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Songwriter's friends and associates left him
in the dark
By BILL WHITAKER
For a fellow accustomed to spinning words and music together,
Mel Holt was at a loss for both Friday evening.
Although easy-going, unassuming Mel is CEO of Nashville-based
Step One Records, he was in darkness till the end when Step One
executive and pal Ray Pennington, country crooner Curtis Potter
and colleagues decided to press a CD paying tribute to Mel's songwriting
success.
Keeping Mel's nose out of the plan must've been a challenge,
too, though the fact Mel still makes his home here in Abilene
did help some.
"This is the first time - I swear - that I have ever not
told Mel the truth," Curtis told me during a surprise CD
release party and Mel Holt tribute at Zentner's Daughter's Steakhouse
last Friday evening.
The CD, highlighted on the air by KEAN's Rudy Fernandez yesterday
and due in record stores in the next few weeks, features songs
written by Mel and performed by what looks like a who's who of
country music, including Ray Price, Willie Nelson, Hank Thompson,
Gene Watson and the late Faron Young.
Asked why he didn't catch on about a CD being produced by his
own company, Mel smiled, shook his head and said: "I'm pretty
naive."
Guess so.
LYING TO THE PREACHER
"It wasn't easy," 63-year-old Step One head of production
and distribution Ray Pennington said of efforts to assemble the
CD without Mel's knowing. "You know, besides being a songwriter
and Step One's CEO, Mel is also a preacher, and you can't really
lie to a preacher.
"So when I was coming out here, I told him I was doing
promotional work," he said. "Only thing was, I was promoting
Mel Holt!"
Mel, who turns 77 in August (but doesn't look it) and has worked
56 years for Abilene's philanthropy-minded Jones family, managed
several words of gratitude but really did seem shocked.
As far as Mel knew, Ray was just coming through Abilene on
business and they were going out to eat, pure and simple. After
the surprise was sprung, though, Mel was almost too slack-jawed
to even consider eating.
A country songwriter since the 1950s who once worked alongside
Bill Fox for a label dubbed Fox Records, Mel saw one of his biggest
hits come in 1956, when Capitol's country standout Wynn Stewart
recorded "Why Do I Love You So?"
For many years afterward, the politics of the country music
biz - including the fact one had to cater ridiculously to various
moneyed names in Nashville - left Mel so frustrated he put away
his songwriting pen. Then a close West Texas pal came along with
an unusual offer.
"During the early 1980s, when Jack Cox told me he was
going to do a movie, he said, 'If you write me a song, I'll try
and put it in the movie.' And so I sat down and wrote it, and
I had not been writing for a while. Well, that got me started
again."
The song was the lovely "Secure for the Night." Floyd
Cramer ended up recording it, and the instrumental version is
one of the few worthwhile things to come from Jack Cox's colorful
though ultimately disappointing movie-making experiences.
NOT ONE OF THOSE?
Mel said the album "The Pen of Mel Holt" offers up
memories galore, including:
-- Working alongside Ray Price, one of the foundations of Step
One Records.
"When I first heard Ray Price sing 'Danny Boy' years and
years ago, I knew he was a singer's singer, and to hear him, years
later, sing a song of mine in the studio was simply overwhelming.
I was in the back of the studio and I have to admit I cried."
-- Overseeing a project uniting friend and associate Curtis
Potter with country giant Willie Nelson, including recording "Once
You're Past the Blues," a song that turned up on Step One's
"Six Hours at Pedernales."
"Willie is a very gracious man, very easy-going,"
Mel recalled. "What's the male counterpart of a prima donna?
Well, he's not one of those!"
-- Bittersweet memories of Faron Young, whose apparent suicide
still mystifies some in the country music business. During Friday
night's affair, Mel was also presented with a large, framed Faron
Young record, as well as a copy of a song Mel wrote for him, "Here's
to You."
"It puzzles you," Mel said of Faron Young and his
sad fate. "He was more fun than anything to work with."
The album conjures up other memories for Mel, including once
fervent hopes for teen-aged talent Dawnett Faucett, represented
by the song "Momma Never Told Me."
SHOPPING LIST SONGS
Although Mel may have been at a loss for words Friday night,
friends and associates sure weren't. Some came in from Nashville
just for this moment. Curtis Potter of Abilene, represented on
the album by "We're Not Talking Anymore," did lots of
talking about Mel's unrecognized (but definitely not unsung) greatness.
"Mel Holt will write a song in the middle of an aisle
at United Super Market," Curtis said. "I've seen him
so many times. He'll stop his grocery shopping and he'll be there
scribbling, and I'll say, 'Mel, what are you doing?' And he'll
just mutter, 'Oh, I've got this idea here....' "
Bill Whitaker, who's still waiting for Mel Holt to write a
song about him and his column-writing adventures, can be reached
at 670-5293, ext. 325.
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1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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