J R McNeely One Man Band "You Must Be Out Of My Mind"
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- Опубликовано: 20 янв 2023
- My “Hit Country Song” that never was.
I have been a professional “Recording Engineer / Mix Engineer” since 1991. (I still am, thankfully!) And, although the vast majority of my professional life has been spent working on other peoples music, I have “dabbled” in songwriting, and being a professional musician (stage and studio) through the years.
So, back in the mid 1990s, I was doing some mixing work for an independent music publisher named Audie Ashworth in Nashville.
Audie had had an impressive catalog of songs, with some HUGE hits under his belt! Songs like “Cocaine” and “After Midnight” written by J.J. Cale and recorded by Eric Clapton, and one of THE BIGGEST songs ever recorded called…”The Gambler” written by Don Schlitz and recorded by Kenny Rogers!! (You are probably hearing that chorus right now in your head as you read this, right!?!? “You got to know when to hold em…know when to fold em…” LOL!) Yep, Audie published THAT song!
Anyway, after finishing a mix for Audie one day, we ended up sitting around and just talking for quite a while, and I got up the nerve to ask him if he wouldn’t mind having a listen to a couple song ideas I had been working on. He graciously said “Sure!” and we set up a date and time for a meeting at his office. I was stoked…and INCREDIBLY nervous! Thankfully, Audie actually liked what he heard!
Now, to condense a VERY long story…back in 1995 and 1996 I spent a lot of time working with Audie on various projects (like the J.J. Cale anthology “Any Way The Wind Blows” album) and dabbling in song writing on the side for his publishing company. Audie had actually offered me a small publishing deal, but my focus was on recording and mixing music, and I didn’t feel like I was prolific enough to fulfill a “quota” of songs, so I opted to just do “single song” deals with him. That way, neither one of us were really on the hook, as it were.
So, one day I was driving to the studio, and out of nowhere, I started to sing the “hook” of this song. By the time I got to the studio, I had most of the song written. I called my friend and co-writer Susanne Gill, and she came over, and helped me fill a couple missing lyric pieces to the puzzle…and just like that…a song was born! It certainly wasn’t a ground breaking song like “The Gambler” but it was kinda catchy, and I figured maybe it could be an album cut for one of the country stars of the day. I would be THRILLED if that happened!
So, I recorded a quick song demo, and I sent it over to Audie. He not only wanted to publish the song, he actually called me 3 separate times that day to tell me “This is a HIT song!”. I was on cloud 9!
And then…just like thousands and thousands of other songs floating around out there in the un-cut song abyss…nothing ever happened. Absolutely nothing.
To be honest, it kinda took the wind out of my sails for songwriting. (In hindsight though…it really was for the best.)
So, I got busy with my actual career, and I didn’t song write too much more after that. Audie and I sorta went in different directions, and then a few years later…Audie sadly passed away.
I still have the original demo on a DAT tape somewhere in a box in storage, but I figured it would be more fun to re record the song than try to find the original. And since the original recording was just a rough “Song Demo” I don’t know that I’d want the general public to hear it that way.
Anyway, here is my newly recorded (intentionally 90's sounding) song written in 1996. Hope you enjoy! - J.R. 
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Definitely should have been a hit!! Love it...
Love it!!
Wow! It’s great that you never told me how awesome you were at everything (besides mixing) when you were mixing our songs… I would have been more nervous than what I already was. You rock man!
Lol! Aww man, I got nothin on you, Dude! 😊 Apologies for the delayed response! I meant to respond a while ago! 🙄 I’m so glad you enjoyed this stuff, my friend!! I’m honored that you do! I hope you and your family are doing well!!
J.R love it! Would you be open to playing a live gig on March 4
Hi Roy! Thank you! 😊 Man, I sincerely appreciate the offer, but I stopped playing live shows a couple years back. I’m just making recordings these days.