Classic Country
Bill Anderson keeps singin' and writin' 'em like they'll never go out of style
by Paul Griffith
Bill Anderson
The Way I Feel (TWI Records)
It's been said that Bill Anderson was the first person to talk his way into country music and sing his way out. Lately, it seems he's written his way back in again. Anderson's hushed, conversational vocals may lack the timelessness of his peers like George Jones and Ray Price, but he has a legacy they lack: "Whisperin' " Bill is one of country's greatest songwriters. A new album by Anderson, The Way I Feel, shows why the Opry veteran and Country Hall of Famer remains a vital part of country music while other stars from the '50s and '60s play mostly symbolic roles.
Anderson always had the golden touch as a writer. At 19, he wrote "City Lights," a No. 1 hit for Price in 1958. Solo hits followed, including "Mama Sang a Song," "Tips of My Fingers" and "Still," which topped the country charts and reached the pop Top 10 in 1963.
Perhaps due to his limited vocal range, during the late '60s Anderson regularly began working with duet partners. He continued to have chart success, first with Jan Howard ("For Loving You") and later with Mary Lou Turner ("Sometimes," "That's What Made Me Love You"). All along, Anderson wrote hits for others, including Connie Smith, Porter Wagoner and Faron Young. His chart run ended in 1982 with the disco-country period piece "I Can't Wait Any Longer," which rankled some country fans and relegated Anderson to daytime television, where he hosted game shows and was a regular on the soap opera One Life to Live.
Anderson's songwriting career took off again during the late '90s, in part due to a renewed interest in traditional music. His connection to country's golden age made him the ideal partner for established writers seeking roots credibility. Teamed with successful latter-day writers like Dean Dillon and Skip Ewing, Anderson composed hits for Kenny Chesney ("A Lot of Things Different"), Steve Wariner ("Two Teardrops") and Mark Wills ("Wish You Were Here"). This year, his "Whiskey Lullaby," a smash duet for Alison Krauss and Brad Paisley, was named the Academy of Country Music's Song of the Year.
"Since I got into this co-writing thing, I'm on my second childhood," Anderson says. "I used to think I was the only guy crazy enough to sit up and write songs in the middle of the night, the only guy who would write the second verse first, but I came to find out there's a lot of writers just as crazy as I am. This world of writing with other people, younger writers, has opened so many doors for me."
Despite his resurrected career, Anderson is a relic by today's country standards, and that's a good thing. His button-down persona and hair selection, for example, stood in stark contrast to the abundance of CBGB T-shirts and Marshall amps at the recent CMA Festival. While the rest of Music Row tries desperately to rock, Anderson remains in the line of germinal country troubadours like Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams, albeit filtered through the countrypolitan sheen of 1970s Nashville. Kitsch appeal notwithstanding, he stays viable because he can write a song.
Take the aforementioned "Whiskey Lullaby," which appears on The Way I Feel as a duet by Anderson and one of his current singing partners, fiddler Kenzie Wetz. "He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger," Anderson sings, "And finally drank away her memory / Life is short, but this time it was bigger / Than the strength he had to get up off his knees." The song's subject matter, alcoholic double suicide, would be morose if it weren't for the poetry of Anderson and co-writer Jon Randall, which brings to mind country classics like "He Stopped Loving Her Today." In terms of songwriting, "Whiskey Lullaby" stands out from the year's other ACM winners, most of which were positive and love-happy.
Anderson is a genial and upbeat man, an image that belies the darkness of "Whiskey Lullaby." Other than a very public domestic dispute several years ago, he no longer feels the need to experience everything he writes. "If I'd lived every song I've written, I'd be 400 years old," Anderson says. "I used to think you had to get lonesome at 3 in the morning, pull all the shades down and see how miserable you could get to write a country song. But the key to writing is empathy. You have to put yourself in somebody's place who might have gone through this sort of thing. I'm not saying I've never been in a dark place and written a dark song, but it's not something I feel like I have to do."
For the most part, country music does a good job of honoring legends like Anderson. George Jones' name is invoked by everyone from Brooks & Dunn to Jim Lauderdale and, despite being ignored at this year's CMA award show, Loretta Lynn's latest album, Van Lear Rose, was critically acclaimed and won the 2004 Grammy for Best Country Album. Unlike such contemporaries, Anderson is active in the hyper-competitive game of country songwriting. Music Row still knows a great song when it hears one—and it knows that Anderson can deliver.
"I think the fire burns in me more than it does in some of the others," says Anderson, who also hosts the long-running XM Radio show called "Bill Anderson Visits With the Legends." "It's about doing what you love. A lot of people, Tom T. Hall, for example, say they're enjoying being retired, but I'm enjoying [my recent success] more than any phase of my career. There was a time when I'd think, 'Oh, Lord, I've got to write a No. 1 song.' I spent years doing that, and I couldn't enjoy the success that I had. I don't feel that pressure anymore."
In 2002, Anderson was honored as a "BMI Icon," an award given to the songwriting association's most influential members. He was the first country artist to receive the designation, which he shares with rock and soul legends like Chuck Berry, Isaac Hayes and Brian Wilson. All told, Whisperin' Bill has charted over 100 songs since "City Lights," and there are probably more on the way—he has cuts on recent and upcoming records by Vince Gill, Lorrie Morgan, John Michael Montgomery, Sara Evans and Tracy Byrd. Anderson's songs depend on time-honored country themes—lovin', leavin' and drinkin'—that continue to work for him despite country music's current fixation with rock.
"I've written some of the other kind of songs," he laughs. "I just haven't gotten them recorded. I'm more comfortable writing in the traditional vein, but it's not like I'm waving the flag. In my mind, there are two kind of songs: good and bad. And I've written some of both."
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