The Producer's Chair

Scott Hendricks

With a daunting work ethic, an eye for talent, an ear for great songs and a thirst for opportunities to take risks, Nashville’s own Scott Hendricks, has already put his thumb-print on a significant portion, of ‘Country Music History’ Hendricks has produced well over 100 albums, giving birth to 102 Top 10 singles, 63 of which peaked at No.1 collectively spending 2 years, at the top of the charts. His production credits span almost 4 decades of artists from Restless Heart, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill, John Michael Montgomery, Trace Adkins, to Dan + Shay, Jana Kramer, Michael Ray and super-star Blake Shelton.

To-date, the industry has recognized his achievements with six ACM Awards and two CMA Awards as the producer of such hits as Brooks & Dunn’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” John Michael Montgomery’s “I Swear,” Alan Jackson’s “Don’t Rock The Jukebox” and Blake Shelton’s collaboration with Trace Adkins, “Hillbilly Bone” which won an ACM Award for Best Collaboration in 2011, and an Emmy, for his production of Hank Williams Jr.’s “Monday Night Football” theme, as well. And … music fans everywhere discovered Scott’s pedigree, when he joined Blake as a mentor for 3 episodes in Season 8 of NBC’s The Voice.

Since his arrival at Warner Music Nashville in 2007, and his new appointment to EVP of A&R, Hendricks has also overseen the discovery and introduction of Hunter Hayes, Brett Eldridge, Jana Kramer and Michael Ray along with right-arm A&R ace Cris Lacy, while producing Shelton’s Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton, All About Tonight, Red River Blue, Bringing Back the Sunshine, If I’m Honest and Cheers, It’s Christmas, Dan + Shay’s Where It All Began, Obsessed and Hunter Hayes’ debut and Storyline albums.

Prior to Warner, Hendricks helped found EMI’s Nashville division for Virgin Records in 1998, where he signed Chris Cagle, prior to which, he was President/CEO of Capitol Records Nashville, from ‘95 to 98, on the heels of Jimmy Bowen’s rein, where Scott oversaw the careers of Garth Brooks and Deana Carter, and was responsible for signing Trace Adkins, Roy D Mercer and Keith Urban, following the launch of Scott’s publishing company Big Tractor in 1991, whose writers penned “I Saw God Today” for George Strait and “Amazed” for Lonestar.

Thirteen years earlier, Hendricks’ journey began in 1978. After graduating from Oklahoma State, with a degree in Architectural Acoustics, Scott’s first gig was, designing and selling gear to recording studios, for Nashville Sound Systems. He also landed a part-time job teaching engineering classes at Belmont University, which lasted seven years. During a sales call at Glaser Sound Studios, the engineer invited Scott to hang out at sessions any time he wanted. Hendricks became an unpaid gopher at Glaser Sound—where he watched many historic sessions with Jimmy Bowen at the helm.

After nine months the Glaser Brothers hired Hendricks as a full-time engineer and he was officially “in,” but that, was just for starters. From Glaser Sound Hendricks moved to Bullet Recording Studios, where he was chief engineer. Hendricks and another Okie, Tim DuBois, (who arrived in Nashville with Scott) hooked up to co-produce Restless Heart, a new band eventually signed to RCA Records. Together with Hendricks and DuBois, Restless Heart racked up 13 top ten singles, including six No. 1 singles.

That success made Hendricks a go-to engineer as well as an up and coming producer. Soon after, Wayne Watson asked Scott to produce/engineer his next project, which became a No. 1 album in Contemporary Christian Music. Hendricks also mixed and/or engineered albums by Alabama, Anne Murray, Lorrie Morgan and Tanya Tucker, among others. He recorded Lee Greenwood’s “Holdin’ A Good Hand”, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Recording. He also took the sonic reins on seven Hank Williams Jr. albums,

