A country way of life, Episode 43 (Hank DeVito, Byron Hill & Cary Barlowe)
Author: Jonny Brick.
Player: Hank DeVito
Here’s another steel guitar player whose work can be heard on many Emmylou Harris albums. Hank DeVito was a member of her Hot Band alongside Rodney Crowell, and the pair also co-wrote Old Love, New Eyes, which was recorded by Waylon Jennings.
The Hot Band mutated into another band, the Cherry Bombs, which included a young Vince Gill on guitar and Tony Brown, who would produce much of Gill’s strongest work, on keyboards. DeVito married Nicolette Larson, a singer who had hits in her own right but was usually found singing harmony behind Emmylou and Neil Young.
As a songwriter, DeVito’s copyrights include Building Bridges, which was cut by Brooks & Dunn, as well as Queen of Hearts, which was cut by Juice Newton, Rodney Crowell and Dave Edmunds. He wrote If You Change Your Mind with Rosanne Cash, which featured on her album King’s Record Shop, whose cover was a photo taken by DeVito himself.
Songwriters: Byron Hill and Cary Barlowe
Born in North Carolina, Byron Hill provided George Strait with his first number one hit Fool Hearted Memory. Alabama (Born Country), George Jones (High-Tech Redneck) and Ray Charles (The Pages of My Mind) are among a dazzling array of artists who have cut his songs. Others include Bill Medley, Clint Eastwood, Keith Whitley and Jason Aldean.
Hill produced the first three albums by Gary Allan, who repaid the favour when he took the sultry Nothing On But The Radio to the top of the charts. Hill had also helped Kathy Mattea get signed to a label and produced her debut album in 1984. More recently, Hill’s composition Can’t Remember Never Loving You was sung in the fifth season of the TV show Nashville by Connie Britton and Charles Esten.
In 2024 Hill released a bluegrass set called That Old Mountain, which is of a piece with a man who decided to write songs in Nashville rather than New York or LA.
Born in Virginia and raised in North Carolina, before retreating to the backroom Cary Barlowe spent the early years of his career on stage as part of the band Luna Halo. Taylor Swift recorded their song Untouchable for her album Fearless, while he has written several songs for TobyMac, a Contemporary Christian musician.
Barlowe has five number one country smashes under his belt: American Honey for the band then known as Lady Antebellum, Where It’s At for Dustin Lynch, It Don’t Hurt Like It Used To for Billy Currington and Sun Daze, written with and for Florida Georgia Line.
Famous Friends, the fifth number one and a hit for Kane Brown and Chris Young, was the most played song on country radio in 2021. Barlowe played and sung backing vocals on both that song and Young’s Raised on Country.
All Episodes can be found here
For more country music evangelism, go to countrywol.com where you can read Monday essays, Friday reviews and Sunday Hymn Sheets. Follow Jonny’s Country Music Calendar at the Country Way of Life Facebook page (facebook.com/acountrywayoflife).