Latest / Takin’ A Walk Nashville / Exploring Nashville's 90s Country Music Scene with Singer- Songwriter John Berry's Personal Stories and Resilience Journey

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Exploring Nashville's 90s Country Music Scene with Singer- Songwriter John Berry's Personal Stories and Resilience Journey · Takin’ A Walk Nashville

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Hi everyone, It's Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Walk Nashville. I want to know if you've been in Nashville.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Where have you been taking a walk? Reach out to me,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: let me know where you've been going, what concerts you've
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: seen in Nashville. You can DM me at taking a
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Walk Nashville on Instagram or reach out to us through
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: taking a Walk Nashville dot com. Today, I am taking
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  Speaker 2: you on a journey back to the nineties in Nashville
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  Speaker 2: and country music. I am sitting here with John Barry
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  Speaker 2: walking over to the Omni Hotel in downtown Nashville where
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: we're having this conversation. You may know him for his
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: rich voice and emotional songwriting. His number one hit, Your
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  Speaker 2: Love Amazes Me, what number one on the Billboard chart
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  Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety four. He has other hits such as
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  Speaker 2: Standing on the Edge of Goodbye. I think about all
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the time. I love these songs, and today we talk
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: about what he was going through during that period of
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  Speaker 2: time recording Your Love Amazes Me. Sit down with me
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  Speaker 2: and John Barry as we have this conversation today.
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  Speaker 3: Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your hosts singer
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  Speaker 3: songwriter Sarah Harrelson.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, This is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: a Walk Nashville, and today's guest on Taking a Walk
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  Speaker 1: Nashville is Grammy Leinning country music artist John Barry. One
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  Speaker 1: of the most recognizable voices in nineties country music. John
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  Speaker 1: first rose to national prominence in the early nineties with
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  Speaker 1: his rich tenor voice and emotional ballads. Over the course
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  Speaker 1: of his career, he's delivered multiple hit singles, including Your
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  Speaker 1: Love Amazes Me, Standing on the Edge of Goodbye, kiss
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  Speaker 1: Me in the Car, and I Think About It All
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  Speaker 1: the Time. He's also continued thanking to tour across the country,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: both with his band and special duo performances with his
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  Speaker 1: wife Robin on the Christmas with John Berry Tour. His
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: latest release, Live from the Country Music Cruise, captures the
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  Speaker 1: magic of John's live performances and brings fans right into
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  Speaker 1: the room for some of the most iconic songs. John,
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being with me on Taking
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a Walk Nashville, Disega, thank you so your latest project.
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  Speaker 1: As I mentioned, Live from the Country Music Cruise, This
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  Speaker 1: captures your live show in a cruise ship setting. What
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  Speaker 1: made you want to release an album from this specific setting.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we've done the country Creuse a number of times
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  Speaker 3: and they came to us as pass time and say, hey,
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  Speaker 3: we've been which I didn't know. So they've been recording
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  Speaker 3: these things and have put albums out these other artists
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  Speaker 3: and asked if we'd like to do it. I said sure.
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  Speaker 3: It red a lot of fun and.
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  Speaker 4: We had some friends that were on the ship. We had.
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  Speaker 3: Jimmy Fortune was on the show, was on the ship
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  Speaker 3: with us, and we got him to come sing a
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  Speaker 3: song with me.
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  Speaker 4: We did both of us.
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  Speaker 3: Jimmy and I are both huge John Denver fans, and
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  Speaker 3: he had sung this song, Annie song by John Neiverer
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  Speaker 3: for years. I've done it my show almost my entire career.
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  Speaker 3: This was my favorite John never song. So I got
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  Speaker 3: him to go up and sing it with me. So
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  Speaker 3: that was cool, and that's on the album. And then
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  Speaker 3: a song I recorded called I Will if you Will
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  Speaker 3: Patty Loveless Patty. She sang on it with me and
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  Speaker 3: John Jarvis wrote that song. Jarn Jarvis was on the
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  Speaker 3: ship and he played piano on the recording. That was
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  Speaker 3: a top fifteen song for me for Top twenty.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I believe. I believe Chris Blair from the Listening
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  Speaker 1: Room hosted the Country Cruise. We just had him on
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  Speaker 1: taking a walk Nashville. But for people who haven't experienced
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the Country Music crew, what is it like performing in
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  Speaker 1: this environment? But they're a different environ.
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  Speaker 4: It's a lot of fun.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, of course on the cruise, there's so many
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  Speaker 3: artists and you see them all over the ship, and
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  Speaker 3: you see him in the dining rooms, you see them
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  Speaker 3: on the pool decks.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, they're everywhere.
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  Speaker 3: And we're walking through the towns of the Port Calls.
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  Speaker 4: You see him downtown, so you see a lot of people.
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  Speaker 3: It's a lot of fun, and everybody's pretty laid back
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  Speaker 3: and there's not a whole lot of egos out there.
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  Speaker 4: It's just a lot of fun.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like a festival in a cruise ship setting
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  Speaker 1: very cool. Yeah, people should definitely check out Your Life
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  Speaker 1: from the Country Music Cruise album. And you also just
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  Speaker 1: celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of Standing on the Edge of Goodbye.
