Kathy Louvin
Kathy Louvin is the daughter of Ira Louvin, from the Country Music Hall of Fame duo The Louvin Brothers. Originally hailing from Henager Alabama, The Louvin Brothers eventually relocated to the Nashville area after they were solidly embedded as popular country music performers. With a nice balance of gospel and secular country music, it didn’t take them long to become regulars at the Grand Ole’ Opry. The life of country performers on the road does have its pitfalls, as they are often tempted with substance abuse and other issues. Dealing with these road blocks, the brothers still managed to have a long and successful career. They ultimately received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys.
Kathy Louvin has had a successful career in music as well. She co-wrote the number one song Keep it Between the Lines, recorded by Ricky Van Shelton. Other artists that have recorded songs she penned include: Randy Travis, Martina McBride, Dwight Yokam and more. You can find Kathy performing as a singer/songwriter at fine venues around the greater Nashville area, and also with her church. I recently talked with Kathy about her career, as well as the legacy of the Louvin Brothers.
R.V.B. – Hi Kathy… I guess I have my time zones right.
K.L. – Yeah! Hahaha
R.V.B. – How are you doing today in these rough times in America?
K.L. – Well I kind of work from home anyway. I have an animal rescue and I do most things from home.
R.V.B. – I read about your animal rescue and I was very impressed with that. What a nice person you are.
K.L. – (Hahaha) They picked me! I didn’t pick them. I just figured God sent them and I should try to help them out. If they want to live with us, they can. That’s kind of the way it started.
R.V.B. – So you have a sizable piece of property?
K.L. – Well we just have about three acres. We have a natural spring. They just show up here… some of them stay and some of them pass through. Right now we have nine cats and six dogs… some chickens.
R.V.B. – That sounds like paradise to me. I love animals also.
K.L. – They’ve really been a blessing. They didn’t all come at once. We were able to ease into it. (Hahaha)
R.V.B. – Did you have any problems with the tornado storms?
K.L. – We really didn’t get a lot of damage here. We got mostly water. Thankfully we didn’t take the hit that Nashville did. I’m about 50 miles out of Nashville. We didn’t really get the brunt of that. A couple of my friends were affected. I didn’t know anyone who was impacted physically.
R.V.B. – That’s good. The storms seem to be intensifying down there. A few years back there was that massive flood. That caused a lot of damage.
K.L. – That was unprecedented. I was living in upper East Tennessee when that happened. We went up there three years to take care of my father-in-law.
R.V.B. – Anywhere near Bristol?
K.L. – Yes. We were about 20 miles out of Bristol. It’s really nice country up there but it’s just a little too far from the music industry… for the work we were doing at the time. When he passed, we sold the place and moved back here.
R.V.B. – You have a lot of family history with music… which you are still involved with today. What are some of the earliest memories of music in your family?
K.L. – Music really is my earliest memory of my family. My parents met and married after the Louvin Brothers had achieved some success. They were introduced by mom’s sister, Kitty Wilson, (Kitty and husband Smiley Wilson were the Louvin's first rhythm section, lol) But music was just always there. There were musicians in my home or we were in their home. We traveled a lot together. There were a lot of what we used to call package shows. There would be up to 10 artists on the bill. Sometimes we would stay in hotels. A lot of times we’d stay in people’s homes. Back then, the music industry in the country music world just did not have the revenue that it does now, so many times - especially when they were traveling alone with their guitar player - they would stay in the homes of fans and friends. They liked that because they got a home cooked meal.
R.V.B. – Do you have any memories of that? Did you meet other kids?
K.L. – I do. A lot of times there were kids of the other artists and musicians there. Hawkshaw and Jeanie Hawkins would bring their kids. Everybody had kids (Hahaha) We would all go together.
R.V.B. – Did your father ever talk to you about the music business?
K.L. – It was sort of a matter of fact in our family. Sometimes I might get dragged out of the bed at three or four in the morning to sing for guests. In our family it wasn’t really a discussion, that’s the way it is.
R.V.B. – Was there any songs in your childhood that caught your attention where you may have said “Wow… I really like these?”
K.L. –In my young, young childhood, I was crazy about Cowboy Copas and I loved Patsy Cline. As I grew older I did what most teenagers did, listened to rock and roll... Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and the Beatles. As I became a young adult, I was introduced to Gram Parsons, Willie Nelson… what everybody else was listening to in the ‘70s. Emmy Lou started to record Louvin Brothers songs. We met in the early ‘70s.
R.V.B. – You grew up in the Nashville area?
K.L. – Yeah! Born and raised.
R.V.B. – Your father was originally from Alabama?
K.L. – Yes. They were born in Henagar, Alabama, on top of Sand Mountain. They moved to Nashville long after they started to perform. They spent a lot of time in Knoxville and Memphis. They finally moved to Nashville in the early ‘50s when they signed up with Acuff Rose publishing.
R.V.B. – You’ve seen a lot of changes in Nashville through the years.
K.L. – Yeah… quite a few. (Hahaha)
R.V.B. – It’s had its ups and downs as the country music epicenter. It went through changes that normal US cities go through. Did you visit the strip area a lot?
K.L. – I used to go down there quite a bit… even before the Opryland theme park was popular. A lot of our friends played down there. I performed down there as well after my career began. But Broadway Street in Nashville, went through a big slump where it basically kind of died out. Thankfully, our local government realized the historic value of preserving some those places. But for a while it had kind of fizzled out.
R.V.B. – The new Country Music Hall of Fame is a beautiful building. I went down there around seven years ago and couldn’t believe the construction going on.
K.L. – Yeah, it’s still going on! (Haha) That’s why I live 50 miles out. (Hahaha)
R.V.B. – (Hahaha) With that, along comes the traffic.
K.L. – I avoid Nashville now at all costs. Up north of Nashville is where a lot of my family heirs and friends live. I try to go all the way around the city. It’s unbelievable. It’s all a matter of perspective I guess, but it’s as bad as trying to get through Atlanta. It’s not always that bad but it’s usually heavy.
R.V.B. – So you eventually went into music on your own. How did you approach it? Did you approach it as a singer/songwriter? Did you play with a band?
K.L. – We all sang and fooled around with it when we were growing up as teenagers. We sang along with every Eagles song we heard. I didn’t really want to be in the music business. I really had no personal desire to be in it. I met a gentleman back in the early ‘80s and had gone at the suggestion of a friend of mine to meet this guy who was the head of the Country division of Polygram in Nashville at the time. His name was Steve Popovich. He asked me to make him a demo. I had not really ever written songs at that point. I used to write a lot of poetry when I was in school. So I went and recorded a couple of things at a friend of mine’s studio. I took it to him and he suggested that I learn to play guitar and I did. When I learned to play guitar, I started to write. I never really wanted to be a “singer” as far as a profession but writing just seemed to open the floodgates… now that I was putting the music with it. So that’s what I did full time. I did a lot of demo work singing but I just didn’t have that particular dream.
R.V.B. – Did you work in the studios by Music Row?
K.L. – My publisher at the time had their own studio on Music Row… Mel Tillis. I did a lot of work there. The Music Mill was down the street. There was Masterphonic. There’s a studio called County Q, which is a real popular demo studio. It was where ever they sent me basically… where ever they were doing the demos.
R.V.B. – When you were hired to be a writer… did you write the stuff at home and bring it there or did you go to an office?
K.L. – Most of the times I would go into the office. We had writer’s rooms there. I would also go to a co-writers office or visit their home. They might come to mine. It’s whatever we felt like doing.
R.V.B. – What would you consider your first big success as a song writer?
K.L. – My first cut was a Christmas song that Randy Travis recorded on his Christmas album. My first number one would be the Ricky Van Shelton song Keep it Between the Lines.
R.V.B. – What’s the story behind that song?
K.L. – I was a single parent for a long time. My oldest son Travis, was trying to get me to color with him. I think I was cooking dinner or something. I was making excuses like we all do and then finally I said “I’m not sure I remember how to color.” He said “Oh c’mon Mom, I’ll sit beside you. You’ll do just fine if you stay between the lines.” We had an old saying in the south “Keep it between the ditches.” I had a writing appointment the next day with Russell Smith and I told him about it. We just started writing it… that’s how it happened.
R.V.B. – I listened to that tribute song to your dad that you and your uncle sang together.
K.L. – That was Fireplace. The memory of my grandmother’s home… everything happened around the fireplace.
R.V.B. – Was your mother involved in music as well?
K.L. – My mother was a writer as well. The Louvin’s recorded a couple of her songs. She sang… and she and my dad two sisters made up a trio that they called The Slater Sisters. They actually recorded a couple of tracks for Capitol. For personal reasons they didn’t go forward with a contract. Both sides of my family were musical. My mom’s brother Johnny Johnson played with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs for a long time. My mom’s younger brother Bobby Johnson was recently inducted into the Georgia Country Music Hall of Fame. He was really popular in that region. I got it from both sides.
R.V.B. – It’s flowing through your whole body.
K.L. – I guess (Hahaha) It’s unavoidable.
R.V.B. – Religion… It’s a part of your family history. Your father and uncle sang Gospel music.
K.L. - We were brought up in the Bible belt. Both of my parents came from families that were church goers. Especially in the mountain region… the churches were extremely puritan and Brush Arbor type. As time went on, thankfully, teachings were provided to learn more about grace and less about rituals and laws. Speaking personally, as I began to live life and experience the things that I did, It caused me to reach deeper. I’m happy to be a part of the church. The body of Christ in my opinion is the church. The denominations that we have… in my opinion are divisions in the body of Christ. We’re all just a part of the human race.
