About Harlan Howard Songs

Harlan Howard no longer sits behind the desk in the lovely restored house-turned-office just off Nashville's famed Music Row, but the spirit of the man known as "The Irving Berlin of country music" permeates every corner of the building.  While the walls are covered with songwriting awards, there is not enough wall space to display the hundreds of accolades the prolific songwriter garnered in his lifetime, chief among them induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

A larger-than-life, genuine character whose legend was exceeded only by his accomplishments, Harlan Howard died in 2002 at the age of 74, leaving behind his "child bride" and legions of friends and fellow songwriters to fan the flames of his legacy.  In addition to the more than 4,000 songs he penned, including 100 plus top ten hits, that sizeable endowment includes publishing companies bearing his name and that of his fifth wife, Melanie Smith Howard:  Harlan Howard Songs and Melanie Smith Music. 

Melanie and Harlan met in 1987 and married two years later.  At the time they met, Melanie worked for Central South Music Sales, a music distribution company, but the veteran songwriter and songplugger saw something in the young woman that caused him to believe she would be a great publisher.  "Harlan and I started the company together in 1988 before we were married." Melanie explained.  "I was at his house one day and asked him if I could listen to some of the songs he'd written.  He took out reels of tape, and I was stunned.  I didn't even know how to hook up a reel-to-reel player and thread the tape through to play it.  It was totally antiquated."

Although signed to Tree Publishing, one of Nashville's largest independent publishers with a professional staff of songpluggers, Harlan told Melanie one day he wanted her to pitch his songs.  "I told him the only way I would do it was if we updated his catalog system and brought him into the 20^th Century." she laughed.  "I researched what I would need to make that happen, so I bought a DAT player and a computer.  I felt like Tree would have the definitive versions of his songs, so I went over there every couple of days and started gathering his catalog on a reel-to-reel, and gradually started transferring his songs – three or four reels a day.  As I cataloged them, I began to listen with an ear to pitch them to certain artists – ‘This would be a great song for Ronnie Milsap, or George Jones or Tammy Wynette,' whoever I thought might be cutting." He told me those were great ideas and then said, ‘You run with them.'"

There was only problem, Melanie told him, "I have no idea how to go about it." Undaunted, he told his protégé that if she would tell him who she wanted to play a song for, he'd give her the name of a contact for that artist.  The first appointment for the fledging songplugger was a legend in the business, Mary Martin, a woman revered to have great "ears" who was managing Vince Gill at the time.  Possessed of little knowledge about publishing, Melanie didn't even know enough to ask the right questions, just enough to set up a listening session with Martin.  Melanie chuckles remembering the meeting:  "That was induction by fire.  I took three ballads, and of course they were looking for tempo. Mary was just so curt and matter-of-fact, dragging on her cigarette all the while, and she rejected everything I played her. I came out of that session so dejected.  I told Harlan she scared me to death, but he assured me that Mary was great; I just didn't have what she was looking for." 

Harlan never let Melanie go to a meeting unprepared again.  "You've got to do your homework," he stressed to her.  So her approach went from, "Hi, it's Melanie Smith" to "Hi, it's Melanie from Harlan Howard's office and I want to come play you some songs."  She assumed, correctly it turned out, that Harlan's name would at least get her in the door.  She also realized that she couldn't waste their time once she got a meeting, so she started asking them what they were looking for so she could go armed with the right songs, whether up-tempo, positive love songs, ballads, traditional country, whatever, she would narrow her search through the catalog down to just what that artist was looking for. 

She quickly learned that if you have great songs and you have access, that's all you need.  "Harlan Howard's name could open just about any door in town, so it was frightfully easy," she contends. Since that name seemed to be so highly bankable, the company that grew from those early attempts was called Harlan Howard Songs.   They started the company in a "half-way house" in 1989.  Melanie explained:  "Harlan always said it was half-way to where he'd been and half-way to where he was going."  They signed their first writer, Jackson Leap, in mid-1988.  He was their first and only writer for three or four years.  The company acquired a prominence on Music Row when the couple bought an early 20^th Century house, lovingly restored it and announced their presence to the community with a launch party in 1994. 