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  Speaker 1: What do you remember about recording and writing the song
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  Speaker 1: and realizing how special it was.
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  Speaker 4: It's a little crazy.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I remember writing the chorus, I was on tours
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  Speaker 3: back on tire, and I had this chorus and the
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  Speaker 3: band and I we worked it up and we played
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  Speaker 3: it and then we played it soundcheck one day, and
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  Speaker 3: then the next day at soundchat the crew asked, hey,
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  Speaker 3: play that sack.
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  Speaker 4: We'll played it again, and then every day soundcheck they
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  Speaker 4: want to hear it. So all we had was a chorus.
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  Speaker 3: So we just played it over and over a few
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  Speaker 3: times and I couldn't finish the songs. I just had
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  Speaker 3: his bluff and I got together with Stuart Harris, who
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  Speaker 3: wrote No One Else on Earth for one on a
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  Speaker 3: jug and an hour and a half later we had.
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  Speaker 4: It was done.
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  Speaker 3: It was my first song that I had a hand
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  Speaker 3: in writing that was a number one record for me.
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  Speaker 3: But it was, but I don't remember recording as weird
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  Speaker 3: as is.
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  Speaker 4: I got real sick.
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  Speaker 3: We recorded that album about this time of year in
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  Speaker 3: nineteen ninety four, because the debut album has already it
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  Speaker 3: was already out. But you Love Amazes Me on It
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  Speaker 3: Kissed Me and they call it all that was already out.
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  Speaker 3: So we were working on Standing on the Edge album
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  Speaker 3: and I and I was really sick.
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  Speaker 4: I had to have brain surgery and matter fad. It's crazy.
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  Speaker 4: It's like haalme Art movie, you know.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I had my son born. I was the
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  Speaker 3: meanest person on the planet. We didn't realize that Battles
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  Speaker 3: is sick with That's a lot. We didn't know what
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  Speaker 3: was mount.
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  Speaker 4: I had a kilo.
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  Speaker 3: Assystem of third venturable in my brain that turned me
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  Speaker 3: into very evil person. Ended up having brain surgery on
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  Speaker 3: May tenth and ninety four the same day you Love
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  Speaker 3: Amazes Me with my first number one.
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  Speaker 4: Record, Wow.
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  Speaker 3: Sometime during all that we recorded the song stand on
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  Speaker 3: the Edge of I don't remember Wow. I remember I
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  Speaker 3: vaguely remember being at Emerald Sound Studios recording.
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  Speaker 4: But crazy, isn't it?
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  Speaker 1: That is wild? Yeah, definitely a lot of things happening
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  Speaker 1: all at once then. But yeah, I mean, it's such
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful song. And your vocals turned out so beautifully
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  Speaker 1: on that song. And as you mentioned, this also marks
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  Speaker 1: the thirtieth anniversary of the Faces album. When you go
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: back and revisit that era of your music, what stands
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: out to you the most about that time and country music.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that I love the sound of the
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  Speaker 3: records that came out during that time, the producers that
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  Speaker 3: made to produce those records and my producer, Chuck Howard,
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  Speaker 3: there's there's something about those records that even today they
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  Speaker 3: still sound great. Yeah, you know, a sonically sound great,
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  Speaker 3: the arrangements sound great. You know, Chuck Hart did a
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  Speaker 3: great child of my records. There is he purposely wanted
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  Speaker 3: to do some sounded classic, you know, just he's had
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  Speaker 3: great textures of great sounds, nothing too gimmicky and writing
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  Speaker 3: that kind of stuffer.
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  Speaker 4: So that was pretty cool.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, especially the production on that album and your
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  Speaker 1: songs that can be so crossover from country too, especially
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  Speaker 1: with a lot of the ballads. So it is beautifully done.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, we talked about your cruise tour and
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: your album. You also have so many tour dates coming
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: up this year with your band, and you also perform
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a lot of shows with your wife, Robin. How does
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the dynamic change between a show with your band and
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: doing a duo show with your wife.
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  Speaker 3: Well, with the band, we we just have a great
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  Speaker 3: it's a great band and we just we just put
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: it on, you know, yeah, just have a lot of
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  Speaker 3: as as much energy as we can't for an old man.
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  Speaker 4: And uh uh.
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  Speaker 3: And then and my wife sings in the band too,
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  Speaker 3: so it's great. She's great and does a great y'all,
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  Speaker 3: brings a lot of energy in and then when it's
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: just me and her, we we just we tell lots
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  Speaker 3: of stories and she talks way too much and tells
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  Speaker 3: way too many stories, she said, retelling and uh, we
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  Speaker 3: have a lot of fun.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, it's so great to hear the story behind
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  Speaker 1: the song too, So I love that. And in addition
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: to all these shows, your Christmas with John Barry tour
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  Speaker 1: it's become a tradition for many fans. How did this
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: tour for began?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it all started with when Rob and I got
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  Speaker 3: married in nineteen eighty eight. She grew up going to
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  Speaker 3: Green Acres Baptist Church in Athens, Georgia, and of course
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  Speaker 3: I joined the church with her and.
