I Was Born in a Small Town

By Scott Coner

Country Artist

            I was raised in a small Indiana town. I still have a home just outside that same town, and I must ask myself, “Why?” two or three times a day. My mom and dad and other family members live here, but like me, they stay pretty busy. Any other roots in this area for me are long gone. But, there was a time, a moment really, that happened right here that would set my path for the rest of my life. And, even though I don’t actually go into the town around here often, when I do, I usually hear the ghosts from my past. I hear the music, the laughter, I see the young faces, the cars, and sometimes, I even smell the smoke.

            That special, directive moment I spoke of earlier took place when I was around 15 years old. It was the fall of my freshman year that I heard a different type of music that I had never heard. It was called Southern Rock. By the time it touched my soul, it had pretty much already come and gone. But there were still remnants of the movement such as Blackfoot and Charlie Daniels and of course, HankJr. As you already know, if you know anything about me, I truly loved this genre of music. But, there was another small band of players that I loved just as much. I still hear their music as well in my heart and memory to this day. If it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t be speaking to you today. I wouldn’t be singing and writing songs. I’d probably be selling shoes or selling shaved ice at the mall.

            Their names were Jeff Lewis, Frank Russell, Marty Eldridge, and Johnny Burbrink. Each of those guys were my friends. We played music together, hung out in the park downtown together, and had a pretty good time simply loving music together. Jeff and Frank were a year older. My God, those two guys were talented. They both played guitar and sang. Frank wrote songs that I still remember to this very day. He inspired me to write. Jeff could play like the wind. He introduced me to so much music, and he and I would take long country cruises listening for hours to the likes of Molly Hatchet and Skynyrd in his Pinto wagon set up with Jensen speakers. Life was good. Marty, Johnny and me were a little younger, but we played in our first band together and were pretty good for our ages I think. Although, looking back, we probably should have taken our schoolwork a little more seriously.

Scott Coner (Photo by Cyndi Coner)

            The years kept forging ahead though, and responsibility pulled us in different directions. The time for being kids without a care finally came to an end. But the time spent around these guys, my friends, was invaluable. I haven’t been around anyone since that inspired me the way each of those guys did. These young men all had different, yet important attributes that affected me. Frank wrote on and played all kinds of instruments, and his rhythm style was simple and pure. Jeff could sing very well, but his true strength was the guitar. I would sit in a chair, mesmerized as he would play Steve Gaines' licks flawlessly. Marty had a lot in common with Jeff. He was an outstanding guitarist and even as a kid was playing Gary Richrath just like the record. Johnny, my closest buddy, played well and was an exceptional fit for my music. He and I spent many hours together playing guitar. He excelled as a player as I took a different path and focused more on writing.

            The troubling part for me is they aren’t by my side now. I never wanted to be here alone. But, people change as they grow up. I like to think I did. But, my dream was to be part of a band, a gang really. Those guys gave me strength when I needed it. I either worked on my craft, or I got left behind. In the end, I suppose, I found myself alone anyway. But, it’s not like we parted company on bad terms. It was just life. For whatever reason, I have always been driven in whatever area I find myself in. If it’s time to clean out the barn, I am exhausted by day’s end. And the music is no different. I work hard at writing, networking and planning. I’m just not very good at giving up, and it’s kind of worked well for me.

            I just wish things could have worked out different for us. There are times when I wanted to call them up and give them an update, but it feels odd now. It shouldn’t have been me here at this moment. All of those guys were more talented than me. Everything I do today in the music business is from quiet, private practice. But, they were the ones that proved to me that this could be done. They were the ones that I wanted to be like.

            Today, I write and play music with some of the best players on the planet. I am very happy with the artistic freedom I have. I am happy. But, if there is one thing I could change, it would be to have each of those guys playing music with me here today. I truly miss the laughter and songs from that moment in my life. In closing, I simply wanted to thank Frank, Jeff, Marty and Johnny. You guys were the best friends somebody like me could have ever had. Each of you was a true inspiration, and I will always be grateful.

            Scott Coner is a country, Americana and Southern Rock artist who has worked with legendary artists such as Tanya Tucker, T. Graham Brown and Charlie Daniels. You can hear his music and learn more about him at www.ScottConer.com, www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, or www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer.

Elvis is Dead, and I Think I May Have a Sore Throat

By Scott Coner

Country Artist

            The summer was hot in 1977. My dad's boyhood friend, James Loveless, came up from Kentucky and stayed with us for several weeks, and he and I did several odd jobs together. He was tough as nails but always really nice to me. He and I dug out and framed sidewalks around the front and back of our house. It was August, the state fair was going on up in the city, and Elvis died. That's what I remember most. Elvis died. I also remember my mom making us a lot of Country Time lemonade.

