Country Music

Country Music Hits

Uncategorized

JERRY REED WROTE COUNTRY’S GREATEST “KEEP GOING” SONG — NASHVILLE HONORED HIM 9 YEARS TOO LATE. He was the Guitar Man. Elvis called him in to play. Chet Atkins called him one of the best alive. In 1977 he wrote “East Bound and Down,” and every trucker in America had an anthem. By the 2000s, emphysema was taking his breath. The man who never sat still was slowing down. On September 1, 2008, Jerry Reed died in Nashville at 71. Nine years later, in 2017, the Country Music Hall of Fame finally opened its doors to him. His daughters accepted the medallion. He never got to hear his own name called. What did you feel when you heard Jerry Reed was gone?

Jerry Reed, the Guitar Man Who Gave Country Its “Keep Going” Song

There are some musicians who feel larger than the records they left behind. Jerry Reed was one of them. He was the kind of artist who could make a guitar sound like it was laughing, driving, and talking back all at once. Long before the world knew him as a movie star or a chart maker, other musicians already understood what Nashville had: Jerry Reed was special.

Elvis Presley called Jerry Reed in to play. Chet Atkins admired him so deeply that he treated Jerry Reed like a peer, not a pupil. And when Jerry Reed wrote “East Bound and Down” in 1977, he gave America something more than a hit. He gave it motion. He gave it grit. He gave truckers, dreamers, and hard workers a song that kept its foot on the gas.

A musician who never seemed to stand still

Jerry Reed was born in Atlanta on March 20, 1937, and built a career that moved easily between country music, film, television, and the kind of guitar work other players studied in awe. The Country Music Hall of Fame later described his sound as syncopated, complex, and full of personality. That is a polite way of saying Jerry Reed could do things with six strings that most players only wished they could hear in their heads.

His songs had a wink to them, but they also had weight. They felt lived-in. They sounded like the road, the back porch, and the long haul all at once. Even when fame came, Jerry Reed kept the same restless energy that made people notice him in the first place.

When the road got harder

By the 2000s, Jerry Reed’s health had declined. He died in Nashville on September 1, 2008, at age 71. For fans, it was one of those losses that felt personal, even if they had never met him. The voice was gone. The grin was gone. The guitar runs that seemed to sprint across the fretboard were suddenly memories.

It is hard not to feel the sadness in that timing. Jerry Reed spent his life creating momentum, and then, near the end, his body could no longer keep up with the spirit that had carried him so far.

What stays behind is not just a catalog of songs, but the feeling that Jerry Reed understood how to keep moving even when life got heavy.

Recognition that came too late

In 2017, nine years after Jerry Reed’s death, the Country Music Hall of Fame finally inducted him. His daughters accepted the medallion on his behalf. It was a proud moment, but also a painful one. The honor was real. The applause was real. Yet Jerry Reed himself was not there to hear his name called.

That is what makes the story hit so hard. Jerry Reed had already earned the respect of legends, and he had already reached listeners far beyond country music. The Hall of Fame recognition did not create his legacy. It only confirmed what had been true for years.

What Jerry Reed left us

Jerry Reed’s life carried a rare mix of swagger and warmth. He could be funny, tough, and deeply musical in the same breath. He left behind songs that still move down the highway with the windows open. He left behind a style that other guitar players still chase. And he left behind the reminder that some artists are honored late, even when the world has needed them all along.

If you felt something when Jerry Reed died, it was probably this: a sense that an original voice had gone quiet. Not ordinary. Not replaceable. Just gone, after making the ride a lot better for everyone else.

 

Related Post

Uncategorized

FORGET THE MOVIES. FORGET THE LAUGHS. ONE SONG PROVED JERRY REED WAS THE ONLY MAN ALIVE WHO COULD PLAY IT. Jerry Reed wrote a song about a broke kid who left home with a guitar and nothing else — playing for tips, sleeping rough, chasing a gig that might never come. It was his own story. It barely scraped No. 53 on the country chart in 1967. Then Elvis Presley heard it. September 1967, a Nashville studio. Elvis sat with some of the finest session players in the business — Scotty Moore, Chip Young, Harold Bradley, Charlie McCoy. Take after take, something was missing. Elvis knew exactly what he wanted, because he’d already heard it on a record that had barely cracked the country Top 60. He wanted it to sound like Jerry Reed’s record. Nobody in that room could do it. So they called Reed in. He showed up flustered, running through licks, apologizing that he hadn’t played all weekend. Then he took over the session. The biggest star on earth had to hire the guitar man to be the guitar man. Some people write about who they are. Jerry Reed was the proof.

Uncategorized

BILLY JOE SHAVER BURIED HIS WIFE, HIS MOTHER, AND HIS SON IN 18 MONTHS — THEN HE PLAYED THE NEXT SHOW. Brenda died in 1999. His mother went the same year. On New Year’s Eve 2000, his son Eddy — his guitar player, his road partner — was gone at 38. Billy Joe kept touring. He’d already left two fingers in a sawmill. He had a heart attack onstage in 2001 and came back anyway. Then in 2014, at 75, “Long in the Tooth” became the first album of his life to reach the country charts. On October 28, 2020, Billy Joe Shaver died in Waco, Texas. He was 81. He’d spent fifty years singing that an old chunk of coal could still turn into a diamond. What did you feel the day country music lost him?

Uncategorized

FORGET THE PLATINUM. FORGET THE HALL OF FAME. WAYLON JENNINGS SANG HIS BIGGEST HIT FOR TWENTY YEARS AND NEVER LIKED IT ONCE. In 1976, Wanted! The Outlaws became the first country album ever certified platinum. Waylon’s face was on the wanted poster, top of the card, above Willie. A year later, Chips Moman brought him “Luckenbach, Texas.” He was pitched it because his name was in the chorus — and that was exactly the problem. He’d never set foot in the town. He wrote later: “I knew it was a hit song, even though I didn’t like it, and still don’t.” Six weeks at No. 1. Rolling Stone called it a myth-making moment for outlaw country. At his tribute concert, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson and Kacey Musgraves closed the whole night with it. Waylon Jennings never learned to love that song. Nobody else ever stopped. Play it today — and go back to whatever porch, whatever truck, whatever summer you first heard it on.

You Missed

Uncategorized

FORGET THE MOVIES. FORGET THE LAUGHS. ONE SONG PROVED JERRY REED WAS THE ONLY MAN ALIVE WHO COULD PLAY IT. Jerry Reed wrote a song about a broke kid who left home with a guitar and nothing else — playing for tips, sleeping rough, chasing a gig that might never come. It was his own story. It barely scraped No. 53 on the country chart in 1967. Then Elvis Presley heard it. September 1967, a Nashville studio. Elvis sat with some of the finest session players in the business — Scotty Moore, Chip Young, Harold Bradley, Charlie McCoy. Take after take, something was missing. Elvis knew exactly what he wanted, because he’d already heard it on a record that had barely cracked the country Top 60. He wanted it to sound like Jerry Reed’s record. Nobody in that room could do it. So they called Reed in. He showed up flustered, running through licks, apologizing that he hadn’t played all weekend. Then he took over the session. The biggest star on earth had to hire the guitar man to be the guitar man. Some people write about who they are. Jerry Reed was the proof.

Uncategorized

BILLY JOE SHAVER BURIED HIS WIFE, HIS MOTHER, AND HIS SON IN 18 MONTHS — THEN HE PLAYED THE NEXT SHOW. Brenda died in 1999. His mother went the same year. On New Year’s Eve 2000, his son Eddy — his guitar player, his road partner — was gone at 38. Billy Joe kept touring. He’d already left two fingers in a sawmill. He had a heart attack onstage in 2001 and came back anyway. Then in 2014, at 75, “Long in the Tooth” became the first album of his life to reach the country charts. On October 28, 2020, Billy Joe Shaver died in Waco, Texas. He was 81. He’d spent fifty years singing that an old chunk of coal could still turn into a diamond. What did you feel the day country music lost him?

Uncategorized

JERRY REED WROTE COUNTRY’S GREATEST “KEEP GOING” SONG — NASHVILLE HONORED HIM 9 YEARS TOO LATE. He was the Guitar Man. Elvis called him in to play. Chet Atkins called him one of the best alive. In 1977 he wrote “East Bound and Down,” and every trucker in America had an anthem. By the 2000s, emphysema was taking his breath. The man who never sat still was slowing down. On September 1, 2008, Jerry Reed died in Nashville at 71. Nine years later, in 2017, the Country Music Hall of Fame finally opened its doors to him. His daughters accepted the medallion. He never got to hear his own name called. What did you feel when you heard Jerry Reed was gone?

Uncategorized

FORGET THE PLATINUM. FORGET THE HALL OF FAME. WAYLON JENNINGS SANG HIS BIGGEST HIT FOR TWENTY YEARS AND NEVER LIKED IT ONCE. In 1976, Wanted! The Outlaws became the first country album ever certified platinum. Waylon’s face was on the wanted poster, top of the card, above Willie. A year later, Chips Moman brought him “Luckenbach, Texas.” He was pitched it because his name was in the chorus — and that was exactly the problem. He’d never set foot in the town. He wrote later: “I knew it was a hit song, even though I didn’t like it, and still don’t.” Six weeks at No. 1. Rolling Stone called it a myth-making moment for outlaw country. At his tribute concert, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson and Kacey Musgraves closed the whole night with it. Waylon Jennings never learned to love that song. Nobody else ever stopped. Play it today — and go back to whatever porch, whatever truck, whatever summer you first heard it on.