Biography
Max D. Barnes issued relatively few recordings yet exerted lasting influence over modern country songcraft. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he earned 42 songwriter honors while supplying material to George Jones (“Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes”), Waylon Jennings (“Drinkin’ and Dreamin’”), Conway Twitty (“Red Neckin’ Love Makin’ Night”), Keith Whitley (“Ten Feet Away”), Randy Travis (“I Won’t Need You Anymore [Forever and Always]”), Vern Gosdin (“Way Down Deep,” “Slow Burnin’ Memory”), Pam Tillis (“Don’t Tell Me What to Do”), Vince Gill (“Look at Us”), and numerous additional performers. Although he placed a pair of modest singles on the charts himself, most notably “Allegheny Lady” during the mid-1970s, his enduring contribution rests with the compositions rather than his own discs.
Raised in Iowa, Barnes received his initial guitar at age eleven from sister Ruthie Steele. Soon after, his parents separated; he relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, alongside his mother and two younger brothers. At sixteen he left school to sing in a neighborhood club and assembled the Golden Rockets, whose lead vocalist was his future wife, Patsy. Following the birth of their son Patrick, Max and Patsy abandoned club work. He first took employment with an Omaha concrete firm before the family shifted to Long Beach, California, where he served as foreman at a lamp factory. Later he resigned that post, dividing time between summer months in Omaha and winter performances in California. By 1962 he had accumulated funds to purchase a nightclub near Lake Okiboji, Iowa, only to sell the venue after eight months; the family returned once more to Omaha, where he spent the next nine years driving a truck.
Barnes’s recording activity commenced in earnest during 1971 with the Jed single “Ribbons of Steel” backed by “Hello Honky Tonk,” followed by “You Gotta Be Putting Me On”/“Growing Old With Grace” on Willex. Encouraged by songwriter Kent Westberry, he relocated to Nashville in 1973. There he joined the staff of Roz-Tense Music, resulting in Charley Pride cutting two of his compositions, then moved to Gary S. Paxman Music and subsequently to Danor Music. While affiliated with Danor he authored nearly thirty songs that other artists recorded, several becoming hits, and at one point placed five titles simultaneously on the charts. He also collaborated frequently with Troy Seals, a co-owner of the publishing company. In 1975 the family suffered the loss of eldest son Patrick in an automobile accident; Barnes later addressed the event in “Chiseled in Stone,” co-written with Vern Gosdin, who scored a hit with the song in 1989.
A publishing agreement with Screen Gems EMI in 1976 led to a Polydor recording contract. The resulting 1977 album Rough Around the Edges yielded the minor chart entry “Allegheny Lady.” Though his own releases rarely charted, his material succeeded elsewhere: Conway Twitty carried several Barnes compositions onto the charts, among them the Loretta Lynn duets “I Can’t Love You Enough” and “From Seven Till Ten” as well as the solo number-one hit “Don’t Take It Away.”
Raised in Iowa, Barnes received his initial guitar at age eleven from sister Ruthie Steele. Soon after, his parents separated; he relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, alongside his mother and two younger brothers. At sixteen he left school to sing in a neighborhood club and assembled the Golden Rockets, whose lead vocalist was his future wife, Patsy. Following the birth of their son Patrick, Max and Patsy abandoned club work. He first took employment with an Omaha concrete firm before the family shifted to Long Beach, California, where he served as foreman at a lamp factory. Later he resigned that post, dividing time between summer months in Omaha and winter performances in California. By 1962 he had accumulated funds to purchase a nightclub near Lake Okiboji, Iowa, only to sell the venue after eight months; the family returned once more to Omaha, where he spent the next nine years driving a truck.
Barnes’s recording activity commenced in earnest during 1971 with the Jed single “Ribbons of Steel” backed by “Hello Honky Tonk,” followed by “You Gotta Be Putting Me On”/“Growing Old With Grace” on Willex. Encouraged by songwriter Kent Westberry, he relocated to Nashville in 1973. There he joined the staff of Roz-Tense Music, resulting in Charley Pride cutting two of his compositions, then moved to Gary S. Paxman Music and subsequently to Danor Music. While affiliated with Danor he authored nearly thirty songs that other artists recorded, several becoming hits, and at one point placed five titles simultaneously on the charts. He also collaborated frequently with Troy Seals, a co-owner of the publishing company. In 1975 the family suffered the loss of eldest son Patrick in an automobile accident; Barnes later addressed the event in “Chiseled in Stone,” co-written with Vern Gosdin, who scored a hit with the song in 1989.
A publishing agreement with Screen Gems EMI in 1976 led to a Polydor recording contract. The resulting 1977 album Rough Around the Edges yielded the minor chart entry “Allegheny Lady.” Though his own releases rarely charted, his material succeeded elsewhere: Conway Twitty carried several Barnes compositions onto the charts, among them the Loretta Lynn duets “I Can’t Love You Enough” and “From Seven Till Ten” as well as the solo number-one hit “Don’t Take It Away.”
Albums
