I love this ‘blog’ thing. I wish my friend Marla Carter would have explained it to me earlier! But, she has that husband Dude, two beautiful kids, and then there is her job as an incredible photographer down here on the gulf coast. (www.marlaandshane.com) She and Shane (Dude) both shot most all of my photos for the web site and CD covers and I am so very grateful for that, but still… why didn’t she tell me about this blog stuff earlier? I mean this is a great!  A really great way for me to share so many things with all of you! So many blessings I have.. and most in the form of people.
This weekend down here on Florida’s Scenic Highway 30-A , They are having the first ever 30-A songwriters festival.  I am very honored to have been asked to participate in it’s inaugural year. They also invited my brother, who will no doubt be blogged about by this little brother.. me.. very soon, so stay tuned. But today I am sharing a blog about the other invitee, Troy Jones. Many of you may or may not have heard of Troy, but most of you will recognize some of the songs he has penned.  Kenny Chesney, and George Strait teamed up as a duet to sing ,”Shift Work”, and most recently Billy Currington recorded Troy’s first #1 song, “People Are Crazy”. You might sing it.. “God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy”. If you haven’t heard either of these tunes I hope you do soon, and if you have heard them then you can combine these two songs to see a philosophy emerge that I first discovered in this talent from L.A. A man with a guitar and big club fisted hands that did not achieve their roughness from the frets of a guitar. Rather they have seen their share of manual labor inside a paper mill, and fork lift driving than most anyone you or I know.  You might be asking yourself, “where would a guy in L.A. work in a paper mill, and drive a fork lift”?  Well, L.A. in Troy’s case stands for Lower Alabama.
I first met Troy through a good friend and record producer Blake Chancey. Blake approached me one day and said, “I found this guy that you have to write with”. I could see a different look in Blake’s eyes, he was very serious, he continued, “He is more country than you! You gotta meet this guy, and you gotta write with him”!  I asked Blake to play me something Troy had written and he took me over to his office and played me a song called “New Orleans Love”.  For all of you that have seen my show, or Toe Roaster, then you are already laughing. For those of you that have not… well.. let’s just say it makes an impression on you! I was laughing so hard while trying to figure out what kind of guy could come up with something this bizarre AND this great. I knew before the second chorus that I had to write with this Troy Jones fella, and I did.  And I still do, and hopefully always will.
Troy is one of the most talented and gifted writers I have seen walk down 16th Ave. in Nashville, Tennessee.  His songs are a kin to the likes of the great story teller Tom T. Hall.  He visits lyrics and melodies, and topics that Mickey Newbury, and Kris Kristofferson would smile and take notice of. Troy has a gift of something un-common… he identifies with the common. He writes about the un-expected, yet dead center of where people live every day. Here is a list Tory Jones songs that no one has heard YET.. that I love.. “Naked”, “When God Paints”, “I Wouldn’t Be Gone” (the hardware store song),”Every Thing Like That and All”, “A Little Rough Spot in the Road”, “He Don’t Set the Bar Too High”, “Professional Fools”, “It Takes a Lot”, and I could go on and on.
Together Troy and I have written two songs that appear on my new CD, “Swimming in Women”, and “Grain of Sand”.  Also, together Troy and I act in Toe Roaster along with another crazy and future blog subject, Wynn Varble. Troy and I co-wrote a couple of songs that appear in Toe Roaster including, “Bad Situation”, and “The Jerry Springer Show”. What I am trying to say is the world would be a better place with some fork lift philosophy AND a Troy Jones playlist on everybody’s iPod!
I am blessed to know this man, not only due to his sharing his gifts with me over the pen, paper, and guitars..  But, more so.. Troy is a great human being and forklift philospher.  The title suits him well, and it suits me just fine to be on the receiving end of such hard earned wisdom.
You can see Troy perform in Toe Roaster, and catch him all around performing at writers shows. I hope to catch Troy this weekend in between shows for some back porch conversation, fork lift philosophy, and coffee.
Thanks Marla for showing me this new tool to share my blessings with all my friends!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Sharing Friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.