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28 The Nashville Musician January-March 2009 David Briggs, a product of Muscle Shoals By WALT TROTT Being an outgoing sort of guy can pay big dividends, but you better have the talent to back it up. Just ask pianist-producer-songwriter David Briggs, who is quick to credit his breaks to notables like James Joiner, Floyd Cramer, Owen Bradley and Elvis Presley. Since playing his first studio session at age 14, David’s had a knack for hanging out in the right circles. On the music scene that’s included having colleagues like Norbert Putnam, Rick Hall, Billy Sherrill, Felton Jarvis, Kelso Herston and Cecil Scaife. So David jumped at an opportunity to honor two of his yesteryear contacts, both at the same time - Elvis Presley and Cecil Scaife - last February. Briggs joined in the Nashville Celebrates Elvis Presley all-star concert benefitting the Cecil Scaife Music Business Scholarship Endowment, enabling deserving students to attend Belmont University. (Scaife pioneered Belmont’s 1970s’ music business program, as well as working behind-the-scenes for Sam Phillips’ Studios, and founded the Gospel Music Association.) “I was the concert’s Music Director,” explains Briggs. “I wrote all the charts, came to all their meetings, talked to the artists, conducted and played the piano . . . I didn’t mind because it was for a good cause . . . Shane Keister was great, he did the strings for us.” Sharing the bill entertainment-wise at the SRO show were B. J. Thomas, Pat Boone, Wanda Jackson, The Jordanaires, Ronnie McDowell, T. G. Sheppard, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Wynonna Judd, D. J. Fontana, The Stamps Quartet, Millie Kirkham, James Burton, Larry Paxton, Norbert Putnam, Steve Turner, Harold Bradley, Danny Parks, Steve Turner, the Palmetto State Quartet and Joe Guercio. Most participants had some connection to the King of Rock & Roll. Prior to meeting Presley, Alabama-born Briggs helped lay the groundwork for the fabled Muscle Shoals Sound, specifically in Rick Hall’s historic FAME Studio, helping to make it a regional recording center. We got with David at Local 257, initially to promote the second annual Nashville Celebrates Elvis, since canceled. That’s all the excuse we needed for an opportunity to talk about David’s musical exploits, leading to his induction into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1999, alongside Bobby Goldsboro, Wilson Pickett and The Temptations. David Paul Briggs was born March 16, 1943 in Killen, Ala., and learned to play piano as a youngster. He also plays guitar, organ and synthesizer. So what did songwriter James Joiner (whose “A Fallen Star” was a 1957 near-charttopper for Jimmy C. Newman and a cover hit for Ferlin Husky) have to do with our subject? “At age 14, he had me playing guitar in his studio,” recalls Briggs. “James started Tune Records (Alabama’s first record company) and had success with ‘A Fallen Star.’ He wanted to cut some good demos. But I had to get rides there, because I was too young to drive. He liked the way I played (and paid David $5 an hour). “That’s when I first met Kelso Herston, James’ partner, who was already living in Nashville. Kelso brought Jimmy Newman down for that session. That’s also how I met Jerry Carrigan, who was playing drums, having started at 12, a couple years before me.” James’ family ran Joiner Transit, a bus company, and upon his discharge from the Army, James launched Tune Publishing with GI buddy Kelton Herston (in 1956), who went by the nickname Kelso. Both were Florence natives. “James was the first guy to start anything down in our part of the country during my era,” adds Briggs. “He and Kelso had their studio in the bus station. Back then, a lot of us cut records in radio stations like WOWL-Florence (which also had a television outlet). We cut records there sometimes, on so-called town and country artists.” Carrigan and Briggs hooked up with guitarists Terry Thompson, lead; Earl (Peanut) Montgomery, rhythm; and Norbert Putnam, bass. “Montgomery played on some things with us, not everything,” notes Briggs. “Usually he played rhythm, but he was an excellent bass player. He’s one of the musicians on Arthur Alexander’s (R&B hit) ‘You Better Move On,’ but he wasn’t a real rock and roll guy. His heart was in country (and he co-wrote Dave Dudley’s smash ‘Six Days On the Road’). He later helped me and took me to a studio across the street called Spar Music, a publishing company.” Later, Briggs would become half owner of Spar. It’s also where David met Rick Hall and Billy Sherrill. Billy’s from Phil Campbell, Ala., Norbert’s from Green Hill, Ala., all within a 30-mile radius of the Quad Cities that encompass Muscle Shoals, Florence, Sheffield and Tuscumbia. “You know Billy Sherrill was always good at coming up with names, and Billy suggested (the acronym) F.A.M.E., which came from the title Florence