Tom Hambridge

Believe it or not, since my last interview with Tom Hambridge in 2014, Tom has produced 17 more albums, received 27 award nominations, six of which he won, played drums and/or sang on 19 other artist’s albums, made numerous TV appearances, toured extensively and now, he’s about to release his 7th solo album THE NOLA SESSIONS … In 2016 alone, Hambridge added another 93 cuts, to his songwriting discography which already boasts the likes of Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Susan Tedeschi, George Thorogood, Joe Bonamassa, Quinn Sullivan, Keb’ Mo’, Eric Burdon, Delbert McClinton, Johnny Winter, Colin Linden, ZZ Top, BB King, Steve Cropper & Felix Cavaliere, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Meat Loaf, Kenny Neal, Shemekia Copeland, Van Zant, T. Graham Brown, The Outlaws, Jack Ingram, Taylor Hicks, Rascal Flatts, Joe Nichols, Chris Young, Gretchen Wilson, Danny Gokey, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lee Roy Parnell, Pat Green, Hank Williams Jr., Montgomery Gentry, Rodney Atkins, Ronnie Dunn and the list goes on … and on, including Keith Anderson’s song ‘Every Time I Hear Your Name’ co-written by Hambridge and Jeffrey Steele, which won a 2007 ASCAP Country Music Song Award.

Hambridge is a writing machine who, not only has 500 cuts in multiple genres but over 50 producer, songwriter and musician awards including 2 Grammys, 5 Grammy nominations and a boat-load of Blues Music & Blues Blast Awards. The unique thing about Tom’s career is that he gets to produce, co-write and tour globally with both, legends like Buddy Guy and James Cotton and some of the Hottest new young artists, on the planet, like Quinn Sullivan. Hell, Mick Jagger even asked Tom to play drums for him, at the White House. But don’t think for one minute that Hambridge was un-known before he arrived in Nashville. After graduating from Berklee, between 1988 and 1999 he won 6 Boston Music Awards and was band-leader for Martha & The Vandellas, Bo Diddley, Little Anthony, Chuck Berry and he played drums with the band Boston.

Today, a review of Tom’s Grammy awards and nominations alone, speaks volumes about his journey. His first Grammy nomination came in 1998 for Best Contemporary Blues Album when he produced Susan Tedeschi’s album JUST WON’T BURN. Then, in 2004 Hambridge received his second Grammy Nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album: Johnny Winter – I’M A BLUESMAN and in 2009 his 3rd Grammy Nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album: Buddy Guy – SKIN DEEP, which featured Eric Clapton, Susan & Derek Trucks Tom wrote 10 of the 12 songs including three with Gary Nicholson, including the title track.

In 2011 Hambridge produced Buddy Guy’s – LIVING PROOF which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album featuring all 12 songs written by Tom, 4 songs he co-wrote with Gary Nicholson and 4 co-writes with Richard Fleming and in 2013 Tom also produced Buddy Guy’s double album RHYTHM & BLUES, which was Buddy’s biggest charting album ever, as the album debuted at Number 1 on Billboard’s Blues Chart. The album includes guest star performances by Kid Rock, Keith Urban, Gary Clark Jr., Beth Hart and The Muscle Shoals Horns and Steven Tyler, Joe Perry & Brad Whitford of Aerosmith and featured an amazing 18 Tom Hambridge original songs. In 2014 Hambridge received another Grammy Nomination for Best Blues Album: James Cotton – COTTON MOUTH MAN Tom wrote 12 songs on this album which included appearances by Gregg Allman, Joe Bonamassa, Ruthie Foster, Delbert McClinton, Warren Hayes, Keb Mo, Chuck Leavell and Colin Linden and last year Tom produced Buddy Guy’s – BORN TO PLAY GUITAR won the Grammy for Best Blues Album, which included 13 Tom Hambridge songs including the song ‘Flesh & Bone’ featuring Van Morrison.

So far this year, Hambridge will been touring with Buddy Guy, he’s scheduled to produce a new album on Nashville artist and American Idol runner up Casey James, he’ll be doing some tour dates with his own band The Rattle...

