Shortly after I moved to Nashville, my best friend said “You have to meet Greg”. Is he a bigtime Nashville writer or something?” I asked. “No” she said “He doesn’t even live here and he’s not famous at all, but you just have to meet him. He’s one of a kind.” Camille isn’t usually impressed by anyone. She’s been everywhere and seen everything at least twice. She was right. There is something decidedly different about Greg Klyma and it’s taken me years to begin figuring out what it is.

When I hear a song I usually have one of two responses: “I could have done that better” or “I wish I’d written that”. I have tried applying both of those to any number of Greg’s songs and neither one works… ever. Every song I’ve ever heard from Greg Klyma resonates with a different answer in my mind: “I could not have done this better and no one else could have written this”. His songs make me want to forget about being a songwriter for a little while and just listen.

Not to say that these are perfect, sterile little ditties, bound for fifteen minutes of platinum coated, boy band glory. These songs have quirks and warts and imperfections… just like all living things do. They live and breathe and, occasionally, make a mess on the carpet. I find that refreshing and delightful in the sometimes too careful world that the music business has become. I have a feeling that, no matter what happens in this life, some of Greg’s songs are destined to be remembered long after his grandchildren, who have never heard of Britney Spears, have grown old and grey.

Greg Klyma is a homecooked meal and a vaudeville show in a fast food, karaoke world. He is beyond definitions of style and arbiters of cool. He is precisely who he is, no additives or fillers.

That’s why, in the midst of hiding out in the woods, trying to meet a book deadline, I took a break to write this. Because Greg is one of the only storytellers in the whole world who can make me forget about being a storyteller and help me remember how to be a spellbound kid who sits by the fire, lost in a great story.

CJ Watson
White River December 2002

Cover Art by Les Waite (http://www.leswaite.com)
Photos by Kamaljit Punia
Notes by CJ Watson (http://www.cjwatson.com)
Songwriters: G.K., Bill Passalacqua, and Tom Stahl