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 If you are one of those listeners who studies all of the information attached to a vinyl LP or a CD, soaking up every bit of knowledge you can, the name Gary Nicholson should be very familiar. In addition to being an adept guitar player with an easy-on-the-ears vocal style, Nicholson is in the top rank of songwriters, with more than 700 recordings featuring songs he had a hand in writing, for artists like Buddy Guy, B.B. King. Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Etta James, Keb’ Mo’, and Bonnie Raitt. He also has written over 30 songs with fellow Texan, singer Delbert McClinton, and received two Grammy Awards in the “Best Contemporary Blues” category for producing McClinton’s Nothing Personal and Cost Of Living albums. In 2022, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame.
On his latest release, Nicholson has plenty to say, his thoughtful expressions delving deep into the basic issues facing a society that seems to be spinning out of control at a faster pace with each passing day.
“Kevin McKendree came to me because he started a record label with a fellow named John Heithaus. They made a record on Kevin’s son, Yates McKendree. I wrote a few songs with Yates for that record. They offered me a situation to make my own record for their label, which is called Qualified Records.
I had quite a few songs that I generated, so I got with Kevin and got some of our pals to join us. Kevin’s not only an excellent keyboard player, but he’s also a really great engineer. I’m really proud of the record.
“I’ve been wanting to make this record, Common Sense, for quite a while. It’s fairly politically slanted, as was my last record, The Great Divide. My intent was to unite, and not divide further, but I had to state my own personal opinions to an extent in order to make the songs work. I had to tell the truth. And the one key song on the record is called “The Truth About a Lie,” all the lies that have been perpetrated by the unmentionable one.
“You’ve got to hold the lies up to the light and let the truth shine through them somehow. That’s what I intended to do without completely alienating. Humor helps, and that’s what I lean on as my defense. I’ve actually encountered a few people that were on the other side that were saying, “I’m so glad you wrote these songs to illuminate how we feel about everything. It’s kind of jaw dropping to have that reaction from someone. It felt really good to feel like somehow I had accomplished what I was after without totally pissing somebody off. Now I feel like I’ve done enough of this political music. That’s what had to come out at this time. I think my next record is going to be about getting old.
“When I was considering doing the title cut, “Common Sense” live, I was wondering what the reaction would be, knowing that I’m at risk of alienating half of the audience. The song starts off with a punchline for a laugh, “If you want to be skinny, don’t eat the whole pie.” And then it gets progressively more intense. I’ve been really encouraged to see audiences react to the heavier lyrics. I got a thumbs up from everybody, a lot of good responses. The intent is just to tell the truth as plainly as possible.”
The album is full of songs that catch your ear, then start rattling around in your head as Nicholson’s lyrics begin to sink in. It may take several listens to fully unpack the weight of his lyrical content.
“I co-wrote “Bob Dylan Whiskey,” with a dear friend of mine, Jack Tempchin, who wrote that famous song, “Peaceful, Easy Feeling,” and also co-wrote “Already Gone” for the Eagles and “Slow Dancing” for Johnny Rivers. I’ve, of course, been a fan of Dylan all along. The song says that I’d love for us to have some music to rally behind in these times, and he provided that in the 60s for us in so many ways. He never wanted to be political. But those songs were a rallying cry for all of us and made a lot of sense, gave us some relief.”
Another song hits home with a simple message, that if people actually took it to heart, the world would indeed be a better place. “Everybody” is an ardent plea for respect and understanding.
““Why can’t everybody leave everybody alone?” Yeah, that’s really it. Mind your own business. Whatever somebody chooses to do, who they want to be and how they want to be it, that’s their business. Leave them alone. We boast that we’re the country that provides freedom, we speak of freedom constantly, the freedom of the United States. It just goes counter to everything we’re supposed to be standing for, to have people being criticized for their choices. “Follow The Money” is another one that keeps picking its head up more every day with the whole Elon Musk trip. It’s a head-scratcher. There’s a lot to wade through right now.”
On “All That Makes Me Happy is the Blues,” Nicholson ably demonstrates his understanding of the music on a classic slow number, complete with horns, his smooth vocal, and his fine guitar work.
“No matter how bummed out I get, I can listen to some late fifties, early sixties B. B. King. That’s the music that I keep turning back to for some comfort. There’s a joy in it. There’s a joy in the blues. It can be hard for some people to really grasp it. I have another song I wrote years ago called “Use the Blues to Make You Feel Better,” and that’s what it does for me.
 Born in Commerce, Texas, Nicholson grew up in Garland, TX. His older sister was 16 years old when Elvis Presley caused a commotion, which did not go unnoticed by her six year old brother.
