Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506140101
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: B. LYNN WILLIAMS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The country is where his heart's always remained, despite the lyrics of his recent Top 10 hit, "The City Put the Country Back in Me."
The Giles County native who has made his mark in country music talked recently by phone about his successful songwriting career. By anyone's standards, it has been a good one.
Huffman, 47, penned Conway Twitty's ``Tight Fittin' Jeans,'' which rose to No. 1 and became a country classic. He said Twitty told him that the 1981 song was his top hit - beating out his trademark, ``Hello Darlin'.''
The association with Twitty rewarded Huffman as well, since a hit song pays off handsomely for the songwriter. ``Tight Fittin' Jeans,'' which was written in about 20 minutes, continues to produce royalties. To date, Huffman has earned several hundred thousand dollars from the song.
Although the rewards from a Top 10 hit are substantial, most country songwriters toil in obscurity, writing several hours every day, hoping to catch the attention of a major artist who will cut their tune.
``The good ones come quick, like `Tight Fittin' Jeans,' '' Huffman said.
Sometimes a title will linger in a writer's mind for months before a song pours out. Occasionally, the music precedes the lyrics, with the words coming later.
For Huffman, who considers himself a wordsmith, the lyrics usually come first. Still, ``I truly believe that if you've got a hit tune, you'll have a hit song.''
Successful songs ``touch you, hitting you somewhere you've lived at,'' he said.
They can be about anything, but Huffman concentrates on ``men, women, hate, and love'' - the sort of subjects that affect everybody.
Huffman wrote his first song at 16, but the performing bug bit him much earlier.
Growing up, he listened and watched as his father, Harold Huffman, also a songwriter, sang and played the guitar at home.
His mother, Joy Huffman, a poet, first realized that her son had talent at the tender age of 3.
One day he toddled over and got the fly swatter, which he turned around to mimic a guitar. Then he proceeded to play his ``instrument,'' just like he'd seen his father do, she said.
``I saw it and thought my heart would burst inside me,'' Joy Huffman said proudly.
From his ``fly swatter guitar,'' Huffman graduated to writing poetry that came easily. He also began performing with a friend, Gene Atkins, who shared his interest in country music.
His parents and other relatives had no doubt that he could make a living in country music. His paternal grandmother follows his career closely, always knowing the current status of his songs on the charts.
After Huffman received a discharge from the military in 1971, his father, who had written the country hit ``The Muddy Mississippi'' for Mel Street, prodded him to move to Nashville.
Harold Huffman knew that Nashville was the place to be if his son wanted a career in country music. Michael Huffman's first recording as a singer was on a small label that he can't recall, but he does remember the song. It was called ``They've All Gone Commercial.''
Huffman initially wanted to perform his music, but he soon realized that the glamorous life of star performers was not all it appeared to be.
He saw a constant merry-go-round of cutting albums in the studio, promoting the songs by traveling around the country most of the year and then coming home to start the cycle once again.
Deciding that sort of life was not for him, Huffman concentrated on songwriting so that he could spend time with his wife, Penny (also a Giles County native), and sons, John Michael and Logan.
The early years were pretty lean, he said, which makes his present success much more enjoyable.
Writers receive compensation from record sales (CDs, tapes), but the payoff ``comes from radio air play,'' Huffman said, noting that between six and eight cents are returned to the songwriter.
Hit tunes also reward the writer in other ways.
``Tight Fittin' Jeans,'' which grew out of the urban-cowboy craze that swept the country in the early '80s, has been used in talk show segments and on soap operas, such as ``Days of Our Lives.'' A recent song, ``Adalida,'' provides the backdrop to a Miller Lite beer commercial featuring George Strait.
In recent years as a songwriter with Hori-Pro, a song publishing company in Nashville, Huffman has stopped writing solo, and his career has really flourished.
``The City Put the Country Back in Me,'' sung by Neal McCoy and ``Adalida,'' both Top 10 tunes, were written by Huffman and his writing partners, Woody Mullis and Mike Geiger.
Mullis and Geiger also perform and were recently signed by Warner Brothers Records as an act called ``Cooter Brown,'' which may signal even more success for Huffman since most of the duo's material will come from Hori-Pro songwriters.
Huffman's songs and artists who recorded them
``Old Time Family Blue Grass Band'' (1978), Oak Ridge Boys
``Oh, How I Love My Wicked Ways'' (1979), Ivory Jack
``The One Thing My Lady Never Puts Into Words'' (1979), Mel Street
``Nothing's Sacred Any More'' (1980), Johnnie High
``I Made You a Woman for Somebody Else'' (ca.1980), Josh Logan
``Tight Fittin' Jeans'' (1981), Conway Twitty
``I Made You a Woman for Somebody Else'' (1981), Conway Twitty
``Play Me or Trade Me'' (1981), Mel Tillis & Nancy Sinatra
``Drive Me to Drink'' (1992), George Jones
``Til One of Us Has Gone Out of My Mind'' (1991), Steve Wariner
``Losing You is New to Me'' (1994), Skip Ewing
``My Past is Looking Brighter All the Time'' (1994), Statler Brothers
``Til One of Us Has Gone Out of My Mind'' (1994), Diamond Rio
``The One Who Hung the Moon'' (1994), Glen Campbell
``The City Put the Country Back in Me'' (1994), Neal McCoy
``Adalida'' (1994), George Strait
``Hold it Right There'' (1995), Woody Lee
*``One Lifetime Ain't Enough for Loving You'' (1995),Noel Haggard
*Due to be recorded
by CNB