Norbert Putnam: Sharing music lessons

By Monica Collier Staff Writer Originally published in the TimesDaily, Jul 16, 2017 A curious black standard poodle peers through the wrought iron fence that surrounds a historic home in downtown Florence. Sheryl Putnam appears at the front door and calls out, “Hello. Don’t worry about her. She loves company. Come on in.” Norbert Putnam rises from his seat in the home’s stately parlor with his hand extended and another standard poodle at his side. After a few minutes of visiting, Sheryl takes “the girls,” Sofie and Gracie, into the kitchen and Norbert begins his conversational way of reminiscing about his life — including his more than 60 years in the music business.

Early life As a kid, Putnam went to school in North Florence. When he was around 10 years old, his father got into the insurance business and the family moved away from the Shoals. “We started moving about every year,” Putnam said. “We were in Troy for a year. Then we were in Birmingham for a year. Then we were in Tuscaloosa for a year. My dad would go in and rebuild the sales forces. We became nomadic people.” He describes it as a “not easy but wonderful time.” “I had to walk into a new school every year and defend myself,” he explained. “And, I have a bizarre name. The teacher would ask, ‘Is there a Norman Putnam or Robert?’ I would have to say, ‘It’s actually Norbert.’ Usually the teacher would reply, ‘Really?’” Later he found that Norbert is a common name in Germany that means North Star. “In my lifetime in America, I think I’ve only met three other Norberts,” he said. “Five or six years ago, I started to tour with the Elvis In Concert show. We played all over Europe. Everywhere I went, I met two or three Norberts.” When he was a teenager, the Putnams moved back to the Shoals to a farm in Lauderdale County. “I started school at T.M. Rogers, where Jason Isbell went,” he said. “I loved it up there. I was approached then by some kids — in my book I say from the neighborhood. David Briggs was from Killen, but I think he went to school in Rogersville. Then it was two guys from just across the line in St. Joseph, or St. Joe. They were forming a band to play Elvis music. And here we go.”

The bass “I was 15 and I had no aspirations to ever be a musician,” he said. Putnam’s friends told him he had to play bass in the band because they didn’t know anyone else who had a bass. (Putnam’s father played bass guitar.) When Putnam asked his friends why they thought he could become proficient playing bass overnight, his friend told him, “all this stuff only has three chords.” Putnam’s father tried to discourage him from being a musician by telling stories of his days of playing bass in bars on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. His father told him of shootings, gambling, prostitution, drugs and alcohol. “He told me all this stuff, and I just got more excited as he continued to talk about it,” Putnam said. “I started coming home from school every day, and I would go to my room where I had a 45 RPM player and I had Scotty and Bill with Elvis. I’d get the acoustic bass and try to find those chords. It was painful because you would get blisters on the acoustic.” The band started playing sock hops in Greenhill, Rogersville and St. Joseph. “It was so much fun to play that music,” he said. “It had such an effect on people.” The friendship Putnam started with Briggs as a teenager is one that has lasted a lifetime. The two went on to become business partners, too.

Studio musician “By the time Rick Hall got to town, David and I were 17 or 18 years old,” Putnam said. “We were playing in R&B bands. We had gone from playing Elvis to James Brown and Ray Charles. We were basically playing African-American music.” Arthur Alexander, a local singer and bellhop at a hotel in Sheffield, was one of Hall’s first artists. Putnam was part of the band that backed Alexander on three singles including “You Better Move on” and “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues,” which received national airplay. “We had made some demos, but Rick Hall was the entrepreneur we needed to make Muscle Shoals music,” Putnam said. “Although, I have to give credit to Sam Phillips,” he added with a laugh. “You know, where he grew up is about seven or eight blocks from here. If Sam doesn’t (leave Florence), go to Memphis and find Elvis, I’m in the insurance business.” Putnam points to Elvis as being the reason he started playing an instrument. “Elvis moved all of us to pick up an instrument and start playing,” he said. “The music was so simplistic that we could play it without four years of college theory.” As part of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Putnam played on his first hit record at age 18. When he was 22, on Feb. 22, 1964, the rhythm section opened for the Beatles in Washington, D.C., during the band's first U.S. concert.

