Songwriter 'happy beyond words' to be Hicks' Pick

Thursday, March 05, 2009
Special Sections
CHRIS.WELCH@htimes.com

The call that local musician/songwriter Alan Little had waited for and dreamed about for 13 years came last October from Season 5 "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks of Birmingham.

"Taylor started off by telling me to go get a beer, it was time for me to celebrate," Little said of his friend, who he met - not coincidentally - 13 years ago at Auburn before anybody had heard of Taylor Hicks.

Indeed it was time for Little, a member of the band Shametown, to celebrate, because Hicks was including Little's song "Wedding Day Blues" on his new album "Go the Distance," which comes out Tuesday.

But the celebration wasn't over after the phone call.

Two weeks later, producer Simon Climie, who has recorded Eric Clapton, Faith Hill and Carlos Santana, called and said he and Hicks were listening to Little's recording of "Wedding Day Blues" and they loved his style of guitar - so much that they wanted him to get on a plane with his guitar and head out to Burbank, Calif.

"I was cool on the phone getting this news," Little said, but was happy beyond words inside.

It kept getting better. Two weeks later, he walked into the Burbank studio and found an all-star ensemble waiting to record with him. It was Nathan East - Eric Clapton's bass player for 25 years; Abe Laboriel Jr. - currently Paul McCartney's drummer; Doyle Bramhall II - Clapton's touring guitar player; and Tim Carmon - keyboard player for Clapton, Sheryl Crow and Bob Dylan and other great musicians.

"They were all wonderful and nice fellows to be around and they made my job recording really easy and incredibly fun," Little said.

The recording session and song on Hicks' album have been a long time coming. Little wrote "Wedding Day Blues" in 1996 about a heartbroken ex-boyfriend who was invited to attend an old flame's wedding. At the same time, his best friend invited Little to Auburn to be an interim drummer for the band Passing Through.

"I remember quite clearly getting phone calls from David (Schrimsher) and him telling me, 'Man you have to hear our singer, he's almost 20 years old, looks and sounds like he's 50, has tons of gray hair, he's incredible and his name is Taylor Hicks,'" Little said.

Long story short: Hicks loved "Wedding Day Blues" and promised to one day record it. When Hicks won "Idol" Little thought he'd never hear from Hicks again, but the Birmingham singer kept his promise.

"I met Alan when I was 17 and again when I was 20 and got this song," Hicks said. "It's got this story and stuff and we fell in love with it.

"From a story aspect, he's a great story songwriter, and for this record I wanted to have some great stories on it, lyrically and musically. I didn't flinch to call Alan again."

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