The road from the Maryville College Coffee House in Thaw Hall (which she was instrumental in starting) to Nashville’s famous Blue Bird Café has been interesting, if not always smooth, for Lynn Gillespie-Chater ’71.
Listen to "You Go First (Do You Wanna Kiss)," performed by Jessica Andrews
Listen to "I Meant to Do That," performed by Paul Brandt
She took her French major and taught school, earned her master’s degree and even earned a post-graduate scholarship to the University of Paris at Pau, France. From teaching, she went into modeling, then writing comedy for a radio show, then selling print advertising. In 1980, she began songwriting.
“I wrote my first song on my horse farm in Kansas, after meeting Johnny Cash’s son-in-law. After that, there was no stopping me. I drove the 18 hours from Kansas to Nashville with my daughter and my dog, in a 13-year-old car, its trunk filled with dreams.”
She has a starving artist’s story – no money for heat that first winter and temperatures so cold the water in her toilet froze and frost formed on the inside of her windows.
“I used to tell my daughter that [the frost on the windows] was her very own giant etch-a-sketch, and she scratched pictures on them as she ate her breakfast,” Lynn said recently. “I cherish the memories that remind me what it took to get here.”
Lynn did find work in Nashville, writing songs for publishing companies before teaming with husband Kerry Chater, who was a founding member of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.
Today, Lynn and Kerry collaborate on pop, country and Christian music (for praise bands and church choirs). Typically, Kerry writes the music, and Lynn is responsible for lyrics, although they occasionally cross over and give suggestions to the other.
Lynn and husband Kerry Chater, left, enjoy a moment with country music performer Paul Brandt.
Their song list includes: “Have a Nice Day,” performed by Mindy McCready; “You Go First (Do You Wanna Kiss),” performed by Jessica Andrews; “That’s the Way It Goes,” performed by Anne Murray; and “She Walked Beside the Wagon,” performed by Lorrie Morgan. “I Meant to Do That,” performed by Paul Brandt, was nominated for Song of the Year in Canada. Their songs have gone gold, platinum and multi-platinum and have been featured in commercials, videos and one movie trailer.
Members of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the Chaters lobby Congress regarding copyright protection and illegal downloading from the Internet.
Lynn met with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist during a recent visit to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress for copyright protection.
“Because it all begins with a song, the songwriter has built many an artist’s fame, many a producer’s career, many a publisher’s catalog, many an engineer’s studio, many a manager’s client and many a record company’s wealth, yet songwriters earn the least when the money is divided (four cents per song per CD if written alone and pro-rated if co-written),” she explained. “We are constantly challenged by the threat of illegal downloading. I call it ‘downlooting!’”
a.k.a. Jesse Read
Upon her arrival in Nashville in the early 1980s, Lynn didn’t find many welcome mats out for female songwriters. The country music industry was a “good ol’ boy” network.
“Armed with my songs, hope and a cassette player, I knocked on doors up and down Music Row and got thrown out of most of the offices. I eventually found a friendly ear … a little too friendly. When I finally figured out what this publisher wanted – and it wasn’t my music – I was out on the street there, too!
“Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. I decided if I couldn’t beat ‘em, I’d join ‘em, and so was born my alter-ego: male songwriter Jesse Read.
“What a nice guy he was! Jesse Read hailed from Oklahoma and drove a wheat combine for a living. He would listen to the radio during the long harvest days, when he began to write his songs. When his songs became as good as the ones on the radio, he took them to Nashville. He got a job as a bartender, which is where he found many of the ideas for his songs. All of this is made up, of course.
“I would act as agent for Jesse Read and pitch his songs, complete with bio and picture (a friend from L.A. who sat in for the head shot). Oddly enough, it worked! One pitch session, the producer liked the song and asked who wrote it. When I told him Jesse Read, he replied, ‘Jesse Read? I ate lunch with him last week at the Longhorn!’ You can imagine my surprise. I never told him Jesse Read didn’t exist. So that’s how I got my first three cuts. Jesse Read was even mentioned in People magazine. What a guy!”