With the publishing company established, Melanie set about accomplishing another goal: having Harlan write for his own company.  "Harlan was contractually obligated to Tree, but I felt he should at least be a staff writer at his own company," Melanie elaborated.  That goal finally became reality when Sony, an international music conglomerate, bought Tree.   "Harlan was already lamenting that there was too much business in songwriting, anyway, so that was kind of a deal breaker," she added.  He accomplished his release in 1991, joined the company that bore his name, and in 1993, Patty Loveless recorded "Blame It On Your Heart," one of his biggest hit songs, which went on to earn BMI Country Song of the Year honors.  The same year, Trisha Yearwood and Aaron Neville won a Grammy Award for their revival of "I Fall To Pieces." 

Harlan Howard died on March 3, 2002 at the age of 74.  Since then Melanie had dedicated herself to keeping his legacy alive, and she feels strongly that Harlan is up in Heaven looking after his affectionately-named "child bride."  There are signs every day, she believes. "I keep saying ‘divine inspiration,'" she laughs.   Determined to maintain the small, boutique atmosphere of the company, Melanie has, over the past three years, shifted the emphasis from pure songwriters to singer/songwriters who represent their own music.   She signed folk/Americana sensations Mary Gauthier (pronounced Go-Shay) and Lori McKenna, both of whom now have recording contracts with major labels, along with a country traditionalist, Mac Elliott.

She explained, however, that she almost let Mary get away.  "I got several letters in 2001 from Mary's manager at the time, Marlene Baker, telling me she had a folk artist she wanted me to hear.  I just kept stumbling over the word ‘folk,' so I didn't even listen to the tape.  Harlan was very ill, so I put the letter and tape aside, which was unusual, since I try to listen to at least a couple of songs on a tape.  They had sent out 61 letters without getting a reply, but Mary told Marlene to really hound us, because she thought we would get her.  By the third letter, I was so embarrassed that I hadn't even listened to the tape, so I got out the tape and saw a song called ‘I Drank' and thought that was a good country title, so I'd listen to that. I was floored.  Then I listened to "Goodbye Could Be My Family Name," which was also great.  I called her manager and told her to have Mary come over, and 15 minutes later she was standing in my office.   Turns out she was my neighbor."

Melanie also helped Mary land her first major record deal.  "I played her stuff for Luke Lewis at Universal.  He was intrigued but didn't really know what to do with her.  He finally saw her live in early 2005 and was convinced he had to sign her to Lost Highway.  I'm shopping her songs now to film and television."  In that, she has been successful.  Mary has the end title to a new CBS series called "In Justice" about people wrongly convicted of crimes for one reason or another, and every episode features "Mercy Now" at the end. 

Melanie and one staff person wear all the hats at Harlan Howard Songs.  "Sara (Johnson) and I do it all – we are a two woman team, although Mary has kind of become my unofficial A&R person."

It was through Mary that Melanie met another Boston-based writer, Lori McKenna.  Mary was familiar with Lori from the Boston music scene, and at her urging, Melanie went to Boston and met with Lori and heard her play.  "I was immediately taken with her.  Never in my wildest imagination did I think a mother of five who writes songs every day could be as prolific as she is and write such great songs.  She lives two doors down from the house where she grew up.  She never left her street, much less her hometown.  Married her high school boyfriend and they've been married 17 years.  She has just gotten a record deal on Warner Bros.  When I told her about the record deal she said, ‘Melanie, a year ago I had my fifth baby, and now you tell me I have a record deal on a major label!'  I worry about her because she's so sweet and so innocent.  I've heard "neo-folky" "alternative country," but I think she is just a great songwriter.  Her songs speak to me as a person, as a female.  I'm not a mother, but I understand her characters, and I relate to them."

I'm happy with the company right where it is.  I'm a boutique and I don't aspire to be huge.  We have three writers – Mary, Lori McKenna and Mack Elliott, who's very traditionally country, along the lines of Harlan.  We have the back catalog of several other writers as well – Jimmy Melton, Rory Lee, Jackson Leap, who is still with us although he doesn't write full time anymore, Bobbie Cryner and Lisa Scott.   I learned from the best; I learned publishing a specific way. 

 "I think Mary and Lori are both part of Harlan's master plan.  People have said Mary just channels Harlan.  I truly feel he's up there showing me what to do and still guiding me.