The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 67

yWw-r i iMiiiimi .1 it fv I 1 Son Wesley, right, handles business details With Murray Nash during a recording session Audrey Williams, Mrs. Lillian Stone visit him frustrated and worried. "I drank just to get drunk," he explains. "I had reached the end of my row. I had to turn back." With Acuff-Rose firmly established In the song publishing field, Rose is branching out into his own recording business.

Hickory Records went into distribution Jan. 1, 1954. They feature country-type music backgrounded by some of the finest musicians in the business. Much of the flourishing song publishing business on Franklin road is handled by Rose's son and Murray Nash, promotion manager for Acuff-Rose. It is a saying that Roy Acuff, a true silent partner, never visits the office.

Yet it was Acuff who finally sold Rose on country music. "It was at the Opry one night many years ago," Rose said. "Roy came out on the stage and sang 'Don't Make Me Go to Bed and I'll Be Real tears rolled down Roy's cheeks that night. Those tears stained his shirt. I felt I had discovered the real secret of country music.

That secret is sin-cei ity." entertainers his songs have helped make famous. He does not mind: In Christian Science, he says, he has found the secret of peace of mind. Money is secondary. Working long hours, usually from 9 a.m. until midnight, Ros composes at the piano.

Usually he beats out his songs, memorizing lyrics as he goes, along. Sometimes he sits down at the typewriter in his studio to write out the lyrics. He claims no formula in his songs. "They just come to me," he explains. Rose believes he could succeed In any other field, provided he could master the principles involved.

But he knows no field except music. That has been his life from the time he invaded Chicago and sang and played for audiences, passing the hat around for donations. He worked for several years with WSM in Nashville, later went to New York to work as a composer In Tin Pan Alley. He arrived with $7 in his pocket. The New York days were days of decision.

Rose had been a hard drinker. Whisky had all but ruined what had once been a promising career. He felt certain lack of dependability, never disappointed Rose. Their association until Williams' death was unspoiled by argument or disagreement. Rose is credited with giving the magic touch to hundreds of songs, but he remains anonymous "unless I write more than half of the song." Many a singer comes to Rose's studio with the penciled portion of a song.

Rose is usually able to place his finger on a weakness at once. In a business where cut-throat tactics are common, Fred Rose is a shining example. "I want the artist to have every nickel that is coming to him," he says. "This has not always been true in the music publishing business." Scores of songs, bearing postmarks from all over the nation, reach Acuff-Rose each day. It hurts Fred to turn them down.

But this he has to do, with regrets to this effect: "I wish I could publish all the songs that are sent to us each day, but it is impossible, so please do not feel too bad because we are returning your song material." In his letter, Rose warns against song "sharks" who advertise for songs or song poems. "These firms are not legitimate and they are just interested in the fee they charge anywhere except his studio or the offices of Acuff-Rose. He is in Nashville, today, he says, partly by accident and partly by design. Born in Evansville, Aug. 24, 1897, Rose took to music in childhood.

He moved to St. Louis, where he grew up "in a melting pot against a background of red brick buildings." At the age of 18 he hopped a freight train for Evansville but ended up in Chicago. "It has been that way all my life," he says. "I start out for a certain place and end up somewhere else." He arrived in Nashville, he says, by way of Cave City, because of a detour. He never planned to come to Nashville.

Of English-Scotch-Irish ancestry, Rose is not related to any of four other Roses listed with him in the biographical dictionary issued by the American Society of Composers. Artists and Publishers. ASCAP lists him with such musical hits at "Honest and Truly," "Don't Bring Me Posies When It's Shoesies That I Need," "Roly Poly," "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," "Pins and Needles in My Heart" and "You Know How Talk Gets Around." A BELIEVER "in just letting things happen," Rose ended up, as a music publisher because Roy Acuff saw his possibilities as a song writer and executive. But, Rose admits, it took Acuff five days to persuade him. "I knew the song publishing business was a sure way to lose not only your shirt but your underwear as well," Rose said.

"But Roy convinced me." Rose was firmly convinced when "Tennessee Waltz," one of the all-time hits in both popular and music fields, sold a startling 1,300,000 copies of sheet music. After 10 years in the business, Acuff-Rose has sold more than copies of songs. Many of these were the numerous hits written by Hank Williams, the lean Alabama boy who worked closely with Rose on many a song. Rose credits his son, Wesley Rose, now general manager of Acuff-Rose publications, with discovering Williams. "We were looking for a singer who had the genuine country style," he said.

"Wesley happened to remember a boy from Montgomery, who had recorded a few songs for us on the old Sterling Record label. That turned out to be Hank Williams." Williams, despite his temperamental turn and what many described as a if HfTJ you. A legitimate music publisher never charges a song-writer for publishing a song; he pays a royalty to the writer for the privilege." Rose advises the aspiring song writer to first interest a recording or radio artist. "Then, if it is good, any music publisher will be glad to publish your song." Often Rose takes out his Bible and reads passages to those who will listen. "I have found my happiness in helping others to help themselves," he says.

ti 7 '11 $tTi r) 1 I Jl AferCV. N.t,; lose can expect to gross $50,000 this year a rather small income compared to those of some of the "No, do it this way," Rose tells a guitarist about to make a recording THE NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN MACAZINE, JAN. 31. 1954 SEVEN.