when you go by two professional names Gary Nicholson and Whitey
Johnson and the albums have entirely different themes then maybe it
should not be surprising that is what Nicholson / Johnson did recently.
“I am still writing songs about what is still going on in our culture. I
am going to make another record that speaks to this situation that we
are in. I want to temper that with the Whitey Johnson music that offers
some fun and humor and some rocking Blues music that can go along with
the Folk music of the Great
Divide (one of the new albums).
I think the two things work well together and that is why I chose to put
out the two records at the same time. Thankfully Blue Corn Music was
agreeable to releasing both records,” says Nicholson referencing the
other album More Days Like This
released under his other moniker Whitey Johnson.
So, just before we get into the main part of our conversation we thought
we would tell you how Gary Nicholson, singer, songwriter and guitarist
also acquired the name Whitey Johnson.
“The Whitey Johnson persona started when I wrote a short story about
Whitey Johnson who was a composite character from my youth. He was a
guitar hero of mine. He was black, but he was albino, so his family
called him Whitey and that short story appeared in a book called
Guitar in a Tent. A lot of
songwriters wrote short stories for this book. (Kris) Kristofferson and
John Hiatt and others wrote stories. That is how the Whitey Johnson
thing started. When Colin Linden and I started playing a lot of Country
Blues together we felt compelled to go to Sam’s Men’s Wear in Nashville
and there was a white suit in the window. There was a two for one sale
and I got a purple suit for Colin and the white one for me. We went to
the Blues festival and that was it. That is when I started performing as
Whitey Johnson,” he says.
The title track opens up the album
More Days Like This, a song
that grabs you by the ears on the first couple of bars of music.
Listeners find themselves nodding their heads, moving their shoulders,
with hips swiveling and singing along with the chorus. The horns section
is outstanding (more about that
later), the McCrary Sisters who made Riveting Riffs Magazine a fan
of theirs in 2018 provide tremendous backing vocals. Our hats are off to
Regina, Ann and Freda. Guitars are by Colin Linden and Gary Nicholson
and of course Nicholson is the lead singer.
Nicholson says, “More Days Like This,” is a celebration of someone who
is with the one that he loves and he is spending time with her. It is a
celebration of that relationship and the desire to have “More Days Like
This,” with the person that he loves.
“Starting A Rumor,” is an easygoing love song and it follows the opening
track. There is no pretense, no drama, just a guy confessing his love
for a woman, “I’m starting a
rumor about you and me / That we’ve been seen out doing some crazy
things / They say we’re tight as any two can be / I’m starting a rumor
about you and me.” Delbert McClinton previously recorded this song.
Gary Nicholson says, “I had always wanted to get Guy Clark and Delbert
McClinton together with me, so we could write a song. They are probably
the two strongest influences on my own writing. When we got together to
write I had that song title as an idea to begin with.
It was an interesting co-write, because it was something that was
not the style that Guy usually wrote songs in, but Guy really liked
Delbert’s music. This was a song for Delbert to record. I was producing
his records at the time and the song just evolved with that kind of a
feel and those changes, because it was intended for Delbert in more of a
Rhythm and Blues mode more than if we were writing something for Guy. I
just had an idea for a song called “Starting A Rumor,” and that it would
be a way for Guy to endear himself to the woman he wanted to be with.”
It is very evident that the songs on
More Days Like This have a
distinct late fifties and early sixties vibe to them and Nicholson says,
“It is very intentional for me to write in that mode. I like that kind
of music and it comes naturally to me. The song “If It’s Really Gotta Be
This Way,” was an opportunity to collaborate with Arthur Alexander and
Donnie Fritts, because of their friendship from the Muscle Shoals days.
Donnie was able to get Arthur to come to Nashville and we wrote that
song and another song. We were able to make a record with Arthur
Alexander. It was a huge thrill to be able to work with him and he is
one of my favorite artists.”
As for the song “If It’s Really Gotta Be This Way,” he says, “She is
leaving him and he is trying to be understanding of it. He is still in
love with her, but he realizes he is not going to be able to be with
her. He is going to carry
on somehow in spite of it. That is the nature of the song.”