Tony Brown

If ‘Nashville Cats’ is a song about musicians, Tony Brown is the ultimate ‘Nashville Cat’, who not only went from side-man, to running record labels, but also became one of the most legendary producers ‘in music history’ thanks to Jimmy Bowen and one of the most astute businessmen on The Row. The cool part is… Tony remembers, cherishes and will share with you, every detail of every moment of his career, right back to his humble beginnings playing piano with JD Sumner & The Stamps, The Oak Ridge Boys, Emmylou Harris, The Cherry Bombs and Elvis Presley. And he does it with ‘hunk of burnin’ love’ and a huge sense of humor.

While serving as president of MCA Nashville, for nearly two decades, before departing to co-found Universal South Records, with Tim DuBois, Tony signed a plethora of newcomers to label deals including Alabama, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, Kelly Willis, Todd Snider, Allison Moorer, The Mavericks, Shooter Jennings and more, while his iconic production discography came to include the likes of REBA, George Strait, Wynonna, Vince Gill, Sara Evans, Brooks & Dunn, Lionel Richie, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Streisand, Billy Joe, and Cyndi Lauper.

Tony’s historic achievements and contributions have been honored with 4 CMA Awards for ‘Single of The Year’ and 6 for ‘Album of The Year, 2 ACM ‘Producer of The Year’ Awards, an ACM ‘Vocal Event of The Year, 2 ACM ‘Single of The Year’, 2 ACM ‘Album of The Year’ Awards, 2 TNN Awards for ‘Single of The Year’ and 1for ‘Album of The Year’.

He’s been called the founding father of the Americana Country Movement, he received a Producer/Engineer Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Assoc., a Grammy nomination for ‘Producer of The Year, a Grammy for ‘Album of the Year’ for George Strait’s Troubadour and is accredited with producing 9 Grammy Winning Songs.

Over the course of his career, Tony has produced over 100 #1 singles with record level sales, exceeding the $100 million mark… And here are a few more accolades…

∞ 1972 – Best Gospel Instrumentalist – Gospel Music Association

∞ 1995 – Outstanding Creative Achievement – Record Producer – TEC Awards (Technical Excellence & Creativity)

∞ 1995 & 1997 – Outstanding Producer – Nashville Music Awards

∞ 1997 – “Pioneer Award” for “Distinguished Achievement in the Recording Industry: Country Crossover Music” – International Achievement in Arts Awards

∞ 2004 – “Dale Franklin Leadership Award” – Leadership Music

∞ 2009 – The Cecil Scaife Visionary Award

∞ 2013 – Inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame

But the truth is… He’d much rather tell stories than talk trophies. And his most recent are, as one would expect… iconic, to say the least.

After receiving a Grammy Nom for her TO MEMPHIS WITH LOVE blues album and a Tony Award for KINKY BOOTS, ‘Super Star’ Cyndi Lauper came to Nashville in 2015 to record a country album and you guessed it … Tony got the gig. Then, in 2016 Tony also produced Reba’s 16th # 1 album LOVE SOMEBODY, while preparing to launch Velvet Stone Management, with legendary attorney John Mason in partnership with Melissa Core & Rick Caballo, owners of Dead Horse Branding … All of whom, are gearing up currently, for the launch n release of Tony’s newly published coffee-table book ‘Elvis, Strait to Jesus’, a photographic journal of Tony’s illustrious career, accompanied by a documentary memorializing, the making of the book.

I once saw a list of the 100 most important people in ‘the music industry’. Tony Brown was on the list.

Michael Knox is someone I refer to as ‘Industry Royalty’, by virtue of birth-right, just like Hank Jr. and Pam Tillis. But when Michael showed me, the rare photograph of his Rockabilly Hall of Famer Father, the legendary Buddy Knox with his buddy Elvis, in his Senior Vice-President, Shalacy Griffin’s office at Music Knox Management, over at peermusic Nashville, I couldn’t help but think about how proud, the ‘first artist’ to ever write his own #1 hit song (Party Doll-1957) would be, of his son’s accomplishments.

The first time I met Michael, he told me that he grew up sitting on the dashboard of his Dad’s Winnebago, ‘on the road’, listening to Roy Orbison, Elvis, The Everly Brothers and his dad on the radio. And don’t think for one minute that, young Michael didn’t have full intensions of following in his Father’s footsteps … if he could only sing.