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  Speaker 4: She started going there she was eight years.
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  Speaker 3: Old, and the pastor, Fred Raoul became a dear, dear
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  Speaker 3: friend to me. And Christmas of eighty eight he asked,
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  Speaker 3: he said, look, would you think about coming singing the
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  Speaker 3: ale Christmas program for us at the church. And I
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: was surprised because I was the guy who played all
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: the bars in tank. Me and my band our goal
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: you know, Athens is a college tank University of Georgia.
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  Speaker 3: Our job was to get three hundred college students to
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  Speaker 3: war from ten to two and that was and we
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: were really good at but we put together a wonderful
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: program and ended up doing it there for five years.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: But Old Holy Night was part of that and we
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: close the should wear it each year and I loved
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  Speaker 3: it and it was a big.
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  Speaker 4: Hit with Choose Well.
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  Speaker 3: My third single came out in January of ninety four,
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  Speaker 3: Your Love Amazes Me. I had brain surgery that morning.
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  Speaker 3: Telugh way to get a number one record, but a
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: guy's got to do what a guy's got to yet,
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  Speaker 3: so we had already scheduled from months before.
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  Speaker 4: To go in and record a few Christmas songs to
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  Speaker 4: see kind of what we had this.
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  Speaker 3: Chuck had heard about a Christmas shore in Athens, and
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  Speaker 3: so were. We set a schedule and it was June
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: eighth of nineteen ninety four. With all the hoopla around
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: my surgery, we forgot about it. Chuck called my wife
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  Speaker 3: and said, we've got about this session. I'll cancel, and
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: my wife's wisdom she said, no, don't canceler. John needs
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: to distract you, which I really did, so we went
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  Speaker 3: in on June Ah been recorded O Come Emmanuel and
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Oh Holy Night, and we just captured something really special.
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  Speaker 3: Some you couldn't plan, you couldn't make a And if
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: you if you can ever, if you find that old
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  Speaker 3: record or hear it on the radio, that reporting that
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  Speaker 3: came out on the album in nineteen ninety five Oh
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  Speaker 3: Holy Night album, there's something I mean. It was recorded
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  Speaker 3: twenty eight days after I had brain surgery.
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  Speaker 4: Wow, yeah, I mean.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that's the best thing about events were
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: sessions where you know, you feel like canceling, you're not
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: really sure if you're up for it. Sometimes the best
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: things come out of the sessions or events that you
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: feel like not going to.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and once again, recording had no idea. I don't
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: remember a word of it. I'll remember being there. I
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: listened back to it and I can sort of sense.
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  Speaker 3: But if you hear that recording, that old record, listen
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: with new years, knowing that twenty eight days before I'd
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: had gone through that surgery, and see, if you don't
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: hear something real vulnerable because I didn't know what they'd find.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: And when we were in the studio recording it, it.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Was like it's so magical. It was so emotional.
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  Speaker 3: The violinist Connie her violin, wool class violinist her violin
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: kid going out of tune, and Chuck Howard to produce
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: her instracross the headphones. Connie worked doing all with their instrument.
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  Speaker 3: She said, well, I was sitting in here listening to
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: John singering.
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  Speaker 4: A month ago.
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  Speaker 3: We were praying he would survive much less sing again,
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  Speaker 3: she said, the tears are falling off my cheek and
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: landing on my violin. Make it and go out of tain.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: And that's the kind of stuff you can't wow. The
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: scriptwriter for Homework TV couldn't make that up. Yeah, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's just there was and so twenty five thirty years
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: later he could spend it and still feel it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: That's a recording.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it definitely makes you extra grateful when you're in
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the studio recording of songs is now. It's so beautiful. So, John,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: we're on taking a walk Nashville. So a question I
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: like to ask my guests and for you, what do
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  Speaker 1: you think is the most memorable walk in Nashville.
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  Speaker 2: You have taken?
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  Speaker 4: Well, two sixteenth Avenue.
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  Speaker 3: I can still remember walking up Sixteenth Avenue before I
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: ever had a record deal.
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  Speaker 4: This this would be pretty cool.
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  Speaker 3: And then the other walk is a Centennial Park in
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: the springtime and.
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  Speaker 4: Nothing quite as beautiful. It's a that's a great place.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, very beautiful. What are your thoughts about how Sixteenth
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Avenue has changed over the years. A.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's not some musical it's condo row and
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: it's just it's the inevitable change of thing because one
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: thing you can count on, does that stays the same?
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Say yeah, But what we can count on is still
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: seeing you on tour. Listeners can find on your website
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: your upcoming show dates and music. John Berry, thank you
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: so much for being on Taking a Walk Nashville today.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: Great good to be with you.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Please check out our other shows produced by Buzznight Media Productions,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Comedy Save Me and Music Save Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: and Taking a Walk hosted by Yours Truly Buzznight.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and are
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: part of the iHeart podcast network.