            As we set the string tight from end to end across the grass, I learned how to dig along the line and set rebar for the frame. We had a small radio near our work area, and all that played that week was Elvis. I had never been exposed to such love for an artist. It seemed like the whole world stopped and wept for the king. I remember my dad came home from work one afternoon and told us about a winter he spent in New York and had actually seen Elvis in the early part of his career, gold coat and all. I was pretty impressed.

            I remember not saying anything about it, but being more than a little bothered about Elvis controlling the airwaves entirely though. Oddly, there was a song that was out on the radio I was crazy about. It was called "Telephone Line", and it was by a band called Electric Light Orchestra. I loved the compression on Jeff Lynne's voice on the recording. I'm not at all sure about this, but I have always figured that the song fell quickly out of the charts simply because Elvis Presley died. 

Scott Coner (Photo by Cyndi Coner)

            I have already told you about my exposure to early rock and roll via a monster stack of 45's. I had listened to a recording that had "Don't be Cruel" on one side and "Hound Dog" on the other. That was powerful. I had listened to "Jailhouse Rock", and it took me to another planet. Everything that guy did until he joined the service seemed slick and perfect. His voice seemed like an instrument itself, and the guitar and bass seemed to jump off the vinyl.

            Our television, the one with five channels, showed Elvis movies back-to-back every weekend. It was during "Viva Las Vegas" that I saw Ann-Margret for the first time, and once again, I was pretty impressed. That woman was freaking beautiful. Sorry, I got off track for a second. What I didn't understand (remember I was a kid) was why the movies didn't have deep pockets of quality songs. But Elvis was alive and healthy on our television at least, and we watched and wondered what could have happened if he could have lived a full life.

            It didn't take long for the countless new compilations of Elvis singing country, Elvis with pictures on the record itself, and Elvis like you had never heard before. Nothing but cheap and sad attempts to make money, but I expect a lot of records were sold. All kinds of books came out from people that had known him in some way. I admit I bought into some of the books, some of the made-for-TV specials, and everything else. But I noticed even as a kid that his music was tarnished by such a circus. He didn't deserve how he was treated. He was the king.

            Before I go, I wanted to tell you first, that his pre-army music was and still is some of the best music ever recorded. But he had many special moments in his career. One of my favorite songs he did later in the '60s was called "If I Can Dream".  I hope he knew that the whole world loved him, and I hate it that he had to leave at such an early age. Anyway, school started not long after his passing, and I got chicken pox. It's a pretty cool little sickness, and if you ever get the chance to catch it, I say go for it. Because of my pox, I got to stay home and truly study the music he left us with. Up until that moment in time, I knew about the talent, understood the charisma, and a collection of B movies had been viewed. But, sitting there alone in my room with corn starch all over my body, I began to better understand that he was not just a great voice. He had truly harnessed rock and brought it to all of us without any pre-existing road map. Now, that is impressive.

            Scott Coner is a country/Americana/Southern rock artist whose latest music video has been downloaded more than 150,000 times on Facebook. Learn more about Scott at http://www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, http://www.ScottConer.com, or http://www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer. Download his latest single, "Sweet Mary", at https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/album/sweet-mary-single/id1052955133?app=itunes .

'I'll Have The Vanilla, Please'

By Scott Coner

Country Artist

         Yesterday (35 years ago), music had depth. It always seemed, to me at least, to be taking us somewhere different. Today, I find myself less taken back with most of it. The other day I heard Adele's new release, "Hello", and it touched a deeper chord. Last summer, Eric Church caught my attention with "Wrecking Ball", and a year ago, Alt-J blew me away with "Left Hand Free". The trouble is, I have listened to an awful lot of music in between. A while back, I talked about really liking the newest double album by Warren Haynes, but you probably won't hear his material on the radio, and the radio is what I'm really talking about. If you get off the beaten path, you can still find some things of value.

         I find myself wondering why radio has settled for such normalcy. I read quite a lot about the business, its artists, and music history, and it always hasn't been this way. Even though I was just a small child in the '60s, I still remember music from that moment. I just wasn't old enough to attempt to grasp what was actually happening in that moment. The '60s obviously got off to an amazing start with The Beatles, and I wonder what it must have felt like to have heard their sound for the first time. There were so many artists just blowing the doors open I couldn't begin to list. Glen Campbell was one of those people, one of those sounds that I have grown up with that always seems classy and fresh. Herb Alpert is another. Consider George Jones or even Willie Nelson. "The Red Headed Stranger" was truly a gift if you ask me. 

