THE MUZIK-ZONE
Musicians I Have Known
Marjy Plant

Brace Yourself - Marjy Plant

Even though I haven't seen or heard from Marjy Plant in years, we go back a long, long way - so long I can't remember exactly how or where I even met her.

Marjy is one of those songwriters who deserved a lot more recognition than she has ever received ... but she didn't "fit the mold." Like Patsy Cline, one of her major influences, Marjy broke the mold.

Her musical influences include Emmylou Harris, Patsy Cline, Connie Frances, Teresa Brewer, Melanie and Willie Nelson.

One of her songs, "Mean Truckin' Mama", has a line that goes "If you don't like my music, get outa my way!" and that expresses her attitude toward the establishment music industry, as does her later song "Ass Kissin' Time in Music City USA."

Marjy and I knew each other through some of the roughest years of both our lives back in the 1970s. She played writer's nights and I was between being a free man and being thrown in jail.

My "crime" was officially publishing a newspaper on Sunday. In truth, it was because I had exposed a corrupt sheriff and a drug ring run by his own deputies. One deputy, Morris Heithcock, was murdered on his way to my Fairview home to bring me the proof.

It made a big stir in the local news (The Tennessean and local TV) and a much smaller one in the national news (Editor & Publisher magazine). I even got a very supportive call from then-publisher John Siegenthaler, for whom I have immense respect.

It was after I got out of jail that I and Marjy actually lived together for a while.

Marjy and I, her sister Jan, friends Melissa and a couple of other women all lived together in this big three-story house just west of Centennial Park off West End in Nashville. Now, I might have been in Male Heaven living with five women, but it was a platonic community, so don't get any wild ideas.

The old house is gone now, torn down and replaced by an office complex, but the memories remain.

I was writing for Modern People magazine (a series of articles on the Kennedy assassinations) and working with the "founder" of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Texas Congressman Henry Gonzalez (now deceased).

But that's another story for another place and time.

Marjy ran a lawn care service called "Up Your Grass" and I worked with her, along with her old friend Bob, who passed on several years ago. I mostly ran the weed eaters.

Marjy's dad lived with me for several months just west of Fairview on a beautiful farm across the road from a creek with its own little waterfalls.

Marjy's fans would all gather wherever she was playing that night. We were a rowdy crowd, I'm sure, socking away the beer and hollering out requests.

Many were the nights that I would sit and listen to Marjy fine-tune her songs, often picking along with her on my old guitar. I remember most of her songs like it was yesterday.

I remember, too, one winter before we lived off West End. I lived in Fairview and was driving up to Nashville when it suddenly started smothering us in snow. By the time I got to Nashville, it was a couple of feet deep (that never happens any more!).

I got stranded in Nashville for weeks. Marjy lived near 100 Oaks shopping mall at the time. We struggled to stay warm and fed that winter, but the thing I remember most was Bert & Ernie. Marjy was making some paper mache (sp?) masks of the two Sesame Street characters and I was making one and she the other, teaching me how. The masks turned out amazingly well!

So much for the personal anecdotes - what about Marjy's music?

She reminds me so much of Patsy Cline and the old female country singers - back when country really was country. Marjy is raw and gritty and her voice packs a powerful emotional punch, whether it's the lament of love or the sassiness of rebellion.

To my knowledge she's only had one song recorded by a "star"; the song is "Wheels of Love" and the "star" was Emmylou Harris, another of my favorites.

You might not think much about it, but an Indie songwriter getting a song recorded by Emmlyou in the songwriter's lifetime is almost a miracle. It's common for Emmylou to stash a song away for as long as 25 years before recording it. That's how long she kept Tracy Chapman's song, now on her latest album.

Here's an excerpt from Marjy's MySpace page, in her own words:

Marjy Plant here.........
Welcome to my first website. You'll hear 4 songs I have written while I was living in Nashville, Tn.
The first song is called

"WHEELS OF LOVE" (ASCAP)
Emmylou Harris recorded it on her Brand New Dance album and it was also included on her Anthology album. It is an optimistic song about love even if it hasn't worked in the past. Who knows. The wheels of love keep turning round and round.

"BRACE YOURSELF" (ASCAP)
Is what could happen once the lovebug bites again. It has excellent instrumentals guaranteed to put you in a good mood. So..."Brace Yourself"

"THANK YOU FOR THE SHOES" (ASCAP)
This song seems to be my most requested song. A lot of people love this song. Maybe a lot of people need new shoes?

"ASS KISSIN' TIME IN MUSIC CITY USA" (ASCAP)
Now for the last song. It is kind of self explanatory. But as you take a listen, you'll see even I haven't figured this one out yet.