Max Barnes

IOWA BORN SONGWRITING GREAT MAX D. BARNES DIES IN NASHVILLE

BORN IN HARDSCRATCH, IOWA, 1936

HE BECAME ONE OF THE MOST GIFTED SONGWRITERS OF OUR TIME!

BMI Award-winning songwriter Max D. Barnes, co-writer of such classics as “Chiseled In Stone,” “Look at Us” and “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes,” died January 11, 2004 of pneumonia at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, TN.

He was 67.

One of Music City’s most respected and honored writers-and a favorite writing partner of Harlan Howard,

Merle Haggard and Vince Gill- Barnes provided hits to country music legends like George Jones, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Vern Gosdin, Randy Travis, Keith Whitley and Waylon Jennings, during a career that lasted nearly 40 years.

Max D. Barnes has lived the songs he wrote. He was born seventh out of 10 kids on July 24th, 1936 in Hardscratch, Iowa. He grew up in Nebraska during the Depression. After leaving school at 16, he began singing in an Omaha nightclub. He later formed his own band, the Golden Rockets. When he was 18 he married the bands lead singer, Patsy, and they raised three kids by hauling “swinging beef” in a semi. After two kids left home, he packed up his wife and the youngest child and headed for Nashville with the songs he’d written on the long truck rides. Eventually Patsy became his songwriting collaborator. “I probably would have kept driving if I hadn’t made it writing. It was a big part of my education.” Max D. always said “he learned more about songwriting from driving a semi than from any music classes that I ever took in high school. After his move to Nashville, Max sang demos and worked as a carpenter. He signed to several labels as an artist and always quipped that he sold “somewhere under a million” records before he gave up performing to concentrate on songwriting. Max D. has always said that through it all his wife Patsy, has been the “perfect songwriter’s wife. They both agree that it “hadn’t all been roses and sunshine” but more like one of his songs “Love Is A Long Hard Road.”

His first songwriting success came in 1966 when Tree Music published his “Uncanny Connie from Calgary.

He moved to Nashville in 1973 and saw his career take off in 1974 when Charley Pride recorded two of his songs

At the 1992BMI Country Awards presentation to “Look At Us”

David Conrad, Vince Gill, Mary Del Scobey, Roger Sovine,

Chris Oglesby, Max D. Barns, Francis Preston, Lance Freed

In 1979, Conway Twitty delivered Barnes his first #1 with “Don’t Take It Away” Other hits included “I Can’t Love You Enough” (for Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty), “Red Neckin’ Love Makin’ Night” (Twitty), “Look At Us” (Vince Gill) “Thank God For The Radio” (The Kendalls),”Joe Knows How To Live” (Eddy Raven), “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes” (George Jones”, “I Won’t Need You Anymore” and “If I Didn’t Have You” (Randy Travis), “Ten Feet Away” (Keith Whitley), “Don’t Tell Me What To Do” (Pam Tillis), “I’ve Got It Made” (John Anderson), “Chiseled In Stone”,

“If Your Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)”, and “This Ain’t My First Rodeo” (Vern Gosdin)

He was two-time winner of the Country Music Association’s prestigious Song Of The Year Prize: in 1998 for “Chiseled In Stone,” co-written with Gosdin and inspired by the death of Barnes’ elder son, Duane, in 1975, and in 1992 for “Look At Us” co-written with Gill. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1992.

Barnes is survived by his wife, Patsy, daughter, Genevieve Kephart, and son, Max T. Barnes, who is also a songwriter.

Burial was in the Hendersonville Memory Gardens.

BMI Awards List

“Chiseled In Stone” –1989 Country Award

“Don’t Take It Away”--1980 Country Award

“Don’t Tell Me What To Do”—1982 Country Award/Million-Air (2 million)

“Drinkin’ And Dreamin’--1986 Country Award

“I Can’t Love You Enough”--1978 Country Award

“I’ve Got It Made”--1995 Country Award/Million-Air

“I Won’t Need You Anymore”--1988 Country Award/Million-Air

“If I Didn’t Have You”—1993 Country Award/Million-Air (2 million)

“Joe Knows How To Live”--1989 Country Award /Million-Air

“Let Go Of The Stone”--1993 Country Award/Million-Air

“Look At Us”—1992 Country Award/Million-Air(2 Million)

“Love Ten Feet Away”—1987 Country Award

“Red Neckin’ Love Makin’ Night”—1982 Pop Award/1982 Country Award

“Thank God For The Radio”—1985 Country Award

“That Just About Does It”—1990 Country Award

“Way Down Deep”—1984 Country Award

“Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes”—l987 Country Award

“Do You Believe Me Now”—Million-Air

Max D. Secret to his songwriting success was: Keep It Simple! “I tried to write so there’s no confusion. Country music is for ordinary people. That’s what I am and I don’t ever want to get above that. I tried to trim every excess word. A song is like a mini-drama. You have to capture them in three minutes or it doesn’t work.”

And he would sing for anyone who’d listen

Singin’ from the bottom of his soul

For his songs to him are like his children

He believes they’re worth their weight

In gold…

Credits: The Above Information, Writing, Research; Courtesy of:

Historian, Curator, Harold. L. Luick, CEO/CMSI, Iowa/Midwest Country Music Heritage Museum, Library, Hall Of Fame.

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