Carl's Scrapbook: The 80s: Original Songs

 BRAND NEW ME
 (Carl Chambers) Ricky Skaggs Music/Chip Peay Music, BMI

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I wrote a lot of "Brand New Me" on January 8, 1984, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Nashville, after the Music City Awards Show where I had accepted an award for for "Close Enough To Perfect". The original idea was a parallel between restoring a broken down house and restoring a broken heart. A sort of "This Ol' Heart" episode. I finished up the first two verses and chorus when I returned home and we made a demo of the song in Joe Spann's living room on his new new four-track cassette recorder. The next time Jesse was home, I gave him a copy of the "Brand New Me" demo and a bluegrass style song that Joe and I had written called "Old Dixie Highway Blues". When Jesse returned to Nashville, he played the songs for Ricky Skaggs who put "Brand New Me" on hold and said he would like to include it on his next album if I would write a third verse for it. Surprizingly enough, the third verse came rather easily. Ricky seemed to think the song had religious overtones so the third verse kinda reflects that feeling. I always felt that "Brand New Me" was one of, if not the best lyric I have ever written.

In 1984, "Brand New Me" was included on the Ricky Skaggs album, "Country Boy". Originally Ricky had planned to record the song as a duet with his wife, Sharon White, but she was very pregnant at the time and unable to do the session. His intentions were to single the song but on the very day it was scheduled to go to the pressing plant (Yes, Virginia, they still pressed 7" vinyl 45's in 1984), CBS decided the album was not selling well enough and ceased promoting it.

Other original hits and misses from the 80s: