Gregory played his demo version of the old Jimmie Davis song, Nobody’s Darlin’ But Mine, to steel guitarist Ron Elliott, the sales manager of Step One Records. I did some demos in case the trio didn’t work out, but we just did a handful of local club dates.” “We all moved to Nashville together in 1987, but we could never get any real bites at the business. “They were some of the greatest years of my life,” he reflects. It was a gig that was to last for six years, during which he virtually became part of the Wiggins family, living in their house and being taken care of by their parents. Gregory dropped out of school at 16 after passing an audition to back-up brother and sister act John & Audrey Wiggins at a square dance hall in Maggie Valley, on the fringes of the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. “Back then, if you didn’t listen to Peter Frampton, you weren’t happening! I was into country in a big way western swing like Bob Wills and Asleep At The Wheel, a little bit of jazz, like Django Reinhardt, and Johnny Paycheck.” “I kept it quiet because it wasn’t cool,” he smiles. But when he started high school he didn’t mention his musical background. As well as being a lumberjack, house painter and self-confessed bootlegger, Clinton’s father was also a champion fiddler and Clinton himself started playing when he was just five. Growing up in the backwoods of Martinsville, Virginia, miles away from the nearest neighbouring family, the Gregorys lived a pretty desolate life in which music played a big role. I want to build a career and to have it last 30 or 40 years.” The whole game plan is to have longevity. But the last five or six years have been a great learning process, and I’m continuing to learn. I don’t think I was ready for a major label deal before then. “Business-wise, I knew that I had to make a change. “I’m a very loyal person and it was a tough decision,” he readily admits. The change hasn’t been easy and has resulted in a great deal of heart-searching.
Earlier this year he moved over from the independent Step One Records to major label acceptance on Polydor in an effort to expose the full range of his talents to a wider audience. Major success has continued to elude him, but Gregory remains philosophical. Played alongside John & Audrey Wiggins, The McCarters and Suzy Bogguss he’s one of the few artists to score country hits whilst on an independent label and he’s recognised around Nashville as one of the best musicians in town. Alan Cackett finds the Nashville Cat looking to the future and aiming to play music for the next ‘30 or 40 years’Ĭountry fiddle player and pure-toned hillbilly singer Clinton Gregory has spent: the best part of his adult life knocking around the country music scene. His latest record features 200-year-old fiddle tunes but Clinton Gregory isn’t living in the past. First Published in Country Music International, November 1995