Jim Weatherly • Poets and Prophets, 2019
Poets and Prophets
•
1h 30m
Jim Weatherly’s “Midnight Train to Georgia” is an international standard, entering the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and placing at #29 in the RIAA Songs of the Century list. Weatherly’s songs topped country, R&B, gospel, and pop charts, leading him to membership in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the national Songwriters Hall of Fame. In this installment of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s “Poets and Prophets” interview series, Weatherly looks back at his career and shares the stories of his songs.
Weatherly grew up in Pontotoc, Mississippi, trading his time between football fields and local stages. After starring as a quarterback at Ole Miss, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career, finding success with songs that resonated with country star Ray Price and R&B star Gladys Knight, sculpting fluid melodies that worked well across many genres.
Weatherly opens the program performing “The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,” the first of thirty-eight of his songs recorded by Ray Price. He traces his path from a high school rockabilly band member playing VFW halls to performing with a Los Angeles band that played celebrity house parties. He relates how later, relationships forged while in a flag football league, opened the door to professional songwriting opportunities. Weatherly talks about how the country cosmopolitan songs he wrote were turned into pop and R&B hits, and how a phone conversation with Farrah Fawcett while she packed for a flight to Houston led to his writing “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Illustrated with video and audio clips of his songs, the program closes with Weatherly performing “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
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