American Songwriter Throwback: Pam Tillis Honors Her Dad’s Songs

This article first appeared in the November/December 2002 print issue of American Songwriter.

Pam Tillis has researched her new CD project all of her life. It’s All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis on Epic/Lucky Dog Records is Pam’s tribute to her father, Mel Tillis, who has written some of country music’s classic songs and has also been a recording artist and performer.

“We had always done some of Dad’s songs in my show, so it (the CD) just kind of happened naturally,” Pam explains to American Songwriter. “At a certain point, I realized I’d played around with enough of his songs to have half an album, so I just pick a few more to round it out.”

Among the songs included on the CD are “Honey Open That Door,” a duet with Asleep At The Wheel’s Ray Benson (who helped produce the album); “So Wrong,” featuring the harmonies of the Jordanaires; the beautiful “Violet and the Rose,” featuring Dolly Parton on vocals and Marty Stuart on mandolin; and “Heart Over Mind,” graced with the voice of Emmylou Harris.

Mel duets with Pam on the closing song “Come On Sing,” which he wrote after listening to Gov. Jimmie Davis say there should be no sad songs and less fighting in the world.

Pam says working with some of the songs in her dad’s catalog was something she had never done before, songs she found after researching her father’s entire music catalog. “Not only did I have a stack of albums, but I also went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where they had a bunch of stuff I didn’t have. Dad had sent me about 10 CDs full of his songs.

“I had never done ‘Violet and a Rose.’ I had never done ‘Detroit City’ because I thought that was such a signature thing of Dad’s, I just kind of steered away from it,” Tillis says. “That was one I felt was really important to do my own thing with. And ‘Not Like It Was With You’ is a song no one had ever recorded.”

Pam said the guest artists on the album just kind of fell into place. “Obviously, I couldn’t have everybody on there I loved. These are just people, first of all, who I admire and even idolize. They were excited about the project. Everybody I called to do it wanted to do it,” Tillis adds. “Trisha (Yearwood) has always been so nice to me. I didn’t know Rhonda Vincent very well, but after hearing her perform on the Opry, I became a fan. I feel like I hit it off with her; I thought she was great. She’s a girl’s girl.

“Marty (Stuart) and I are old buddies; he knows where I’m from—he gets it,” Tillis shares. “I had reservations about asking Dolly (Parton) to sing a harmony part, but Steve Buckingham was her producer. I asked him, and he said she was interested. The same thing with Emmylou (Harris)—I’ve known her a long time. But I was a little bit worried about asking her. It was hard for me to be producing people. I don’t know how I was with them as a producer—I just told them, ‘You stay until you’re happy.’ Like I’m not gonna tell Dolly Parton how to sing, or Delbert (McClinton) how to play harmonica, or anyone else. I just said, ‘Ya’ll just play, we’ll record it all, and we’ll sort it out.’

“I have a home studio, and people came over, and we recorded it there. I grew up with Dolly, and having her in my studio, just standing by the console working out her part, gave me chills,” Tillis says. “I had always heard Dolly on record, and to hear her in the room, I’m telling you, was incredible. Then this thing Emmy did—she was right there, in my living room. The Jordanaires sang in my house. One day, we set up a string section in my living room. It was just an incredible experience.”

Pam is a songwriter herself, but she says she never thought it was any special gift. “The neat thing about this project for me was that this great period of time Dad was most creative as a songwriter, I was just a little school girl. I didn’t think about it,” she says. “He was always writing songs. I didn’t pay attention—it was Dad’s work. What this project was able to do was let me become familiar with his body of work; it was a world I wouldn’t have probably done. That is so cool. He would never have seen all these tapes to me if I had not been researching for this album.”

Pam says that even though she was around Mel and his songwriting buddies, she learned about writing by osmosis rather than by deliberate observation. “I tell you what it was for me—I tell people I got into writing because I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to,” she shares. “Because Dad did it, I thought everybody wrote songs. I was never afraid of it—I started making up songs as a little girl.”

Pam adds that her dad was more excited about her writing songs than being a performing artist. “You gotta realize, in my dad’s era, the artist toured incessantly, and he couldn’t imagine having the same kind of life he led—out on the road, playing honky tonks, 300 days a year,” Tillis says. “He couldn’t imagine his little girl out there doing that, so he was like ‘write songs—go for it.’”

Pam and Mel have never sat down to write together, though she does write with her brother, Sonny, who just had his first No. 1 song, “When I Think About Angels.”

Ironically, Pam’s favorite Mel Tillis tune is one that is not on this CD.

“My favorite is ‘Ruby (Don’t Take Your Love To Town).’ I think it’s a marvelous song,” she reveals. “It’s a mini-movie, and what’s so cool about ‘Ruby’ is what’s not said is as important as what is said. Leslie Satcher and I wrote a song to ‘Ruby’ which sort of exonerates Ruby. We wanted to figure out what’s going on with her. It’s a really interesting song, but I ended up not recording it for this album because I was just doing my dad’s songs. But I will record it.”

Photo courtesy Absolute Publicity