Mike Geiger,
Ricky Ray Rector,
Bruce Burch,
Gary Nicholson,
Mike McGuire,
Bucky Jones,
John Hadley,
Michael Garvin,
Paul Craft,
Don Cook,
Bruce Bouton,
Alex Harvey,
Radney Foster,
Bill Lloyd
Representative Albums: "The Best of T. Graham Brown," "Wine into Water," "I Tell It Like It Used to Be"
Representative Songs: "Hell and High Water," "Darlene," "I Tell It Like It Used to Be"
Biography
T. Graham Brown rose to country stardom through the uniquely Southern phenomenon of beach music, a party-ready mix of old-time rock & roll, R&B, country, and blues. Born in Arabi, GA (his real first name is Anthony), he got his start performing while attending the University of Georgia, as part of the beach-music duo Dirk & Tony. He then joined the outlaw country band Reo Diamond, and retooled his image as a hairy, tattooed wildman in a ten-gallon hat. Moving on in 1979, Brown formed his own R&B band, Rack of Spam, and officially settled on T. Graham Brown as his stage name. He moved to Nashville three years later, where with the help of Harlan Howard he found work singing demos and commercial jingles. In 1983, he signed with CBS as a staff songwriter, and went on to join the Tree International publishing firm in the same capacity. Meanwhile, he also landed a deal as a recording artist with Capitol, and released his debut album, I Tell It Like It Used to Be, in 1986. Partly recorded at Alabama's legendary Muscle Shoals studios, the record spawned a number one country single in "Hell or High Water," and both the title track and "I Wish That I Could Hurt That Way Again" went Top Ten. 1987's Brilliant Conversationalist gave Brown a second number one in "Don't Go to Strangers," and two more Top Tens with "She Couldn't Love Me Anymore" and the title cut. Meanwhile, he made appearances in the 1987 films Greased Lightning and Cursed, and the following year he and his backing group, the Hardtops, played Elvis' band in Heartbreak Hotel. 1988's Come as You Were continued Brown's success with the chart-topping "Darlene" and two further Top Tens in the title track and "The Last Resort." Unfortunately, Brown was also battling alcoholism, and his problems began to take their toll on his career. He managed one further Top Ten country hit in 1990's "If You Could Only See Me Now," and also dueted with Tanya Tucker on the hit "Don't Go Out" that year. But after his 1991 album, You Can't Take It With You, missed the charts, he found himself dropped by Capitol, and spent most of the '90s sorting himself out. He finally returned in 1998 with the acclaimed comeback effort Wine into Water, which reaffirmed his roots rock leanings and marked his most personal effort to date. The concert album T. Graham Brown Lives! appeared in 2001. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Anthony "T." Graham Brown (born October 30, 1954 in Arabi, Georgia) is an American country music artist. Active since 1986, Brown has recorded a total of thirteen studio albums, and has charted more than twenty singles on the BillboardHot Country Songs charts. Three of these singles — "Hell and High Water" and "Don't Go to Strangers" from 1986, and "Darlene" from 1988 — reached Number One, and eight more reached Top Ten.
Anthony Graham Brown was born October 30, 1954 in Arabi, Georgia.[1] He first performed in a duo called Dirk & Tony, before founding two more bands and eventually settling on the stage name T. Graham Brown.
Musical career
Brown moved to Nashville in 1982 and found work singing advertising jingles for companies such as McDonald's, Disneyland and Budweiser, and doing demos. He was also the singing narrator in the Taco Bell "Run For the Border" television spots. Brown also found work as a songwriter for Tree Publishing before signing to Capitol Records in 1984.[2]
Brown's first release for the label, "Drowning in Memories", peaked at #39 and was never included on an album. After it came the #7 "I Tell It Like It Used to Be", the first single from his 1986 album of the same name. Counting its title track, this album accounted for four singles: the #3 "I Wish That I Could Hurt That Way Again" and two straight Number Ones in "Hell and High Water" and "Don't Go to Strangers."
Brown's second album for the label, Brilliant Conversationalist, followed a year later. Although none of its singles went to Number One, it accounted for three more Top Ten hits in its title track, followed by "She Couldn't Love Me Anymore" and "Last Resort."[1] A third album, 1988's Come as You Were, produced his third and final Number One in "Darlene". After this came the #7 title track and #30 "Never Say Never." In early 1990, he sang guest vocals on the multi-artist charity single "Tomorrow's World", as well as Tanya Tucker's single "Don't Go Out", from her album Tennessee Woman.
1990 also saw the release of his next album, Bumper to Bumper. This album's lead-off single "If You Could Only See Me Now" went Top Ten with a #6 peak, but the other singles — the #18 "Moonshadow Road" and #53 "I'm Sending One Up for You" — did not fare as well, with the latter being his first single to land outside the Top 40. That same year, he also released an unsuccessful greatest-hits package. His next album, You Can't Take It with You, only accounted for the #31 "With This Ring" before he exited Capitol in 1991.
Brown did not record another album until 1998's Wine into Water on the Intersound label. This album produced four more singles for him, although the #44 title track was the highest-charting single from it. He then released two more independent albums: The Next Right Thing in 2003 and The Present in 2006.
