Charles Humphrey III

Writing Songs One Idea at a Time

Charles Humphrey III is equally adept playing bass guitar as he is casting a trout fly toward a school of rainbows on a winding mountain stream. But one could argue his true calling is writing songs for Songs from the Road Band (SFTRB), the Asheville-based bluegrass/jamgrass quintet he founded in 2004 as an outlet for his compositions.  

In more than 25 years as a working musician, Humphrey, 47, has written hundreds of songs. And Songs from the Road Band has enjoyed an enviable share of success on the festival and club circuits, while landing songs at or near the top of the bluegrass and Grassicana charts. Humphrey’s compositions have also been covered by others, including the Grascals (“Just Let Me Know”), Jim Lauderdale (“Misery’s Embrace”) and Willie Nelson. That’s not a misprint: “We’re Not Happy ’til You’re Not Happy,” co-written with Earls of Leicester’s Shawn Camp, appears on Nelson’s 2023 Grammy-winning album A Beautiful Time. 

“It was a dream come true,” says Humphrey with characteristic humility. “I think Willie Nelson has to be everybody’s hero.”

The Road Band albums, along with the Grascals and Nelson cuts, are the culmination of Humphrey’s songwriting mastery, an astute set of skills he began to develop in the late 1990s as a founding member of Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Steep Canyon Rangers. 

“I began to write songs after college, when I moved to Asheville in 1999,” he says. “I realized that bands need songs. I was starting from scratch, trying to figure it out on my own.” Humphrey emerged as a contributing songwriter for Steep Canyon. When his catalog outgrew opportunities for recording with the Rangers, Humphrey established Lucks Dumpy Toad publishing company and record label, and Songs from the Road Band emerged as a side project and an outlet for his compositions. 

When schedules allowed, Humphrey booked studio time to accommodate his musician friends. Traveling Show, released in 2015, was the last of four CDs recorded by a revolving cast of musicians before Humphrey stepped down from the Rangers and established the Road Band as a full-time touring and recording combo. The album features Jon Stickley Trio, Andy Thorn (Leftover Salmon), Bobby Britt and Phil Barker (Town Mountain), Andrew Marlin (Mandolin Orange-Watchhouse), and other stalwarts of the bluegrass/Americana scene.

In 2017, the Road Band transitioned to a full-time touring band, and has recorded four albums, with a fifth scheduled for release this year. The band features Mark Schimick (mandolin, vocals), Sam Wharton (guitar, vocals), James Schlender (fiddle), Gabe Epstein (banjo), and Humphrey (bass). Their current CD, Pay Your Dues, was released in 2023. The album’s ten songs include the title track and “Worlds Apart,” both written by Humphrey and former Balsam Range mandolinist, Darren Nicholson.

Nicholson and Humphrey began writing together in 2018. In addition to Road Band cuts, four of their co-writes landed on Nicholson’s Man on a Mission album (2021). And his 2023 CD, Wanderer, yielded the Nicholson-Humphrey chart-topping single, “Arkansas Without You.”  The duo’s songs have found other admirers, including the Grascals, who released “Just Let Me Know” as the first single from their forthcoming CD.

“We work really good together,” Nicholson says. “Charles is really good with lyrics and rhymes. I love putting the music to it. So it’s a good balance for us. And Charles is so prolific. If one of us has an idea, Charles can spit out five or six lines, all usable. I wish I could do that because while I’m trying to think of the perfect line or word, he’s got ten. It just pours out of him. His brain works like that.”

Learning the Art of Songcraft, One Co-write at a Time

The turning point in Humphrey’s songwriting education was a meeting with the late Don Light, manager for Nashville stars Keith Whitley, the Oak Ridge Boys, Jimmy Buffett and others. Nashville songwriting has long been a collaborative process, with songwriters making dates to write with others. Light recommended Humphrey seek out accomplished songwriters, work with them, and study the art of songcraft.

“Don Light said to me, ‘If you want to get better at songwriting, you have to co-write with professional writers.’ I took that to heart and reached out to some people in the bluegrass community I’d met at festivals and shows. I reached out to Shawn Camp and Jim Lauderdale. I said, ‘We have a band and I’d like to co-write with you.’ From there, it grew to other writers, honing the craft and building a catalog. That was over 20 years ago.”

Taking his cue from Don Light, Humphrey drove to Nashville and contacted Shawn Camp. “I met him cold,” Humphrey recalls. “He was working in a studio on Music Row. I had an idea about a traveling musician. I started telling him the story and we agreed it took place in New Orleans. We wrote a verse and chorus and went to lunch. Then we came back and finished it. That seems like the way to do it in Nashville.” The song, “Margaree,” and two other Humphrey-Camp co-writes appears on Songs from the Road Band’s 14-track Traveling Show.

Since then, Humphrey has cultivated an impressive roster of professional and personal relationships within and beyond Nashville. His Music City co-writers have featured such celebrated tunesmiths as Jim Lauderdale and Tom Jutz. Others are Marty Dodson whose credits include George Strait and Carrie Underwood; Clay Mills (Trisha Yearwood, Darius Rucker); and Mark Nesler (Billy Currington, Tim McGraw). 

The first Humphrey-Lauderdale writing session produced three songs, including “Misery’s Embrace,” which appears on Songs from the Road Band’s 2018 album, Road to Nowhere. Lauderdale also recorded the song on his 2020 bluegrass CD, When Carolina Comes Home Again, along with “The Last to Know” and “You’ll Have to Earn It.”

