Looking at the career and achievements of Gary Nicholson, it’s a wonder the man has ever gotten a full night’s sleep. The word “prolific” seems paltry when considering his talents and scope. Nicholson’s songwriting and co-writing credits alone include more than 600 compositions recorded by greats across a wealth of genres, and a short list of recent cuts includes: “He Won’t Ever Be Gone,” a heartbreaking tribute to Merle Haggard that closes Willie Nelson’s new LP God’s Problem Child; the title track of the new Taj Mahal/Keb’ Mo’ collaborative album Don’t Leave Me Here; and the title cut on Give More Love by Ringo Starr, with whom Nicholson has been collaborating periodically since 2003.
Nicholson has also produced or co-produced a slew of albums — including several for Delbert McClinton, two of which won Grammys — while playing and recording with luminaries like Joe Ely and the late Guy Clark. When he’s not busy with those other pursuits, you’ll find him teaching guitar and songwriting workshops.
Nicholson’s live shows are as idiomatically varied as any of his other work. Sometimes he does country and Americana tunes. Once, he sang his objections to a developer’s zoning request at a Metro Planning Commission meeting. Other times, he appears as his alter ego, bluesman Whitey Johnson, who often appears on Tuesday nights at Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar and who finishes a short residency at City Winery on Wednesday. Nicholson explained Johnson’s origin during a recent Scene interview.
The alter ego “dates back to a short story I wrote for an anthology that featured material written by songwriters,” Nicholson says. “Whitey Johnson was a black albino, and his family called him ‘Whitey.’ At the end of the story he dies in a fire when a church is burned by the Klan. During his lifetime he played every conceivable blues style. So for me, performing as Whitey lets me really get into the blues, explore that sound, and express those feelings. It’s also my way of expressing my respect and love for all the great blues musicians I enjoy and revere.”
The Texas-born Nicholson credits his family’s broad tastes for fostering his wide-ranging love of music, from early exposure to Hank Williams and soul legend Brook Benton to founding fathers of rock like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino, followed by The Beatles. A rich and diverse array of blues also caught his attention.
“Freddie King was a huge star when I was coming up, and through him I learned about the other Kings, Albert and B.B.,” says Nicholson. “Later came the Chicago blues and Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. So for me, it was really never a question about labels or categories, it was really all about music, loving it and wanting to play it and write it.”
Nicholson’s all-encompassing lifelong love for and pursuit of music has taken many forms and led him many places. But if you ask him what he enjoys most among the host of things he does, his response is a quick one.
“Bottom line: I’m a songwriter,” he says. “That’s what is sometimes so surreal for me, working with people I have idolized or listened to much of my life. And now you’re working or writing with them and exchanging ideas, and they turn out to be just wonderful, and so willing to listen to what you have to say. Songwriting is really a cooperative venture, anyhow. The worst mistake you can ever make is to think that you’ve got everything perfectly written, and that there’s nothing that can improve it. There have been so many times when I have a song and then someone will get it and just tweak a line, or change a phrase, or approach the melody a little differently, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I didn’t even think of that.’ ”
That modesty might belie Nicholson’s prodigious talent, but the formula is clearly working. You can see it in action for yourself on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Email music@nashvillescene.com
