Say, New York Whadda Ya Say?

Can I come back to the Opry,
Come back to Music Row?
Hang with some ol' buddies,
Write some tunes with some young guns I'm gettin' to know?...
      - Say, Nashville Whadda Ya Say
         Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers
         from the album Pilgrimage
         (2009)


             “What in the world are a bunch of country singers from West Texas by way of the Grand Ole Opry doing at 54 Below; the posh, hip, new nightclub in New York City?”

   The question posed comes not from the reporter whose job it is to pursue such matters, but rather from veteran singer songwriter, country superstar, Broadway performer and frequent Fox News Channel contributor Larry Gatlin who returns with brothers Steve and Rudy this Saturday for a rare Manhattan appearance.

“My friend Jamie DeRoy is well known in the Broadway and cabaret circles. I’ve been a part of several of her shows and did one a few weeks ago.  Well, you wouldn’t think that these very sophisticated New York patrons of the old nightclub, cabaret scene, would take to Larry Gatlin, but I walked up there, sat down on the stool, sang ‘em a couple of songs and they loved it.  I figured, ‘Good, why don’t we try it again with the brothers?’”

Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers were a driving force in country music playing sold out shows in major venues across the country and spawning more than a dozen top 40 hits through the 70’s and 80’s. In the early 1990’s when country music inexplicably became an overnight worldwide phenomenon, the trio nobly gave up their share of the spotlight to make room for the sudden influx of rising young talent. Following the culmination of their Adios tour in 1992, the singer songwriter found himself once again center stage on an altogether different stage playing the lead in the hit Broadway musical, The Will Rogers Follies. While the play may not have made the record books for its production run, the singer may yet set a record of his own (if statistics are kept for such things). You see, the idea of retirement did not seem as comfortable as it should have been which ultimately resulted in The Gatlin Brothers Never-Ending Reunion World Tour. In 2009 the band released Pilgrimage; their first CD of brand new studio recordings in nearly two decades, but radio airplay remained elusive as stations chose to stick close to the more non-traditional mainstream sound of today’s country, something the songwriter cited on the album’s first single.

“The song Johnny Cash is Dead and His House Burned Down is of course a tribute to the late great Johnny Cash, but it’s also about the changing of the guard a little bit. ‘I got nothin’ against the young country stars, I could use more fiddle or steel guitars,’ it says. That’s just a metaphor to tell the new generation, let’s not forget where we came from and upon whose shoulders we stand.”

Currently Gatlin resides in Nashville again where he is spending some time writing and mentoring new talent, giving back in much the same way that legendary superstars like Dottie West and Johnny Cash had done for him when he first started out.

‘He’s everything a singer, everything a writer, everything a picker ought to want to be,’ Cash stated in the liner notes of Larry Gatlin’s 1974 debut release, The Pilgrim. Larry Gatlin may not go down in history with the same reverence as The Man In Black, but there is no denying his integral role in country music history.

“When the brothers and I started out, we did it the way the Gatlin Brothers felt it. We wanted to be true to our calling and true to our fans.  I told people back then, ‘I might not be the greatest songwriter in the world but I’m the greatest songwriter in the world to write songs for me and my brothers to sing’ and I still believe that.”

If I come home to my home away from home ,
Will there be any open arms for me?...
Can I come home to good ol' Music City, USA...
Say, Nashville Whadda Ya Say?
      - Larry Gatlin
           (2009)