A country way of life, Episode 27 (Jedd Hughes, Chris Tompkins, Josh Kear)
Author: Jonny Brick.
Player: Jedd Hughes
Jedd Hughes is another Australian who moved to the USA to play music, first in Lubbock, Texas and then in Nashville. Having been messed around by labels after releasing his debut album in 2004, he moved to LA but was drawn back to Nashville.
Born in a town called Quorn, he played guitar with Patty Loveless, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris. In 2019 Hughes put out his excellent second album West, which included songs written with Crowell and Guy Clark.
He has also been part of the Little Big Town sound, playing mandolin and guitar on some of their biggest hits, and he also contributed to Brandy Clark’s album Your Life Is A Record and Lainey Wilson’s Sayin What I’m Thinkin. All these acts have worked with producer Jay Joyce, making Hughes a key component of the country-rock that Joyce makes.
Songwriters: Chris Tompkins & Josh Kear
It must be odd for a songwriter to turn on the radio and know that listeners will never be aware that they, the songwriter, contributed to that song. In the last two decades, both Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear have had dozens of copyrights which have made their way on to country radio.
Kear calls Tompkins ‘the most naturally gifted songwriter’ he has worked with, which may account for their regular collaborations. The pair wrote Before He Cheats and Blown Away for Carrie Underwood, the former initially intended for Gretchen Wilson, as well as Helluva Life for Frankie Ballard. They also helped Dierks Bentley get Drunk on a Plane and Luke Bryan get Drunk on You.
Tompkins, who was born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and knew Jason Isbell growing up, fell in with Craig Wiseman of Big Loud. The pair wrote Voices for Chris Young, and Tompkins had several cuts on the debut record by Big Loud’s cash cows Florida Georgia Line including Round Here and Get Your Shine On. Burnin’ It Down, written with the guys from FGL, became a smash for Jason Aldean, while Tompkins also co-wrote Sure Be Cool If You Did for Blake Shelton and two hits for Tim McGraw: One of Those Nights and Lookin for That Girl.
By Jim Koebrugge
Kear, meanwhile, co-wrote Need You Now with Lady A hours after first meeting them. After writing it, he thought little of the ‘dark and moody’ song, which was in the shadow of the uptempo song they had written in the same session. It would hit number two on the Hot 100 and win the Grammy for Song of the Year; there is a magnificent photo on Kear’s Instagram of him hugging Charles Kelley with uncontained joy on his face.
‘I think part of what was deceiving about it was on the surface, it seems so simple,’ Kear has said of Need
You Now. ‘While the raw emotion is there, they took that raw emotion, and admittedly, they made magic out of it.’ Kear’s other copyrights include Buy My Own Drinks for Runaway June, Highway Don’t Care for McGraw, Most People Are Good for Luke Bryan and the one-chord marvel Neon Light for Blake Shelton.
Kear is also a fierce advocate for songwriters, testifying before the US Senate to help the Music Modernization Act come into force.
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).