Country Mike Blog

Charla Music

Mike Sudhalter  |  September 2, 2009

Charla Corn doesn't classify her music as
Nashville or Texas, but rather "Charla Music"

"Sing, sing to me, sing to me, sing a song about what used to be."

It's a song Charla Corn wrote with her brother - Clayton Corn - on her debut album, "More Than I Should."

It's an ode to their tiny West Texas hometown of Farwell - six blocks from the New Mexico border. In Texas terms, small towns are defined by their high school football classification - with 5A being the biggest and 1A, the smallest. Farwell just got bumped up to 2A, Charla said.

The song is a musical tribute to her deep West Texas roots, and it seems like a comforting lullabye to anyone listening.

"I actually wrote it with my brother who produced the record," Corn said. "It was such an emotional song about our parents and the way we grew up. I wrote the chorus and he wrote the verses."

So, what's this Nashville resident and former CMT Insider co-host doing, touring around Texas?

Her fan base is here in the Lone Star State.

"My music's not Red Dirt, but it's not Nashville either. It's just Charla Music. (Texas is) where I plan on staying. They've been awesome to me."

Corn's duet with Josh Abbott - "A Good Night For Dancing" - stayed on the Texas Music Charts for a whopping 12 weeks.

Corn, a Texas Tech graduate, sold merchandise for the band Honeybrowne (they're best known for "Texas Angel") and she went on stage to sing a couple songs for them.

Corn counts Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow and Dolly Parton among her influences; her brother, Clayton, is a keyboard player for another Texas artist, Pat Green.

Her style, however, is all her own. "She Ain't Always Been An Angel" is a crowd favorite told from a friend's perspective. The friend is attending a wedding of a sorority sister remembering when the bride was a little bit wilder. That song was written by Nashville songwriters Ashley Gorley and Bryan Simpson.

Her favorite song on the album is "Where Did All The Cowboys Go?" which laments the fact that guys are too self-conscious now and drink Venti Soy, instead of their coffee, black. She described it as a song "she couldn't stop listening to." The song is clever, sassy and catchy.

Corn had a hand in writing eight of the 11 songs on the album; she covered "Shameless", putting her own spin on a song recorded by Billy Joel and later, Garth Brooks.