Kye Fleming discusses her unusual path into country music songwriting and tells stories about some of her biggest hits of the 1980s, such as Barbara Mandrell’s “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” and Sylvia’s “Nobody,” as part of the Museum's “Poets and Prophets” interview series. The Museum’s Michael Gray moderates this program, which was recorded on July 28, 2012.

Raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Fleming grew up around music, with uncles who played electric guitar and fiddle in country bands. She took piano lessons as a young girl but became more serious when taking up the guitar in the ninth grade. She immediately began writing songs, she says, “Because it’s easier to write new ones than to learn somebody else’s.” She also speaks about the influence of Joni Mitchell.

Fleming first came to Nashville in 1977 on her way back to Arkansas to visit her parents. At the time, she was a singer-songwriter who had been performing as a solo act in coffeehouses across the country. After living and pursuing a music career briefly in Los Angeles, Boston, and finally New York City, the twenty-six-year-old needed a rest. Her stop in Nashville helped make the decision for her: a meeting with Tom Collins, at Pi-Gem Music, changed her life. She signed a publishing deal with him and within two weeks she had moved to Tennessee.

After joining Pi-Gem Music, Fleming teamed up for the first time with Dennis Morgan. Soon, they isolated themselves as an exclusive writing team. Fleming described most of their hits as “bubblegum country,” adding, “I don’t mean that to sound bad. It was just fun music.” They wrote multiple hit singles for Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap, Charley Pride, Sylvia, and Steve Wariner. To close her program, Fleming brought rising artist Amanda Hunt-Taylor to the stage to perform “Give Me Wings” as a duet.

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