This episode of Thinkin’ and Drinkin’ is a special one. Bart calls along Danny Myrick and Kip Raines to reminisce and discuss the good ole days. Some good songwriting tips are shared as well! This podcast is filled with great stories and funny moments, so you don't want to miss it!
Meet Danny Myrick: Danny Myrick achieved his first No. 1 in gospel music as a writer at age 17 before moving to Nashville and spent much of the 1990s singing lead in the band Western Flyer before pursuing writing full force. He’s the co-writer of hits like “She’s Country,” “I Love This Life,” and “International Harvester,” among others. He is currently writing for Deluge Music.
Meet Kip Raines: Not long after moving to Nashville from the mountains of Northeast Georgia, Kip Raines learned that his high school jazz band would be making an album with Johnny Cash. “The first recording studio I ever walked into was RCA Studio B. Everyone kept whispering that Elvis recorded ‘It’s Now or Never’ in that room. It was a magical thing for a kid…I guess I was hooked.”
Kip credits his early drumming experiences with his love for songwriting. “I was always fortunate to play with great singers who were singing great songs. Wynonna was a great influence. What a singer! If you’re really listening, you can’t help but learn.” He would go on to play drums on Blackhawk’s self-titled multi-platinum album (including the hits “Every Once in a While” and “Sure Can Smell the Rain”), and sing on gold albums by Steven Curtis Chapman (The Great Adventure) and Keith Anderson (Three Chord Country and American Rock n’ Roll), as well as numerous others.
While writing for Warner/Chappell, his first single, “One of These Days (I’m Gonna Love Me),” became a #1 for Tim McGraw. In 2003, he signed with Windswept Pacific Music and over the next four years, penned songs for Clay Walker, American Idol artist Bucky Covington, and the brother duo from Lynyrd Skynyrd, Van Zant. “Help Somebody If You Can,” won a BMI Award as one of the 50 most-played songs of 2006.
In 2007 Kip took a break from the music business to write two books: a fiction novel called The Ink Stain and a non-fiction book The Message in the Mirror based on his own life experiences. He returned to songwriting full time in 2010.
What Bart has to say: It was a huge surprise to find out a few weeks that Trace Adkins had cut a song that I wrote 16 years ago with Danny Myrick, Kip Raines & Jeffrey Steele when I was writing for Jeffrey’s publishing company, 3 Ring Circus. Those writing days were some of the most fun days of my career, so Amy had the idea to do a little zoom reunion of the guys for the podcast and it was a blast, so much so that we did it in two parts.
In this episode, you’ll hear
Bart, Danny & Kip talk about their 16-year-old song “Just The Way We Do It’ being recorded and released recently by Trace Adkins
How the four of them (including Jeffrey Steele) hadn’t been in the same room for 13 or more years and when they did get together they would start about 8 or 9 songs and finish 3 or 4.
Links to Connect: