![\"hampton\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2014\/12\/hampton-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>I was at a party Friday night when I heard\u00a0John Hampton had died. I was taken aback by how sad the\u00a0news made me. I\u2019ve been thinking of John and the whole Ardent family ever since.<\/p>\nWhen we were making records at Ardent Studios in Memphis, John Hampton would usually be mixing or producing some big artist in another room, but he\u2019d still stop by once or twice a day to listen to our little piss-ant band\u00a0and goof around. John had an energy, and he was lavish\u00a0with it. From the moment he walked in the control room he\u2019d be excited about whatever song was on the board, bobbing his head, encouraging the engineer or songwriter, picking out little things he liked about the track\u2013the snare sound, a melody, or lyric. John had\u00a0a generous\u00a0way about him. He\u00a0didn\u2019t have to act like he was excited about the music you were making. He was genuinely excited, if for no other reason than that you were here in his beloved Ardent making music. John\u2019s presence\u00a0would nearly always change the energy in the room for the better. He\u2019d let you in on the inside joke or question of the day in his studio, or just ask you about your life.<\/p>\n
Then, before he left the room he would, in a kindhearted big-brotherly way, put his finger on exactly what was wrong with your current track and how you could\u00a0fix it. It wasn\u2019t condescending, either\u2013more like he was telling you your fly was down while hoping to\u00a0preserve your dignity. Then he\u2019d leave and we\u2019d all be thinking, how did we not hear that before? Because it\u2019s all I can hear now\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nI noted the way the engineers and producers who worked at Ardent responded to John\u2019s presence\u2013a respect and deference to his years of accomplishment. Every single producer and engineer I worked with in Memphis was incredibly talented in their own right. But Hampton was the principal. He set the standard. When he walked in the room everyone\u00a0perked up. They weren\u2019t trying to impress him. They wanted to earn his respect, because if you did that you had really done something. They took many of their cues from John, not only\u00a0in how to make music, but in how to treat people.<\/p>\n
The first time I met John Hampton, Satellite Soul was doing a quick demo\u00a0recording, live to tape, in order\u00a0to pick the songs for our first record. He walked into Studio C with the stub of a lit\u00a0cigar\u00a0sticking out of the corner of his mouth, a\u00a0coffee in one hand and a magazine\u00a0in the other, I think he had just come out of the can. His\u00a0hands being full, Hampton reacted to the music with his entire upper torso, bobbing to\u00a0the groove. It was loud\u00a0so he had to raise his voice when he said, \u201cDon\u2019t break the groove before the chorus.\u201d That\u2019s the first thing I ever heard him say.<\/p>\n
Once he knew I loved Todd Snider\u2019s music, Hampton\u00a0would tell me stories about working with him; nearly always with some kind of lesson or point. John\u2019s oeuvre<\/em> being what it was (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Replacements, Gin Blossoms, Travis Tritt, Jimmie Vaughn), you know he got those kind of questions all the time. But he let me ask them, and told his stories with delight, in part, I think, because he \u00a0never stopped being a fan of music and musicians.<\/p>\nI once had an unforgettable\u00a0conversation with Hampton\u00a0about songwriting. I\u00a0was sitting alone in the lounge when he walked in & asked me how the recording was going. I was expressing frustration at feeling like my best lyrics never made it onto a record because they didn\u2019t have an overtly Christian message. I was having to change my songs. He empathized, then basically told me not to be such a wuss. If those were the terms of my deal, then I should work with it. He mused\u00a0for what had to be a good hour on a different way to approach writing lyrics and melody. He told me to stop thinking about content at the outset of my writing. Take awhile just to immerse myself in the energy of the song; experiment with sounds and rhythms without considering meaning, free myself up to\u00a0pay attention to the\u00a0primitive\u00a0aspects of the piece; let the music speak to me\u00a0first, the to speak through me\u00a0as I began to\u00a0write.<\/p>\n
He said there is a way to begin to write lyrics that is sort of \u201cpre-rational\u201d and experimental. He told me to go poking around in that part of my imagination, and not to rush my way through it. What he said was something like this:\u00a0Get out of your head for the first twenty minutes of writing lyrics. Let you mind wander. Tap into something deeper. The energy of the music can help you write an interesting\u00a0lyric. Free yourself up to the smaller building blocks of language and poetry. Pay attention\u00a0to the way a vowel sound goes with a certain note. Write with nonsense words,\u00a0syllables, and pieces of words at first. Let them\u00a0come from the music. Look for\u00a0images in the song itself. Notice when a section is begging for alliteration or assonance or a hard consonant.\u00a0Break up your\u00a0usual metrical\u00a0patterns and see what happens. Allow non-words to form into words, then into sentences\u2013all of it linked to the melody, and emerging from\u00a0the music.\u00a0You have to be willing to let the music\u00a0bring lyrical ideas to your attention and stay patient about thematic choices long enough for the song to tell you what\u00a0it wants to be.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nIt was one of the most fascinating conversations about the creative process I\u2019ve ever had. I wrote one whole record using the process Hampton taught me about\u2013Straight Back To Kansas<\/em><\/a>\u2013which, despite being a low budget project,\u00a0is still my favorite.<\/p>\nI will remember John Hampton as a generous man, quick to laugh or tell a story, happy\u2013joyful even\u2013to be doing something he loved, eager to share with his friends all that he knew about making records, or about people, or about life, (which was a hell of a lot on all three counts). His presence was a huge part of what made Ardent Studios such a magical place for me. I\u2019m feeling so grateful today to have been in John\u2019s orbit now and then for a few years. He was a singular musical talent, but an even better human being. My thoughts and prayers are with John\u2019s family today, and especially with my friends at Ardent who were with him day in and day out for years.<\/p>\n
This is one of my favorite John Hampton tracks:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xiq6v2XP7Ck<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was at a party Friday night when I heard\u00a0John Hampton had died. I was taken aback by how sad the\u00a0news made me. I\u2019ve been thinking of John and the whole Ardent family ever since. When we were making records at Ardent Studios in Memphis, John Hampton would usually be mixing or producing some big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":3831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1230,1229,1228,537],"class_list":["post-3828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ardent-records","tag-ardent-studios","tag-john-hampton","tag-satellite-soul"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>I was at a party Friday night when I heard\u00a0John Hampton had died. I was taken aback by how sad the\u00a0news made me. I\u2019ve been thinking of John and the whole Ardent family ever since.<\/p>\n