Country artist Scott Coner works on his Indiana farm (Photo by Cyndi Coner)

         Maybe, today's radio releases only mirror society's drab, unexciting culture. The investors in radio, the people that purchase ad time, are looking for sheep, not out-of-the-box thinkers. They want their radio ads to target car buyers with bad credit. Ad purchasers want to promote their products to a "C" curve of our society instead of a smaller listening crowd that enjoy Lucinda Williams or Chris Knight. As with everything, our culture is driven by the dollar bill. Radio is a perfect example.

         I suppose what I am hoping you will do is to look around a little bit. I don't know how or where you should look, but you found me didn't you? By the way, I wonder how you found me?  I challenge you to take control of the music you listen to and step away from the vanilla flavor of our current world. The low-information crowd must be willing to eat whatever they are given and like it, but that doesn't mean we have to. If we dig deep, we can find music that we can identify with. It just shouldn't require so much energy to find music with power and depth. And if you find something that really shakes your world, let me know because I'm bored to death.

         Scott Coner is a country artist who has recorded with legendary country artists such as Tanya Tucker, T. Graham Brown and Charlie Daniels. You can learn more about him and hear his music at www.ScottConer.com, www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, or www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer.

Lately, I've been Thinking...

By Scott Coner

Country Artist

         I have been thinking quite a bit lately. This isn't always a good thing for me, but it happens from time to time. I've been thinking about my music to be honest. I have been working on the writing side of it pretty seriously since I was around 15 years old. You know, early on, you find yourself taken back with this private love affair you have with writing songs. Being the stupid kid I was, and I was really a stupid kid, I wrote about my undying love for whatever cute girl stood by her locker that day. When you're a teenager, you have all of these crazy feelings running through you. You want to stand for something, but you don't have anything to stand for. You want to be heard, but you don't have anything of value to say. And as it was, I found myself alone quite a bit with a guitar that played a lot like a barbed-wire fence and piece of paper and pencil.

         That's how this process for me started. Truthfully, I would have been a singer in a band doing covers, but most of the music people my age listened to back then I couldn't begin to sing. I played a lot of those singer-songwriter types on my record player, and I studied their phrasings, their dialects, and the lyrics. I didn't have access to much where I lived, so I had to make do with whatever I could find. I didn't know many chords, so I would look through songbooks and copy down the little dots on the strings that represented fingers on chords. One of the early ones for me was "Sister Golden Hair" by America. Those chords killed my hand, but they also allowed me to move around a little bit on the neck and work on my rhythm playing as well. Another early song, maybe the earliest, was "Highway Song" by Blackfoot. I actually tuned my guitar to an E-minor from that song because I didn't know how to tune a guitar.

         As I have said, I don't do covers very well at all. But because I could halfway play some of those songs, I began to realize that I could piece chords together and create new songs. It started then and continues now. You probably knew some guy early on in life that loved working on cars and still does all of these years later? That's me, but I don't work on cars. I work on songs. I think the other thing that I spent a lot of time doing that has helped me has been my addiction to reading. There has always been something about reading and writing songs that go together for me. It's like reading excited the part of my primitive mind that writes lyrics and hears melodies.

         So all of this being said, I have been doing a little thinking lately. I think about those early days of playing and the excitement it brought. I can look back now and see the slow process of my development as a writer. I'm not saying I'm a good writer, but I have evolved to some degree I suppose. Even a monkey would evolve, so it's safe for me to say this.

         I put things on hold 19 years ago to attempt to be a husband and a dad. I never quit writing. I never quit hoping. And I never stopped believing that some day I would get a chance to play music at some other level. I have been so lucky as far as things go, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't find myself thanking God for allowing me to play music and be a small part of something I love and respect so much.

         If you're reading this blog right now, there is a fair chance that you and I haven't met. But I do hope that life has been good for you. I hope you haven't lost that passion that you held a long time ago for something. My advice? Do something for yourself, something that you love no matter what anybody else says. As a Rock once said, "Kick the door in and introduce yourself!"

         Scott Coner is a singer-songwriter who has recorded with legendary artists such as Tanya Tucker, T. Graham Brown and Charlie Daniels. Listen to his music or watch his videos at www.ScottConer.com, www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer, or www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic.

