Volume MMVI • Number 2 • April-June 2006 - Nashville Musicians ...

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16 The Nashville Musician April-June 2006 Arranger-pianist-composer-playwright Chuck Cochran, a man of many musical interests “I can still hear the soft Southern winds in the live oak trees/And those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me, Hank and Tennessee/I guess we're all gonna be what we're gonna be/So what do you do with good ole boys like me . . .” - Don Williams’ recording “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” (c) Bob McDill, 1979. By WALT TROTT No doubt Charles Cochran can play that Don Williams’ song and others frontwards and backwards, after performing more than 30 years with the musical Good Ole Boy. Aside from that longstanding stint, the Local 257 pianist-arranger has an impressive session resume, having performed studio magic for Garth Brooks, Crystal Gayle, Johnny Cash, Charley Pride, Kenny Rogers, George Strait and Neil Young. Incidentally, “Chuck” did the orchestration for friend Neil’s network Saturday Night Live guest shot just before Christmas, when the former Crosby-Stills-Nash & Young player appeared in a comedy skit and sang two songs: “He Was the King” (a nod to Elvis) and “It’s a Dream.” “I’ll tell you who got me hooked up with Neil initially. It was Carl Himmel - the drummer who had been with him a long time - and that had to be in the late 1970s. He called and said, ‘Neil wants you to do some orchestrations.’ Can you believe I didn’t know who the hell Neil Young was? Well, that’s how it started . . and I’ve since gone out and worked in his studio at Half Moon Bay, 30 or 40 miles south of San Francisco on the ocean. I really got to know him. He’s a hard worker and does good . . . “Let me tell you something,” continues Cochran. “I came from classical jazz places, and it was hard for me to get into Neil’s music. It’s not my ultimate genre, but I’ve learned to appreciate it. I did three of Neil’s albums, and he’s quite a guy. Did you know he owns (part of) Lionel (LLC Toy) Trains (since 1995)? Neil’s done well and invested wisely. One of my last experiences with Neil, we rehearsed and did two shows at the Ryman for a film that’s being put out in theaters (directed by Jonathan Demme, ‘Neil Young: Heart Of Gold’ premiered in Nashville, March 9).” In 1977, with Roger Cook, Chuck cowrote “Years From Now,” a song that’s become a wedding favorite. (Roger Cook wrote Williams’ #1s “I Believe In You” and “Love Is On a Roll.”) Cochran also appeared in a BBC-TV special with Don: “I believe we did that one at Shepherd’s Bush Theatre over there (in England).” Before linking up with Williams, Pennsylvania native Cochran was on the road with former high school buddy Bobby Vinton, keeping tempo on such tuneful #1 pop favorites as “Roses Are Red,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mr. Lonely.” Chuck, who first played in Bobby’s dad Stan’s band while in high school, is himself a native of the greater Pittsburgh area: “Long before I was a senior (age 16), I started playing in a band with Stan Vinton. His son Bobby and I grew up together and he also played in the band, and then took it over.” Bobby is a year older than Chuck, now 70: “While I was away in the Navy, Bobby became a hit. Well, I got out of the Navy and lived in Florida for awhile. My main job was piano/organ salesman and on weekends I played jazz gigs.” Ambitious for something more, Chuck found opportunities elsewhere. “Then my wife at the time moved to New York City, and I went on the road with Bobby Vinton as a conductor. He was having his time then, and I toured all over with Chuck Cochran today. him. When he brought me to Nashville to record, I met people here, and gave my notice to Bobby and moved here (in late 1970).” Steering our interview, conducted at the union hall, back to Cochran’s roots, we learn his hometown was actually Midway, Pa., 20 miles west of Steel Town. “I started taking piano lessons when I was 4. My father had to build up a situation, so I could reach the pedals by extension. My parents saw that I had the best teachers available. I was the youngest of five and I didn’t go to school on Mondays. They let me go into Pittsburgh to take piano lessons. “My father was an engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad. So I used to ride a train from Midway to Pittsburgh, then jump on a