Jon Randall Is Back 'Walking Among The Living'

Jon Randall Is Back 'Walking Among The Living'

By Lorie Hollabaugh

For Jon Randall, Walking Among the Living isn't just an album title. The inspirational title track of the album rings true to an artist who felt like he was through not too long ago.

At the moment, the chart-topping hit "Whiskey Lullaby," a 2005 CMA Song of the Year nominee, and new album released Sept. 20, have Randall in a guardedly optimistic mood.

Randall arrived in Nashville nearly two decades ago as another fresh-faced, talented kid seeking his fortune. He hasn't taken the traditional trajectory up the ladder of success, but his twisting path has brought him to the place where rich songs such as "Whiskey Lullaby" are born and albums such as Walking Among the Living are created.

"It's weird how your journey doesn't do what you think it's going to do," Randall reflected. "I wasn't sure I'd get a chance to do another record and I wasn't sure I wanted to. I was in that place where I didn't want to go through it again."

Randall had reason to be hesitant. His first label experience came years ago as a result of being part of Emmylou Harris' elite band that included Sam Bush. Growing up in Dallas in a musical family, Randall first met Bush through his writer/picker father, Ronnie Stewart.

"I have a picture of me and Sam when I was 15," Randall said. "I was a huge fan. When I got the job with Emmy, she was telling them about me and Sam said, 'I know that kid. I know his Dad.' I think Sam was excited that I was going to come on board, so he saved me. They probably would have fired me except that he said 'I think we can make this guy work.'"

Randall felt out of his league to be in Harris' band so early in his ca reer.

"She made me play guitar, and I was not a great guitar player," he said. "She threw me to the wolves. I'd have fired me the first week, but my singing, I think, saved me. And Sam taught me a lot on the guitar - that set me up for everything else. Record companies were looking at me before they even knew who I was just because I was in Emmy's band."

BNA Records signed Randall during this period, and he made his first album in the midst of executive changes at the label. The album was released with little fanfare. During the recording of a second album that included a duet with Lorrie Morgan, Randall began a relationship with Morgan that led to marriage.

"I was a mess when Lorrie met me, just a complete rock 'n' roll mess," Randall said. "I lived in the back of a tour bus - people don't develop their personality and come to their adulthood in the back of a tour bus."

One of the songs brought to Randall for his second album was "Great Da y To Be Alive." He thought it would be a hit, but it was never released and the album was shelved. Randall watched in frustration as Travis Tritt took the song to No. 1.

Randall subsequently recorded albums for Asylum Records and then Eminent Records. Both Nashville record labels closed their doors without making much progress on Randall's behalf.

Randall calls the times that followed "the missing years."

"I lost my record deal, then Sony Tree (Music Publishing) didn't pick up my option as a writer and I lost my draw, and because I lost my record deal I had to cancel every tour date because I had no tour support, and then I got a divorce," Randall said. "And it was all too close together to recover. I couldn't pick up a gig with anybody, and I just was a mess. I started drinking whiskey like it was going out of style, and chasing wild women, and just kind of jumped off the deep end."

Randall's misery was about to give birth to one of the greatest duets in modern day Country Music.

"I was laying around on my manager's (Monty Hitchcock) couch with a bottle of whiskey, and I said, 'I'm just feeling sorry for myself right now.'

"And he said, 'Hey man, every now and then you've got to put a bottle to your head and pull the trigger. Everybody does it.'

"And I thought, 'OK, I'm going to have to write that down.' And it stuck with me, and I was trying to figure out how to use that in a song, and I came up with this guy who kills himself drinking, and then Bill Anderson and I got together and ... 'Whiskey Lullaby' was born."

Alison Krauss and Brad Paisley recorded the song, scoring a major hit and two 2004 CMA Awards for Musical Event and Music Video of the Year.

Randall accepted a songwriting deal with Ree Guyer at Wrensong Music Publishing, and his career started turning around. Lyle Lovett and Bush tapped him to go back out on the road, and soon John Grady, Sony Music Nashv ille President, offered him a chance to record a new album.

"Jon Randall is an incredibly gifted artist, who grew up in Texas, and has been around Country Music his entire life," Grady said. "He and his talents are a gift to the Country Music industry."

Randall asked George Massenburg to produce and the two went with a different approach - recording live in one room all together.

"I'm better when I perform live," Randall said. "We decided this record needs to be built around me - the band needs to follow me. All the imperfections are there, but the imperfections to me are better than when I try to do it perfect."

The album features 12 songs written by Randall that highlight the tenor harmonies that are so often sought by other artists in the studio. Randall's girlfriend Jessi Alexander sings harmony on the title track, and his father Ronnie co-wrote the beautiful "North Carolina Moon," featuring harmonies by Sonya Isaacs. As a nod to his love of bluegrass, the album is capped with the Robert Lee Castleman tune, "My Life." The song is meaningful to Randall because it includes instrumental work by Bush, Bela Fleck and John Cowan from one of his favorite bands, New Grass Revival.

"That song is my tip of the hat to New Grass," Randall said. "One of the greatest moments of my whole life was being onstage at Telluride with Sam, and John Cowan, and Larry Adamaniuk, and they wanted to do a set of bluegrass and Bela came out and we did all this New Grass stuff. That was my most favorite thing I've ever done - for me, that's like getting to play with the Stones."

Randall is touring periodically with Earl Scruggs and his band, and will soon sing on a Scruggs album. He is promoting his Sony album, and looking forward to the next one.

"At one point I was ready to leave this town, Randall said. "I had already put it in my head that I'm gone. But then everything turned around. ... I'm still doing my arti st thing, and still go out and play with my heroes. And I like making that work."

Songwriters Bill Anderson and Jon Randall are nominated for 2005 CMA Song of the Year for "Whiskey Lullaby," recorded by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss. "The 39th Annual CMA Awards," which airs live Tuesday, Nov. 15 (8:00 - 11:00 PM/ET) on the CBS Television Network from Madison Square Garden in New York City, will be hosted by Brooks & Dunn.

On the Web: www.jonrandall.com

October 25, 2005