Nashville As young 20-somethings, Putnam and Briggs left the Shoals to try their luck in Nashville. By age 28, in addition to being a sought-after studio musician, Putnam had produced his first hit record and built a studio and started a publishing company with Briggs. The stories from Putnam’s musical memoir, “Music Lessons Vol. 1,” which published in April, come from this time in his life. He reminisces about playing with Elvis, his first encounters with Kris Kristofferson — whom he believed to be homeless — and helping Jimmy Buffett find Margaritaville in Miami, Florida. As a studio musician in Nashville, Putnam played on more than 9,000 tracks for artists such as Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Henry Mancini and Linda Ronstadt. For years, he was the No. 4 studio bassist on the “call list” in Nashville. Putnam estimates that he and the three other bassists ahead of him on the list worked on 80 percent of the songs being recorded in the town. “First of all, when I was a player, it really was a factory life,” he said. “We would make the albums, but then great young players who looked good were hired to go on the road. They would rehearse for two or three weeks getting the parts down that we had played in 10 minutes.” Putnam amassed a long list of accomplishments both as a musician and producer working with some of the most successful artists in the music business. In the midst of the work, though, he was oblivious to the mark he was making on music. “My whole society was those people,” he continued. “When my wife and I had dinner with the studio guys, we never sat there and looked at each other and said, 'Do you realize how much history we’re making?' We were all having the same career. We only had one thing we wanted to do, we wanted to please every producer and every artist that booked us so they would book us again.” In the early 1970s, Putnam devoted more time to producing. As a producer, he worked with legendary artists such as Joan Baez, Jimmy Buffet and Dan Fogelberg. He knew focusing on producing was a risky move because he would likely forfeit his spot on the studio musician “call list.” But, Putnam saw it as a long-term business move. “I had to try,” he said. “We were part of the American Federation of Musicians. The Nashville guys made the same scale as the guys in New York or LA. I played on 120 Elvis records and they must have sold a billion copies, but I never got paid another cent (after the job). But record producers get a royalty for perpetuity. I’m so happy I did it.”

Retirement After 20 years in the music business, Putnam retired at age 43. “I decided I had had enough,” he said. “I had produced enough great artists to have a good residual income. I went down to Hilton Head — I wanted to see what it was like to have dinner with my wife and friends. I had dinner every night from 5 to 6, but it was with musicians.” Putnam’s skills as a music aficionado and storyteller came to light as he and his wife became active on the Hilton Head, South Carolina, social scene. “I sort of became the music guy at dinner parties,” he said. “That taught me a lot about people. If I was on the golf course and someone asked me who I worked with, I’d say well, I worked with Jimmy Buffet, Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. Then we’d play golf. I would give them some big names, and they would back off. I started to realize some of the little names could be just as important.” In his first book, Putnam focuses on many of the big names he worked with — he plans to share stories about the talented lesser knowns in a second book. “I also want to get deeper into what it was like to be a musician and the toll it took on families,” he said. “Almost all of the great players suffered divorces in their mid-30s. Sure enough, there was an ego part of it — although it never raised its head when I was in their company. We really felt like we were very well-paid professionals. We were paid to walk into that room and focus. We didn’t think about family or anything we had to do that weekend. I was a player for that artist, and I had five to 10 minutes to get a bass part that would be memorable to the producer and artist so they would call me again.”

Coming home Several decades would pass after Putnam’s retirement before he found his way back to Florence. Putnam and his wife of 27 years had restored several historic homes in Tennessee. The couple did the same in Grenada, Mississippi, when they moved there to be close to Sheryl’s family. While in Grenada, Putnam was enlisted to help Delta State develop its Delta Music Institute. He designed a campus recording studio and served as director and professor for a few years. After 10 years in Mississippi, the Putnams sold their house and intended to move back to Nashville. Instead, they restored a home in Jackson and was there for two years. While in Jackson, the Putnams once again felt Nashville calling and moved back to nearby Columbia, Tennessee. “Sheryl was pushing me then to get all my stories down,” he said. “I would go to Nashville and have lunch with three or four guys who would remind me of stories. I would come back with four or five chapters for my book.” It wasn’t part of the couple’s plan, but Putnam’s ties to Delta Music Institute prompted a recent trek through the Shoals. “Sheryl and I drove down to Delta because I was being honored,” he said. “On the way back, we had to make a stop in Muscle Shoals …” Putnam planned to meet a group of students from a prominent music academy in Nashville at FAME. Putnam took the chance to show his wife his hometown. While driving around Florence, the Putnams happened upon a historic home for sale that was in need of restoration. “I didn’t intend to move back,” he said. “I got down here and immediately started reconnecting.” The Putnams currently live a matter of blocks from a historic marker on Tennessee Street in Florence that commemorates the early days of FAME. “The thing that amazes me most is, no one has heard of me here,” he said. “My name is on the sign at the corner up there, but it’s misspelled.” He added with a laugh, “That shows you how quickly they forget."