Press release distributed in partnership with ...  

Songwriting Great Bobby Braddock Pens Memoir About Youth in Old Florida

Kicks Off 11-City Book Tour in Nashville on Tuesday, April 3

Nashville, TN (Billboard Publicity Wire) March 28, 2007 -- One of the greatest songwriters in the history of Nashville's Music Row, Bobby Braddock has penned a memoir titled DOWN IN ORBURNDALE: A Songwriter's Youth in Old Florida. The book, about growing up in pre-Disney World small-town Central Florida, "when the landscape was more rural and the culture was more Southern," and touring the South in 1960s rock & roll bands, is the lead title in LSU Press's Spring '07 catalog.

In this captivating narrative, Braddock demonstrates that he is as much at home writing the story of his life as crafting an award-winning country song. Warm, candid, intimate, and funny, DOWN IN ORBURNDALE - the title plays on the Southern pronunciation of Braddock's hometown of Auburndale, Florida - recounts his colorful saga up to age twenty-four, when he decides to move to Nashville and pursue a career as a songwriter.

Braddock kicks off an 11-City book tour in Nashville on Tuesday, April 3 at 6 PM with a reading and book signing at Davis-Kidd Booksellers at Green Hills Mall. Other dates on his book tour include:

- Saturday, April 14 (2 PM) - Lakeland, FL at Books-A-Million
- Monday, April 16 (6 PM) - Tampa, FL at Inkwood Books
- Wednesday, April 18 (6 PM) - St. Petersburg, FL at Barnes & Noble (2501 Tyrone Blvd.)
- Friday, April 20 (5 PM) - Gainesville, FL at Goering's Book Center
- Sunday, April 22 (2 PM) - Orlando, FL at Barnes & Noble
- Wednesday, April 25 (6 PM) - Coral Gables (Miami), FL at Books & Books
- Saturday, April 28 (2 PM) - Tallahassee, FL at Barnes & Noble
- Monday, April 30 (6 PM) - Jacksonville, FL at Barnes & Noble
- Thursday, May 3 (7 PM) - Atlanta, GA at A Capella Books
- Wednesday, May 9 (6 PM) - Birmingham, FL at Alabama Booksmith (19th Place South)

Kris Kristofferson, Garth Brooks and Toby Keith are among the music stars who sing the book's praises in written blurbs included on the book's back cover. Esteemed author Lee Smith wrote, "Combined with his great sense of self-deprecating humor and graceful writing style, this makes for a fabulous read, a heady mix of family, fundamentalism, sex, and music. He brings old-time, small-town Florida back to vivid life as well."

In a legendary career spanning four decades, Braddock has left his mark in almost every facet of the country music industry. He began his Nashville years in the road band of the late-great Marty Robbins. From the mid 1960s to the early 1980s, Braddock was a recording artist for five major labels, but it was as a songwriter that he would enjoy quick and continuing success.

His string of thirteen #1 songs (33 in the top ten) includes such classics as Tammy Wynette's "D.I.V.O.R.C.E" in 1968 and George Jones's "He Stopped Loving Her Today," in 1980, both which he wrote with his friend and mentor, Curly Putman, as well as the Jones-Wynette duet "Golden Ring," which he wrote with Rafe Van Hoy. Braddock's hit streak continued through the 1990's as a solo writer with smashes like "Time Marches On" and "Texas Tornado."

In 2001, he wrote one of the biggest hits of the new millennium, a major crossover and country's only #1 rap song, "I Wanna Talk About Me," by superstar Toby Keith.

Braddock also discovered Blake Shelton and became his producer. Their collaboration resulted in three albums with sales totaling in the millions, and twelve weeks at the top of the country singles charts.

For additional information, please go to www.downinorburndale.com.

The book can be purchased at www.amazon.com, www.lsu.edu/lsupress and www.barnesandnoble.com.

###