Alabama Music Enterprise, and Rick used it.” According to Briggs, when Hall started that studio, “We went over there and became the first to record there at Muscle Shoals. The other guys who call themselves the originals played at his Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, which is in Sheffield (Ala.).” Briggs, Carrigan, Putnam, Thompson and sometimes Montgomery recorded at FAME, and helped create successes for up-and-coming acts like Arthur Alexander, The Tams, Jimmy Hughes, Joe Tex and Tommy Roe. “We would also go out with Tommy on the road,” says Briggs. “On one such trip we got to open with him for The Beatles in Washington, D.C. (during their first U.S. tour). “Felton Jarvis produced Tommy and later Elvis. We cut hits on The Tams, a big R&B group. Felton produced them, and he brought us a lot of business down there. It was after we had that hit on Arthur Alexander’s ‘She Done Me Wrong’ that drew him down there. Felton and Ray Stevens were brothers-in-law, having married sisters. “After Ray had ‘Ahab the Arab,’ he cut his stuff down there, like ‘Mr. Baker the Undertaker,’ songs like that. Ray arranged a lot of things back in those days, and he was a good one, too. When I came up here, I did a lot of his sessions as an arranger.” Actually, recording-wise Rick Hall initially had singer-songwriter-guitarist Dan Penn (who co-wrote “Do Right Woman”) and his bandsmen cutting tracks first off, in an old Florence tobacco warehouse. The set of Muscle Shoals’ session aces Briggs refers to in the studio on 3614 Jackson Highway, boasted Roger Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson, David Hood and Barry Beckett, whose playing enhanced the hits of greats like Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Clarence Carter and Candi Staton. Of course, there were others supporting Shoals Sound Studio sessions (see page 1), notably Junior Lowe, Duane Allman and those the Musicians’ Hall of Fame cited as “Friends,” Pete Carr, Spooner Oldham, Clayton Ivey, Randy McCormick and Will McFarlane. While in Alabama, Briggs also began writing his songs, signing with Rick Hall’s publishing company. Among David’s successes were “Taste of Heaven,” which he co-wrote with Jimmy Rule, a Top 20 for Jim Ed Brown, and wrote B sides to James Gilreath’s 1963 Top 20 “Little Band of Gold” and Percy Sledge’s “High Cost of Leaving.” “Most of these were written before I came to Nashville,” continues Briggs. “There were scattered things. I had the backside of Tommy Roe’s hit ‘Everybody,’ but didn’t get paid. Supposedly, Lawrence Welk covered an instrumental release ‘Tender Teardrops,’ though I never heard it and never received any money for it.” David believes it was 1959 or ’60 when he journeyed to Music City to cut a record for Sam Phillips’ label then called Phillips, though the players all called it Sun. Cecil Scaife was Sam’s man in Nashville at the time. “I remember the studio then was on Seventh Avenue. Well, Billy Sherrill, who was from my home area was engineer, janitor and everything else. Kelso Herston produced the record on me.That’s why I had Jerry Kennedy and a lot of the big guys playing on my record. And I had Pig Robbins playing piano! I wouldn’t play because I wanted Pig to play.” David was in college when he was 16: “As I skipped a couple grades in high school . . . Cecil always believed in me and encouraged me in the business.” Briggs made his sporadic trips to Nashville to pitch tunes, and in doing so got to know people like Scaife and Decca chief Owen Bradley, both he came to regard as mentors. “Owen had like the kiss of death in listening to songs. I mean he would hear about eight bars and stop the recorder if he wasn’t interested, then quickly move on to the next selection. When I went back up with some songs, I had one titled ‘Imagine,’ long before The Beatles came around. That was about 1960. Incidentally, when I went with The Beatles later, I told John (Lennon) about it, saying ‘I had one, but it’s not as good as your’s.’ “One of my songs, ‘My Dreams,’ I had pitched Owen for Brenda Lee, but he didn’t care for it. He asked who the singer was? I told him I couldn’t get the gal who usually did my demos, so I sang it myself. He was surprised it was me.” The Phillips’ single didn’t do anything to advance David’s career, so he continud to push ahead: “Down there in Alabama, I was still singing, writing and playing, and making trips to Nashville . . .” Once after listening without finding any cuts that caught his ear, “Owen asked if I had anything else? I said I’d play some for him on the piano. He asked, ‘You play?’ So when he heard my playing, he said, ‘You play great!’ Then he told me, ‘I’m doing some auditions for Decca. I’ve got to sign another artist pop, so you come to the audition. I’m not saying I’ll sign you, but you’ve got a good shot.’ “That’s where I met Wayne Carson. He was a great songwriter, better than me and a better singer, too. I’ll never forget that . . . He and I just sort of stared at each other, because it came down to him or me. “Then Owen brought us both back up together. In those days, going up those stairs to his office was like going up to God in Heaven! I remember the pressure we felt. Well, he sat us down, saying, ‘I can’t make up my mind between you, so I’m going to sign you both.’ Neither one of us ever had a big hit. He went on to ABC. (Later, Wayne charted four singles, but none made Top 40, though one - ‘Barstool Mountain’ - did become a Moe Bandy Top 10.)” David moved to Nashville in 1964, when Decca signed him. “I remember when I cut for Owen, he wanted me to play piano, but I said no, mainly because I wanted Floyd Cramer playing on my record.” Briggs’ very first release was Bob Montgomery’s ballad “When I Think Of You,” backed with “Leave Her To Me,” which Brad- ley had been holding for Brenda Lee: “He thought it might be a good girl’s song . . . Northern stations like WLS-Chicago favored the ballad, while the South was playing ‘Leave Her To Me,’ it was pop not country.” Decca’s new pop artist didn’t score any hits, but notes, “I was once in line to record ‘Wooden Heart,’ which went to Joe Dowell (#1, 1961), signed by Shelby Singleton to Smash.” “After putting 30 or 40 songs with the publisher in Alabama, I got discouraged with writing and almost quit . . . The first week I was here in Nashville, I made $800, and would’ve been lucky to make that in a year down there.” David began playing regularly in the studio, thanks to his contacts with Bradley, Scaife, and others such as Shelby, Chet Atkins and Don Law. “Floyd became one of my biggest supporters. He’d call me 8 in the morning and say, ‘What are you doin’ today?’ I’d say, ‘Nothin’ man.’ He’d say, ‘Be at RCA 10, 2 and 6, I’m goin’ fishin’ . . . Bye.’ Sometimes it would be something I didn’t like, for back then I didn’t particularly like doing gospel - and it would be the Blackwood Brothers . . . but then, of course, it paid the same.” Briggs was reliable and became known for his versatility. “Flatt & Scruggs had me come in and play piano, just for the rhythm, but you never did hardly hear it on the record. They didn’t want you to hear it.” “On one day I might go to a morning session with a country artist like Webb Pierce or Red Foley; but at 2 o’clock maybe do Roy Rogers cutting a cowboy album; then at 6 play for Al Hirt, who had a 50 or 60 piece orchestra. Perhaps then we’d go in with Elvis at 10 and stay till next morning. But I liked playing a variety of music. I didn’t really want to play just country, and my background is in R&B.” It was in 1965 that Floyd was slated for a Presley session, but was also booked at Bradley’s Barn with Bill Anderson, and planned when that studio time was completed, to hurry over to Studio B. “It was a 6-9 session and was going to get through late. So I was hired as a stand-in with Floyd’s approval and with Mary’s, Chet’s assistant (who Felton later wed),” says Briggs. “So I was just gonna play until Floyd got there. We were playing for his ‘How Great Thou Art’ album, and I recorded ‘Love Letters,’ a nongospel song.” Elvis was so pleased by his playing that even when Floyd returned, he kept David on playing organ. Through the years, David continued to back Elvis in the studio and also on the road, including a three-week Las Vegas gig when the rock king was backed by a huge orchestra. “We did a couple records on Elvis where I used the clavinet on them, like ‘Way On Down’ and he just loved that sound (a clavinet is an electronically amplified clavichord analogous to an electric guitar). Elvis was going to Pontiac, Mich., for a 1976 New Year’s Eve show; it was called ‘The world’s biggest New Year’s Eve concert.’ He said, ‘I want you to come and to make all the noise that you can. Bring that clarinet or whatever you call it.’ He never could get the name right. I think he was kinda scared playing before all those people. He ripped his pants on that show.” Later, David produced “The Elvis Medley” shortly after he’d died: “We put a medley together, but it wasn’t necessarily done in the order that showed his career. I put on some of my favorite Elvis songs like ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’ ‘Love Me Tender’ and ended with ‘Suspicious Minds.’ I actually spliced, edited and stopped it, then came back and opened up The Jordanaires again, and kept nothing of the original records but Elvis, and put a big chorus . . . on the end . . . retarded it and ended it. “Jimmy Bowen went nuts! He wanted me to do one on Conway Twitty and wanted to know how I did it . . . It was just editing. Oh, it took me awhile because you’re working with older tapes. Titled ‘The Elvis Medley,’ it’s got a beautiful cover. We used cartoon characters
January-March 2009 The Nashville Musician 29 on it. MTV played them; Elvis cartoon characters playing around the pool. It did pretty good (when released in 1982).” Another challenge for Briggs was producing The Monkees’ Michael Nesmith: “I met The Monkees by playing on their things and Michael and I became friends. He asked me to produce one of his first solo albums.That was when he did the first part of ‘Elephant Parts,’ which was the first video we done. I was going through some strange stuff at the time, part of it being Elvis and Linda Thompson, which I don’t mind mentioning now, but back then I wouldn’t say anything about it.” Linda Thompson, of course, is the former Miss Tennessee who was Presley’s girlfriend for nearly five years, appeared on the syndicated TV series Hee Haw, co-wrote with Briggs, and was also wed to Olympic swimmer Bruce Jenner and later composer David Foster. “Michael was going through the same thing with his wife and best friend, a very similar situation,” continues Briggs. “So my head wasn’t even into his album, but I stayed with him and did all the tracks, until it was finished. I told him I wanted to quit the job, and didn’t really want anything to do with it. He didn’t understand that, but I told him my head wasn’t into it, and didn’t feel like I did a good job. So I didn’t get credit, but Michael gave me a little pay-off later after it sold a few records. It was an emotionally-strange sort of thing. I’ve still got pictures of he and I.” Despite his busy studio schedule, Briggs found time to perform in a band of session players called Area Code 615, its name derived from Nashville’s telephone code. The players recorded back-to-back albums “Area Code 615” and “A Trip In the Country” in 1969 and 1970, respectively. The band of all-stars included Briggs on piano; Norbert on bass; Weldon Myrick on steel; Kenny Buttrey, drums; Mac Gayden; Pete Wade, dobro; Charlie McCoy, harmonica; and Wayne Moss, lead guitar. “Elliot Mazer produced this at Cinderella Studios for Polydor Records (with an assist from Buttrey). It’s developed a cult following.” Mazer worked in the studio with such VIPs as Santana, Sinatra, Switchfoot and The Who. Area Code 615’s smooth blending of blues, rock and country were expemplified by their singles “Southern Comfort” and “Why Ask Why.” “You know, before going into the studio we played baseball out in the yard, just prior to cutting stuff,” grins Briggs. “Who pulled that sound together? Well, the other guys will be mad if I say in an interview that Mike Nesmith’s the one that put those sounds together or that Charlie McCoy made it work. Charlie was the most serious musician, and still is.” With Jerry Kennedy, Briggs cut the successful Top 40 1987 instrumental “Hymne” for Mercury, but credited it to Joe Kenyon, the name being an inside joke: “The reason being that if it succeeded we didn’t want to go on the road to plug it. Well, we did do a few station promotions, and made the cover of R&R (trade weekly). But they got calls from like The Tonight Show inviting us on. We were busy with studio work.” David explained that their nom de plume came from Jerry’s attorney, inspired by Kennedy’s initials J.K., resulting in Joe Kenyon. For the most part, did producing give him a greater sense of satisfaction? “I never did want to be a producer. But the thing that I’ve done that paid me more than the Elvis stuff was Willie Nelson’s ‘Shotgun Willie’ album (1973). I was producer on that, coming in behind Jerry Wexler (Atlantic’s executive producer) and Arif Mardin, the great producer who just died a few years back.” Briggs worked on the set in both Nashville and Memphis. He smiled recalling the time he and Willie were being interviewed on TV regarding their project: “The guy asked him which is the most important, the music or the lyrics? Willie said, ‘Let me think on that while you talk to David.’ So I said, ‘Well, you can’t hum a lyric.’ Willie laughed, he liked that.” In 1988, he began production on a (Virgin Records) project that warmed his heart, working with Roy Orbison: “I started some good stuff with Roy, but unfortunately you’ll never hear it. Don Was was president . . . I was the leader on it and Don just loved it, but it was completely redone after Roy’s untimely death (Dec. 6, 1988). “Then Barbara, Roy’s widow, wanted me to redo the songs with different musicians. She wanted me to take Reggie Young off the track and add Eric Clapton. I said, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ Roy loved Reggie and once even said, ‘Man, that’s my favorite guitar player.’ So a lot of those songs, she and the guy from England did with name musicians. She wanted as many name players as she could get. “I produced the vocals that were on that album (‘King of Hearts,’ released in 1992), and I did get credit on one track ‘Wild Hearts Run Out of Time,’ a theme for a movie considered about Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein. One of my writers wrote it. We produced the soundtrack on Roy and got credit for that.” It was probably in 1990, says Briggs, when Owen Bradley approached him about re-doing some of the Patsy Cline product. “He said, ‘We’re going to do all the Patsy Cline stuff over. I’ve managed to isolate her voice . . .’ and had those Korean three-tracks, I think they were, and her voice was totally isolated, singing all those haunting classics. Owen said, ‘What I want you to do is totally change it, hire a rhythm section, strings, the whole bit and write the arrangements . . .’ “I said, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna get crucified and all these critics will say, ‘You’re messing with the classics.’ Owen said, ‘They already have that other stuff! I did that 30 years ago, whatever. I want to do another to show these songs could’ve been done another way, like we do today.’ So I hired Reggie (Young) and all the more modern guys and we produced a totally different album. Owen loved it. But a lot of people hated it. Well, they forgot to put my name on it and Owen apologized. “When they put out a single - it may have been a version of ‘Faded Love’ - it says ‘Arranged by David Briggs’ . . . When he was still mixing, they sent me a tape and Owen wrote on there, ‘It’s not quite there, but it’s almost there.’ I still have that.” With good buddy Norbert Putnam, he opened the Nashville-based Quadrafonic Studios: “We had Quad together, starting out in ’69 on thru ’79. We could trust each other. Norbert had the savvy and daring, with adventure in his heart. Ours was the first studio with three-channel headphones, a choice of stereo - all the singers wanted themselves louder than anything - That studio was the first to offer anything more than monaural in this town. And we had Quad- 8 - we thought the four-channel sound was going to be the big thing, but as it turned out, it wasn’t, because the consumer couldn’t afford to buy the hardware. “When we sold it, I had to sign a three-year non-compete clause. So officially, House of David started in 1982, though I already had the studio, but before that just for me. I couldn’t open it to the public; actually I built that studio with Elvis in mind, but he died before we got it finished. I had already quit the road with him, though we were going to do some of his stuff in there.” Who was the first to record in Briggs’ latest studio? “Joe Cocker was the soulful antithesis of like nothing I was doing. He was the first guy to use my House of David, so I started off with a big one . . . Neil Young cut ‘House of Gold’ in the studio.” For some 20 years, David and co-director D. Bergen White were music directors for the Country Music Association’s awards shows. Briggs also did This Country’s Rockin’, a 10hour HBO Special; and a 2-1/2 hour TV Special in tribute to Grand Ole Opry comic grand dame Minnie Pearl. Briggs’ playing’s heard on the recordings of such artists as Barbara Mandrell, Kenny Rogers, Loretta Lynn, Mark Chesnutt, Reba McEntire and Tom Jones. Smiling, Briggs points out, “I played on two or three of his albums, but I never met Tom Jones. Back in the early 1980s I could’ve met him one time in Los Angeles, as he wanted me to come out and do the strings. But I would have missed like 20 sessions. You used to not cancel sessions. That was the kiss of death.” Who’s his favorite producer to work with? Unhesitantly he replies Owen Bradley: “When I was playing piano for Owen, he could put the fear of God in you, because he expected that you were able to do it. You never got to play piano until it’s time to cut. He played the piano and rehearsed with the strings, the whole group and the arrangements. You’re just standing there. Everybody’s used to what he’s played, and he was playing some incredible stuff, then he’d say, ‘OK, let’s roll it!’ You’ve got to sit in and he’s recording it and you haven’t even run through it. All of a sudden, Owen might say, ‘Bring it up a half-step,’ which may have taken it from B-flat to B-natural, which changed all the music and you’re transposing . . . I did that because I was scared to death, and you know what, I’m glad I did. “After working for him, playing for all those David Briggs recently at the Union. Following session, Tommy Roe (guitar) with Muscle Shoals associates (from left) Rick Hall, Jerry Carrigan, Felton Jarvis, Ray Stevens, David Briggs and Norbert Putnam. Roy Orbison, Jeff Carlton and David Briggs take a break from recording. - Kathy Shepard photo other producers was a joke. Owen actually knew what he was doing. Most of the others didn’t know anything; they’d just set the clock and sit in there and drink. But listen to his records, how great they still are.” It was in 2000 that David stepped back after 45 years working steady: “I quit and wouldn’t even go downtown for a year. I was just burned out.”
Page 1 and 2: AFM Local 257 election ’08 result
Page 3 and 4: January-March 2009 The Nashville Mu
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