Curly Putman

Dublin Core

Title

Curly Putman

Subject

Jackson County, Princeton, Music, Alabama Music Hall of Fame

Description

Curly Putman (Nov. 20, 1930-Oct. 30, 2016)

Claude “Curly” Putman Jr., born in Princeton, Alabama, is best known as a songwriter.

He was born on Putman Mountain, northeast of Huntsville, Alabama. His father was a sawmill worker and his mother Myrtle Roden Putman was a homemaker. He attended Paint Rock Valley High School and Southern Union State Community College briefly before enlisting in the navy. He served two tours in Korea during the Korean war on the carrier Valley Forge. Afterwards, he coached basketball and taught physical education at Paint Rock Valley High while playing steel guitar on the side. He eventually got a job at a record store in Huntsville owned by a local country singer, Slim Lay. In 1956, Putman married Bernice Soon, with whom he had a son.

In 1960, his song, “I Think I Know You,” performed by Marion Worth, reached the Top 10. Shortly after, Alabama native Buddy Killen, signed Patman to Nashville’s Tree Publishing Company. In 1965, Putman’s “The Green, Green Grass of Home” was recorded by Johnny Darrell. The song was later recorded by Porter Wagoner, Tom Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Gram Parsons, Joe Tex, the Grateful Dead, and any more. Putman continued to write hits for the next two decades for artists such as Charlie Rich, Tammy Wynette, the Statler Brothers, Tanya Tucker, and George Jones.

Putman earned thirty-six BMI awards and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976. He was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1993.

Putman died October 30, 2016 at his home in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Click the link to listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYir_CAi-e0

Creator

Joy Caitlin Monroe, University of North Alabama

Source

Grimes, William. “Curly Putman, Writer of ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home,’ Dies at 85.” The New York Times. (2016) http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/arts/music/curly-putnam-died.html

“Curly Putman.” Alabama Music Hall of Fame. (2016) http://alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1993/curly-putman/

Publisher

Alabama Cultural Resource Survey