I Don’t Know What She Did to Deserve Me, But It Must Have Been Pretty Bad

            The first time I ever saw my wife Cyndi, I think I lost both of my shoes. I had never seen anyone or anything as pretty as her. She and I met at probably the worst time possible. We were both getting a divorce, and both of us probably had plans of moving on with our lives. But things don’t always work out as planned. They never did for me anyway.

            She and I have been together for over 21 years now, and these days I feel like I keep falling deeper for her. Honestly, I worry about it sometimes because I’m not sure that it’s healthy to want to be around someone as much as I do her. The thing is, I honestly worry about the day that I have to leave this world and I won’t have her by my side. If Heaven is perfect, I don’t know how it could be perfect if she’s not there with me.

            Through the years, I have written songs, written cards, and bought jewelry as well as flowers trying to remind her of my feelings. I will be the very first to acknowledge that she should have ended up with a much better looking, cooler and suave man. But the thing is, I’m quite the talker when I set my mind to it, and I put my mojo into overdrive as I talked her into marrying me. I don’t know exactly what I said, but it must have been brilliant. I lay in our bed this morning as the sun came up, and I marveled at her angelic beauty. I walked into the restroom to brush my teeth and chuckled as I looked in the mirror. She married a troll!

            Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, I was talking about how awesome it is to be married to Cyndi. She has changed me. She has gently made me want to be a much better man. She has encouraged me to be healthy. She has given me the power to believe in myself. She has given me two perfect little girls that are just as pretty as their mother. And she laughs at my incredibly stupid jokes almost every time. She loves country music, but she rocks to AC/DC. I’m telling you this woman is perfect. She and I enjoy coffee on the porch in the mornings when we both have time. We sit there staring out across the countryside talking about our kids or our parents. Our dog Maggie sits out there with us, and both barn cats come up to the house to hang out as well. Those mornings are some of my favorite times.

 

            I don’t know what the future holds. I’m sure there will be storms though. We will most likely feel the sting of death as it takes family members we have loved all of our lives. We will get older and start to fail ourselves. Yes, I’m sure those storms will come, but life has always been about receiving and losing, laughing and crying, living and then dying. I’m sure as long as I have her next to me that we can face it as it comes.

            To learn more about country artist Scott Coner, visit http://www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, http://www.ScottConer.com, and http://www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer.

Old Dogs and Children, and Watermelon Wine

By Scott Coner

Country Artist and Author

            The first lyric to a song I ever wrote was...

                        Here I am it’s at least 2:30 and I’m still up and awake

                        I can’t sleep for the guiltiness in my heart

                        Should I open the door for her?

                        Or just lie here in the dark?

                        Somebody tell me, tell me what to do….

            I was probably 12 or so. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know girls much less women. I hadn’t had my heart crushed by some evil seventh grade girl yet. And I had probably never seen 2:30 in the morning in my life.

            What I did have going for me though was lots of music. I have already shared my exposure to early pop and rock records, but there was an extreme amount of country music in my house. My mom and dad had one of those giant record player consoles that kind of resembled a casket, and they weren’t scared to play it. As adults, I don’t think we think about what we subject our kids to enough. But I am so thankful that my parents were huge country music lovers. I heard all of the really good stuff. I was exposed to albums, not singles. And I heard it in stereo with that cool vinyl crackle in between songs.

Scott Coner (second from left) works with fellow musicians in Nashville (Photo by Cyndi Coner)

            My young soul probably wasn’t prepared for the grown-up antics of Tammy Wynette singing about divorce or Loretta singing about the pill. But I drank the Kool-Aid to the last drop. I knew all about “Watermelon Wine” and wondered what happened “Behind Closed Doors”.  To this very day, I enjoy nothing better than listening to The Statler Brothers as I have biscuits and gravy on a Saturday morning. It just doesn’t taste as good without “Susan When She Tried”.

            Man, that was good music! I always laugh a little bit though when I hear some of those Conway songs like “You’ve Never Been This Far Before” or “I’d Love to Lay You Down”… Really? In curlers?... What?... But make no mistake about it. I love Conway Twitty, but if I sang something like that, I’d end up on a registered offenders list or something these days.

            I remember my mom playing the radio as she made my breakfast before school. For some reason, obvious reasons really, I remember how The Gatlin Brothers sounded so smooth and perfect as they sang about a broken lady waiting to be mended. These are sweet memories to me, and I wouldn’t trade them for any money. Those songs, those artists will always be alive in my heart. We all have that soundtrack to our lives. I am so glad and so proud that my mom and dad watched "Hee-Haw" instead of "Lawrence Welk".