Lauderdale recalls his reaction to Humphrey as they were sitting together in Nashville, writing “Misery’s Embrace.” “I was really impressed with how sure he was about what he wanted, where he wanted the song to go,” Lauderdale says. “It went quickly, and we got a good shuffle song out of it. Then we were working on ‘The Last to Know.’ I was struck by Charles’s lyrical ability and sensibility. He’s so good at crafting things that work well and that have feeling. It’s always such a joy to work with someone who you feel you’ve got this connection with and something comes out of your efforts. I always jump at the chance to write with him.”  

Humphrey began co-writing with Nashville songwriter Charlie Chamberlain on the Traveling Show project. Chamberlain contributed to seven of the album’s 12 tracks, and has produced four Songs from the Road Band albums. As of this writing, two songs from a forthcoming SFTRB CD have been released – the Christmas single, “Green Garland” and “Where Lonely Lives.”

“When I’m producing their band, I try to be the objective ears – quality control for lack of a better word,” says Chamberlain. “I know those guys so well now. I know when they’re playing their best; I know when they’re ready to be pushed hard. It makes it a fun, easy working relationship.”

Chamberlain says Humphrey is such a prolific songwriter because “he does it consistently. He’s got a busy schedule with his touring and his fishing, but he still takes time to write. He’s a champion at working with other writers, setting up appointments, making phone calls, and organizing.”

While Nashville has proven a valued source of inspiration and cowriters, Humphrey also draws upon the musical talent in his hometown. Arts-rich Asheville boasts a close-knit community of musicians, clubs, and recording studios. “I always tell friends to write with your friends, write within your community as a good starting point,” Humphrey advises. “For some reason, I took a shot at Nashville first. Since then, I’ve taken my own advice and written with people who are around me.”

Most Road Band material originates as collaborative efforts between Humphrey and outside writers. Yet, the popular “Molasses,” a track on the Pay Your Dues CD, was written by Road Band member Schimick along with Dodson and Humphrey. With the viscous, slow-moving syrup a metaphor for a slowly developing relationship, Humphrey recognized its potential as a Schimick co-write.

“Mark wanted to write,” Humphrey says. “Marty Dodson and I had written the day before, and Marty had an idea for a song. I said we should save it for Mark. I brought Mark to write with Marty in Nashville. It was like it was made for Mark. They wrote it in about 45 minutes.”

From An Idea To A Song

While there is no single formula for songwriting, Humphrey prefers a “minimalist” approach, starting from an idea and building the idea into a story. “I like to start with just a title,” he says. “I keep a list of titles on my phone. We might share five or ten titles and see if one leads anywhere. So, from the idea, we go to the chorus, write the verses and decide whether or not it needs a bridge. There are exceptions if someone has something started and wants to work on it. But I always find if there is something started, you’re a bit hesitant to change it, so I prefer to start from scratch.”

While Humphrey’s approach to songcraft is different from Nicholson’s, the Canton, North Carolina, native finds the two styles compatible, “I’ve had a title with something specific in mind, like a relationship with a woman,” Nicholson relates. “I’ll send the title to Charles and he’ll send something back that’s about his job, or the love he has for a car. I never thought about it like that. By the time the song is finished, he’s taken it to a completely different place. He’s really good about pushing the boundaries of where a song can go.”

Chamberlain says people often ask, “‘Which comes first, the lyrics or melody?’ The more I’ve done this the more I’ve decided that the idea comes first. When someone comes in the room with a title and a story to go along with it, a lot of times the song unfolds quicky because it has a clear destination.”

For Humphrey, “The melodies kind of develop in conjunction with the lyrics. You want to have big choruses. Being a bass player, I hear chords and harmony. If I hear something, I’ll say, ‘Let’s go a little bit lower here so the next part will be higher.’ Or, ‘What happens if we try a minor chord there?’ With the people I work with, usually the music and words happen at the same time, but there are exceptions.”

Lauderdale recalls that “The Last to Know” and “Misery’s Embrace” began as Humphrey-generated titles. “Charles rose to the occasion when I had the melody for ‘I’ll Have to Earn It,’” he says. “Charles is able to adapt. He’ll tell me the titles or he’ll send them to me so I can see them. For me, it’s good because a lot of times when I see a title, a melody will come to me.”  

While 2020 was a challenging year for performing artists due to the COVID pandemic, Humphrey and friends found ways to remain productive via Zoom.  “When everything shut down, I turned to songwriting,” Charles says. “We wrote some 140 songs during COVID. I reached out to people, including Tom Jutz and Marty Dodson, and especially Darren Nicholson. Darren and I work really well together, and it’s an honor to work with him.” The COVID sessions resulted in several tracks on the Pay Your Dues album, including “Right Train Wrong Time,” “Someday When,” “Hill Country Queen” and the title track. 

For most musicians, songwriting and touring might leave little time or energy for activities outside the band. But Humphrey defies those expectations. When he’s off the road, his “stage” is a local trout stream leading fly fishing expeditions with his Beast Coast Anglers fishing company. And though his passion for ultrarunning is on pause, he plans to return to the 100-mile non-stop marathons he’s enjoyed for many years.

Along with his music, Humphrey’s extracurricular interests endear him to his friends, including Jim Lauderdale, who says, “I enjoy working with him so much I could write with him every week. He’s very even-tempered and is very centered. Charles is a leader. It’s a treat to be around him.”

Humphrey’s advice to aspiring songwriters echoes what he was told by Don Light hundreds of songs ago: “Find people in your career that you match up well with. Then it’s not like work, it’s fun.”