Leon Payne

Leon Payne (June 15, 1917 – September 11, 1969), "the Blind Balladeer", was a country music singer and songwriter.

Life

Leon Roger Payne was born in Alba, Texas, on June 15, 1917. He was blind in one eye at birth, and lost the sight of the other eye in early childhood. He attended the Texas School for the Blind from 1924 to 1935, where he met his future wife, Myrtie Velma Courmier. They had two children together, as well as two children from Myrtie's previous marriage. Leon Payne died in 1969 in San Antonio, Texas. His wife Myrtie died in San Antonio in 2008, and Leon's composition "I Love You Because" was played at her funeral service by pedal steel guitarist Emmett Roch, accompanied by musicians who were members of her church.

Career

Leon wrote hundreds of country songs in a prolific career that lasted from 1941 until his death in 1969. He is perhaps best known for his hits "I Love You Because", "You've Still Got a Place in My Heart" and the 1948 song "Lost Highway", a song made famous by Hank Williams in 1949 (in appreciation, Hank gave his 1938 Martin D-18 guitar to Leon). Leon Payne also wrote under the pen-name of "Pat Patterson" on tracks such as "It's Nothing to Me" performed by Sanford Clark.

Lost Highway (Leon Payne song)

"Lost Highway" is a country music song written and recorded by blind country singer-songwriter Leon Payne in 1948. It was released in October 1948 on Nashville-based Bullet label.

In the early days of Leon Payne's career, he used to travel from one place to another, trying to find jobs wherever he could. Once he was in California hitchhiking to Alba, Texas, to visit his sick mother, he was unable to get a ride and finally got help from The Salvation Army. He wrote "Lost Highway" on the edge of the road while waiting for a ride. Payne wrote hundreds of country songs in a prolific career that lasted from 1941 until his death in 1969. He is perhaps best known for his hits "I Love You Because", "You've Still Got a Place in My Heart," and for the two songs that Hank Williams recorded: "Lost Highway" and "They'll Never Take Her Love from Me." Payne released his version in October 1948.

Hank Williams version

As Williams' biographer Colin Escott observes, "In recent years, "Lost Highway" has been the title of several books, a stage show, a record label, and a television series. It's seen as one of Hank's defining records, if not a defining moment in country music, which makes it ironic that it barely dented the charts on release and doubly ironic that it's not even one of Hank's songs." Although he did not write the song, "Lost Highway" was a natural for Williams, the song's combination of perdition and misogyny sounding "like pages torn from his diary." Williams recorded the song with Fred Rose producing and backing on the session from Dale Potter (fiddle), Don Davis (steel guitar), Zeb Turner (lead guitar), Clyde Baum (mandolin), Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), and probably Ernie Newton (bass).

Lost Highway

Lost Highway may refer to:

Television and film

Music

Lost Highway (soundtrack)

Lost Highway is the soundtrack album for the 1997 David Lynch film of the same name. It was produced by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), and includes original music from the film recorded by Reznor, Angelo Badalamenti and Barry Adamson, as well as songs by other artists used in the film. The album reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and reached Gold status in the United States.

Track listing

Lost Highway (Willie Nelson album)

Lost Highway is a compilation album by country artist Willie Nelson. It was released on August 11, 2009.

Track listing