American memory filled with Pvt. Malones
By WALTER CARTER
Two powerful memories from the 1960s, a ’66 Chevrolet Corvette and the
war in
Vietnam, provided the inspiration for Wood Newton and Thom Shepherd to
write
David Ball’s latest hit, Riding with Private Malone.
The song started like thousands of other Nashville songs, with Newton seeing
Shepherd perform some of his own material and inviting him to co-write.
" We ran through each other’s dumb ideas, ran through four or five of
them, " Newton said, " and he pulled out this idea.
" He’s a car nut, and through the Internet, he had seen a Web site
that a guy had dedicated to his own ’66 Corvette.
" It started with a picture this guy had found of the original owner
standing in front of his car. He had researched it to find out more
about the guy.
" Thom had the idea and the part about the note, and he had the
name Malone. "
The ’66 Corvette brought back painful memories for Newton.
" My cousin, Jeff Newton, went to Vietnam, " he said. " He was a
second lieutenant, one of 14 guys in a platoon of 30 that came back.
" He got killed in his ’66 Corvette the night he got back. Ran off the
straightest road in Arkansas. We were close as kids.
" And I had another classmate out of a class of 28, Sammy Evans,
who was killed over there. "
Newton and Shepherd debuted the song on Opry Star Spotlight, where
David Ball heard it.
Newton had just spent the past year producing Ball’s new album,
Amigo, and they had just finished the 12-song album.
" I thought we were done with his record, " Newton said. " David said,
‘That’s what you think.’ "
Ball made a guitar-bass-vocal demo in his home studio, and when his
record label, Dualtone, heard the demo, the song was added to the
album.
The song moved audience members when Ball, Newton and Shepherd
performed it before a group of veterans at the traveling Veterans’
Memorial Wall at Bicentennial Capitol Mall.
DJ Carl P. Mayfield gave it a spin on WKDF and got the biggest
reaction of any record since Murder on Music Row.
After Sept. 11, Riding with Private Malone captured the spirit of
patriotism and began shooting up the country charts.
Wood Newton was born and raised in Hampton, Ark., population,
1,600. In April, he went back to perform at the 10th annual Hogskin
Holidays festival.
In addition to a concert performance, he was grand marshal in the
parade and performed the national anthem to open the two-day pro
rodeo.
Newton graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1970 with a
degree in business administration, but he says his best education in
business came during the summers he sold books for Southwestern
Company of Nashville.
Soon after moving to Nashville in 1976, he met Dan Tyler, and
together they wrote Bobbie Sue by the Oak Ridge Boys and Twenty
Years Ago by Kenny Rogers.
Newton’s hit list now includes I Want Everyone to Cry by Restless
Heart, Midnight Hauler by Razzy Bailey and What I Didn’t Do by Steve
Wariner, plus three charted singles from his 1978 solo album.
Thom Shepherd grew up in Stephens City, Va., and graduated from
George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
He left the film and TV industry to pursue a singing and writing career
in Nashville, where he and his band, Twang Thang, are regulars at
Legend’s Corner downtown and also at Opryland, Opry Mills and the
Wildhorse Saloon.
Shepherd’s songs have been recorded by Trini Triggs, Skip Towne,
Christian artist Amber Thompson and bluegrass group Whitewater,
and 14 of his tunes are featured on his album, Could Be Worse.
Walter Carter is a Nashville writer and a member of Nashville Mandolin Ensemble.