Hall of Fame songwriter Kent Blazy debuts his newest album My Life So Far. Enjoy listening to this song by song analysis with a particular nod to tunes like Can't Sleep With You, Feeling Alive Again, The Devil's Music and For a Minute There.
Blazy was raised in Lexington, Kentucky. At an early age, he played rhythm guitar and sang in various local bands. He became musically inspired when he heard Roger McGuinn playing his Rickenbacker guitar on "Mr. Tamborine Man". This revelation created a new choice and Kent traded in his baseball glove for a guitar. He began his musical journey playing with a series of bands all over the eastern half of the country, citing The Byrds, Rodney Crowell and Joe Ely as influences. By the mid-70’s, Kent was band leader, playing guitar and touring with Canadian legend, Ian Tyson.
Sound advice and the timely first place win in a national songwriting contest persuaded him to move to Nashville in 1980. Kent’s commitment was now to focus his efforts at the craft of songwriting. It was a very fine decision.In 1982, sooner than expected, Gary Morris took "Headed for a Heartache" to number 5 on the charts. In the years that followed other artists, such as The Forrester Sisters, T. Graham Brown, Donna Fargo and Moe Bandy recorded Kent’s tunes.In an effort to develop more knowledge of the recording side of music and for the benefits of a “day job”, Kent opened a home recording studio. The studio offered an option for Kent’s demos as well as a demo service to other writers.
This studio introduced Kent to some of the new demo singers and songwriters of Nashville; names like Randy Travis, Billy Dean, Trisha Yearwood, Joe Diffie, and Martina McBride, now well-known country artists.In 1987, Kent was introduced to a new demo singer by Bob Doyle, then with ASCAP, soon to be the manager for this emerging talent, Garth Brooks. Garth became Kent’s most requested demo singer and Bob Doyle also advised, “Garth writes a little bit too.”The first song Garth and Kent penned together was "If Tomorrow Never Comes" which became the first number one song for both. The friendship and writing partnership continued as Garth included eight more of their songs on his albums.Four more of theirs songs captured the number one slot:"Somewhere Other Than the Night", "Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til the Sun Comes Up)", "It’s Midnight Cinderella", and "She’s Gonna Make It Shoulder” and the George Jones duet “Beer Run (B Double E Double Are You In?).” He also co-wrote “That’s What I Get for Lovin’ You” by Diamond Rio and “Can’t Get Enough” by Patty Loveless in the late 1990s.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/legends-extraordinary-lives--5351541/support.
Show More
Show Less
Oct 16 202439 mins