PLATTSBURGH — Two weeks after Amanda Martin graduated from Saranac Central School in 1999, she packed up her maroon Pontiac and headed to Nashville, Tennessee.
She followed her parents, Hughie and Velma, to Belmont University. While she settled in, her parents drove back to Saranac and her mother cried all the way home.
During Martin’s Nashville years, she met Grammy Award-winning country and bluegrass singer-songwriter, Larry Cordle.
“He’s a very renowned songwriter and is one that I cut my chops on,” Martin said.
“I was in Nashville and we just got together, and that’s how it all started. He became a very, very blessed friend of mine. Like I said, he has so much success. Really great songwriter, obviously.
“One day we were writing, and he said to me you need to write with people who you can cut your chops on. He’s from Kentucky. He said you write with people you can cut your chops and get better.”
Martin looked at him and thought “wow, so you’re writing with me today.”
“My first ever cut, ever song, recorded that was a major hit was through Trace Adkins, which I wrote with Larry. It was called ‘Sometimes a Man Takes a Drink.’ It was on the Trace Adkins’ X album, the last album he did for Capitol Records. That was my first ever like big cut. Then, it all went from there and now,” she said.
Cordle and Martin wrote “Old Richmond Road” that’s getting traction now between 18 and 20 years ago. The track features Mike Anglin (bass), Jenee Fleenor (fiddle) Clay Hess (guitar), Steve Thomas (mandolin),and Mike Rogers (percussion and harmony vocal).
“It’s been 18 to 20 years since we cut this song, and it has finally hit radio,” she said.
“Welcome to the music business. It just hit Bluegrass Junction on Sirius Radio, channel 77. It just goes to show you the music business, you don’t just write a song and it goes to radio. It debuted at #20. We’re excited about it. Twenty years later, it is really kind of an eye-opening experience in the music business.”
The song was written for Wanda, Cordle’s wife.
“Every single detail in that song is real,” Martin said.
“Every single landmark that goes from Old Richmond Road to Durbin Church where they got married. Cordle came in that day and he wanted to write a song for his wife. We sat there in my living room, and we took a bunch of notes. We just talked about his wife. I actually felt like I was a therapist sitting there, and I told him this.”
Cordle went home with all the notes of the things they talked about.
“We talked about things in your hometown that you think of,” Martin said.
“What’s the main store that everybody goes to? What is the main bar that everybody goes to? What is the main haunt that everybody goes to? We just kept throwing names out and names out.”
Cordle synthesized all of their notes and shared with Martin what he came up with.
“I said, wow,” she said.
“He put it all together. I was just enamored by the fact that he could do that. Literally, I felt like I was just sitting there like his therapist. He said, ‘Baby, all I need to do was get it out and talk to somebody.’
“But I was thinking about all these things. I’m from Saranac, NY, and I’m thinking what is the nearest gas station? What’s the nearest bar? What’s the nearest place that you go get food. What’s the … and that’s how we wrote the song.”