“I watched her reaction to the music. She had records by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly. I was forbidden to go in her room. Of course, the minute she left, I was in her room playing those 45’s on her little record player. That sparked something. My parents didn’t have a lot of records, but they had a stereo in the house, with a Best of Hank Williams, and a Benny Goodman record, and a few other things. They would roll up the carpet, put dance wax on the floor, have some friends over, and have some drinks.
“I saw people having fun and I guess it was really a fascination, I started playing guitar, then got an electric guitar, started playing Ventures tunes and other surf music instrumentals. Duane Eddy was really key for me. I took guitar lessons and learned “Forty Miles Of Bad Road” and other great Duane Eddy songs. Boinking around in my garage with the reverb turned up too much.
“Being from Texas, country music’s in your bones. The early experience in my teen years, playing country music was just what you did with some old dudes that you met that played at the VFW Hall. Playing country dance halls was a way to have a six night a week job playing at a bar. I played at the same place for two years before I moved to Nashville.. Five nights a week, five sets a night, and that was the way I was able to make a living. Then on Monday nights, I’d have a blues band, and playing blues music in Texas was fantastic. The country music gig was what you had to do to make a living. But I didn’t realize that it’s really all the same. And playing western swing music, you have to act like you’re playing jazz for one minute. I’m not the kind of player that can really do that.
“I had a neighbor that heard me playing in the garage and asked, you want to hear a real band? So we got in the back seat and went with him and his buddy over to Fort Worth. We fell asleep in the back seat and they woke us up when we arrived, snuck us into the kitchen. We were 14 years old. I found out later the band I saw that night was outstanding tenor sax player King Curtis with Cornell Dupree playing guitar. That experience showed me what was possible, and it made me want to have a band too.
“Not long after, The Beatles came out, and changed everything. My girlfriend gave me a Beatles record, and I took it home and listened to it. I brought it back to her the next day and said, This is no good, they’re just trying to sound like Little Richard and Chuck Berry. They’re never going to get there. So you can just keep this record.
“About six months later I was in a full blown Beatles band, trying to get our hair long enough to look “Beatlely” and singing all those harmonies. One thing led to another. I went to school at North Texas State University to be a music major but I didn’t read music. I was struggling just to get the rudiments down, play scales on the piano, and learn about harmony and theory Bach style. That lasted a couple of years. I quit school and moved to Hollywood, got involved with a really bad publishing deal within a couple of weeks of being there.”
Nicholson was able to extricate himself from that situation, made a couple of records for the Capital Records label, and finally moved back to Texas after getting married in 1973. In 1980, he moved to Nashville at the request of a friend from North Texas State.
“Jim Ed Norman had been in Los Angeles and became a really great record producer. He moved me to Nashville to write for his publishing company. What really struck me when I got to Nashville is that I saw that every day people got up and went to work to write songs all day. A majority of my activity has been collaborating with artists that needed songs to make records. I got into that discipline and was fortunate enough to be involved with a lot of really great songwriters. By 1983 I was signed to Tree Publishing as a staff writer and I was there for 15 years. It was a really good time for me to just keep learning the craft. I had a lot of songs recorded by the heroes of country music. It was a good place to be. I left Sony after 15 years with the intent to own 100 percent of my copyrights.
 “Eventually I took the administration of my company back to Sony, so now everything’s on the same roof. It’s been really good to be able to make a living writing songs in Nashville. There was a time when I’d joke around about doing a little skippy dance back from the mailbox. It’s been a thrill to get those big royalty checks. It was fortunate that I was able to make a living writing songs when you actually could make a living writing songs.
“But those days are over, thanks to streaming technology. The tiny pieces of pennies we see from our efforts now, it’s not ever going to be the same. I think human greed has to be changed through laws. Laws have to be made to keep people from stealing. That’s what’s going on, we’re being robbed of our royalties by all the streaming technology. They say that someday streaming will catch up but I’m not sure that’s going to happen in my lifetime. They invent artists that they don’t have to pay and take up a lot of bandwidth playing music that’s for passive listeners, maybe in a gym or at a mall. It’s become a bit of a hobby now that we’re not getting paid for it.”
Nicholson has an alter ego, based on an original story, a character who can play a mean blues guitar.
“That started about 20 years ago. I have a dear friend that’s a great country blues guitar player, Colin Linden, from Canada. From a very young age, he absorbed all the country blues, like Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Reverend Gary Davis. That country, finger style blues playing. He always plays with a socket wrench on his little finger. He’s really exceptional, one of the few people I’ve ever seen that could command that style.
“I met Colin and we started playing country blues stuff together. Then I wrote a story about a character named Whitey Johnson that was kind of a composite of some people I saw playing around in Garland, Texas when I was coming up. White was African American and albino. He was a guitar hero who died in a fire in a church in the story.
