Bobby: That was 1962?
Bare: 1961. I got out in November of ’60.
Bobby: How long from that to being with Chet [Atkins]?
Bare: In the meantime, Harlan Howard had moved from LA to Nashville, and I would come down to record for Fraternity, stay at Harlan’s house. Harlan had been promoting me to Chet. And also I was writing for, or had some songs with some publishing company, can’t remember the name of it. The guy also was a friend of Chet’s.
I got the message one day that Chet wanted to meet me, so I went to Nashville. He swears he had only heard “All American Boy”, he didn’t know I could sing, but I know he heard my demos.
Bobby: Did he have a plan for you?
Bare: I went in, sat down and talked to him for awhile, and I told him, “I know I’m going to cut some hit records, and I feel positive I can do it with you.” And he said, “I agree with you.” He said, “You go get some songs.” I said, “But first, I’ve got to go up to Cincinnati and tell Harry that I won’t be recording for Fraternity anymore.”
I had a friend in Louisville named Boyd Bennett. He had a big hit in the 1950s called “Seventeen” [co-written with John Young]. I stopped by Boyd’s, and he had a horn sound that I loved. It was a trumpet, and a saxophone, trombone. [Then] I went to Cincinnati and talked to Harry, and Harry was thrilled for me. I went back to Chet and signed the deal with RCA, and Chet came up with a song that Lawton Williams [co-]wrote [with Bill Enis] out of Fort Worth called “Shame On Me”. It only had two chords in it.
I told Chet that I didn’t want any of the regular musicians that he always used like Grady Martin because I was too intimidated by them. I said get younger, newer musicians. So he got Jerry Reed, Billy Ackerman on drums, and Joe South on guitar. And got Bill Justice to write the horn parts. Chet bought into my horn sound. And away we went. First song I cut was “Shame On Me”, and it was a major hit. It sold a million records. Quick.
Bobby: But that would be seen as a crossover hit.
Bare: It was pop, straight pop.
Bobby: Right, so, if it was done today, it would be seen as you trying to do crossover.
Bare: Yeah. A Faith Hill type. It was a #1 record in every major market. It had a recitation that sounded like Elvis, I guess. It just sounded like a great Elvis record.
Bobby: That was ’62?
Bare: Yeah.
Bobby: Did you like recording with Chet?
Bare: I loved it. Loved it. Because he was such a good song person, and so was I. As a matter of fact, the night that I recorded “Shame On Me”, I had accepted a job writing and plugging songs for Cliffie [Stone] in California. And Hank Cochran drove me to the airport, that night. Not knowing that I was recording a big hit.
Bobby: When you found out you were nominated for a Grammy [in 1963, for “Detroit City”, in the “country & western recording” category; Bare won], was that a big deal?
Bare: Naw. Never heard of it, didn’t know what it was, and to me it was a pain in the ass because I hate going to those things. But, I didn’t mind it after I got there. It was the first time I took your mom on a real date. It was at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. There wasn’t a whole lot of people there, some of my friends.
We sat at the RCA table. Lorne Greene was there, because he was up for “Ringo”, Duane Eddy was there with his wife, Miriam, which is Jessi Colter now. She was all of about 18. Who else? Don Robertson, who [co-] wrote “Ringo” [with Hal Blair], of course. That was about it.
Bobby: When you started working on Lullabys, Legends And Lies with Shel, did the end product match what you thought you were getting into?
Bare: Even more so. Even more so. See, I was trying to get some of the great songwriters to write me an album. I went to Harlan, to Hank [Cochran], I went to all the great Nashville writers that I could think of. And everybody was geared for singles. Nobody had ten new songs.
Bobby: Why did you think it was important to have one whole album by one songwriter?
Bare: The odds of having a hit single. A great writer can’t write ten songs he’s proud of, if they’re hot, and not have a hit in it.
Bobby: [snorts] So it was a way of monopolizing his entire output for a month or so.
Bare: Yeah. And Shel responded. Well, I was at Harlan’s house on Saturday night, and Shel was there. And I told him what I was looking for. He called me on Monday. He said, “I got your album.” I said, “When can I hear it?” He said, “I’ll be there in two hours.” He flew in from Chicago, started singing.
Bobby: When did he write the album? Over the weekend?
Bare: No, he just drew back on the songs that he had written and put it together into an album that made sense. Now, he wrote “Lullabys, Legends, And Lies”, I’m sure. And then gathered songs that he had backlogged.
NO DEPRESSION: How did you know Shel?
Bare: I think Chet introduced us. And then I hung out with him at Harlan’s house.
Bobby: Hanging out on a night like that, what would y’all talk about? Would anybody pick up a guitar?
Bare: Everybody.
Bobby: Everybody would pick up a guitar.
Bare: Oh, yeah.
Bobby: Why don’t we do that? You know, it doesn’t happen. Sometimes it does.
Bare: Harlan had every great songwriter in Nashville there. You name it, they were all there. Wonderful songs. You can’t do it [now]. There’s too many, probably thousands of songwriters in Nashville.
And a lot of it’s my fault, that damn TV show. It really is. Because a lot of ’em packed up instantly and came to Nashville. We made it look way too easy. I blame it on having Rodney [Crowell] and Guy Clark and those guys, just throwing that shit out that sounds…that made it look way too easy; there’s nothing to it.
