On This Day in 2017, We Said Goodbye to the Author and Songwriter Whose Songs Were Recorded by Johnny Cash, Guy Clark, and Nanci Griffith

On this day (December 16) in 2017, Richard Dobson died of cancer in Switzerland. He was an author and songwriter whose talent is showcased by the list of artists who covered his songs. Legendary songwriters, including Guy Clark, Johnny Cash, and June Carter, were among those artists.

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Dobson was born in Texas. Later in his life, he spent time with the likes of Steve Earle, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt. However, his story is unlike most country artists. As a child, his family relocated to The Hague, Netherlands, where he took piano lessons. However, those lessons didn’t last long. “She found my Texan accent barbaric,” he said of his piano instructor. “When I told my parents I wanted to quit, they said okay.” However, the negative experience fortunately didn’t push him away from making music.

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After returning to the United States and finishing college, Dobson joined the Peace Corps and moved to Chile for a little more than a year. Afterward, he taught in Michigan for a year before moving to New York. All the while, he worked tirelessly at improving his guitar chops.

He moved to Nashville with a pocket full of songs and a Martin guitar in the early 1970s. There, he fell into the growing community of songwriters. He lived with Rodney Crowell and “Skinny” Dennis Sanchez. He also met the likes of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt.

Dobson wasn’t just a singer/songwriter. He was also an author. He wrote The Gulf Coast Boys (1990), which chronicled his time with the group of songwriters who shaped modern Americana. He also wrote Pleasures of the High Pine–A Texas Singer in Exile, about his life abroad. He also sporadically published multiple newsletters.

Richard Dobson: The Songwriters’ Songwriter

Richard Dobson wrote alongside many of his more famous friends. For example, he wrote “Old Friends” and “So Have I” with Guy and Susanna Clark. He and Susanna wrote “Welcome to the Wild Side of Me.” Dobson penned “Hole in My Heart” with Steve Earle and “Uncertain Texas with his longtime friend Rodney Crowell.

A long list of great songwriters has recorded his songs over the years. Clark recorded “Old Friends” and “Forever, For Always, For Certain.” Nanci Griffith cut “Ballad of Robin Winter-Smith.”

One of his most recorded songs was “Baby Ride Easy.” David Edmunds and Carlene Carter recorded it as a duet. Billie Jo Spears and Del Reeves followed suit. Johnny Cash and June Carter covered the song during the 1984 Christmas that brought the Highwaymen together. Later, their duet appeared on the posthumously released album Out Among the Stars.

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