Jeannie Seely • Songwriter Session, 2019
Songwriter Sessions
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45m
Jeannie Seely reflects on the “tremendous honor” of having her songs recorded by so many Country Music Hall of Fame inductees during this Songwriter Session, held and recorded at the Museum on February 23, 2019. Joined by Tim Atwood on piano, the Grand Ole Opry stalwart offers six favorites and one new song.
Seely dedicates the performance to late producer Fred Foster, who signed her to Monument Records not long after she moved to Nashville in 1965. For that label she recorded her classic, Grammy Award-winning song “Don’t Touch Me.”
Chatting with the audience, Seely remembers being on a boat trip in Mexico with her husband at the time, Hank Cochran, and writing the songs “Sometimes I Do” and “She Always Got What She Wanted,” recorded by Ernest Tubb and Little Jimmy Dickens, respectively. She also gives the unlikely inspirations behind “Enough to Lie,” recorded by Ray Price, and “The Life of a Rodeo Cowboy,” cut by Merle Haggard.
Looking back on her days living in Los Angeles, she described getting stuck while writing a song called “Senses” and asking Glen Campbell—who hadn’t yet transitioned from studio player to country superstar—to help her chart the music. (Seely doesn’t write or read music.) She shared the publishing rights with him and the song went on to be recorded by Willie Nelson and Connie Smith.
Jeannie Seely’s Songwriter Session set list includes “Sometimes I Do,” “Enough to Lie,” “Life of a Rodeo Cowboy,” “Senses,” “Leaving and Saying Goodbye,” “She Always Got What She Wanted,” and “That’s How I Roll.”
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