Paul Craft, one of Nashville’s finest songwriters, passed away on Saturday October 18. He was 76. Amongst his best-known songs were Brother Jukebox, a number one country hit for Mark Chesnutt, Midnight Flyer, recorded by the Eagles for their ON THE BORDER album, Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life a number two hit for Moe Bandy, Keep Me From Blowing Away, recorded by Linda Ronstadt and many others.

I first came across Paul Craft’s songs in the late 1960s and became a keen follower of both his songwriting and his recording and performing career. Over the years he emerged as one of country music’s most distinctive writers utilising clever and inventive wordplay with irony, humour and heartache, often all within one three-minute song. The list of acts that have recorded his songs criss-crossed musical genres and includes Gail Davies, Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss, The Seldom Scene, Jerry Lee Lewis, Earl Scruggs, Bobby Bare, Ray Stevens, the Osborne Brothers, Ralph Stanley and literally dozens more.

He was born on August 12, 1938 in Memphis, Tennessee but for his first ten years lived in Proctor, Arkansas on the family plantation. The Craft family moved back to Memphis and growing up Paul became a keen musician as he taught himself to play various instruments. He attended the University of Virginia but in 1960 took time out to play banjo with Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys for a lengthy tour. Returning to college, he graduated from the University of Virginia, attended law school and also served six years in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.

Paul recorded with Jimmy Martin for Decca Records, managed a Memphis music store, played in a band and, at age 28, began writing songs. While in Memphis, Paul found kindred spirits in Dickey Lee and Allen Reynolds, who formed a publishing company and began publishing his songs. In 1968, they placed Somewhere With Me Sometime with country star Skeeter Davis, and so began Paul Craft’s career as a professional songwriter.

In Virginia, he’d met banjo player Ben Eldridge and singer-songwriter John Starling, and when those two formed The Seldom Scene with Mike Auldridge, John Duffey and Tom Gray, they began recording Paul’s songs. The first cut on the Scene’s first album, 1972’s ACT ONE, was Paul’s Raised By The Railroad Line. Many other Paul Craft penned songs were recorded at the time by Sam the Sham, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jack Greene, The Osborne Brothers, Tompall & the Glaser Brothers and others.

In 1975, Paul moved to Nashville to pursue his songwriting and recording career. He formed his own publishing company and recorded for RCA, signed to the label by Chet Atkins, who became a dear friend. Though he scored some hits on RCA with We Know Better, Lean On Jesus and Teardrops In My Tequila, Paul’s songwriting success eclipsed his recorded work, as he became an in-demand song-scribe, with 35 recordings of his songs in his first year in Nashville. He is one of only four songwriters to have a pair of solely written songs nominated for a Best Country Song Grammy in the same year. He accomplished that feat in 1977 with Dropkick Me, Jesus (Bobby Bare) and Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life (Moe Bandy).

He also succeeded as a publisher. One of the first writers he signed to his Black Sheep publishing company was Don Schlitz and his song The Gambler, was recorded by Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash, Bobby Bare and many others. Though he enjoyed much of his writing success in the 1970s, Paul continued writing prolifically, and always by himself, with more recent successes with songs old and new such as Brother Jukebox (Mark Chesnutt), It’s Me Again, Margaret (Ray Stevens), Blue Heartache (Gail Davies), Come As You Were (T. Graham Brown), Teardrops Will Kiss The Morning Dew (Alison Krauss), Through the Bottom of the Glass (Punch Brothers), Nothing Happening Every Minute (Charlie Sizemore) and Keep Me From Blowing Away (Willie Nelson).

After almost 40 years in Nashville Paul Craft was justifiably considered to be among modern country and bluegrass music’s most inventive and impacting writers. He was nominated numerous times for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and was finally voted in this year, along with Gretchen Peters, John Anderson and Tom Douglas. The induction took place on October 5 at the Music City Center, Nashville. Paul had his photo taken with his fellow inductees, then was rushed to Saint Thomas Midtown after falling ill. He died 13 days later on October 18.

Paul Craft’s legacy is his fine body of songs and also his recorded work, that includes several albums that are well worth seeking out. A true songwriting genius whose music has touched me regularly over the past 45 years or so.
 
See my feature on Paul Craft first published in Country Music People, December 1980