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By PHIL SWEETLAND

Music + Radio contributor 

Quick question: What do the country superstars Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis, Chris LeDoux, Pam Tillis, Trace Adkins, Wynonna, and Ricky Van Shelton all have in common?

Answer: Bernie Nelson, one of the most in-demand songwriters along Nashville’s famed Music Row and at country radio, and a guy who for years many industry insiders have called “Nashville’s Last True Country Songwriter.”

Many artists and songwriters can only dream of selling 1 Million copies of their music. Nelson’s songs have appeared on records that sold more than 24 Million copies, and his 1994 Confederate Railroad smash, “Daddy Never Was The Cadillac Kind,” co-written with Dave Gibson, earned Bernie one of radio’s rarest prizes, the Million Air Award, in recognition of over 1 Million spins.

Listeners to the popular G. Gordon Liddy nationwide radio talk show also know and love Bernie’s soulful country vocals, since he sings the radio jingles for Diamond Gussett Jeans, the Tennessee-based and American-made blue jeans and shirts so beloved by motorcyclists and horseback riders.

Growing up in Saginaw, Michigan, Nelson loved the pop, soul, and rock coming from that area. There was also tons of high-level competition. “In my first Battle of the Bands, the other groups included Bob Seger, MC5 with Ted Nugent, the Amboy Dukes, and Grand Funk Railroad. We didn’t win,” Bernie says, smiling.

This R&B and Motown influence was blended with some family ties, creating the birth of the unique Bernie Nelson sound. “I had an uncle who was heavy, heavy into country,” Nelson recalls. “He taught me how to play guitar.”

The first tune he taught himself was “Make The World Go Away,” a crossover smash for both Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves in the early 1960s. But Bernie was just as interested in Hank Cochran, the hit’s tunesmith.

“I wanted to find out who wrote those things, because I know Conway didn’t necessarily write all his own songs,” Nelson says. “Writers like Bob McDill and Red Lane, I was trying to imagine who they were.”

With such immortals as his role models, and with bucketloads of lyrical and musical talent, it wasn’t long before the industry found out about Bernie Nelson. Folks like Garth Brooks remain very good friends.

The top session drummer Bob Burns knew of Bernie’s work, and flew him to Muscle Shoals in 1981 to cut songs with Mac McAnally, a two-time CMA Musician of the Year winner and frequent co-writer with Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, and Toby Keith. “I met all the big dogs there,” Bernie says. “Barry Beckett, Rick Hall, Rick Blackburn, Mike Chapman, the whole Muscle Shoals A-Team.”

A few years later, Bernie made the big move to Music City and began longtime songwriting collaborations with top writers including Dave Gibson of the Gibson/Miller Band, Wayne Carson, Red Lane, and many more.

The result was dozens of cuts by top artists. Kenny Chesney chose Bernie’s “It’s Never Easy To Say Goodbye” as the final track for his breakthrough 1996 album, Me And You. Pam Tillis’s version of Bernie and Craig Wiseman’s “Baby’s Got A Bass Boat” was a radio and concert hit.

The Whites had a hit in 1997 with Bernie’s “There Ain’t No Binds,” which reminds a frequent selection in their Grand Ole Opry shows.

Unlike many songwriters, Bernie always takes as much time as a song requires before he considers it finished. Sometimes that may take months – or even years – but the results are so polished and so strong that artists welcome the chance to cut them.

In March 2010, Nelson met a Dickson neighbor who had just moved back to her hometown after many years of music business success as a singer and concert promoter in Britain. Her name is Mitzi Matlock, the owner of one of Music Row’s newest and most exciting companies, Mitzi Matlock Matlock.

“We hit the ground running,” he says. “She was opening the front door and going thru the roof hatch. Mitzi didn’t know what an A&R department or what a hold was, and she didn’t care. She just wanted to get things cut. Mitzi has marketing skills, and she knows how to get to the right people.”

When Mitzi heard a Bernie song about truck, for instance, she took it directly to the top brass at Chevrolet. And Bernie’s song “Looking For America,” performed by Mark Wills, is quickly developing its own amazing American history.

So this new Music Row Dream Team of Bernie Nelson and Mitzi Matlock, along with the huge support of Matlock’s attorney and consultant Wayne Halper, who helped run DreamWorks Nashville and several other major labels, is quickly creating a lot of buzz and excitement throughout the Row and country radio.

For Bernie, it’s a thrilling period in an already remarkable career.

“There are so many correlations,” he says. “I always acknowledge the people who came before in country music and study their craft. What goes around comes around. Whatever it is you’re good at, you have to let it grow and can’t stay stagnant.”