Bobby Braddock

You can tell I got a lot of time on my hands.

I bet even Bobby Braddock would like that.

I've often wondered what would...

Before I do that, I definitely want to clear it with him.

He might move a bit slower, but he's still playing and singing those songs.

Bobby Braddock is the real deal.

It's time to follow through on a promise I've made on a couple of episodes now.

If this guy had only written two of the songs he's famous for, well, that would have been enough for a mic drop.

I think he would be a leading candidate for any inclusion on any country music Mount Rushmore of songwriters.

I reached out to my friend Bob DiPiero, a songwriting juggernaut himself, and he told me this guy was already songwriting royalty when he got to Nashville, and that any songwriter would do well to study what makes his songs rise above the rest.

Join me now as I explain to you just how important Bobby Braddock was on this edition of Once Around the Country.

Once Around the Country The journey to the Country Music Hall of Fame began in 1940 in Lakeland, Florida, for Robert Valentine Braddock.

First it was there in Winter Haven, then he was up in Waycross, Georgia for several years, but then was back down and his family moved back to Winter Haven.

And there was just such a musical environment there, this sort of five-mile space between Auburndale And Winter Haven, you know, you had people like Bobby Braddock from there, the Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter.

You had Les Dudek, great guitarist who ended up playing in the Allman Brothers, at least on their recordings after Dwayne Allman died.

Just a number of really noted musical figures.

You know, Time Marches On is not a song that I wrote.

Bobby Braddock wrote it, and I remember when I heard it for the first time, it absolutely blew me away.

But there was a lot of things about that song that I did not take into consideration since I wasn't a songwriter.

There was nothing in that song that was personal to me.

Some fall by the wayside, but I've gone too far to stop.

Okay, right now, here's a quick take on Tracy Lawrence's Time Marches On, written by Bobby Braddock, the guy behind Texas Tornado.

Now, this song fast-forwards through a family's life.

The dad's gone, mom's got Alzheimer's, baby sister's now a sexy grandma, and the brother's battling high cholesterol.