Rodney Clawson • Songwriter Session, 2016
Songwriter Sessions
•
44m
Rodney Clawson retraces his songwriting career from farming in Texas to placing songs with Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, and others, during this Songwriter Session at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, held on August 20, 2016. In addition to taking fan questions about songwriting, he performs five hits he’s written.
Clawson opens the program with “You Look Like I Need a Drink,” a Justin Moore single climbing the charts at the time. In addition to multiple reference to writing (and not writing) “bro country” songs, Clawson gives the back story on cuts such as Luke Bryan’s “Drunk on You,” Buddy Jewell’s “Sweet Southern Comfort,” and Jason Aldean’s “Amarillo Sky.”
Raised in Gruver, Texas, Rodney Clawson tells the audience that he never joined a band or played in bars before finding success in Nashville. Instead, his friend John Rich (of Big & Rich) helped him make connections to get his songs heard. Clawson also remembers listening to the radio while farming in Texas, thinking of various ideas that could work for songs. He states that he tried writing his first song when he was twenty-eight years old, but didn’t have any expectations that a career in music would work out.
“I think everybody starts writing songs because you love music,” he remarks. “There’s something in you. I spent twelve hours a day on a tractor. You listen to the radio a lot but you get these ideas in your head and they just keep going around and around and around, like the tractor. It’s not like, ‘I want to be a songwriter.’ It’s more, ‘I have to be a songwriter.’ I have to do this. I have to write this down. I have to get it out.”
The event concludes with Clawson’s performance of “American Kids,” a hit for Kenny Chesney.
FOR MORE
Explore the Museum’s public programming: https://countrymusichalloffame.org/plan-your-visit/exhibits-activities/public-programs/
FOLLOW THE MUSEUM
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/OfficialCMHOF/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/countrymusichof/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/countrymusichof
Up Next in Songwriter Sessions
-
Silas House and Matraca Berg • Songwr...
Author Silas House reads excerpts from his novel “Southernmost” alongside songwriter Matraca Berg, who performs five original compositions, during a Songwriter Session at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Together, they look at the portrayal of home through a Southern lens.
Berg opens t...
-
Luke Dick • Songwriter Session, 2021
Luke Dick performs and tells stories about three of the hits he’s co-written: Dierks Bentley’s “Burning Man,” Eric Church’s “Kill a Word,” and Miranda Lambert’s “Bluebird.” He also shares two songs from a documentary he produced about his mother.
In a virtual interview with the Museum’s Michael ...
-
Teddy Robb and J.T. Harding • Songwri...
Recording artist Teddy Robb and hit songwriter J.T. Harding swap songs and answer audience questions during this Songwriter Session, held on June 8, 2019, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, during the year’s CMA Music Festival. Along with Robb’s originals, Harding offers songs cut by K...
