A country way of life, Episode 50 – Final Episode (Robby Turner, Jim & Brett Beavers)
Author: Jonny Brick.
Player: Robby Turner
The final player in this series is a pedal steel guitarist who comes from solid country stock. Robby Turner’s parents Doyle and Bernice were both briefly part of Hank Williams’ band The Drifting Cowboys and their precocious son played drums as a child before switching to the pedal steel, which had been his dad’s instrument too.
When he put out a solo album in 1996, Turner gave it the smart title Man of Steel. His credits include work on albums by Vince Gill, Tanya Tuckers, Travis Tritt, Sara Evans and Loretta Lynn. That’s also Turner adding gravitas to Traveller by Chris Stapleton, and on both Colter Wall’s self-titled album and High Top Mountain by Sturgill Simpson; the last of these hired him so he could make ‘the purest, most uncompromising hard country album’.
Turner’s longest association came with Waylon Jennings, whose 1990s albums are flecked with his pedal steel contributions, and he can be heard on both the Wanted! The Outlaws album and the Highwaymen set. Turner was also part of the touring band who travelled to Europe with the band then known as the Dixie Chicks; this tour was a success but the band were caught up in aftermath of a comment made onstage, to cheers, in London.
Such are the perils of being a frontperson rather than a backroom figure.
Songwriters: Jim Beavers and Brett Beavers
And so, just before Christmas, we come to the final pair of songwriters in this series. Aptly for a time of year when families get together, they are the brothers Jim and Brett Beavers, who grew up in Texas and then had enormous success in Nashville, all from the backroom or, in Jim’s case, the boardroom.
Jim started out wanting to run a record company, parlaying an MBA from Vanderbilt University into an early career as a marketing director for Capitol Records. These days, he is on the board of the Country Music Association, but Jim says he began to listen to the ‘little voices’ within him that urged him to dive into a life writing songs for his living.
He had initially fallen in with his old school friend Lee Ann Womack, working as her road manager and touring guitarist, then wrote How Am I Doin’ with Dierks Bentley, which he says was a financial lifesaver for the neophyte songwriter.
He has credits on songs cut by Gary Allan (Watching Airplanes), Easton Corbin (Lovin’ You Is Fun) and Josh Turner (Why Don’t We Just Dance). Jim wrote Parachute and Drink A Beer with Chris Stapleton, the former a hit of his own and the latter becoming one for Luke Bryan.
Jim’s brother Brett also moved to Nashville in the 1990s, jumping into stage work and playing bass for both Lee Ann Womack and Martina McBride. He also co-wrote songs cut by Bentley, including his first number one What Was I Thinkin’, as well as Sideways, Lot of Leavin’ Left To Do, Come A Little Closer and Every Mile A Memory.
Jim and Brett both wrote 5-1-5-0 for Bentley, Felt Good on My Lips for Tim McGraw and, along with brothers Brad and Brett Warren, Red Solo Cup, the novelty hit for Toby Keith which Jim calls ‘an out of body experience…like catching lightning in a bottle’. Asked how writing with your brother works, Jim says they take turns ‘driving the boat’.
And that’s it for this year-long Figures from the Backroom series. I hope these 50 pieces have enriched your own understanding of the producers, players and songwriters who do not get the same spotlight as the singers and stars. If you have enjoyed any, or all, of them, thank you for reading. You might want to take a look at the Country Music Calendar, which will be posted on Amazon on December 27 and which features many of the performers and writers mentioned across the series.
Thanks also to Chad, the Nashville Worldwide head honcho, for commissioning the idea and posting the episodes across the year. I’ll see you back here for It’s the 90s, a new series celebrating the number one hits from that glorious decade.
It only remains for me to wish you a very Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year!
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).