A Conversation with Al Anderson (continued)

PM: Let me circle back to that very hard to describe bridge that got you from NRBQ into the inner circle of Music Row. I know that "Every Little Thing," written with and for Carlene Carter, was a big break.

AA: Yeah, that was my second single. The first one was "Hotel Coupe de Ville" by Larry Boone.

PM: I don't know that song, "Hotel Coupe de Ville."

AA: [Craig] Wiseman. Good song. I had this friend of mine who was a decadent Italian that I used to hang around with in the bar, and I asked him where he was staying. He says, "Tonight? Hotel Coupe de Ville."

[laughter]

AA: In the car.

PM: Larry Boone. Did he come and go?

AA: He came and went. He had a big dance record, or something.

PM: And so you wrote that. That was your first single, and you wrote it with Wiseman?

AA: The first single when I came here in '91. I had a Hank Jr. cut back in the '70s.

PM: Oh. What was that?

AA: "You're Going to be a Sorry Man" on Wild Streak.

PM: And was that co-written with somebody, or--

AA: No, I wrote it myself.

PM: And so that was the first real mailbox money.

AA: Yeah, but I had a publishing deal, and I owed the guy--I never saw a nickel, I don't think.

PM: Right. It went to him, yeah. So how did you meet Wiseman?

AA: Barry Beckett.

PM: Ah, yeah, because he's a natural to be a Big Al guy. [Beckett is a legendary musician and producer.] You're kind of from the same planet.

AA: Yeah.

PM: And where did you know him from?

AA: Black music period. We could talk about that some time, too. They're afraid to have a black guy in this town. It's going to be all over.

PM: [laughs] Oh, that's funny. Yeah, it almost happened with Charlie Pride.

AA: They're petrified to have a black guy in this town, because that'd be it. Then all the white guys would be singing at the Macaroni Grill, right?

PM: Well, if they want to get country sales going again, that might be a good idea.

AA: I know.

PM: So, but then those were the first two singles. And how did you make your way here? Did you move to Nashville and then stay here, or were you living in the southwest then?

AA: In '91, the word was out that I was looking for a deal. I came down like Mr. Jerk looking for thousands--tens of thousands of dollars.

PM: Right. "Somebody give me a lot."

AA: Pat McMurray took me to lunch and said, "I can't give you that kind of money, but I'll get you cuts." They were big fans of the band, which probably is more convincing than the company I signed with.

PM: What's her name, again?

AA: Pat McMurray.

PM: And she was with Blue Water at the time?

AA: She found all the musicians I'm still with today.

PM: Ah, you met all them through her. You didn't come to town knowing who any of those guys were? [Al gigs and records with a very cool bunch of "A" team guys like bassist Glenn Worf, drummer Chad Cromwell, keyboardist Reese Winans, and various guitar players]

AA: No, I'd never heard of them.

PM: Wow, she just hooked you up with the great guys right off the bat.

Why don't we talk just a little bit about some of your most well-known partners, like Wiseman, Bob DiPiero, and Jeffrey Steele. What is there to say about Craig Wiseman? He's not a man I know--I know a lot of his songs.

AA: Well, he's a genius lyricist.

PM: I've heard he's just one of those guys that you embark on an idea with and he just comes forth with almost endless ideas.

AA: No, not necessarily. Sometimes just nothing, and he'll just leave the room for an hour. [laughs] But still, what I'm saying is, at the end of the day, it don't matter how it gets done.

PM: No, it doesn't matter. It can get done any way at all. But he's a lyrical genius. And yet he's a drummer, right? I didn't know that until I just read it in the last couple days.

AA: Yeah.

PM: A drummer of one kind or another, or a serious drummer, or...?

AA: I don't know what kind of music he played. He's from Mississippi, so it was probably good.

PM: Yeah, right. [laughs]

AA: It's hard to be in a shitty band in Mississippi.

PM: [laughs] And so you've been writing with him for ten or fifteen years, on and off, right? And has he been getting better and better every year, or like, "Hey, the first time I wrote with him he was like that," or--

AA: He was great right from the beginning.

PM: It's funny how some people have that word thing, that lyrical thing. I know a couple guys who just have it.

AA: He went to school for that stuff, but I don't know how much he uses from it.

PM: You mean he was a literature guy, or--

AA: Yeah, something like that.

PM: Does he write prose, too?

AA: I don't know.

PM: What about Bob DiPiero?

AA: Bob, I don't know how I hooked up with him. I don't remember. A long time ago, because "Change is Going to Do Me Good" is '94--

PM: Ah. That's a great song.

AA: Or maybe '95. Then we had a hit, "Should Have Asked Her Faster."

PM: Yeah. Who cut that?

AA: Ty England.

PM: [laughs]

AA: Bob's a great songwriter, plain and simple.

PM: Right. He just really knows how to do it.

AA: Aside from being a notorious lyricist, he can write the music very well. He's had so many ditty hits that sometimes he's undervalued, or underestimated. He's the co-writer on "Love Make a Fool of Me," he and Jeff Steele.

PM: That's a really beautiful song. [It's the excellent jazzy opener on Al's new CD After Hours.]

AA: The thing about Steeley is that he can do anything. That was the first thing I learned when I wrote with him. The second song I wrote with him was "Unbelievable." [A huge hit for Diamond Rio.] So he's writing in the Montgomery Gentry train right now, but when styles change, he'll be able to do that too. So he's got a good future. And his attitude is great when you're writing a song.

PM: How so?

AA: Positive. I mean, he's there to get that song. He wants to get the best song he possibly can that day.  continue

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