Born on Christmas Day, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia, young Emory started playing the ukulele at age six, and began his musical career at 12, playing brass instruments in school as well as bass and electric guitar in Top 40 cover bands. After a chance encounter with record producer Joe South, he started his recording career in the Atlanta studios, playing bass, writing, and arranging on numerous hits before moving to Los Angeles in 1970. Once there, he began working in the studios with a wide variety of artists, including Elvis, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, and Neil Diamond, and he also toured with most of them as well. After a brief hiatus from the business, during which he worked as a land surveyor, in the mid ’80s Gordy began working in Nashville as a player, arranger, and producer. After meeting and marrying country singer Patty Loveless, he settled back in his native Georgia, and he still records and produces, mostly in Nashville. Emory’s latest project is Patty’s new album of country standards, Sleepless Nights, for Time Life’s Saguaro Road Records.
What led you to the bass?
I played a lot of different instruments growing up, and I still do. After college, I was playing guitar in an R&B band and a Top 40 cover band, when at a gig one night our rhythm section was asked to back a singer named Tommy Roe, who’d already had a few hits. Our bass player didn’t want to do it, so I volunteered. The gig went fine and I didn’t think much about it, but Tommy’s producer, Joe South, had come along to lead the band, and two weeks later he called me up and asked me if I was interested in playing on a recording session. I suddenly thought to ask which instrument he wanted me to play, and he said, “Bass,” so there I was. I started working with Joe, who became my musical mentor and later had a big hit as an artist with “Games People Play.” Bill Lowery—who had a studio, publishing company, and booking agency in Atlanta—and I learned a lot about the business of music there, too.
What was the Atlanta studio scene like in the late ’60s?
Back in those days, Muscle Shoals, Memphis, and other music centers had their own studio rhythm sections, and I joined what became the studio house band at Bill Lowery’s place in Atlanta with Joe South, and later Buddy Buie, producing. We recorded with lots of people including Roy Orbison, Billy Joe Royal, the Tams with Mac Davis, and the Classics IV, who had hits with “Spooky” and “Traces”—the latter of which I co-wrote, and which just received a BMI award for seven million airplay performances.
What led you to move to L.A. at the end of the ’60s?
A friend of mine from Atlanta, Dennis St. John, moved there in 1969. He was an excellent organizer as well as an excellent drummer, and he started calling me about coming out. After a while I realized I’d gone about as far as I could in Atlanta, and I needed to be outnumbered by people who were a hell of a lot better than me. I had been to New York and played some shows at the Apollo Theater with Otis Redding and others, but New York didn’t feel right for me. So, on January 1, 1970, I moved out to Southern California with my family. I looked in the L.A. Musicians Union book and saw almost 2,000 bass players, and thought, Boy, I am in trouble!
What happened next?
I had a few connections, including Reinie Press, an engineer and bass player from Atlanta. I started working as an engineer at first, as I was always into electronics, and slowly things started happening. I took anything I could, and I never said no. I started working for Seymour Heller, producing and arranging for Liberace, Debbie Reynolds, and others. I joined Neil Diamond’s band with Dennis St. John and guitarist Richard Bennett. I worked for Neil off and on for many years, and usually played a utility role, as Reinie Press was his bassist by then. I played nine or ten different instruments on the Hot August Night live album, recorded at the Greek Theatre in L.A. At one point I played bass and Reinie, who is a great musician, played vibes. He is a bass player’s bass player, and I picked up so much from him over the years.
How did you end up recording with Elvis?
I was in the right place at the right time. As someone said, “Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.” I did a demo session with Neil’s percussionist, Jefferson Kewley, who played it for Elvis’s drummer, Ronnie Tutt, who asked him for my phone number. A week later my [then] wife wrote down a phone message saying, “Call Colonel Parker’s office—Elvis.” I thought it was a joke and threw it in the trash! Parker’s office called back the next day and said, “Don’t you return your phone calls?” and proceeded to book me for a Monday night session a few days later at RCA Studio C in North Hollywood. I had done a few sessions with his guitarist, James Burton— who may have helped get my name in there, too—and I knew the producer, Felton Jarvis, from my Atlanta days. One of the first things we cut, in one or two takes, was “Burning Love.” Ronnie, James, and Glen D Hardin set up an unbelievable feel, and I played every note I knew in the key of D, thinking we would do a few more takes and I could pare down my part to something useful. It was all live, vocals and all, and when it was over, I went over to Felton and and quietly told him my part was all over the map and I needed to fix it. He said, “We’ll deal with it”—and I honestly thought they would replace it in Nashville with someone else, but they kept it. When the record came out, it sounded like “Bass Solo featuring Elvis!”
How did you come to be an original member of Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band?
I had quit the road for a while and was just back to doing sessions, when I got a call to go on the road with Emmylou; I had met her while doing Gram Parsons’s Grievous Angel record, which she sang on. Gram hired the Elvis band, because he was looking for something with more edge than the typical country players of the day would have provided. James and Glen D Hardin knew country music but had that rock & roll energy. After Gram’s death, we got the call from Emmylou. It was so much fun to play small venues again, and the band camaraderie was great. So I quit Neil Diamond. James left to go back with Elvis after a while, and Albert Lee came along at the perfect time. It lasted about two years and was a great experience. Emmy was another great mentor, and when she took some time off to have babies, I joined back up with Neil.
