Darryl Worley photo courtesy of Stroudavarious Records.

After six years of effort, the Darryl Worley Cancer Center is set to open in Savannah, Tenn., next month.

Originally expected to open next year, the facility is located on the grounds at the Hardin Medical Center, allowing people in the area to have radiation and chemotherapy locally instead of driving long distances for their treatments. The cancer center cost $2 million to build, and Darryl has worked with a couple of Hardin County medical agencies to raise $1.7 million toward the project. They hope to have the remainder by the time construction is completed.

“The generosity of all the donors from around the country and the Savannah area has been amazing,” Darryl says. “I think it’s very surreal that this has happened so fast and just confirms that we are doing God’s work. This is a defining moment in my lifetime and career.”

Darryl has used his annual Tennessee River Run and a series of songwriter showcases to raise funds, enlisting such friends as Steve Wariner, Restless Heart, Jennifer Hanson, Keith Anderson and songwriters Wynn Varble, Jim “Moose” Brown and Phil O’Donnell.

In the meantime, Darryl’s started a series of performances that allow him to give back in another way. He’s doing a total of seven free shows on military bases for enlisted men and women and their families. He’s already done a pair of them, at Fort Hood and Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

Other shows on his God & Country Tour include:
• Oct. 29 Fort Riley, Manhattan, Kan.
• Oct. 30 Fort Carson, Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Nov. 18 Fort Huachuca, Sierra Vista, Ariz.
• Nov. 20 Presidio of Monterey, Monterey, Calif.
• Nov. 22 Fort Lewis, Lakewood, Wash.

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Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.

Taylor Swift couldn’t ask for much better timing. As she heads into the last week of promotion for her new album, Speak Now, she was named Songwriter/Artist of the Year Sunday night during the Nashville Songwriters Association International’s annual songwriter awards at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.

Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin took Song of the Year for penning the emotional Miranda Lambert hit “The House That Built Me,” and Chris DuBois earned Songwriter of the Year for his work as an author of Craig Morgan’s “This Ain’t Nothin’” and the Brad Paisley singles “Then” and “Welcome To The Future.”

The awards were part of a formal evening that saw four new members added to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and had 11 titles recognized by the songwriting community as the cream of the crop: Songs I Wish I’d Written. That list included “Need You Now,” “White Liar,” “Big Green Tractor” and Taylor’s “You Belong With Me.”

“Since I can remember,” Taylor said, “my favorite thing in the whole world was a good story, going back to when my mom and dad would read me stories when I was little and then discovering poetry in English class. And then I discovered this town called Nashville, where they tell the coolest stories and in my opinion, they tell them in the most magical ways.”

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so generous with me,” she continued. “Whether it was telling fairytales or sad stories or stories that were just about my life and what I was going through, you’ve been wonderful to me, and I’m havin’ a blast telling stories.”

Chris deflected attention during his acceptance speech to Tom Douglas. In addition to writing “The House That Built Me,” Tom also penned Lady Antebellum’s “I Run To You” and Tim McGraw’s “Southern Voice,” giving him a trio of high-impact No. 1 singles.

“I feel like Tom Douglas should demand a recount!” Chris said.

Tom had already claimed his honor for “The House That Built Me.” His acceptance speech found him contemplating one of songwriters’ biggest foes: over-used language.

“You see people at awards shows and you often think, ‘Gosh, how cliché,’ ‘cause everybody kind of says the same thing,” he acknowledged. “But I think the reason why it sounds cliché is because you feel so small at a moment like this and you realize how many people have invested into your life to make a moment like this possible.”

The 11 “Songs I Wish I’d Written” include:
• “Need You Now” (Lady Antebellum), Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood, Hillary Scott, Josh Kear, songwriters
• “Use Somebody” (Kings Of Leon), Nathan Followill, Caleb Followill, Jared Followill, Matthew Followill
• “A Little More Country Than That” (Easton Corbin), Don Poythress, Rory Lee Feek, Wynn Varble
• “Big Green Tractor” (Jason Aldean), David Lee Murphy, Jim Collins
• “I Run To You” (Lady Antebellum), Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood, Hillary Scott, Tom Douglas
• “Red Light” (David Nail), Dennis Matkosky, Jonathan Singleton, Melissa Peirce
• “Southern Voice” (Tim McGraw), Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas
• “The Climb” (Miley Cyrus), Jessi Alexander, Jon Mabe
• “The House That Built Me” (Miranda Lambert), Tom Douglas, Allen Shamblin
• “White Liar” (Miranda Lambert), Miranda Lambert, Natalie Hemby
• “You Belong With Me” (Taylor Swift), Taylor Swift, Liz Rose

Which songs do you wish YOU had written? Leave us a comment below!