streetcar and ride out (to the Pittsburgh Musical Institute) every Monday from about age 8. I’d lose my music about once a month, but somehow it would always come back to me.” Chuck’s first professional paying gig? “I was playing double bass with a polka band and had to be maybe age 14 or 15, and I made $7 a night. I think the only reason they had me was so I could play piano for the floor show, which was a stripper!” According to Cochran the school he attended was small, “there were 18 in my graduating class. I became the music teacher, as there was no music program. The principal let us have a chorus and we would enter a tri-state area contest, and we had a trio, too.” Chuck went on to serve four years in the Navy (1954-’58), where during much of his career the big guy taught piano at the Navy School of Music, then situated in Washington, D.C. “It was after Korea and before Vietnam. The perfect time to be in, when nobody was shooting at anybody,” he grins. “Finally, I requested sea duty and went out for two years on a cruiser and that was the real Navy. I enjoyed the hell out of that. We sailed all over the Mediterranean.” After departing Vinton’s troupe, Cochran began an association with colorful “Cowboy” Jack Clement, whom he calls a “triple threat talent, a great guy,” at JMI Records. Don was doing demos for Clement’s publishing company. “Jack asked did I want to write some string arrangements and I had never written for strings in my life. Now I had written orchestrations for band, you know, five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass and drums. So I did the strings for Don Williams’ first album and then every one of his albums. My thought about being a string arranger was if I got to a section that I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t do nothing. That’s what I’ve done since then. It’s a note that you leave out (Ha! Ha!).” Producer Clement had him both play and arrange on Charley Pride’s records: “Charley’s a good man and he’s done well, too.” Fellow producer Larry Butler also engaged Cochran to do the arranging on Kenny Rogers’ sessions, as did Allen Reynolds for Williams and Crystal Gayle. Cochran remembers one of his strangest gigs was accompanying John Prine on a three-date tour: “We performed in Anchorage, Alaska, on the LSU campus and in New York City’s Central Park. I played steel drums. It’s a melodic instrument that plays notes unlike a regular drum. I can play vibes or mirimba and get by because they’re played on like a piano, you know, black keys are here and white keys are there . . . There’s none of that with the steel drums, like lowness to the left and high-ness to the right, they’re mixed in. So I had to take an ink pen to write the damn notes down . . .” Could that be construed as faking it? “Oh sure, I just learned enough to get by in playing John’s songs.” Cochran remembers another tour that proved even more satisfying. “I was out with Crystal Gayle a long time ago, and met this beautiful person who was the weather girl in Yakima, Wash. That’s how I met my wife (Catherine) - who’s a great lady and she’s proud of me.” Life’s also had its downside for the pianist, who lost his married daughter Carla when she suffered an aneurysm while pregnant, losing the baby, as well. He himself suffered a stroke in the mid-1970s: “I was a bachelor again and living hard. I was sharing an apartment with (producer) Garth Fundis and had just turned 40. We were both bachelors, and out to prove it . . .” The stroke affected his speech, so Cochran had to learn how to talk all over again, but hearing him now one would never know it. In 1996, he gave up smoking: “That was just before I had a (heart) bypass. About nine years later, I had another one. Had I taken better care of myself after that first one, I might have been all right. I guess I’m a slow learner. I’m in a heart rehabilitation program now, you know, an exercise program.” On March 11, he rejoined Don Williams for a rare hometown gig (in Allen Arena at Lipscomb University here). A highlight of that benefit was the surprise guest appearance of Keith Urban, a fan of Williams. Chuck’s been with Williams throughout Don’s whole country career: “Don has said this is going to be his last year (to tour). Don’s schedule has been 70 to 80 dates a year, which represents maybe 110 days on the road. This year we’re doing a tour that started (in Florida) from the ninth of