Today we’d like to introduce you to Papa Jack Couch.
Papa Jack, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story in music started in the long-ago popular folksinging era. In 1963, when I was 13, I got a Silvertone guitar from Sears & Roebuck, and there were lots of opportunities to play and learn, so except for a few years in sports I kept on performing right through my high school years in Jacksonville and then through college, in Atlanta. It was the sixties, so, of course, we were smack in the middle of all of that amazing music and one social upheaval after another. It was wonderful and terrible at the same time, but definitely, a time that boosted creativity. I’d received some early encouragement from an encounter with Gram Parsons, in high school, and later I had the great good fortune of pitching a couple songs, personally, to Johnny Cash, so I decided that when I finished college, I wanted to continue writing songs for a living.
However, before I could leave for Nashville I met a young woman who stole my heart so completely that I took a job in south Georgia to keep chasing her until she finished college in Tallahassee. And once I caught her, we somehow never did make it to Nashville. It was the beginning of a 38-year love affair that produced three finer sons than I could ever have asked for and a life full of love and challenge and fulfillment. So, I never grieved for what might have been in music, except that for most of those years we lived in south Georgia, a good place for family but far away from Atlanta, which we both considered home.
Yet, the music never went away. I would often get asked back in for local projects, particularly in the church. I had come to faith at age 15 and we were heavily involved in youth ministry all through our lives, so I enjoyed playing praise music, but what I was really drawn to was writing songs about true faith and real love in the context of everyday living. I stayed with it well enough that in 1988, I had a chance to earn a staff writing job at Reunion Records in Nashville, but after a short time I could see the toll it was taking on Anne and our sons, so once again, I let it go. But I continued writing songs and just tucking them away, assuming they would probably never be heard. But whenever I had the time I just had to write.
Has it been a smooth road?
My own greatest struggles began in 2009. Anne and I were finally able to move back to the Atlanta area. We were leaving a home we had made a good life in for 32 years so she could take a new job in a place where we didn’t know a single soul. Then, two months later, on a rural highway in the middle of a rainy Saturday, the truck I was driving hydroplaned and we hit another car head-on. She was killed instantly. And so, when I recovered from my own minor injuries, I had to start over, lost and alone in a completely unfamiliar place.
Over the next few years life began to gradually reassemble, and one part of it, larger than ever, was music. The requests to play became more frequent and far-flung until eventually, I began to hope I could really work at it again. Thinking it would be a good test, I tried doing an open mic at Eddie’s Attic, and found an unaccountably kind reception. That was well over two years ago now, and I’ve been seriously writing new songs ever since, and playing everywhere I can in order to show off the songs. And after a lifetime in the church, mostly at war with the institution, I’ve recently become a pastor, and I’ve found that the two callings – faith and music, each inspire the other.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My ultimate business you could say is recording. We plan to release a record at the beginning of October, titled Hand Carved, that we’ve been working on since February. This one will include 12 songs that have all risen to the top among all the others that I wrote long ago. It’s been the best experience I could have imagined, with Damon Moon doing the engineering at his studio, Standard Electric Recorders Co., in Decatur and Brian Revels producing. It’s been very much a group project with great musicians and vocalists helping out: Matt Wauchope, keyboards; Robert Green, bass; Josh Birmingham, drums; Jacob Deaton and Micah Cadwell, guitar; Cassidy Goldblatt, violin, Otieno, Johnson, Kennedy, horns, Evans, Rae, Rose, backing vocals; and guest shots by Jorel ‘JFly’ Flynn and Lexi Street.
I’m also working on a full record of new material as an entirely separate project, with Micah Cadwell, which we hope to finish early next year.
My proudest moment was playing my first feature show at Eddie’s Attic, in November 2017, opening for Brian Revels, who although he’s much younger, has really taken me under his wing. A close second was my first headlining gig there, along with Lexi Street, this past July. But there have also been many treasured times among other songwriters, whose support and encouragement have been really meaningful. And now I look to each successive show, in whatever venue, as hopefully, the best I’ve ever done. I really am living a dream, one I thought had died long ago and several times over.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think Atlanta is one of the best cities in the country for music in general and especially for those trying to get started in the industry. Not only are there plenty of places to play but the production facilities are great. And the heritage of music from Atlanta and Georgia can’t be matched anywhere.
Contact Info:
- Website: papajackmusic.com
- Phone: 706-977-3465
- Email: jackcouch@att.net
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/papajackcouch/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Papa-Jack-Couch-142662473017292/
Image Credit:
c2017 brianpage.photoshelter.com
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