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Country Music Hall of Fame member Tom T. Hall.

There’s a segment of older artists who resent the current crop of performers, who represent change for a genre that’s held in high regard by its previous crop of talent. Country Music Hall of Fame member Tom T. Hall is not one of those crabby old-guard dudes.

“Music is an art form,” he told a passel of programmers Thursday at the Country Radio Seminar. “It should not be done the way it used to be done. If we do it the way they used to do it, that’s copying.”

Not that T. is above getting crabby.

“I do resent,” he allowed, “the fact that they’re makin’ so much money!”

Tom T., alternately known as the Storyteller by country fans, made his comments during WCRS Live!, a songwriter event sponsored by the performing rights organization BMI that flagged his crusty sense of humor as well as the sound of newcomer Easton Corbin and composer Wynn Varble. Neither of them makes music quite the way Tom T. did, though that fits his tenet to avoid copying quite well.

“There ain’t much of a story to it,” Easton said, introducing one of several pieces that helped showcase his debut album just days before its release.

Between his range, his enunciations and his predilection for traditionally grounded songs, Easton’s following nicely a pattern laid out by the likes of George Strait, Alan Jackson and Joe Nichols. All four of his numbers were solid material, performed with strength and conviction, in the general vein of his closing title — and first Top 10 hit — “A Little More Country Than That.”

Wynn wrote that song with Blaine Larsen in mind, and his assessment of its eventual success in Easton’s hands was delivered with a bit of humor that likely would have made Tom T. snicker.

“If you see Blaine,” Wynn drawled, “tell him he’s a dumbass.”

Wynn rendered the single he wrote for Kellie Pickler, “Things That Never Cross A Man’s Mind,” as well as the quirky “You Can Drink More Beer Than This” and the wryly sentimental “Waitin’ On A Woman,” which Brad Paisley brought to public attention.

Still, it was Tom T. who garnered the largest applause — in part because his performances are a rarity a dozen years after he retired from touring. Dressed in a suit and tie, he eschewed a guitar strap, propping the instrument with his fret hand and pressure from his right elbow while he ran through “Homecoming,” “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died” and “I Love” with his distinctly conversational style. He earned standing ovations at both the beginning and the end of that short set, then presumably headed back to his 60-acre farm, where he enjoys his retirement with his wife of 41 years, Miss Dixie.

“It’s weird,” he said of his intentional break from the spotlight. “You hear these stories about how hard it is to break into show business. You should try to break out of it sometime!”

No one seemed to mind that he revived the experience for just a few songs.

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Alan Jackson photo courtesy of SonyBMG Nashville.

Nashville celebrated its songwriters for two straight nights this week with Alan Jackson and Taylor Swift each earning trophies as Songwriter/Artist of the Year from two different organizations.

Taylor picked up the Songwriter/Artist trophy from the Nashville Songwriters Association International Sunday, the same night Toby Keith earned Songwriter/Artist of the Decade. Wynn Varble claimed the NSAI’s Songwriter of the Year after netting hits with Darryl Worley’s recording of “Sounds Like Life To Me” and Brad Paisley’s rendition of “Waitin’ On A Woman,” named Song of the Year.

ASCAP, one of three U.S. performing rights organizations, hailed Alan Monday night, while recognizing Ashley Gorley as its Songwriter of the Year. Ashley’s behind-the-scenes contributions to country during the eligibility period included Trace Adkins’ “You’re Gonna Miss This” — ASCAP’s Country Song of the Year — and the Brad Paisley/Keith Urban duet “Start A Band.”

In addition to Toby’s all-decade honor, the NSAI presented Songwriter of the Decade to Craig Wiseman, whose successes this millennium include Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying,” Brooks & Dunn’s “Believe” and Kenny Chesney’s “The Good Stuff.”

Tammy Wynette, Kye Fleming (“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool”) and Mark D. Sanders (“I Hope You Dance”) joined the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame on Sunday.

The following night, J.D. Souther received a similar career achievement honor from ASCAP in accepting the agency’s Golden Note Award. One of the contributors to the Southern California sound of the 1970s, which has had a direct influence on contemporary country, J.D. was honored with performances of his material from some of Nashville’s best. Lee Ann Womack sang “Faithless Love,” Rodney Crowell covered “New Kid In Town” and Love And Theft captured “You’re Only Lonely.”

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