When Michael arrived in Music City in 1991 and opened Nashville’s first song plugging company HIT PLUGGERS, it wasn’t long before industry giants like Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, George Strait and Reba realized that Knox had great ears and great instincts, as Music Row watched him place an astounding 300 songs in eight years. That quickly propelled him to Warner/Chappell Music, were Knox was VP responsible for Artist/Writer Development and Song Placement, and where he left his stamp on more than 150 million records, proving himself to be, one of Nashville’s most creative business minds and trusted developers of talent. (1992 – 2002)

Now, with 19 number ones, over 30 Million singles and 14 million albums sold, Knox’s stellar production credits include – Jason Aldean, Michael Tyler, Thomas Rhett, Josh Thompson, Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, Kelly Clarkson, Eric Church, Luke Bryan, Bush Hawg, Ludacris, Connie Britton, Hayden Panettiere, Chris Carmack, Will Chase, Chip Esten, Hank Williams Jr., Chuck Wicks, Frankie Ballard, Miranda Lambert, Randy Owen, Charlie Daniels, Rachel Farley, Brantley Gilbert, Lost Trailers, Crossin Dixon, Lila McCann, the Road Hammers, Danni Leigh, JD Myers, the hit TV series Nashville and the ‘Late-Great’ Buddy Knox … who was the first artist Michael ever produced.

In Michael’s 25 Years in Country Music (which he just celebrated), he has served on the GRAMMY® Special Committees, ACM and CMA Boards and, his works have been honored with over 50 Grammy, ACM, CMA, ACA, Billboard, Teen Choice, Mediabase, Touchtune, I-Heart Radio and Producer Awards and Nominations, ranging from ‘Albums of the Year’ to ‘Song of the Year’, not to mention the awards that so many others have taken home, as result of Michael’s song savvy and production skills.

Today, under his Vice-Presidency and creative leadership, peermusic Nashville has become one of Nashville’s most prestigious independent publishing companies. In 2013 they received ASCAP’s ‘Song of the Year’ Award for Randy Houser’s “How Country Feels” co-written by Neil Thrasher and Vicky McGehee and they just received SESAC’s ‘Song of The Year’ Award, for Deirks Bentley’s, ‘Somewhere On a Beach’, co-written by Jaron Boyer and singer/songwriter Michael Tyler (REVIVER Records), who is being managed by Knox.

Forest Glen Whitehead

If ever there was a success story that needed to be told, Forest Glen Whitehead is it. Not only does he have the distinction of being, the youngest major producer in Nashville, he just happens to be producing the youngest super-star on the block … Kelsea Ballerini.

From the time Whitehead set foot on Nashville soil in 2009 (at 19), his incredibly intuitive approach to ‘chasing the dream’, miraculously considering the odds, got him signed to Black River Publishing by Celia Froehlig in just two years in. But make no mistake … it was his chops that ultimately led to cuts with Terry Clark, Brantley Gilbert, Dylan Scott and … 6 songs on Ballerini’s debut studio album THE FIRST TIME.

The album’s first 3 singles “Love Me Like You Mean It” (writers: Ballerini, Whitehead, Josh Kerr and Lance Carpenter), “Dibs” (Ballerini, Kerr, Ryan Griffin and Jason Duke) and “Peter Pan” (Ballerini, Whitehead and Jesse Lee) all soared to # 1 making Kelsea, the first new female artist to send her first three releases to the top of the charts since Wynonna Judd in 1992 and the first female to top both the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts simultaneously.

With similar influences, the magic emerged when Kelsea and Forest started co-writing and found the unmistakeable wound in her first single, “Love Me Like You Mean It”. Kelsea then got her record deal and after several producers had been considered, she insisted to the label that Forest produce and he got the gig.What’s even more telling about Whitehead was his decision to bring in co-producer Jason Massey (Ole Songwriter), to achieve his vision for Ballerini’s sound, which earned her the 2016 ACM New Female Vocalist of the year Award and 2016 CMA nominations for Female Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year. What’s equally telling was Black River’s willingness, to trust Ballerini n Whitehead’s instincts.