“One day, I drove down to Fifth Avenue to Sam’s Men’s Wear in Nashville and there was a white suit in the window and there was a two for one sale going on. So,$ 99 for the white suit, $15 for a purple one for Colin. He invited me to play a blues festival with him in Canada and that was my first performance. Keb’ Mo’ was there, and so was Robert Cray. and we took a picture with Whitey in the middle, they call it the Oreo picture.
The songwriter has had some fortunate breaks when it came to getting his songs heard. However, it was the quality of his work that carried the day with a variety of artists.
“In the case of Buddy Guy, he’s produced by a friend of mine, Tom Hambridge, who plays drums and produces Buddy Guy’s records. From the time that Tom first started producing Buddy, we were writing songs for Buddy. B.B. King recorded a song I co-wrote as a duet with Randy Travis for a record called Heroes and Friends. Randy had recorded a few of my other songs.
“That’s how that evolved. I had a few other songs recorded by B.B.. When I started writing with Tom, we had a song called “Stay Around A Little Longer.” At one point. I went to see B.B. and he was in a mode where he talked as much as he played. He said, “I thank the Lord for letting me stay around a little longer.” So I took that idea to Tom, and we wrote it, and Tom produced a record with B. B. and Buddy together. Another situation was the one time I had five songs on an Etta James record, Let’s Roll. The guy that was producing the record liked the songs. The night before they started cutting the album, Etta fired the producer, but kept the songs.
“I think in the early days, getting in those doors, it was being associated with a major publishing company, and then beyond that, it was playing with Delbert McClinton and writing all those songs together. One thing led to another and blues artists came up, you meet people, and things just evolve. I have been able to get in a lot of doors. But then there’s a lot of doors that I didn’t have access to. In the old days, you might have a song idea that would be really great for Eric Clapton, but you don’t have a way to get to Eric Clapton.
 “But Conway Twitty’s cutting in two weeks, so you write the song in a way that can work for someone other than Eric Clapton. And then Buddy Guy does a duet with Eric Clapton, so you get to Eric Clapton’s guy. It’s just a matter of being in it for so long. Things happen if you’re just immersed in it. I would have never dreamed that I would collaborate with Ringo Starr. I wound up with a couple of songs with Stevie Nicks because of meeting her before she joined Fleetwood Mac years ago. She held on to one of the songs we wrote together and showed it to Lindsey Buckingham, and I wound up with a Fleetwood Mac cut, which is like, how did that happen? Just a lot of happy accidents along the way!
“One of my very favorite songwriters was John Prine. I got to write half of a record with John, Lost Dogs And Mixed Blessings. My son was working in a movie theater, and John came in to go to the movies. My son handed him his popcorn and said, “My dad’s been listening to your CD in the car, and you should write songs with my dad.”
“And John said, Well, who’s your dad? My son told him, and John says, oh, I know him, I knew John just a little bit. They called me the next day, and I wrote half of his next record. It was really great. He’d show up at the house with a six pack of Cokes and a bunch of cigarettes. In those days, the garage room had turned into my studio. It was winter time, so the smoke would go all through the house. My wife would say, “can’t he go outside and smoke?” Baby, it’s John Prine and it’s really cold outside!”
Nicholson is thankful that listeners have responded to his songs, especially those in the blues community.
“Blues music has been an incredible influence in my world, and the relationship of country and blues music, which is really all the same thing. If you’re a musician, there’s always some kind of music to make fun of that doesn’t strike you as being as real and purposeful. The core of blues music has always been Ground Zero for what moved me and all my closest friends, and all the musicians I admired the most. People like Anson Funderburgh and Jimmie Vaughan.
“It is encouraging to see someone like Yates McKendree come up as a young man and be able to embody the spirit of the music, having incredible chops. The way he can play and speak the language of the blues so eloquently as a young man gives me great hope. You can tell that he’s gone deep, that he understands and respects the traditions. From there, it doesn’t matter where he goes, because the foundation is there. He’s not somebody who studied two Stevie Ray Vaughan records and now wants to show us everything he can play on the guitar without ever thinking about what it is he’s playing.
“Blues music is so important to our culture. It’s music that moves people. Sometimes people misunderstand. They think of blues as being sad. People don’t realize it’s all about the joy of the music. The blues is joyful. It’s a release. You play the blues to get over feeling blue. I think sometimes we expect too much of people. If people are having fun, and they’re dancing, laughing, and they’re joyful, then the music’s doing its job.”
Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Mark Thompson lives in Florida, where he is enjoying the sun and retirement. He is the past President of the Board of Directors for the Suncoast Blues Society and a former member of the Board of Directors for the Blues Foundation. Music has been a huge part of his life for the past fifty years – just ask his wife!
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