Merle Haggard

Yeah.

But not just broadly like, Hey Keith, this is Merle Haggard.

You know what I mean? Like, I just don't believe that.

No, totally.

Drew Ryder Smith has been around music for a long time, even if you're only hearing his name now.

He grew up between Middle Tennessee and Muscle Shoals, got into radio while he was still a kid, worked for Sam Phillips, became a professional songwriter in Nashville, and eventually had one of his songs recorded by Merle Haggard.

Along the way, he spent years writing and producing for other people, learning the strange little machinery of how songs move through the music business and, every so often, into history.

His new album, The Deep End, brings the focus back to Smith himself.

It's also the sound of a songwriter who has spent years helping other people say what they mean, finally deciding to do a little more of that for himself.

Smith stopped by the Sharp Notes in Paramus, New Jersey, and we talked about where he comes from, the records that shaped him.

Sam Phillips and Merle Haggard and Steve Earle, of course, the peculiar business of writing songs for other people, physical media, and a trip to Abbey Road that, shall we say, produced more than a few stories.

One of them involves a Beatle.

You know, and I had mentioned, you know, like, there's a difference between the top vocalists versus, you know, the entire artistry of the person.

And I dropped names like Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard and George Jones and Johnny Paycheck and Jerry Lee Lewis and Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette.

You know, we heard from Jimmy Rogers and Lefty and Merle all last week and Loretta too.

And, you know, in retrospect, you leave out some names.

And switching out with mom.

And, you know, we had the CB radio and Merle Haggard eight-track tapes.

Yes, yes.

And it was very challenging.

for sure i've been i've been workshopping a playlist lately uh that i've called good country that doesn't suck And, you know, this this song's on.

There's a lot of, you know, the the Willys, the Hank Williams is the Merle Haggard's, the Tom T. Hall's, the Doc Watson's of the world.

So we're kind of I'm definitely in that mode and I'll probably stay in there for a little bit.

That's my song of the week.

But it's real country music.

I mean, my basis of country music is like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and then my songwriting greats are the John Prines and Blaze Foley's and Willie Nelson, of course.

So it's just kind of an amalgamation of all the stuff I love a lot.

It's the most I've ever loved something I've done, because I'm not one of those people who's blessed with that level of narcissism, where it's like, you've got to hear my

And it was popular, not only in the Southwest, but in urban areas as well.

And people like Merle Haggard or Stevie Ray Vaughan or Dolly Parton, who was giant in the 80s, no pun intended, Chuck Norris, you know, these were people that would wear country chic, country chic.

Also in the mid-'80s, bright colors started to make their way back and very bright prints.

Miami Vice had its own style of fashion that it kind of defined.