Gary Nicholson
Feb 19, 2024–It’s always about the song.
What makes a good song, I asked Gary Nicholson, the prolific songwriter you might not have ever heard of, who will perform at the Hill Top Café north of Fredericksburg on Feb 27.
“What makes a good song is a song that people can relate to and see themselves and their own nature reflected in it, and they can identify with and that they want to hear it more than once.” Nicholson said. “They might be inspired to learn to sing this song because it expresses what they feel, but are unable to express themselves. That’s really what songwriting is about. I look at it as a service, so people can have songs in their lives that reflect their own nature and their own feelings, that maybe they don’t express.”
Nicholson is a Hall of Fame Songwriter and Grammy Winner who has more than 700 recording credits, including covers by Willie Nelson, Ringo Starr, Fleetwood Mac, John Prine, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, George Strait and Delbert McClinton, and 486 other performers across all genres.
But, regardless of the star power of who is singing his song, each creation stands on its own merits. That is a standard I have heard from many great songwriters I have interviewed, including Jimmy Webb, Larry Gatlin, and Michael Martin Murphy. Mood, mode, and musician don’t matter.
“The song will pretty much dictate the genre. It’s really all about the idea, and the idea leads to whether it will be more country or more bluesy, or more rock and roll, or whatever.”
I had to ask the difficult question: Does it bother you that you have this huge success that every songwriter yearns for, yet Gary Nicholson is not a household name? Is that an advantage, a disadvantage, or does it matter?
“Well, it’s just the nature of what I do,” he said. “Songwriters are anonymous. People hear George Strait on the radio, and think he wrote the song. Most people wouldn’t know that Lieber and Stoller wrote the Elvis hits. If I had spent my time traveling, playing shows all my life, instead of writing songs for other people to record and perform, then I would have built a name for myself and tried to become famous as a performer. But as a songwriter, your intent is to have your songs recorded by others who are the performers and the stars.”
One thing any true songwriter does is continue to write songs, even while the current remuneration system has been diluted to “tiny pieces of pennies to be earned” by online streaming, or, as Nicholson noted, the demise of physical products for sale, i.e. vinyl records and CDs.
“It’s tragic. Now I don’t know how you can make a living as a nonperforming songwriter. It’s a good thing I enjoy playing, both solo and with one of my bands.”
Nicholson’s current work is an album of Americana/blues-flavored tunes called “Common Sense.” He will be performing those along with his hits at this show, backed by his Texas-based band which includes Hill Country resident and Asleep At The Wheel fiddle player Katie Shore.
He has “a lot of love and respect for Johnny Nicholas,” owner of the Hill Top and former Asleep At The Wheel member, whom he calls “an old friend.”
“It’s a listening situation,” he said. “I tell stories about the songs or the writing of the songs. The songs do the work, and I’ll play songs with this particular band that have been covered by Willie and Waylon and George Strait and George Jones and other country artists. It’s really for people who are curious about songwriting and are curious enough to to want to hear the songs. If you have an appreciation for songs, and you’re curious about a guy that’s written songs for a living for almost 60 years, just come check it out.”
Whether you show up or not, Gary Nicholson will be enjoying himself.
“If you’re fans of any of the artists that I’ve written for, it’ll be an opportunity to hear where the songs came from. It’ll be a fun evening.”
Details:
Gary Nicholson will perform at the
Hill Top Cafe, 10661 US-87, Fredericksburg, TX
Feb 27, 2025, 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
www.hilltopcafe.com
Phil Houseal is a writer and owner of Full House PR. Contact him at phil@fullhouseproductions.net, www.FullHousePR.com.