{"id":198,"date":"2014-09-04T21:25:44","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T21:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=198"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:57:24","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:57:24","slug":"somethin-bout-a-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2014\/09\/04\/somethin-bout-a-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Somethin&#8217; &#8217;bout a Song"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>2011 should have been a breakthrough year for Dan Couch \u201989. In March\u2026<\/h3>\n<p>\u2026his song <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0bYZEh8HBTQ\">\u201cMary Was the Marrying Kind,\u201d<\/a> co-written with Scott Stepakoff and Kip Moore and performed by Moore, hit #45 on\u00a0<em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Hot Country charts and was expected to keep climbing. Fellow writers lauded the song, and the top exec at Moore\u2019s record label called it a sure hit.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Kip Moore - Mary Was The Marrying Kind (Official Music Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0bYZEh8HBTQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Then it stalled.<\/p>\n<p>Couch began to wake up in the middle of the night, sick to his stomach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was 44 years old, looking at my sleeping wife and wondering,<em>\u00a0What have I done? This is not what she signed up for.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Only months earlier he and Tina Marie had sat in their worn-out Honda Civic listening to demos of the songs Couch had written with Moore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBaby, I think this is going to be our big break,\u201d Couch had told her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think so, too,\u201d she had said. \u201cBut, if not, we\u2019re okay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now Couch wasn\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n<p>He wondered aloud whether it was time to find a more lucrative career than this dream they had pursued for a decade and a half with little financial return. His wife\u2019s answer still moves him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe said, \u2018But babe, we\u2019re so close.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_398\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-398\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/puOarIaWKLQ\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-398    \" alt=\"dan walks ode\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/dan-walks-ode-1024x682.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/dan-walks-ode-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/dan-walks-ode-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/dan-walks-ode-335x223.jpg 335w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/dan-walks-ode-1050x700.jpg 1050w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-398\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Couch \u201989 walks into the offices of BMI in Nashville. Click on the photo to hear Couch talk about his journey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two years later, Couch is driving down Nashville\u2019s Music Row in a black Ford F-150 purchased with earnings from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3YfNFR6gh2E\">\u201cSomethin\u2019 \u2019bout a Truck,\u201d<\/a> the first of two #1 hits he co-wrote with Moore, the song that earned Moore the American Country Award for \u201cmost played radio track by a new artist\u201d in 2012.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Kip Moore - Somethin&#039; &#039;Bout A Truck (Official Music Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3YfNFR6gh2E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He and his family are living the dream\u2014an overnight sensation half a lifetime in the making.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of our music business takes place on these two streets, 16th and 17th Avenues,\u201d Couch says, pointing out rows of houses broken up by a few newer office buildings. \u201cThere\u2019s Sony Records, where Martina McBride had all those hits. There\u2019s the office of Doc McGhee, who manages Darius Rucker. That\u2019s Reba\u2019s place, Starstruck Entertainment\u2014we\u2019ve recorded demos there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Couch\u2019s fifth single with Moore, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fDfHRK-ZkCY\">\u201cDirt Road,\u201d<\/a> is being released in a few days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s on iTunes already and sold 19,600 downloads the first week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He points to a modest house that would fit in on Main Street in Crawfordsville. \u201cCarrie Underwood\u2019s management company is in the basement of that one back there.\u201d It\u2019s hard to tell where the homes end and the businesses begin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all business,\u201d Couch says. \u201cI was overwhelmed by this place when I first got here. I didn\u2019t know anything about how this town operated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet even when he left Seattle and medical sales in 1994 for Nashville (with an 18-month stint in his hometown of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OlgOcNIjVLc\">Logansport, IN,<\/a> in between), he knew he was going to the right place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had been wearing a suit,\u201d says Couch, whose work clothes today are jeans and gray T-shirt. \u201cI had a company car, I was making good money, they were grooming me for management, and I was miserable. One of my buddies told me, \u2018Go buy the most expensive house, car, and boat you can\u2014you\u2019ll keep working just to pay for the stuff.\u2019 But after 3 1\/2 years in the business, I just wasn\u2019t passionate about it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Couch took a leap of faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always thought there was something big out there for me to be part of. I\u2019m not sure where that comes from\u2014dreaming as a kid, I guess, and having parents who didn\u2019t crush those dreams, and good people and friends around me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI loved the way songs spoke to me even when I was a kid. My dad played guitar, and my mom loves music. She would stop me if she heard something lyrically cool. She\u2019d say, \u2018You\u2019ve gotta hear this!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At first he wanted to be a performer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came down here to be the next Garth Brooks, and I\u2019m so thankful I was delusional enough to think I could do that. It got me down here and writing songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tina Marie enrolled in nursing school at Middle Tennessee State. After a few years playing in clubs, Couch realized that he enjoyed writing songs much more than performing. By day he worked construction and catering. And there was the potato chip route. He\u2019d start at 5 a.m., finish up at noon, clean the chips out of the truck, and head for songwriting circles with a fellow writer he\u2019d met on the route.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were a fair number of people who thought I\u2019d lost my mind, but I\u2019d wake up every morning excited just to be alive. I was on fire inside again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was learning a lot, but earning little. In 1999 he got his first publishing contract with BMG.