February till about the 27th. Then after a March 14-15 church benefit here, we’re off for awhile. Beginning in April (Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, April 14) we’re doing a six-week tour in the United Kingdom (concluding May 11 at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester), which Don says will mark his final year - a farewell tour. He’s been very big over there.” Then there’s another series of concerts across Canada and the northern U.S. Besides being voted CMA vocalist of the year in 1978, Don, who’s totaled 45 Top 10 Billboard singles (17 at #1) was named “All-Time Favorite Artist” on the Ivory Coast (Africa), and U.K. Artist of the Decade in 1980, by Country Music People magazine in London. Is Don still wearing the familiar hat given him by 20th Century-Fox when he participated in the Burt Reynolds film “W.W. & The Dixie Dancekings”? Chuck joined former school chum Bobby Vinton on the road, after Naval service. “Ha! That’s a growth! I think the original disintegrated or disappeared years ago, but Stetson reproduced it for him,” smiles Cochran. Why does Chuck think Don Williams’ music has resonated with so many different people from such diverse cultures? “When we were in Australia, we went down to where all these ferry-boats come in and this Aborigine saw our Don Williams’ T-shirt,” notes Cochran, adding, “It was very busy there, and this native was all painted up and almost naked! After seeing the Tshirt, he picks up a guitar and starts singing ‘You’re My Best Friend!’ I’m not kidding you at all. “We did a couple shows in Zimbabwe (South Africa) and the people at the show there were all Blacks. They weren’t just singing the songs, they were singing the guitar licks and the piano notes. They were that close to the records. I didn’t know what to make of it. “You know I admire the black culture. I love their music, their rhythms. I’m ate up with it. I’d say there’s an incessant simplicity in Don’s music that they get tuned into. It’s gotta be the feeling. Don was a hell of a singer, and he still is (age 66)! You can’t say that about all those other guys his age. He’s blessed to have them pipes still working for him.” One particular song Don does - “ . . . Best Friend” - never fails to generate audience reaction. According to Cochran, “Wayland (Holyfield) wrote one of his best songs with that one, and virtually every night Don performs it, the people start singing along with him.” How is it for a classically-trained pianist accompanying such mellow vocals? “You have to temper your ways with an artist like Don Williams. You don’t want to get out there on a limb musically, you have to accompany him.” With Williams, Chuck has played major venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Sport Club in Monaco, and Royal Albert Hall in London. Which stands out as THE career concert for Cochran? “Hey, it’s been a great tour with Don. But I’d say for me the highlight was a performance I gave with the Central-Florida Symphony Orchestra in the mid-1960s. We had two pianists . . . and my mother attended that concert.” At age 6, Charles Cochran was studying piano.
April-June 2006 The Nashville Musician 17 Chuck and Catherine: Theirs is a mutual admiration society. Besides supplying arrangements and keyboards to a variety of artists in the studio, Cochran’s credits also include recording jingles for such advertisers as Budweiser, Coca Cola and Miller Beer. As a songwriter, perhaps his best known effort was his Cook co-write “Years From Now,” which has been recorded by both Williams (on two albums) and Doctor Hook. “I’ll tell you about that song. I had a stroke and was driving to Florida, recovering from that stroke years ago, feeling sorry for myself and all that crap. I thought, I’m gong to write a three-note song and that’s what you hear, a three-note song until the bridge. I had some kind of B.S. lyric to it but Roger came up with ‘I’ll love you, years from now . . .’ It’s simply a love song.” “I'll hold you years from now/As I hold you tonight/You are my one true friend/Always my one true friend/And I'll love you till life's end/ As I love you tonight . . .” Don Williams and Chuck have shared a long professional relationship. Over nearly four decades, he’s seen some great musicians come and go from Williams’ band: “Oh sure. Let me see there was . . . hmmm . . . Lloyd Green, Danny Flowers, Biff Watson, Dave Pomeroy, Kenny Malone, Buddy Spicher - he was with Crystal, too - and (the late) Dave Kirby, a sweet man. Don always had a lot of great players.” (Today’s troupe includes Billy Sanford, guitar; Steve Turner, drums; Matt McKenzie, bass; and John Clausi, guitar.) When queried as to which brand of keyboards he prefers, the silver-haired Cochran replies: “My favorite instrument is a Steinway.” He points out why he’s hooked on that instrument: “A Steinway fights back. It takes a little bit of weight and it resists. That’s part of the game for me. I resent synthesizers. They have them with what they call weighted keys, so that it’ll kind of simulate the resistance of a fine grand piano, but it’s not even close. It’s a switch that comes on and off, and you have a speaker there. It’s one-dimensional. You have to have an electronic speaker to hear what the devil you’re playing. Without that, it’s a dummy keyboard. He derides electronic samplers: “You have all kinds of samplers. Now they sample the real thing, like a sample of a violin, let’s say. In that sample they had a violinist play a note and they recorded it - that’s the sampler. You don’t have the attrack or the release or the expression. It’s there, you hit a switch and you hear the sample, but there’s no expression. It’s one-dimensional. That is it. You hit the switch and you hear that violin that was recorded . . . The world has heard enough now so that a few sounds that I use on the sythesizer are palatable. I mean the ears are trained to hear them and acept. I only use a few of them, not a whole lot.” Cochran doesn’t worry about getting his instrument to the studio: “I leave that up to S.I.R. (an instrument delivery service). They’ve got my stuff down there, and they’re wonderful.” Admittedly, session dates have dropped off, acknowledges Cochran: “Oh yes, there’s a bunch of new young pups in town, who get most of the work now. But I still get called for some things, so I’m happy. There are a lot of good musicians in Nashville.” With such stunning successes careerwise and with Williams coming in off the road, why continue to hang in there? “I want to have some hit songs. That’s where my heart is at, with this talented fellow named Roger Cook. He and I have an album coming out real soon. We don’t have a title yet, but it’s pretty much done. It’s very unusual. Roger and I wrote a show, in fact, we’re working on a couple shows right now, musicals.” Englishman Roger Cook, of course, helped write a musical stage show, “Beautiful and Damned,” focusing on the ill-fated love between America’s celebrated 1920s’ couple Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, which ran for six months on London’s West End. “I went over and saw it,” says Cochran. “I thought it was great, but unfortunately it didn’t last. Anyway, a guy named Lionel Bart (‘Oliver!,’ ‘Lock Up Your Daughters’), ‘There’s a bunch of new young pups in town, who get most of the work now. But I still get called for some things, so I’m happy. There are a lot of good musicians in Nashville.’ Roger and I wrote a musical about Golda Meir, a real hawk (who became Israel’s first female leader). But it was about her life before she got so political. “You know, she was born in Russia and moved to the United States and became a school teacher in Milwaukee and Denver, before going to Israel to enter politics. We’ve never been able to get it financed because of the fear of reprisals, such as the theater being bombed. You know there are a lot of nutty people out there. “Anne Bancroft did a one-woman show about her on Broadway years ago, and Ingrid Bergman played her in a TV movie. People seem to love our music and there’s a guy named Joe Lamont, who’s trying to promote it, but it’s still just hanging and lingering out there. “Lionel died four or five years ago and I got to know him quite well. He wrote one of my all-time favorite songs ‘Where Is Love’ (in ‘Oliver!’). Lionel was just so incredible.” On the family front, Cochran’s close to son David in Pensacola, daughter Laurie in Orlando, and granddaughter Heidi, who’s studying at a performing arts school: “And we’ve got our dog Casey.” Does an ole dog like Cochran still practice on piano? “For sure. It keeps me off the streets.” Grammy voters honor Nashville Alison Krauss, all-time female Grammy winner. Local 257’s Alison Krauss earned a Grammy in each category nominated, winning three awards Feb. 8. The bluegrass