Legendary Highwaymen Producer and “Luckenbach” Songwriter Chips Moman Dies
One of the most influential, prolific, diverse, and long lasting producers, songwriters, and guitar players in American music has passed away. Lincoln Wayne “Chips” Moman, the writer of Waylon Jennings’ #1 “Luckenbach, TX,” the producer for Elvis Presley’s hit “Suspicious Minds,” a seminal figure in the formation of the Stax record label and the Memphis sound, died in a hospice facility in LaGrange, Georgia on Monday, June 13th.
If it was American and Southern, it’s likely Chips Moman had a hand in the sound. Though he would go on to be known for his many contributions to country music, including writing “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” and producing albums from Willie Nelson, Gary Stewart, Tammy Wynette, and The Highwaymen, it all started in Memphis when Chips was 17 and hitchhiked from Georgia where he was born. Chips died in LaGrange, Georgia, and he was born in LaGrange, Georgia on June 12th, 1937. He died a day after his 79th birthday.
In Memphis, Moman fell in with the Sun Studios crowd, and won spots as a guitar player in the touring bands of artists like Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette. After s short stint in Los Angeles where he played in studio sessions at the famed Gold Star Recording Studios, he settled back in Memphis to start Satellite Records in 1957 with Jim Stewart, implementing what he learned at Gold Star. Satellite eventually became known as Stax, and one of the most seminal record labels and genuine American sounds was born. Even today, artists do what they can to emulate the magic that came from those early Stax records.
But it wasn’t at Stax where Chips Moman’s most lasting contributions were made. Leaving the label in 1962, he started his own recording facility called American Sound Studio, where some of the most legendary songs and albums of American music were cut. In the decades that would follow, Chips and the studio would be responsible for over 120 charting singles in multiple genres, including country and soul. Wilson Picket, Dusty Springfield, and Bobby Womack were just a few of the notable American Sound Studio artists, with “Hooked on a Feeling,” “Son of a Preacher Man,” Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” and Elvis Presley’s “In The Ghetto” and “Kentucky Rain” all being cut at the facility.
In 1972, Chips left Memphis for Atlanta first, but then eventually settled in Nashville where after writing a couple of hit country songs, his efforts began to shift from soul and R&B to country. His work with Willie Nelson, Ronnie Millsap, and Gary Stewart helped set the pace in country at the time, and helped the music open up during country’s “Outlaw” era. When country superstars Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson decided to form The Highwaymen, Chips Moman was the man behind the supergroup’s sound. He also produced Willie Nelson’s and Merle Haggard’s version of “Pancho and Lefty,” and is the reason the song has a similar ethereal vibe to the The Highwaymen’s signature song “The Highwayman.”
Chips Moman tried to return to Memphis in the mid 80’s, but after a failed venture, returned to his hometown of LaGrange, Georgia and started another studio. Moman suffered from poor health over the last decade and fell out of sight to many, but his sound can still be heard in many of the records being produced today. The Muscle Shoals/Stax – Jerry Wexler/Chips Moman sound is still very much alive in the work of producers such as Dave Cobb and John Paul White, and artists like The Alabama Shakes and Anderson East.
Chips Moman leaves behind his wife Jane, his daughter Monique, and a son Casey.
June 14, 2016 @ 2:08 pm
Hey Folks,
My sincere apologizes, but there was a massive database implosion on the site at about noon Central today (6-14). Luckily we were able to implement a backup, and everything appears to be working fine now. Unfortunately though, that means we lost all the comments that were made between when the site was last backed up, and when we restored it. There is nothing I value more than your feedback and attention, and losing those comments affects me in way you probably can’t comprehend. But there was nothing to be done about it.
Apologies for the lost comments and for any inconvenience caused by the database problems.
June 14, 2016 @ 4:57 pm
One of the things about Chips Moman that I don’t think can ever be overestimated is how big a deal it was to have a re-energized Elvis recording at American Studios during the first two months of 1969 (this was actually the first time Elvis had actually recorded anywhere in his hometown of Memphis since 1955, by the way). And Elvis liked the idea of working with a producer and a group of musicians who wanted to bring out the best in the King. It wasn’t just the obvious hits that came out of those sessions (including “Don’t Cry Daddy”), all of which were million sellers; it was the two albums as well (FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS; the second-LP of FROM MEMPHIS TO VEGAS/FROM VEGAS TO MEMPHIS), along with such album tracks as “Long Black Limousine”, “I’m Movin’ On” (yes, the Hank Snow classic), “Stranger In My Own Hometown”, and “Without Love (There Is Nothing)”.
In terms of songwriting, among other things, Moman also collaborated with Dan Penn on two songs of the country soul variety that have received so many covers that they’ve become modern standards: “Do Right Woman (Do Right Man)”, which Aretha Franklin and the Flying Burrito Brothers, among others, have done; and “The Dark End Of The Street”, which the Burritos also covered (as did Linda Ronstadt, on her 1974 masterpiece HEART LIKE A WHEEL).
So another legendary musical figure has left us. But his impact remains; and that’s what we should always remember about him.
June 15, 2016 @ 4:44 am
“The letter” (original) was recorded in his studio. Interesting stuff at wikipedia about the recording of that tune.
He had a remarkable life in music. Interesting that he worked and had great success in different branches of pop… which is somewhat frowned on in some circles.
June 15, 2016 @ 9:48 am
RIP Chips. I will always remember him for resurrecting Elvis’ recording career with the classic singles he cut at American studios in 1969 and the two albums that resulted from these sessions From Elvis In Memphis and Back In Memphis which were the most satisfying Elvis albums since Elvis Is Back ! from 1960.
June 16, 2016 @ 4:48 pm
No surprise that Elvis would do a Hank Snow song. One of Elvis’s core rock hits from the ’50s was a cover of a Hank Snow country hit: “(Now and Then, There’s) A Fool Such as I.”
April 2, 2018 @ 1:44 pm
Simply the best .producer of them all .his work will be heard forever .from so many wonderful recordings he created the greatest backing band The American group .created the Stax sound .and country music was transformed into the mainstream with amazing results a legend .
May 23, 2021 @ 4:52 pm
I first remember Chips Moman when I would go hear him and his band playing at a small club in Memphis, TN up a long flight of stairs at the corner of Fourth and Court St. called the Congress Club. I was only 15 yrs old at the time and would dress and put on make up to make me look older. It worked , they would let me in. One of his singers was named Stanley , I had a crush on him. Yep , those were the days.