Even a novice music listener would immediately identify “Upside of
Lonely,” as being firmly entrenched in the classic Blues mode. The laid
back vibe and lyrics paint a picture of a guy who is either newly
divorced or separated and he celebrating “being able to do his own
thing,” unfortunately (we are
saying this while chuckling) this is not a pretty picture. Delbert
McClinton’s harmonica provides a great accompaniment and gives this song
a swampy back porch feel.
About “Upside of Lonely,” Nicholson says, “It is just a humorous
situation with the protagonist in the song saying hey I don’t have to
hear from the mother-in-law and I can eat pizza and ice cream all day
long, because I don’t have to watch my weight. I can smoke a cigar in my
living room. The song is pretty self-explanatory and I was just trying
to find a little humor in the breakup.”
The album closes out on two up-tempo songs “Hold What I Got,” and “High
Time,” the former realizing that the love that he has in his life is
pretty special and the latter song is a missive to a woman telling her
hey we had a pretty good time together. “Hold What I Got,” sends a
message I am in this for as long as I am on this earth and there is not
anything or anyone that is going to take me away from our love.
“The musicians (on the album) are the musicians that I play with every
Tuesday night at the Bourbon Street Blues Bar on Printers Alley in
Nashville. They are Colin Linden on guitar, Lynn Williams on drums, Mike
Joyce on bass, Dennis Wage and Kevin McKendree on keyboards, Dan Robbins
(saxophones) and Quentin Ware (coronet, bugle) on horns.
We play every Tuesday from eight until midnight and we only play
the songs that I have written.
Over the years of doing that the band got really good and we put
this record together quickly because of that.
The McCrary Sisters are three beautiful, soulful, black women whose
father (Samuel H McCrary) founded the Fairfield Four. Regina McCrary
sang with Bob Dylan when he did
Slow Train Coming. What’s not to like? They are fantastic singers
and dear friends of mine,” he says.
We turn our attention briefly to the album
The Great Divide, “The Great
Divide consists of songs that I was compelled to write due to the nature
of our divided culture, after being hit daily with the divisiveness of
our politics. The songs came to me spontaneously. I didn’t set out to
write a protest record, but I found that when I wrote solo these were
the songs that came about.
I hoped to offer some music that could help to heal the divide and would
provide a little respite from the ugliness that goes on between the back
and forth from CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. During the sixties when we had
all of our turbulence we had “What’s Going On?” and “For What Its’
Worth,” and all of those songs. I am sure there are others who are
making music that speaks to our divided culture, but I wasn’t hearing
it. I hoped to make some music that would offer some healing for the
divided culture that we have right now.
The Great Divide
record is primarily me and multi-instrumentalist John Jorgenson (Please
see the album for other musicians who appear).
I originally thought it would be just me, my guitar and vocals
and that John might (bring) just one instrument. Every time that we cut
a track we would get a performance of me singing and playing and then
John would add bass, percussion and sometimes saxophones, keyboards,
mandolin and guitar. He plays everything and I owe him great gratitude
for building up those tracks and helping me to make that record. I don’t
know of anything that he doesn’t play and he is excellent with every
instrument that he plays. Every instrument that he plays he plays as
though it is his first instrument.
He had just come off the tour with Elton John.”
Gary Nicholson was born in Commerce Texas and moved with his family to
Farmersville Texas where they lived until he was seven years old.
Garland Texas became the final stop, while he was growing up.
I took a few lessons (on the guitar) when I first started, but really I
learned how to play by copying the records of my heroes,” recalls
Nicholson.
Continuing he says, “I had a guitar from the time I was ten or twelve
years old, but the eighth grade talent show at my middle school was my
first real performance and my first band The Valiants started during
that time. Then I had a Beatles band (The Untouchables) in my teenage
years and I played Blues as well.”
After graduating from high school, Gary Nicholson enrolled as an English
major at North Texas University, before changing his major to music.
“Early on in my college years I got a gig playing with a group called
The Nazz which was Todd Rundgren’s band and I realized I was more
interested in playing Rock and Roll and Pop music than I was in playing
big band Jazz in the North Texas Jazz program, so I quit school after
two years and I moved to Hollywood.
It was pretty strange. I was twenty years old and I landed in Hollywood.
I had a publishing deal of sorts, but it wasn’t very good. It was a way
to start. I lived above Golden West Studio in Hollywood and some friends
of mine from North Texas followed not long after I got there. The
drummer Don Henley and I had gone to school together at North Texas and
his band was called Shiloh (recorded
with and produced by Kenny Rogers) and they moved (to Los Angeles)
about the same time,” he says.
“I made a couple of records in the early seventies with my group Uncle
Jim’s Music (in Nashville). We didn’t have much success and I moved back
to Texas in ’74. I was playing mostly Country music in the Country dance
halls. In Texas it was the Urban
Cowboy era and I had a song in the
Urban Cowboy movie recorded
by Mickey Gilley and it was called “Jukebox Argument.“
It was my first song to be released on that soundtrack of
Urban Cowboy and it was my
foot in the door to move to Nashville.
My friend Jim Ed Norman had been in my band in the early
seventies in California and he had success, as a record producer. He
produced that record by Mickey Gilley doing my song for the
Urban Cowboy soundtrack,”
says Gary Nicholson.
Gary Nicholson moved his young family, at the time consisting of his
wife and two sons (now he has four) to Nashville in 1980. Jim Ed Norman
gave him a publishing deal and he says that is what really started his
songwriting career.
He says of his time in Nashville, “It was a great place to have a family
and I had a great situation as a staff writer signed to a publishing
deal. I played guitar and I wrote with Guy Clark in those first three
years and then with Billy Joe Shaver and Bobby Bare.
I had not collaborated that much before, but when I got to Nashville I
realized that so many people were collaborating and co-writing was
prevalent there. I began to co-write with a lot of really great
established Nashville songwriters. I wrote for Jim Ed’s company for
three years and then he dissolved his publishing company and he went to
run Warner Bros. Records. I was signed to Three Publishing, which
eventually became Sony Music.
I learned a lot from collaborating with the really great songwriters. I
gained a lot of skills and I honed my craft. I was able to bring that to
the solo writing process. I am sure that I learned from everyone that I
worked with.”
As for today he
says, “I am still collaborating with a lot of people. I have been
fortunate to collaborate with Ringo Starr for his last six records. I
collaborate with my friend Tom Hambridge who produces Buddy Guy and
we’ve written over twenty songs for Buddy. Then there are all of my
collaborations with Delbert McClinton and I have produced five projects
for him. We won a couple of Grammys for that. I have been writing with
Joe Bonamassa, as well and with Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal and a variety of
artists. I am still collaborating a lot with artists who need songs for
their records. I am writing a lot more solo for my own projects.
I have been so fortunate to be in the company of some really great
writers and to be inspired by them.”
In addition to those already mentioned some of the other artists for
whom Gary Nicholson has written songs include, Reba McEntire (“When Love
Gets Ahold of You”), Montgomery Gentry (“She Couldn’t Change Me”), Garth
Brooks and Trisha Yearwood (“Squeeze Me In”), Vince Gill (“One More Last
Chance”), Charlie Pride (“The Power of Love”), Patty Loveless (“A
Thousand Times a Day”) and that is not even scratching the surface of
the more than 500 songs of his that have been recorded, many of which
were top ten or top forty hits. Over the years some of the people with
whom he has co-written songs include, Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Neil
Diamond, Jimmy Webb, Michael McDonald and Brad Paisley. As well as
producing five albums for Delbert McClinton, two of which won Grammy
Awards, Gary Nicholson has produced records for The Judds, Pam Tillis,
Marcia Ball, T. Graham Ball and others.
Please
visit the website for Gary Nicholson
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There
is not time to discuss both albums in-depth and since
The Great Divide focuses more
on events happening in America right now, while Riveting Riffs
Magazine’s audience is more international in scope, we are going to turn
our attention primarily to the
More Days Like This record. 
“My
sister was ten years older than me and she was a teenager when Elvis
hit. She was a big fan of early Rock and Roll music and that is what got
me interested in music early,” he says, before expanding upon his
musical influences, “In Texas, Country music is everywhere. It was Bob
Wills and Hank Williams. When I was really young it was Elvis and
watching Ricky Nelson on the TV show (The Adventures of Ozzie and
Harriet). Through my sister I discovered, Little Richard, Jerry Lee
Lewis and Fats Domino and a lot of that pre-Beatles Rock and Roll. That
is what influenced me early on and then when I was eighteen a local
Dallas hero Ray Keen had a hit called “Hideaway.” Everybody who could
play a guitar played “Hideaway.”