queen’s grand total of 20 Grammys makes Alison tops among all female winners, regardless of musical genre. As announced earlier, the late Local 257 Life Member Owen Bradley, producerpianist-songwriter-bandleader, was honored with the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences’ Trustee Award for “contributions other than performance to the recording field.” Despite that disclaimer, Bradley’s Quintet in 1949 charted the single “Blues Stay Away From Me,” a country Top 10 that also crossed over to pop (#11), as did his “Third Man Theme” (1950) cover. He also co-wrote such hits as “Night Train To Memphis” (Roy Acuff) and “All Alone in This World Without You” (Eddy Arnold). A label chief (Decca/MCA) and Country Music Hall of Famer (1974), Bradley produced such fellow Hall of Famers as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells, Red Foley, Webb Pierce, Brenda Lee, Bill Monroe, Patsy Cline, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn and Bill Anderson. Bradley, also music director for the hit movies “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “Sweet Dreams,” died Jan. 7, 1998 at age 82. Accepting on his behalf was grandson Clay Bradley of the Sony Music Group. Merle Haggard, still among the living, was not on hand to receive a Grammy Life- The Del McCoury Band, won best bluegrass CD; that’s Del with sons Rob and Ronnie McCoury. The late Owen Bradley. time Achievement Award presented by NARAS Board of Trustees’ chairman Terry Lickona who vowed, “We will make sure he gets his Lifetime Achievement Award, no matter how hard it is to track him down.” Haggard wrote and recorded such songs as “Swingin’ Doors,” “Branded Man,” “Okie From Muskogee,” “The Fightin’ Side of Me” and his last #1 “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star.” A member of the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame since 1977, The Hag was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994. Another worthy Grammy winner at the 48th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, was legendary guitarist Les Paul, 90, who won two categories: Rock Instrumental for his “69 Freedom Special” with friends; and for Pop Instrumental, thanks to his recording “Caravan.” Artists with Nashville connections victorious with voters included Emmylou Harris, best female vocalist; Keith Urban, best male; best group, Alison Krauss & Union Station; country vocal collaboration, Faith Hill & Tim McGraw for “Like We Never Loved At All”; best instrumental, Krauss & Union Station, “Unionhouse Branch”; best country album, “Lonely Runs Both Ways,” Krauss & Union Station; best country song, “Bless the Broken Road,” Rascal Flatts, writers: Bobby Boyd, Jeff Hanna and Marcus Hummon. Voted best bluegrass album was “The Company We Keep,” The Del McCoury Band; best gospel performance, CeCe Winans, “Pray”; best southern gospel album, “Rock Of Ages . . . Hymns & Faith,” Amy Grant; contemporary soul gospel album, “Purified,” CeCe Winans; top children’s album, “Songs From the Neighborhood: The Music of Mister Rogers,” a multi-artist conception produced by Dennis Scott; contemporary blues album, “Cost Of Living,” Delbert McClinton; contemporary folk album, “Fair & Square,” John Prine; and best traditional folk album, “Fiddler’s Green,” Tim O’Brien. - Walt Trott ACM award nominees named One wonders what the criteria really is for nominations in the country awards shows, and how selections are determined. The 2006 Academy of Country Music’s (ACM) nods are no exception. Although we admire Alabama and the Warren Brothers, we’re scratching our head over their participation in the current vocal group and duo categories. Meanwhile, Alan Jackson was a shutout, Toby Keith and Tim McGraw didn’t qualify for best male vocalist, and Carrie Underwood edged out such stalwarts as Reba, Dolly and Faith, all enjoying hit status again, though Carrie’s also properly nominated for best new female vocalist. Jon Bon Jovi landed his first country nomination, thanks to his duet with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles: “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.” Alabama, of course, was inducted last year into the Country Music Hall of Fame, but quit the road and haven’t had a hit record since 1999. The talented Warren Brothers, a former BNA act, never achieved Top 10, (Continued on page 19)
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