On Nashville’s Music Row they say, “It all starts with a song.” In many ways the modern era of Nashville songwriting starts with Fred Rose. Born in Evansville, Indiana on August 24, 1898, Fred was raised by his mother’s relatives in St. Louis. He was a child prodigy on the piano, playing for tips in St. Louis saloons as a young boy. In his teens, he headed to Chicago, where he became a song writing machine, turning out hundreds of pop tunes, including “Red Hot Mama” for Sophie Tucker.

After a first brief stint in Nashville, where he did a 15-minute nightly show, “Freddie Rose’s Song Shop,” on WSM radio, Fred headed to New York’s Tin Pan Alley. Fellow songwriter Ray Whitley (“Back In The Saddle Again”) introduced Fred to Gene Autry, then at the height of his career. In a taste of what was to come, Fred and Gene collaborated on mega-hits like “Be Honest With Me” and “Tears On My Pillow.”

In 1942, Opry star Roy Acuff decided to set up a music publishing company in Nashville. Acuff asked Rose to be his partner and, after some thought, Rose accepted. Their main goal, as Acuff outlined it, was that “we were going to make sure that it be run as an honest company; that no man, or girl, that entered our door would be cheated out of a song, or one penny of anything that they’ve got coming.” So Acuff-Rose, the first song publishing company in Nashville, was born.

 The “Acuff” in the name, though, was legally Mildred Acuff, Roy’s wife. They were hugely successful right from the start. In 1945 Fred brought his son Wesley in to help him run the business. In 1946 Fred and Wesley were playing ping-pong on a break when a skinny young man with a pretty blonde wife walked in. The fellow asked to audition and sang a half-dozen songs. Fred immediately signed him to the first exclusive Acuff-Rose songwriter’s contract. From then on, Fred Rose guided Hank Williams in his songwriting and in the studio.

 Fred Rose never walked behind a mule or picked a bale of cotton, but he gave country music songs like “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain,” “Kaw-Liga,” “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive,” “A Mansion on the Hill,” “Take These Chains From My Heart,” and (as ‘Floyd Jenkins’) “Fire Ball Mail,” among hundreds more, many of which don’t even bear his name even though he actually wrote them.

 Through Acuff-Rose, he made it possible for unsophisticated but hugely talented artists like Hank Williams to make a living at the music they loved. Country music owes a lot to this city slicker who died on December 1, 1954 and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in its first year, 1961.

 Courtesy of
CMT.com

 [I met Fred Rose in the summer of 1953 while in Nashville. After submitting songs to the new publishing firm called Acuff-Rose, I signed an exclusive writer’s contract with Fred.  He was in the process of setting up Hickory Records but never shared that info with me. Later in the year, I flew to Nashville for my first Columbia Records session, and it was then that Fred informed me that he wanted me to be his first Hickory artist. We both were rather disappointed it worked out that way. Fred was a great supporter and promoter of my career and music. I literally cried when I got the news that he had passed away unexpectedly. I had lost a real friend. – Dusty Owens, TCM Radio News]