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey had a bunch of great writers on staff, and I was thrilled that someone was actually paying me to write songs. I also realized I hadn\u2019t made it yet. But it was a huge lesson, and we were on staff with the best of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Couch\u2019s option at BMG wasn\u2019t picked up after three years, so Couch signed with Malaco Music Nashville. They closed in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>He called his accountant, Dan Dickerson \u201989, and broke the news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMe and Dan Dickerson go way back,\u201d Couch says. \u201cI walked four miles to his parent\u2019s house in a blizzard one winter; I think he knew then that I was a little crazy. We played high school football together. And whether he wanted to be my math tutor or not, I would show up at Dan\u2019s house the night before a test and he would help me cram hard so that I could pass and stay eligible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo after Malaco closed I told him, \u2018I\u2019m going to cash out my 401k, sell what Merck stock I have left, take the penalty and pay off everything except the house so that we can still make it on Tina Marie\u2019s salary and stay in the music business. What do you think?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dickerson didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said, \u2018Cash out. If anybody can make this happen you can!\u2019\u201d Couch recalls. \u201cHis faith in me meant the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then Couch met Kip Moore, who had arrived in Nashville in 2004 with a dream not unlike Dan\u2019s. They hit it off as friends and co-writers, and the rest is country music history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDan has been like a brother,\u201d Moore told\u00a0<em>Billboard Magazine\u00a0<\/em>in a 2013 interview after the duo scored two #1 hits. \u201cWhen you have someone who believes in you when you\u2019re at the bottom, it\u2019s a great feeling. We trust each other 100 percent when we\u2019re writing, and trust is the main thing in a writing room. We\u2019re not scared to\u00a0go for things, and we don\u2019t think about if radio will play\u00a0a song or will they not\u2014we just write the best thing we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_331\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-331\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1c0Nk40biKE\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-331\" alt=\"couch2lores\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/couch2lores-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/couch2lores-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/couch2lores-335x223.jpg 335w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/couch2lores.jpg 864w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-331\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click on the photo to hear Couch talk about his journey from catcher to songwriter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Did Wabash play a role in this journey of a truck driver\u2019s son to psychology major to songwriter?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came to Wabash with Dan Dickerson to play baseball,\u201d Couch says. \u201cBut Wabash ended up being a great experience. I pledged Sigma Chi and made a lot of close friends. I still\u00a0talk on the phone with my fraternity brother Bill McManus every morning on my way<br \/>\ninto work. He knows as much or more now about the top 40 song charts as I do. John Panozzo \u201989 and I stay in touch as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Professor of Classics John Fischer H\u201970 was Couch\u2019s advisor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll never forget him saying, \u2018Man, don\u2019t be a lawyer because you think you\u2019re going to make a bunch of money. Don\u2019t say you\u2019re going to be a doctor because you told your mom since you were 10 years old that you\u2019re going to be a doctor.\u2019 He was really good at helping people understand that just because that\u2019s what you thought you wanted to do, doesn\u2019t mean it necessarily is. You need to give yourself time to experience different things and to make sure. He was very passionate about the classics, and I think that\u2019s what he wanted for his students\u2014to find something that you can be passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then there was Head Baseball Coach Scott Boone \u201980.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were coming back from a Florida spring training trip and I\u2019d been absolutely on fire at the plate; I was hitting over 500. And Boone said, \u2018You know, you\u2019re only as good as your last at bat.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m thinking,\u00a0<em>Man, can you not just tell me how I\u2019ve improved?<\/em>\u00a0But now I get what he was saying. In the music business, what you did yesterday is going to become old news fast. You have to focus on what you\u2019re doing now to stay on top of your game.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Couch pulls into the parking lot at BMI, where the music industry honored him and Moore in 2012 when \u201cSomethin\u2019 \u2019bout a Truck\u201d hit #1, and again in 2013 when \u201cHey Pretty Girl\u201d accomplished the same feat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy friend Rivers Rutherford told me, \u2018Statistically, you were more likely to play pro football than you were to have written two number one songs.\u2019 Those are staggering odds, but I\u2019ve always had a phobia of math.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s harder than ever for a songwriter to a get a song recorded in Nashville, but if you want it bad enough, I think you can get it. And if you\u2019re passionate about something in music and go chasing that, it may lead you to something else: Instead of being the singer, you may end up being the writer, or the manager of an artist, as a studio musician.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re just doing something for the money, I think you\u2019re going to end up really empty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That celebration for \u201cSomethin\u2019 \u2019bout a Truck\u201d in 2012 made the County Music Television news, thanks to the emotional speeches given by Couch and Moore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a monumental day for me,\u201d Couch recalls. \u201cFriends were there, my family was there. My wife, who stuck by me for so many years. All those emotions came right to the surface, and I could barely talk. There was probably a solid five-minute pause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the lyrics Couch penned for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_7gjwS13smI\">\u201cHey Pretty Girl,\u201d\u00a0<\/a>say it pretty well:<\/p>\n<p><em>Life\u2019s a lonely, winding ride<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Better have the right one by your side.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Happiness don\u2019t drag its feet<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And time moves faster than you think.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/youtu.be\/TE6H5Q9ag1g<\/p>\n<p>\u2014Steve Charles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2011 should have been a breakthrough year for Dan Couch \u201989. In March\u2026 \u2026his song \u201cMary Was the Marrying Kind,\u201d co-written with Scott Stepakoff and Kip Moore and performed by Moore, hit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-notes","category-features"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2014\/09\/couch-portrait-3croplores-1024x682.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}