A country way of life, Episode 14 (Jonathan Singleton, Paul Franklin, Liz Rose)
Author: Jonny Brick.
Producer: Jonathan Singleton
Very quietly indeed, Jonathan Singleton has become one of the sonic architects of contemporary country music. He is perhaps most successful as Luke Combs’ compadre, producing his Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old sets and writing smashes like Beer Never Broke My Heart and Cold As You. The pair also wrote I Hope You’re Happy Now, which they gifted to Carly Pearce and Lee Brice.
Singleton’s other cuts include Watching Airplanes for Gary Allan, A Guy Walks Into A Bar for Tyler Farr and Why Don’t We Just Dance for Josh Turner, as well as Things a Man Oughta Know, which he wrote with Lainey Wilson. Singleton had himself released an album on Toby Keith’s Show Dog label in 2009, two of whose tracks were minor radio hits, before stepping back to become a songwriter and producer.
Singleton told Bobby Bones that he does not like the limelight. ‘I don’t wanna talk in front of anybody!’ he said, which is the very definition of a figure from the backroom. He also said that a good way to escape writing country songs is to turn up loud rock music, which explains his cranked-up cover of I Drive Your Truck.
Player: Paul Franklin
Is it unfair that Paul Franklin has never won the CMA Musician of the Year award? Or is it a big practical joke that Nashville is playing on him? On 31 (thirty-one!) occasions, Franklin’s outstanding pedal steel playing has failed to win the award even though he is as reliable a session musician as they come. He even maintains a website offering courses in how to play the instrument.
Born in Detroit, Franklin started playing at the age of nine and moved to Music City at the age of 17. He began his half-century as a pro as part of the band for the seventies superstar Barbara Mandrell then decamped to the studio, where he has played on records by acts as varied as Wynonna, George Strait, Sheryl Crow, Sting and Megadeth!
Franklin’s partnership with Vince Gill has included a few years in the group The Time Jumpers and collaborations on two albums which respectively pay tribute to Bakersfield’s music scene and the songs of Ray Price.
Songwriter: Liz Rose
I met Liz Rose once. She was over at Country2Country in 2017 promoting her solo album Swimming Alone, which included ten songs including a lament that she doesn’t have ex-boyfriends, just ex-husbands.
Another thing Rose has, as of 2023, is membership of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her journey is all the more exciting because she didn’t start writing songs until she was almost 40. She often tells the story of providing the couch on which Taylor Swift wrote several of her early hits including You Belong With Me, White Horse and Tim McGraw. After several country chart-toppers she and Taylor had enjoyed, when All Too Well was released in a ten-minute version in 2022 it became Rose’s first Hot 100 number one.
As the young writer’s star went stratospheric, so too did Rose’s go into new parts of the firmament. She was making eggs when she and her fellow Love Junkies Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey stumbled upon Girl Crush, the hit for Little Big Town, for whom the trio also wrote Save Your Sin and Sober. They have also written with and for Carrie Underwood (Cry Pretty) and Miranda Lambert (It All Comes Out in the Wash).
Rose also has credits on Crazy Girl by Eli Young Band, God Made Girls by RaeLynn, Songs About Rain by Gary Allan and The Wrong Girl by Lee Ann Womack. Her daughter Cailtin Rose has gone into the family business; in fact, she is signed to her mum’s publishing company Liz Rose Music.
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).
