The first professional songwriters in Nashville were honored at a star-studded yet homespun tribute at Blair School of Music, an appropriate way to honor a duo described as “lovebirds” whose song-pitching strategy usually included a homecooked pasta supper.

“The music of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant is around us all the time,” said John Seigenthaler, founder of Vanderbilt’s First Amendment Center, who hosted the Friday evening event with broadcaster Ralph Emery.

It would be hard to argue the point when considering just a short list of the songs the Bryants contributed to popular music. Their songbooks, the originals of which were displayed in the lobby of Blair’s Martha Ingram Ingram Center for the Performing Arts for the occasion, include enduring classics such as “Rocky Top,” “All I Have to do is Dream,” “Country Boy,” “Wake up Little Susie” and “Love Hurts.”

In all, songs by the Bryants account for more than a half billion in records sales by artists including The Everly Brothers, Nazareth, Elvis Presley, Loretta Lynn, Ricky Nelson and many more.

“They were such sweet people, and there’s a tinge of sweetness to all (of these songs),” said Del Bryant, president and CEO of BMI and son of Boudleaux and Felice. Son Dane Bryant also attended, along with a host of music luminaries including Phil Everly, Jim Foglesong, Sean Camp, Norro Wilson and Harold Bradley.

Footage from interviews with the Bryants (Boudleaux died in 1987, Felice in 2003) allowed the couple to tell their own story, including meeting when Felice sprayed Boudleaux with water while trying to help him at a water fountain. She was an elevator operator at a hotel, and he a musician hired to entertain.

“Within five days we had eloped,” Boudleaux said in one of the old interviews. “We had gone off to look for a preacher.”

Music for the evening was provided by Vince Gill and the newlywed couple Jon Randall and Jessi Alexander. Composer Alexandra Du Bois, who attended, created a string quintet arrangement of Bryant hits that started off the evening.

Three Bryant songs celebrating their 50th anniversary were noted, with “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Susie” being performed by Alexander and Randall, while Gill brought out daughter Jennie Gill to duet on “All I Have to Do is Dream.”

The evening ended with a singalong on “Rocky Top,” marking one of the few times Commodore fans willingly sang along with the University of Tennessee fight song.

Contact: Jim Patterson, (615)343-1271   
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu