Georgia—home of Coca Cola, Atlanta Braves, Georgia Bulldogs, Chick-fil-A, peaches, and country music. Wait. What? Start over. We know what you’re thinking. Doesn’t country music belong to Nashville? Well, technically. . . . yes. But when you start to learn people’s origins, you will find that a high percentage of writers and artists all hail from the good ole’ peach state. Artists like Trisha Yearwood, Lauren Alaina, Kip Moore, Cole Swindell, Zac Brown Band, Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Mark Wills, Patty Loveless, Kane Brown, Brantley Gilbert—and that’s not even half of it. Georgia is also the birthplace of famous writers like Pat Alger, Tony Arata, Thomas Archer, Bill Anderson, and Ray Fulcher.
Because if you ask that household name songwriter with 29 #1’s, he’ll tell you that his home state is “the bomb!” And yes, those were his words. We can’t make this up.
“There are literally probably more Georgia artists successful in the music business than any other state and probably at least 20 people from Georgia on the chart right now,” 32 time BMI award winner Rhett Akins told The Country Note on the phone.
Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Atkins would be co headlining a show at the Ryman that pays tribute to his home. For the 6th year in a row, The Peach Pickers, along with fifth generation musical instrument manufacturer Gretsch, will present “Georgia on My Mind” July 17 at the Mother Church right here in Nashville, Tennessee. This year’s lineup includes Jamey Johnson, Craig Campbell, John Berry, Travis Denning, Lindsay Ell, Michael Ray, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, and more. As per usual, there will also be surprise guests and a special performance by the Otis Redding Foundation’s Dream Choir. Over the years, the Peach Pickers show has awarded the Georgia Music Foundation nearly $400,000 in grants for music education, preservation, and outreach.
So, who exactly are the Peach Pickers and how did this extravaganza come to be? We’ll break down the numbers for you. Three Georgia best friends. More than 70 #1s collectively and individually since 2010. And too many awards and accolades to count. If you know 90s country, then you know “That Ain’t My Truck” so Rhett Akins is covered. And if you don’t know Ben Hayslip and Dallas Davidson, we promise—you know their songs. The three amigos have written hits like “I Don’t Want This Night To End”, “Honey Bee”, “All About Tonight”, “Rain is a Good Thing”, “Star of the Show”, “It Goes Like This”, “I Don’t Dance”, “Gimme That Girl” plus many more. Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Dustin Lynch, and Thomas Rhett put these guys high on their priority lists when they are choosing songs—clearly.
So, when did the magic sparks first fly between Rhett, Ben, and Dallas? It turns out that Ben and Rhett grew up in the same town and have been best friends since they were 13 years old.
“We were writing songs even then—just for fun,“ Rhett pointed out. “Even when Ben moved to Augusta at age 15, I drove the 5 hours from Valdosta at least once a month or he came down and we kept the friendship and the writing going. Making it big was always the dream in the back of your head but obviously that was never going to happen,” he laughed.
But Rhett decided to give Nashville a chance anyway and moved to Music City in 1992. Ben came following a year or two later and in 1995, “That Ain’t My Truck” became Rhett’s breakthrough song as an artist on Decca Records. The twosome didn’t mean Dallas until 2004, as Dallas came from Albany, GA and is about 10 years their junior. Through Dallas, Rhett and Ben met Luke Bryan, Lee Brice, Randy Houser, Jerrod Niemann, Rob Hatch—the “Trailer Park” group—as they nicknamed themselves at the time.
“That group was Dallas’s buddies. I knew there was something to them, even then. I remember telling somebody ‘all of them are gonna do something big.’ They had a cockiness and a gang mentality almost in that they came to Nashville to change things up.” Rhett recalled.
Okay Rhett. So, what about the “gansta group” of 2019?
“Luke Combs and those guys—Ray Fulcher, (Jon) Langston, Michael Hardy—I think Luke is a fresh breath of air for people who have tolerated the same songs for a while. They didn’t have any hit songwriters on that first album and neither did Kane Brown—they just did it their way.”
He went on to explain what it’s like to move to Nashville as a fresh songwriter with no deal.
“Every five or six years, a new little batch of “peach pickers” moves to town. They don’t have a clue what they’re doing. They’re just hanging out at the bar, drinking, and writing songs at 1 in the morning. And even when they don’t know what they’re doing “technically” as far as what Nashville says, they’re writing songs the way they write songs without instruction from publishers and hit songwriters. They come up with their own style just like me and Dallas did. And then people like Blake and Aldean hear it and think it’s cool because it’s not the same songs that are getting pitched.”
Wait. He’s not done. It’s about to get reeeallll good.
“You’re not gonna come to town and hope that no hit songwriter writes with you. You write what you write when you get here and it either sucks or it’s good and you progress up the link and start writing with more hit songwriters and maybe your songs get better or weaker—I don’t know. I just know there’s a magic in the first two or three years when you go to Losers or Tin Roof and you meet another boy your age who also just moved to town. And you don’t have anybody else to write with. Then you find another dude and next thing you know, you got a gang and you don’t have anything to write except how you grew up. We’re at a point now (and so are our peers) where we’ve written so many songs about how we grew up—we’re trying to find another way to say it. Or you gotta find other things that hit you in the gut and sometimes that’s hard.”
So why does it seem like the same songs keep getting pitched and cut Rhett?
“Songs come how they come. Plenty of times when I didn’t say much in the room and plenty of times when somebody else didn’t say much. I’m a guy who literally knows every album cut on every album that came out. But there’s another side of me that grew up on radio and wants to have hits. I never try to write a crappy song. But sometimes, they’re not as deep. Every movie can’t be Gone With The Wind. You gotta have some Talladega Nights in there. And as much as I love “Leaving Nashville” from Charles Kelley (we talked about it earlier), you can’t deny that the biggest song in the world right now is “Old Town Road.” Go to a Thomas Rhett concert and that song comes on before he comes on stage and you have never seen 20,000 people about to rip the roof off the place! “The Git Up Challenge” is the same way.”
Speaking of Thomas Rhett, Rhett couldn’t help but brag on his first born.
“Not because TR is my son, but of the new people, he’s awesome. He’s got a lot of popular songs out right now, but you should hear the songs that didn’t make the record. It wears me out to write on the road with him because we’re writing from 9 am til soundcheck. He comes off stage, writes some more, then gets off stage after playing for 20,000 people and says ‘I wanna write two songs tonight.’ TR is a legit artist. He picks up a guitar and it just falls out of his mouth.”
Rhett’s fatherly pride beams, even over the phone.
“He writes a couple hundred songs a year and the ones that he doesn’t cut, everybody else could potentially cut.”
So how does he know what to keep and what to toss?
“It’s hard to pick. He called me two months ago and said, ‘I’m putting 16 songs on the album and I got 18 and I gotta know in 10 minutes which 2 to drop because they’re about to send it off for press.’ It’s a combination of what we think is a hit and what is just a great song because they’re not always one and the same. You try not to repeat subject matter or have too many ballads. That’s how you dwindle it down. If he doesn’t choose a song, he either leaves it open to be cut by someone else or he saves it for the next one. We wrote “Star of the Show” five years before it got put on that record!”
And when it comes to choosing songs for the Peach Pickers Ryman show, what does one do when they have 70 #1s between three writers?
“We all three email each other songs we have written. We each pick three and try to make it a combination of the most current ones we have and older songs that are still hanging around—like ‘Boys Round Here’ or ‘Honey Bee.’”
And when it comes to picking friends for the guest spots, Rhett joked that “we pick people from Georgia and people who wish they were from Georgia!” And while there may be some truth to that, in reality, it’s a lot of friends that they write with and people who record their songs and “. . . . whoever can make it really. You never really know who the lineup is going to be til the night of the show. We’ve had a lot of Georgians—Jamey Johnson, Chris Janson, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood from Lady Antebellum. And then of course Luke (Bryan) and Aldean.”
So, do you tell them what they’re singing?
“We ask them what they wanna sing first, especially if they’re promoting a new single. Then we ask them if they want to sing ‘Georgia On My Mind’ or dedicate a song to another GA artist-like Otis Redding or Ray Charles. There’s no criteria.”
Now we want to know what songs are getting played by whom and what surprises we can expect. Last year, Charles Kelley did a tribute to the Allman Brothers with the cast that brought the house down. And while performers like John Berry and Craig Campbell didn’t fill us in on their musical choices, they did let in on their excitement.
“It’s always a pleasure to be included in this show with the Peach Pickers,” Campbell told The Country Note. “Raising money for music in my home state of Georgia is pretty awesome and I’m so glad I can be a small part of it.”
Recent cancer warrior John Berry agreed. “I am excited and honored to be participating. Georgia is rich in musical heritage and history, and presently, fellow Georgians are impacting the world with music. It’s awesome to participate in an event with artists from the great state of Georgia and give back to an organization that will preserve music of the past and educate with music for the future.”
And since “Georgia On My Mind” focuses on giving back to the community and preserving music, it makes sense that they would partner with Gretsch, The Otis Redding Foundation, and the NAMM Foundation (National Association of Music Merchants). Gretsch is based in Pooler, GA but makes the highest quality instruments used in all musical formats all over the world. Their instruments have been played by members of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Georgia native Otis Redding’s contribution to music is carried on by his children, whom Dallas met several years ago at the Georgia Hall of Fame. You might say that is what started this whole shebang. Their DREAM choir has backed up Andra Day and traveled to Washington, DC to perform at the White House. And this show tends to serve as the kickoff for the SUMMER NAMM biannual trade show, happening in Nashville July 18-20 at Music City Center. NAMM features the latest music and pro audio gear from top manufacturers as well as career-enhancing education and networking with more than 14,000 music industry professionals, media, and artists.
One thing is for sure. Okay, two things. One–we are certain that the Peach Pickers will continue to have more chart topping hits that we will hit on repeat for decades to come. And two—no matter what songs are getting played in the show or where everybody in the audience is from, you can bet that Georgia will always be on our minds. Especially since it’s almost football season. (Pretty sure Rhett agrees with us there!)