Wayne Carson Interview -- Classicbands.com

Interview with Wayne Carson from Classicbands.com:

http://www.classicbands.com/WayneCarsonInterview.html

From the site:

Q - How long did it take you to write "Always On My Mind"?

A - About 10 minutes. I wrote those verses in Springfield, Missouri at my kitchen table and I carried that around for about a year. I sang it one time for Chips Moman, my producer at that time and my old friend. I had just cut a version of "No Love At All" that B.J. Thomas later had the number one record on. I was sitting there and said "What else do you want to cut?" He said "Let's do that mind song." And we did a version of "Always On My Mind" and it didn't have a bridge. Chips said "I think it needs a bridge. Why don't you go write a bridge for it and we'll cut it again." In the meantime that's how I accrued the two co-writers, Johnny Christopher and Mark James. Both came in while I was sitting there at that old piano upstairs in Chip's office. I asked them "Why don't you help me with this song? I gotta do a bridge for this song so I can cut it tonight." Musicians are all downstairs you know. So Johnny sat down and said "We didn't come up with anything." And Mark sat down and said "I think you got it finished." I said "Well I do too, but Chips wants a bridge," and so we wrote those two little lines. It would never have been the same song I'm sure without those two lines, but that's how that all came about. But it didn't take me long. It never takes me long to write a song. Like I said, it's just out there. All you gotta do is reach out and gather it up and put it together. (laughs)

The following interview extends the above story a little bit -- the article makes reference to "Tips Smallman" when they obviously mean "Chips Moman!" Perhaps transcribing from a tape recording?

http://stillisstillmoving.com/willienelson/songwriter-wayne-carson-talks-about-writing-always-on-my-mind/

The site credits Jake Brown (author of Nashville Songwriter) for the interview:

Anyway, I took it back downstairs and we cut it and all the guys in the band seemed to like it—that was kind of my gauge. When I did something new, I asked my pickers, my buddies I played all those records with, like the Box Tops and all that stuff—I did a lot of recording with that band as just a guitar player, you know. Myself and Bobby Womack and, of course, Reggie Young were the band. Anyway, we cut it. And a little session on it right there, and took it to Nashville. I was recording for Mongoose Records—that’s who I was with, Fred Foster. We couldn’t wait to get here and play that thing for him.

 

With 75 songs, 4 gold records, Stan Kesler's pen won't be still

http://www.commercialappeal.com/lifestyle/with-75-songs-4-gold-records-stan-keslers-pen-be

From the site:

During his career, Kesler was part owner of Sounds of Memphis, Echo Recording (with Jack Clement) and L & K Studios. He put together two acclaimed studio groups, the American Studios Rhythm Section, which also was known as the 827 Thomas Street Band, and the Dixie Flyers.

Modern Drummer Interview with Memphis Drummer Howard Grimes

http://www.readperiodicals.com/201409/3405083241.html

From the site:

"I was nervous sitting behind those drums," Grimes remembers. "The microphones and stuff-it was all new to me. They even put me on a smaller wood stool, so my feet could reach the pedals. And this rhythm they were trying to come up with-we couldn't find it at first. So the upright bass player, Wilbur Steinberg, said to me, 'Play that rhythm you play at the club on [early New Orleans R&B hit] "Ooh Poo Pah Doo."' Rufus went into the song again, and I played that rhythm. Chips looked at me and said, 'That's it.'"

Howard has nice things to say about Chips in this link also:

 "I went up there and met Ms. Axton and Mr. Stewart. Chips Moman was the engineer. He was the most kindhearted man I'd ever met. He believed in me for some reason. It was Bob Talley's band: Alfred Rudd, Wilbur Steinburg, Talley — he was a piano player but played trumpet on that session — Booker T. Jones, long before he became the MGs ... Me and Booker were the youngest ones up there. The record was called 'Cause I Love You.' [Released in 1960 between Charles Heinz' only two singles.]

 

CMHOF Chips Moman Interview

Video from the Chips interview conducted at the Country Music Hall of Fame in August 2012:

http://countrymusichalloffame.org/newsandupdates/posts/interview-chips-moman

From the site:

 Producer, songwriter, guitarist, and studio owner Chips Moman played a pivotal role in creating a great number of pop, soul, and country classics. After helping establish Memphis’s Stax Records in the late 1950s, he opened the city’s American Sound Studio and began producing hits for the Gentrys, B.J. Thomas, Neil Diamond, and others. In 1969 Moman produced Elvis Presley’s comeback hits-including “Suspicious Minds,” “In the Ghetto,” and “Kentucky Rain”-and went on to supervise landmark recording sessions by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and the Highwaymen. Moman co-wrote the R&B standards “Dark End of the Street” and “Do Right Woman” and the #1 country songs “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love),” “The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don’t Want to Get over You),” and “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.” In this rare public interview, Georgia-based Moman shared some of his best stories. The program was offered as part of the museum’s series of activities marking the thirty-fifth anniversary of Presley’s death.

Discography of Chips Moman 45s

Excellent discography of 45s produced by Chips can be found here:

http://www.geocities.jp/hideki_wtnb/45produced-chips-moman.html

Tommy Cogbill Bass Transcriptions

Two links with transcriptions of Tommy Cogbill's bass part on Son of a Preacher Man. A transcription also appeared in the March 2006 of Bass Player magazine (not available on the web). Enjoy!

http://www.dodgebass.co.uk/transcriptions-2/publications

http://www.levork.org/2013/01/31/son-of-a-preacher-man/