We recently connected with Mark Narmore and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Mark thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
The first time I realized I wanted to pursue an artistic path professionally was probably at around 15 years of age. I grew up in and around the Muscle Shoals, Alabama area and my first cousin Spooner Oldham had helped launch the music industry there years prior. Spooner had a very successful career as a songwriter and studio keyboardist and he was definitely a mentor and role model for me. At 15 I began playing keyboards in local high school rock bands. We didn’t make huge money at the gigs, but I remember thinking that one could sustain themselves if they worked hard as a musician. Being near what was happening in Muscle Shoals was definitely influential on me improving my keyboard playing and singing, in hopes of being an artist or maybe a studio player or singer on hit records right here in the Shoals. As I exited high school in 1984, the recording industry had shifted and what had been a musical empire in the 1960’s, 70’s and early 80’s had dwindled quite a bit, to the point it sort of changed my direction. Throughout high school, I had thoughts of playing keyboards and singing, maybe even writing and producing hit recordings right here in my hometown, but now I shifted to Country songwriter. In 1984 I got a job as a country radio disc jockey. Hearing all the double entendre in country songs was really intriguing to me, so I studied it as if it were a songwriting college. Also FAME Publishing in Muscle Shoals had shifted to country music also and were having mega hits on the radio. In 1986 I was offered a position by Rick Hall as staff songwriter at FAME Publishing Company in Muscle Shoals as a country songwriter. I was over the moon. This company and studio had produced “I Never Loved A Man” for Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett’s Mustang Sally, The Osmonds, Etta James, Paul Anka an d tons more. Now their pivot helped my shift my style and learn that an eclectic toolbox throughout life is very helpful in any profession, especially a creative one.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have been signed as a professional songwriter from 1986 until the present time. Some of the companies I have written for over the years include FAME Publishing Co. in Muscle Shoals Alabama, Reba McEntire’s Starstruck Music Group, March Music, Jody Williams Music, SONY ATV Tree Music and for the past 15 years at Noble Vision Music Group based in Nashville. Some of the hits that I have either written or co-written include “The Moon Over Georgia” which was a national top 10 Country record on the group Shenandoah, “Like There Ain’t No Yesterday” by Blackhawk, which was a number 2 hit on the Country charts nationally, and “That’s What I Love About Sunday” which was a six week number one song in 2005 for Craig Morgan. It was also named as Billboard magazine’s Top 8 Country song of the 2000’s decade according to airplay. I have also had over 100 recordings of other songs I have either solely written or co-written. Some of the artists include John Michael Montgomery, Terri Clark, Alabama, Reba McEntire, Carly Pearce, Brandy Clark, Tenille Arts, Bernard Allison, and 15 songs co-written with country superstar Josh Turner. I also have played keyboards throughout the years, but I began playing more in the last 5 or 6 years due to some very good producer friends of mine Andreas Werner and Jim Gaines, encouraging me and hiring me on master recording sessions to play keyboards. Andreas Werner also encouraged me to engage an initial dream of mine of being a recording artist, which had gotten lost in the shuffle years ago. Andreas has produced three great albums on me. Jim Gaines and his wife Sandy Carroll who is a great writer/artist in her own right, co-write very regularly. He has included songs I have written on some of his productions of late. Jim’s accolades go deep, including either engineering or producing on Steve Miller Band, Huey Lewis and The News, Santana, Journey, Stevie Ray Vaughn and a myriad of others. Andreas and Jim have both been a huge influence on me with my musicianship and my songwriting.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn is not wait until inspiration strikes to create songs. As a young writer, I felt that I only wanted to write on song ideas that I believed were undeniable hit songs in any genre. I had a very high bar and only wrote a handful of songs I year. I nearly drove my self crazy and went super OCD with rewriting every song to the “nth” degree. This all sounds good on paper, but in the real world, I found that Nasvhille songwriting is super competitive and you have to have more than a handful of songs a year to compete and get songs recorded on hit artists that might let you have a chance at making a living. It took me a few years to give into this. Walt Aldridge at my first songwriting gig, was a huge mentor on all of us there. He told me, I was approaching my writing as more of a folk writer who was over concerned with everything concerning the lyric, and pretty much not thinking about the groove and the musicality of a “hit” record, I was zoned into thinking of the perfect lyric. When I started to think more about writing these Muscle Shoals and Motownesque musical motifs into some of my songs, I began having more fun, I was able to open up more and write outside the box, and really what helped most is that I was now able to generate enough songs to compete and earn a living as a professional songwriter. I didn’t totally give up my lyrical high bar, but I did lower it down from where it was at 130 percent or so.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Initially, ego goals for myself and to provide for my family were my driving force. I wanted to be esteemed by my peer group, I wanted to have huge hit Country records on the radio and hang multiple BMI Airplay awards in my hall. Some of those dreams came true, but not nearly in the way I had dreamed at the beginning. Instead of having 15 BMI Awards on my wall, I am so grateful and thankful to have 3, and I have had over 100 recordings on various artists. I have experienced a wonderful career. But as I mellow into my late fifties, I still find myself driven now, but in different ways.
For instance, I play many songwriter shows where there are four or five songwriters going around in a circle and sharing their stories and songs. This has become crucial for me as a soul, and entity to shed positivity, brotherly love and light anywhere I might be through my songs.I feel that my songs are vehicles to help humankind, if only in a small way. That is my real reward now. I love to give positive strokes and congruent encouragement to artist and songwriters who I feel deserve it, I love to point out what I perceive as the compelling aspects of their work in the hopes that doing so will boost their confidence, to the point that they might be courageous enough to take the next step, whatever that is. Dont’ get me wrong, I’m still targeting to have those big hits with the new up and coming Country acts, but in each co-writing situation I now want to have fun and encourage others to go way outside the box, up in the stratosphere musically and lyrically. I hope they see me going way out on a limb, having fun, having the time of my life, as much now as when I was 15. I want to show people it is ok to perturb the system and shake up the ordinary, there are always nuggets of random goodness that shake out, then you can take the random brilliant nuggets and build a story and a song around them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.marknarmore.com
- Instagram: marknarmoremusic
- Facebook: Mark Narmore
Image Credits
Mark Narmore