We’re really all connected in many, many ways that we’ve never dreamed. I think that, there’s a force at work and it is Light; and a force at work and it is dark…those are always at war. The dark is trying to put out the light and the light is trying to illuminate the darkness. It’s the old story about the white dog and the black dog which the Indian boy found… which one would grow to be the biggest? Whichever one you feed the most. I try to feed the white dog every day. (Hahaha)
R.V.B. – Do you have a specific house of worship that you go to?
K.L. – I do. I go to Goodletsville Pentecostal Church in Goodletsville Tennessee.
R.V.B. – Is there music involved in the church? Are you involved with it at all?
K.L. –Oh yeah! Sometimes I am. I’m also part of the ministries portion as well. Music is a big part of our worship.
R.V.B. – Your husband is also involved in music?
K.L. – He is. He’s a writer and producer. He’s been a professional drummer for about 30 years now. He worked with Kitty Wells for a time. He worked for Larry Boone when he was having hits. He was on the blues circuit for a long time. He’s kinda done a little bit of all of it.
R.V.B. – On your typical average day today… how much of it involves music and how much of it involves taking care of animals and other things.
K.L. – (Hahaha) It really depends on the level of catastrophe around here. We’re always about music but like this morning, my son - who lives with us - is working in the studio and tightening up some things… rearranging. I’m working on a couple of things because were backlogged with songs to do an acoustic demo. We try to integrate stuff like that into our daily schedule. We don’t have a set schedule. I can tell you that the first thing in the morning, the animals have to be dealt with -(Haha) - before anything happens. They depend on us. You have to make sure their fed and their pens cleaned… fresh water every day and in the summer maybe twice a day. But it’s very rewarding.
R.V.B. – How did you end up being the caretaker of the Louvin Brothers music?
K.L. – I’m not sure how to answer that. The other kids of Charlie just didn’t have the calling I guess. I don’t think it is any secret that dads family and Charlie’s family aren’t very close. To my knowledge, my cousin Sonny – Charlie Louvin Jr. – was the only one with the musical gift. Others took a different path. Dad had a daughter from his first marriage and a son from his second marriage. Neither one of them were involved with music. It just fell in this direction.
R.V.B. - How was the experience of being part of the Louvin Brothers Hall of Fame ceremony?
K.L. – It was very surreal. It was something that we had been pushing for, for many years. I have to give Marty Stuart credit. He was the director of The Country Music Foundation at the time. I think he held that position for three years. He was very instrumental in pushing that nomination through. But yeah, it was amazing. What was more amazing was in 2015, accepting the Lifetime Achievement award from the Grammy’s… on dad’s behalf. That took place in Hollywood.
R.V.B. – Were there other people getting inducted into The Country Music Hall of Fame on the same day your dad did?
K.L. – Yes quite a few. I think that was the year they started inducting people in different categories… Artists… Producers… DJ’s… etc. For years they were only inducting one or two people/groups per year. 2001 was the year that Ken Nelson went in … the A&R head of Capitol Records. In my opinion, if it wasn’t for him, there’d be no Louvin Brothers. He was the catalyst that brought them to Fred Rose and to the Grand Ole’ Opry.
R.V.B. – What are you proud about with your families and your part in music?
K.L. – It’s the authenticity and the perseverance. I always say that in dad’s generation, the people that became professional artists in the music, were people that couldn’t have done anything else. That’s who and what they were. Even though they may have had some musical heroes, they weren’t trying to sound like them. They didn’t have any tricks up their sleeves. They didn’t have Pro Tools… anything like that. They never dreamed of anything like that. They just were, who they were. Hillbilly music was something that nobody thought would last. I think the courage and the perseverance that they showed during those times was a part of why they’re being remembered today.
R.V.B. – What about yourself and your music?
K.L. – I have mixed feelings. I have made good decisions and bad decisions. I could have put forth more effort in some areas. I’m encouraged that the next few years will be a part of my music career that stands on my testimony… more than my test. I didn’t really turn into a gospel artists by choice but my songs changed in the early ‘2000s, as my heart changed. I lost a son to suicide. I’ve had some other tragedies and things that have happened over the past few years. It kind of forced me to dig in a little deeper and get the bigger meaning. I knew it had to be bigger than what I knew… or thought I knew, or I was going to check out.
R.V.B. – I’m sorry to hear about your loss and it sounds like the right path to go down. I can tell that you’re a good person inside and you have the right attitude to and the right approach to life and your music.
K.L. – Well just for today… right???
R.V.B. – I thank you for the opportunity to share some of your stories. I appreciate it.
K.L. – Thank you… me as well. Have a great day.
Interview conducted by Robert von Bernewitz
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