Forest cut his teeth studying drums at 10 yrs but when his grandmother bought him his first guitar at age 12 (which he still has) he learned to play by-ear and quickly began writing songs. Fast forward … His session credits on THE FIRST TIME include; banjo, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, piano, slide guitar and background vocals. Forest also played guitar on Carrie Underwood’s song “Smoke Break” and Brandy Clark’s latest release “Big Day In A Small Town”, both produced by Jay Joyce.

Then came recording …

Forest: I downloaded a free program on an old PC computer that I had when I was in high school. I think the program was called Audacity. It was just a simple program where you could layer tracks. Before that, whenever I had the cassette decks, I would actually have two separate stereos overdubbing, and with a Radio Shack mic, press play on one tape that I already recorded, press record on the other and overdub while the other one’s playing. You got all this noise and hissing and everything else, but it was just so interesting to me. When I got the Audacity program, that’s when I first started learning how to layer different instruments, while doubling parts and putting guitars on the left and right side and learning what sonically made a record sound great.

Rewind … The summer before he graduated from high school, Forest worked at a bait-n-tackle shop in North Shreveport Louisiana, which allowed him to save enough to buy a travel trailer. And what better place to bunk-in than the KOA Campground, right next to Mother Opryland at Opry Mills, while he got his feet wet.

Forest: I tried to have some income doing musical things and I was in a blues band for a little bit and I did demos for other songwriters, but my main job that actually paid the bills was working in a pawn shop. I also worked at McDougal’s Chicken in Hillsboro Village. I did writer’s nights at the Commodore, Douglas Corner, The Blue Bird, The Listening Room,

Mark Bright

Knowing that, over the past three and a half decades since Mark Bright began his remarkable journey in Nashville, his legendary accomplishments as a producer, corporate executive, publisher and hit songwriter, have been well-documented, one can’t help but think about, the huge array of people who have been blessed by, their association with Mark.”

A partial list of artists alone would include Blackhawk, Reba McEntire, Sara Evans, Jo Dee Messina, Lonestar, Rascal Flatts, Scotty McCreery, Peter Cetera, Sting, Brad Paisley, Vince Gill, Steven Tyler, Keith Urban, Two Story Road, Lucy Hale, Edens Edge, Mountain Heart, Hanna Montana, Billy Ray Cyrus, Luke Bryan, Whitney Duncan, Danny Gokey, Shakira and Carrie Underwood, who along with Mark is over the moon with excitement about her current album STORYTELLER, their most recent # 1 Church Bells and her 4 CMA nominations which include ‘Album of The Year’, ‘Female Vocalist of the Year’, ‘Music Event of the Year’ and Carries first-ever nomination for ‘Entertainer of the Year’.

Mark accredits his successes to mentors like Joe Galante and Tim Dubois but what makes Mark unique is his willingness to share that which they taught him. And teach him well they did. Bright’s meteoric rise from the tape room to the Vice-Presidency of Screen Gems/EMI Music and his two year stint as president & CEO of Word Entertainment, provided Mark with a world of knowledge that only a handful of producers have been privy to.

But Mark’s expertise doesn’t end there. It’s been said that, to be successful in business, one must know how to cut deals and he’s obviously mastered that skill, as well. In 1999 Bright co-formed Teracel Music as a joint venture with Sony/ATV, signed Brett James, who landed over 40 cuts in the first year and sold it in 2005 for, the highest multiple ever paid, for a joint venture, at the time, before launching My Good Girl Music, which was later renamed Chatterbox, in another joint venture with Sony/ATV and EMI. Bright currently writes for Delbert’s Boy Music.

When asked what he’s into these days, Mark’s answer was, he’s working beside his new wife Jennifer, whom he married April 1st of this year. Also, he is celebrating his 23rd number one single “Church Bells” with Carrie Underwood and the one constant that has propelled the music industry, from day-one … the discovery and development of new talent.