Friday, Mar. 27, 2009
Los Banos insurance agent makes lifelong mark on Billboard charts
By Samantha Salas / ssalas@losbanosenterprise.com
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ReprintFarmer's Insurance Agent Terry Brown isn't all he claims to be. Behind the family-owned business in Los Baños stands a man with more than just a passion for music; pencil, paper and guitar in hand.
A singer-song writer, Brown has been "writing ditties" since his early childhood in Anadarko, Oklahoma. And now, almost 40 years later, he continues to write, sing, and produce some of County-Western's most popular songs on the Billboard charts.
While his gift came early in life, his skills were perfected at Claremore Junior College Hank Thompson School of Country Music in Oklahoma, which was opened in 1973 by the country and western singer. Brown received an Associate of Arts Degree in Country Music from the college, where he also met his now wife Hilda Machado Brown of Los Baños.
"It was my second semester there, and I said to my friend, 'I'm gonna marry that girl right there,'" Brown said.
Valentine's Day of 1980 Machado Brown finally said 'yes' and in April of the same year, there were married in Los Baños. It was his song, "Nobody Wants to Be a Cowboy Anymore," that drew Machado Brown in, she said of seeing him perform during college.
"I fell in love with the song when I saw him," she said. "I still get goosebumps."
Dabbing into the insurance business at age 19, Brown said he left his $80,000 per year job in Oklahoma to move to Missouri to write songs for a publishing company.
"We were there for 16 months, and then we moved to Nashville," Brown said. "We spent 27 years there."
It was in Nashville that Brown's music career took off. His hard work at establishing himself as a songwriter had paid off; many major labels, producers and artists wanted a Terry Brown song.
His first major "cut" was in 1989; "Dancin' Shoes" by the Marshall Tucker Band. Shortly after, Brown co-wrote a song with Charley Pride. "Amy's Eyes" was released and chosen by Nashville Songwriters Association International, NSAI, as one of the 15 best written songs recorded in 1990.
"That has done amazing things for my career," Brown said. "And he (Pride) wanted me to sing back-up. The producer went nuts because they were spending thousands of dollars on back-up singers. And after hearing my demo, Charley wanted me to sing it with him.
"It took us two takes," Brown said.
Brown said he thinks no matter what road he would have taken career-wise, songwriting would have surfaced eventually.
"It's a gift," he said. "And sometimes I can't write fast enough to get it all out."
Brown continued writing songs as his life unfolded on the road. In the meantime, apart from backstage passes, autograph signings and packed tour busses, he fulfilled a promised to his father.
"I promised my Dad that one day I'd write a cowboy album," he said.
And he did. Released in 2000, "A Cowboy...Born a Hundred Years Too Late" was nominated for Album of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists. His tribute to the American West featured "Silver Spur," which won Song of the Year in 2000.
"What are the odds," Brown said of his win. "We were so stunned. It was so awesome because we were up against such big people."
A devoted and inspired Machado Brown spent the following morning in 2000 on the road with Brown writing what has recently become a screen play for an upcoming major motion picture.
"That's a true miracle," Machado Brown said. "And it's all because of his song."
Brown will tell you he's a cowboy, something that helped him produce his award-winning album. But it's not because he can ride a horse; he can't.
"It's a belief system. It's part of your heart," he said.
These people-people complement each other, Machado Brown said, of their creative differences.
"I can't do what she does," Brown said of Machado Brown's short story turned nearly motion picture. "Give me two minutes and I'll write you a good story. Two-hundred pages; no way."
Brown said one of his greatest compliments was when a rodeo announcer told him listening to his music was like reading a Louis L'Amour novel.
"It'll never forget that," Brown said.
The journey a song takes is relatively the same: from conception to demo recording to producer to artist; however, the time it takes to get from one end to the other can be as different as the writer behind the notes.
For one of 2003's number one hits "Five O'Clock Somewhere" by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet, Brown said, songwriter Don Rollins and co-writer Jim Brown "wrote the song one day, demoed it the next and Alan (Jackson) recorded it the next. Within three days, they were millionaires."
In other instances, a song he wrote for good friend Aaron Tippin, "Drivin' Fool," was written by Brown from a personal experience 12 years prior to Tippin's February 2009 album release, "In Overdrive."
"I'm tickled because it's the only original song on the album," Brown said.
"Songs are timeless," Machado Brown added. "It doesn't matter when they were written."
To date, Brown has nine gold records and three platinum records, numerous nominations and awards, and a catalogue of more than 1600 written songs.
Life hasn't slowed down for this gifted songwriter either. Brown currently owns a publishing company, Terry Brown Music / BMI, and is a partner in two others.
And he's always had the support of his family to help bring him to where he is today.
"My parents have always encouraged me; even to this day, through all the ups and downs," he said. "But that's the chicken and feathers of the music business."
Enterprise reporter Samantha Salas can be reached by phone at (209)388-6562 or by e-mail at ssalas@losbanosenterprise.com