Bobby Braddock

How one great songwriter got his groove

The youngest living member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, Braddock is one of the most successful writers in the history of country music. (“He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” are two of his classics.)

In Down in Orburndale, Braddock tells his story—from his origins to his 23rd year, when he left the orange groves of his backwater childhood home in florida for Nashville, eager to take his chances breaking into the country-music scene. He struggles with family, school, love, music, and a world on the cusp of dramatic change, back in the days before Disney took over florida and corporate life took over America.

The rigors and fallout of fundamentalist religion, the changing attitudes toward race during the Civil Rights era, experimentation with drugs, and the ins and outs of dating and casual sex are all told through a veteran songwriter’s eye—a story that, in turn, is comic, poignant and disturbing.