Songwriter Pat Alger—a Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member and frequent Garth Brooks co-writer—performs and shares stories behind some of his songs during this 2018 program, part of the Songwriter Sessions series at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Alger collaborated on four of Garth Brooks’s #1 hits, and here, he performs two: “Unanswered Prayers” and “The Thunder Rolls.” With help from guest vocalist Kristin Smith, Alger also performs “Like We Never Had a Broken Heart,” another Brooks co-write, recorded by Trisha Yearwood.

Before performing “True Love,” a 1991 hit for Country Music Hall of Fame member Don Williams, Alger points out that Williams inspired him to move to Nashville, and how honored he was when Williams recorded his song. Williams’s longtime band member, Dave Pomeroy (who played on the recording), accompanies. Alger also performs “Lone Star State of Mind,” another song Texas native Williams cut (after Nanci Griffith had taken it to the Top 40).

Alger performs his hit “Small Town Saturday Night,” recorded by Hal Ketchum, and reminisces about the inspiration: his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia, where the local movie theater used to play the most recent Elvis Presley film until just about everyone in town had seen it.

Pat Alger also highlights the talents of his fellow musicians, showcasing harmonica player and two-time Academy of Country Music specialty instrument player of the year Kirk “Jelly Roll” Johnson on the song “Don’t Even Know My Name,” and artist and songwriter Ruby Lovett on “Where I’m Standing Today,” which they wrote together.

For the Christmas season, Alger performs “Nothin’s Gonna Bring Me Down (At Christmas Time),” which Randy Travis recorded, and “One More Year with You.”

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