Scott Coner works with Logan Schlegal (Photo by Cyndi Coner)

            I get it that the music has changed with the times. I am okay with it, but I will always remember those songs with great fondness. I will also feel some strange responsibility to make sure that those that are in my life are exposed to as much of it as possible. I heard Jack White and Jimmy Page talking about the importance of the Delta Blues in order to better understand rock. I believe that this is true as well. I also believe that we need to bathe ourselves in earlier country music if we truly want to feel where we came from and maybe get a clearer vision for where we can go.

            Scott Coner is a country/Americana artist and author who has worked with legendary artists such as Tanya Tucker and T. Graham Brown. Scott's latest video, "Sweet Mary", has been downloaded more than 125,000 times on Facebook since Oct. 6. To learn more about country artist Scott Coner, visit http://www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, http://www.ScottConer.com, and http://www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer.

'Sweet Mary'... a Wrinkle in Time

By Scott Coner

Singer/Songwriter/Author

         The years have virtually flown by haven't they? I look in the mirror these days, and I barely recognize the man that stares back. There was a time though, and that time has long since passed, that I remember with great fondness. As a kid, I was blessed with the great fortune of growing up around a very tight-knit family. My dad and his brothers, as well as one sister, had all moved from Kentucky to Indiana in order to get better-paying jobs. This being said, I found myself in Kentucky quite a bit, and it was here, deep in the heart of southeastern Kentucky, that I discovered the 45rpm record, "Sweet Mary".

The single I played on my Aunt Janice's farm in Kentucky.

         My dad's youngest sister Janice was just out of high school during this time, and when she got married, she left behind a pretty nice record collection and a small, simple, stereo. I remember the sun shining through the old farmhouse window as I shuffled through the records. I don't remember all of the songs, but I do remember looking at a Beatles record that had a green apple on it with the other side showing the apple sliced. Creedence Clearwater Revival was in the stack, Andy Kim was in the stack, as well as The Lemon Pipers and lots more. What I remember most was a record called "Sweet Mary", recorded by a band that called themselves "Wadsworth Mansion". I don't have a definitive answer for why the song attached itself to me, but I suspect it was the repetitive construction of the song itself. It was simply loaded with simple and happy hooks.

         Years have passed, loved ones have passed, and much of my memory seems more like a dream than a reality. But there are certain parts of my childhood that have remained alive and well in my heart. I am certain that the song has found residence in my mind after all of these years because it simply represents a warm and happy moment in my life. I write my own songs these days and this has given me a tremendous amount of joy. I'll tell you, for me, there is nothing like taking a song from a private moment of writing all the way to its fullest interpretation in the studio. It is very rewarding and hard to put into words, but I think it has something to do with completing something from my soul that will last after I'm gone. But, there is another side of me that wants to share other music with people. This music I didn't write, but I want you to listen just the same because they are a part of me, a part of my make-up. I want the listener to hear and feel what I did so long ago. 

Country artist Scott Coner

         In the past few years, I have recorded several of the songs I grew up loving. And although it's true that I have given the songs my own "feel" and interpretation, I have truly tried not to rattle the integrity of the song. A few weeks ago I recorded "Sweet Mary". I usually find a deep sense of calm while working in the studio, but this time I found myself nervous and unsure. To me, the song seems to take part of my life full circle, and I couldn't help but wonder if this didn't somehow represent a larger, more looming type circle than I was aware of. I had originally hoped to reach out to the writer and original singer of the song, Steve Jablecki, and ask if he would enjoy being a part of this recording. Sadly, I found out that he had passed away some years back. But it was fantastic to talk with his sons Matt and Marc, as well as other friends from the Rhode Island area. It was important to me that these people know, especially Steve's son's, that their dad had truly been a blessing to me even after all of this time.

Wadsworth Mansion back in 1971 (photo from the Steve Jablecki family)

         As you listen to the song, I hope it brings you the joy that it brings me. I hope you will download the song and crank it up real loud in your car, your house, and your headphones. I hope that Steve's family and friends like what we have done with the song, and I hope to come up to their neck of the woods and lift "Sweet Mary"  towards heaven all the way to Steve Jablecki.

         Before I go, I wanted to thank my aunt, Janice Coner Dye, for the songs she left behind for me to enjoy at that old farmhouse. The cool thing is she still has all of those records today! Those records are a snapshot of my life, and I will always be thankful for that moment in time.  

         To learn more about country artist Scott Coner or to hear his music, visit www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, www.ScottConer.com, or www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer.