Episode 14: Michael Amos Cody with Frye Gaillard and Peter Cooper

In this episode we’re venturing inside the complicated world of the Nashville music biz. Michael Amos Cody joins me to talk about his novel ‘Gabriel’s Songbook’, which follows starry-eyed Gabriel Tanner on his quest to strike it big as a singer-songwriter in the Music City in the 1980s.

In the final segment, Frye Gaillard and Peter Cooper drop by to talk about the real Nashville music scene in the 1980s. Frye is an historian and author of such books as ‘A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s’, ‘The Southernization of America’, which he co-wrote with Pulitzer Prize-winner Cynthia Tucker, and ‘Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music’. Peter is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s senior director, producer, and writer.

Episode 14 Promo

Michael Amos Cody

Michael Amos Cody

Michael was born in Sumter, South Carolina, and grew up in the village of Walnut, jewel of Madison County, North Carolina, not far from the ruins of Runion, a place he has reimagined for stories appearing in such publications as ‘Tampa Review’, ‘Still: The Journal’, and several others. He spent his formative twenties living and working as a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, where his songs were recorded by Glen Campbell, Gary Morris, and others, including himself.

He is the author of ‘Charles Brockden Brown and the Literary Magazine: Cultural Journalism in the Early American Republic’ and the novel ‘Gabriel’s Songbook’. He is co-editor of ‘The Literary Magazine and Other Writings, 1803-1807’, volume three of ‘The Collected Writings of Charles Brockden Brown’. His collection of short stories, ‘A Twilight Reel’, was published in May 2021 by Pisgah Press and won the Short Story / Anthology category in the Feathered Quill Book Awards 2022. Michael lives with his wife Leesa in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and teaches American literature before 1900, Native American literature, and mythology in the Department of Literature & Language at East Tennessee State University.

Frye Gaillard

Frye Gaillard

Writer in residence at the University of South Alabama and former Southern Editor at the ‘Charlotte Observer’, Frye Gaillard is the author of more than 30 books, exploring themes of social justice and Southern music, religion, politics, and culture. His award-winning titles have ranged across the genres of history, memoir, journalism, and historical novels for young readers.

His critically praised books have included ‘A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s’, an NPR Great Read of 2018 and winner of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Prize; ‘Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music’, featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville; and his latest, ‘The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance’, co-written with Pulitzer Prize winner Cynthia Tucker and published in March 2022.

Frye has co-written songs that have made the U.S. folk and country music charts and appeared in nationally distributed music videos and documentary films, and his byline has appeared in many, many notable publications.

Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s senior director, producer, and writer. As one of Nashville’s most respected music journalists, he has written for the ‘Tennessean’, ‘American Songwriter’, ‘Esquire’ and numerous other publications His insight is deepened by his experiences as a Grammy-nominated producer, a singer, a songwriter and a touring musician. His songs have been recorded by luminaries including John Prine, Todd Snider and Country Music Hall of Fame members Bobby Bare and Mac Wiseman. Country Music Hall of Fame member Kris Kristofferson said, “Peter Cooper looks at the world with an artist’s eye and a human heart and soul.”

Peter Cooper, Frye Gaillard, Christy Alexander Hallberg

About This Episode

Nashville!

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Christopher Cross’s buried guitar lead on “Ride Like the Wind”

• Suzi Quatro’s convincing argument for including Simon & Garfunkel in a rock novel

• The Appalachian setting and culture for part of the novel ‘Gabriel’s Songbook’ and what Appalachia means to Michael and the character Gabriel: food, religion, family, community, mountain music

• The complexities and difficulties of an image-driven music business during the MTV 1980s on singer-songwriters, like Gabriel, who don’t fit the mold

• Michael’s own experience as a young musician in Nashville during this time

• How Michael’s relationship with his wife, Leesa, inspired the relationship between Gabriel and Eliza in ‘Gabriel’s Songbook’

• The passion that Michael still feels for making music

• Frye and Peter talk about the differences between the ‘70s and ’80s Nashville music scene and business

Listen to Episode 14, then migrate to the Rock is Lit Vault to hear my full, uncut interview with Frye Gaillard and Peter Cooper. 

MUSIC AND MEDIA IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:

1. Free Country Instrumental Music/No Copyright Background Music

2. “Born the Run” by Bruce Springsteen

3. “Ride Like the Wind” by Christopher Cross

4. “April Come She Will” by Simon & Garfunkel

5. “Mountain Dew” by The Stanley Brothers

6. “Lookin’ for Love” by Johnny Lee

7. “Mexican Radio” by Wall of Voodoo

8. “Best I’ve Ever Seen” by Michael Amos Cody

9. “Leesa, Listen” by Michael Amos Cody

10. “Soulmates” by Michael Amos Cody

11. “You’ve Got Something I Need” by Michael Amos Cody

12. “The Sweetest Gift” by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris

13. “Better Class of Losers” by Randy Travis

14. “Molly Dear” by Jonathan Byrd

15. “I Came for the Gold” by Michael Amos Cody

LINKS:

Michael Amos Cody’s website: https://michaelamoscody.com/

Michael on Twitter, @DrMacOde

Michael on Instagram, @michaelamoscody

Frye Gaillard’s website: https://fryegaillardauthor.com/

Frye on Facebook, @FryeGaillard

Peter Cooper’s website: https://www.petercoopermusic.com/

Peter Cooper on Facebook, @PeterCooper

Wyatt, the Rock is Lit mascot, devouring ‘Gabriel’s Songbook’