Wayne's World

Of the many hats Wayne wears in the music industry, songwriter is both the oldest and newest. At the ripe old age of six, he began composing his first songs on the guitar that Santa Claus had left him under the Christmas tree. From there, Wayne went on to have thirty-eight cuts on array of artists including The Mar-Keys, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Johnny Taylor, Cher, The Memphis Horns, Mary Lee Rush, all during the Sixties and Seventies. In the late Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, he found his schedule increasingly filled with concert tours leaving little time for writing.

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So at the end of 1996, Wayne decided the time had come to return to his love of songwriting. He and wife, Amy, moved to Nashville and formed a publishing company called Sweet Medicine Music. Wayne writes the songs. Amy runs the business.

Major success arrived in December 1999, with Amy Grant's version of "Christmas Can't Be Very Far Away," written by Wayne and Hall of Famer, Roger Cook. The song, featured on Amy's album, "A Christmas To Remember," was hailed as "the new, old-fashioned, holiday classic." Expected to be cut by various artists year after year, it is a wonderful perennial in Sweet Medicine's publishing garden!

Wayne's songwriting style is different than most. "I never worry about genre or style. I just write about what's going on in my life or memories of the past. I never try to out think a lyric. I just write from my heart and soul. If it comes out to be rock n' roll, that's what it is, and if it turns out to be country, then that's that. To me, songs are just songs, and until there is a musical interpretation, you can't put a category on it. For instance, if Ray Charles sings a song, you can bet it's R&B. If George Jones sings that same song, you can bet it's country."

In addition to Roger Cook, Wayne's writing partners include Johnny Barranco, Randy Goodrum, Sam Hogin and Wayne Carson.

For questions and information on the Sweet Medicine Music catalog, contact Amy at Sweetmedicine@aol.com.