What prompted you to move to Nashville in the mid 1980s? By 1983 I was feeling burnt and had retired from the business. Friends would call me up to work in Nashville over the years. [Nashville producer] Tony Brown introduced me to Jimmy Bowen, who asked me to think about coming to work for him at MCA Records as a staff producer. He said to “think of a number”—I tripled it, and he didn’t bat an eye! So I was back in the music business again, and then I met Patty and decided to stick around.
You produced Vince Gill’s debut CD, which was the first digital recording released by a Nashville label. What is your opinion of the digital vs. analog debate?
I don’t mind saying this: I hate analog. It’s an excellent recording medium but a horrible storage medium. With analog, the oxide molecules on the tape are going back to a homogenous state where they came from before they were magnetized, and it sounds worse every time you play it back. When digital came along, as players, we immediately noticed that we no longer had to over-emphasize dynamics as we had done for years due to the limitations of analog tape. With engineers, it was the same thing with EQ and microphone selection. People assume that because I have made traditional-sounding records with Patty that we record analog, and I hate to correct them—but once it goes into the microphone, it’s all digital until it comes out of the speakers.
Who are some of your main bass influences?
The three biggest are Paul McCartney, Tommy Cogbill, and James Jamerson. Brian Wilson really set bass free with his writing and arranging back in the ’60s. I also love Ray Brown and Reggie Workman, too.
How has your multi-instrumental ability and your work as a producer and arranger affected your bass playing and musical philosophy?
I came into it as acoustic bass was phasing out in favor of electric bass, and you could get away with things on the electric that would never work on the upright. Still, to me, bass is a supportive instrument, so I’ve never been big on bass solos—despite how “Burning Love” came out! Unless you’re doing an instrumental, you can’t forget that you are backing up a singer, and that’s the point. There are basically three types of studio musicians: those who can read flyspecks, those who play straight from the heart, and those who try to combine the two approaches, which is where I fall. I’ve been studying instrumentalists like Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs and what makes them great. There is a sense of composition in their playing—rhythmically, harmonically, and melodically. It’s all about the song. I love to arrange and write without an instrument, and I realized a few years ago that I like to produce because I can massage the arrangement all the way down to the mix. Having said that, I love the input of musicians and the spontaneity of a great studio recording happening all at once, too. Patty’s record Here I Am is like that. The whole thing, including the vocal, went down at once, one take.
Unlike a lot of studio players, you’ve toured extensively as well. Can you shed some light on that?
Playing live is really important. I’ve done a little research, and there are two distinct types of memory, short and long term, that operate in two different areas of the brain. In studio playing, you develop excellent short-term memory, but you also get to the point where you can play for only four minutes at a time. Road work helps you develop long-term memory and physical stamina. In the studio, you forget the song you just played and it’s hard to go back to it once you’ve moved on, whereas live, you have to remember the same songs night after night. Plus, it puts you in touch with the audience, and their feedback is so important. I really like to mix the two up. I’ve been known to take a lounge gig just to stay connected with how the audience and the musicians interact, which is important to me as a record producer.
What lessons did you learn as a young musician playing with people who were older than you?
Well, early on in my studio career I learned that the first rule of recording is there are no rules. You have to be ready for anything. As a kid, I also learned that you can make a lot more money if you wait to pass the hat until after the moonshine comes out! Seriously, the stamina I got from playing rhythm guitar behind squaredance fiddlers for 20 minutes at a time really built up my chops.
GEAR
“I have a 1960 P-Bass that I took out the volume and tone controls and put a Dan Armstrong Yellow Thumper effect in it. I also love my Ernie Ball Earthwood acoustic bass guitar. I have two old Kay string basses, both with gut strings, which work better for me. I can’t tell you how many PBasses, Teles, Strats, and other vintage instruments that I bought way back when for $100 and let go for nothing. They weren’t popular when the Beatles hit! I had a lot of great instruments stolen over the years, too, and I played ‘Burning Love’ on a rented Fender Precision because of that.”
CURRENTLY SPINNING
“Time Life’s Rock & Roll 1954–1969, and more obscure stuff from that era, and their early Jazz series, too. I’ve got a whole wall of that stuff, and it’s amazing. I learned from land surveying that you cannot know where you’re going until you reference to a point where you’ve been. I love classic bluegrass, especially the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, and Flatt & Scruggs, but I also listen to symphonic composers like Aaron Copeland and Sibelius, and R&B artists Freddie King and James Brown, too. My listening experience and enjoyment is all over the map.”
CAN BE HEARD ON
Elvis Presley, “Burning Love” [1972] Gram Parsons, Grievous Angel [Reprise, 1973] Billy Joel, Streetlife Serenade [Columbia, 1974] Emmylou Harris, Elite Hotel [Reprise, 1975] (and many others)
Rosanne Cash, Seven Year Ache [Columbia, 1981] Jimmy Buffett, Last Mango in Paris [MCA, 1985] Lyle Lovett, Lyle Lovett [Curb, 1986] Vince Gill, Turn Me Loose [RCA, 1983] Patty Loveless, Mountain Soul [Epic, 2001] (and many others)
J.J. Cale, Shades [Mercury, 1981]