Decades before Daniel Tashian was a Grammy-winning writer and producer, he was a kid in Nashville revering a man named Paul Kennerley. The UK-born country-music songwriter was a friend of his parents Barry and Holly Tashian, themselves successful musicians, and, as Tashian puts it, “kind of a legend in our house.” A number one hit Kennerley had written for Emmylou Harris, “Born to Run,” which featured Barry on backing vocals, was on constant repeat at home (Kennerley and the Tashians were band mates in Harris' legendary Hot Band). “That song was a big part of my childhood,” Tashian says. “I remember hearing it on the radio and hearing my dad singing on there. My dad really thought that he was a genius. Because he is.” Kennerley himself made regular visits to the Tashian household, slipping young Daniel candy while his parents weren’t looking.

Fast-forward thirty-some years and now Tashian could be the hero to a future young songwriter. He co-produced Kacey Musgraves’ albums Golden Hour (which won Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammy Awards) and Star-Crossed, co-writing most of the songs on both too. He was first signed to Elektra Records at only 19, his first album, 1996’s Sweetie, produced by T-Bone Burnett, and soon began the rock band The Silver Seas. He’s written country hits for Josh Turner, Tenille Townes, Billy Currington, and Lee Ann Womack; co-written a full album with Burt Bacharach; and won two Grammy Awards himself alongside ACM, CMA, and BMI Awards. Last year he released a Christmas EP of original songs, It's A Snow Globe World, singing with icons like Rita Wilson and Patty Griffin. And on his new album, Night After Night, he’s journeying back to where he started by writing with the man he calls his “childhood hero,” Paul Kennerley. As Tashian puts it, “It would be like if your dad listened to Bruce Springsteen all the time, and then suddenly you're sitting there working with Bruce Springsteen.”

Having spent his career largely avoiding the spotlight, Kennerley may not be a household name outside of Nashville music circles – but his songs certainly are. He’s written country hits for The Judds (four separate number-ones for them), Emmylou Harris, Marty Stuart, Tanya Tucker, and many more, winning 18 BMI songwriting awards along the way. The biggest names in music have been cutting his songs from the early ‘80s through today; just a few years ago, Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper recorded his “Diggin’ My Grave” for the A Star Is Born soundtrack. But, in his entire career, Night After Night marks the first time he’s co-written an entire album with someone.

“He called me out of the blue because he saw I'd had an number one country song, and I went over for a visit,” Tashian recalls. “He has a music room at his flat, and he played me a little bit of something we'd spoken about on the phone. I was transfixed by it. I picked up a guitar and started strumming along. That's when it started.”

It soon became clear that an informal jam session would become something more. The songs they began writing often started as stories. “I would tell him personal things about my life, and he would key off of those things and come up with little lyrical nuggets,” Tashian recalls. Growing pains that Tashian’s daughter was going through turned into the ballad of unwavering support “Somebody’s

Thinking About You.” The pair’s shared struggles with insomnia inspired the Traveling Wilburys jangle of “Night After Night.” A girl Kennerley had witnessed packing up her car with tears in her eyes spiraled out into the imagined narrative of “She’s Sad.” Every song took at least four or five sessions to write, the pair sweating every lyrical and musical detail. Kennerley called their sessions “seances,” where they pick up guitars and invite any spirits – Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, The Everly Brothers – to jump in on the action.

When Tashian was writing the music to Kennerley’s lyrics, he followed Kennerley’s unspoken songwriting rules. Rule One: No minor chords. Kennerley never used them in his own hit songs, so Tashian didn’t either. “Minor chords typically ratchet up the drama in music, so it's a nice challenge to avoid them,” Tashian says, noting that you’d be hard-pressed to find any other album without a single minor chord. Rule Two: Hard rhymes only. Kennerley finds soft rhymes – that’s using words that only sort of rhyme, like “moon” with “you” – lazy. Rule Three: Every song should have more than three acoustic guitars. Ideally about six. This follows another of Kennerley’s sayings, “don't make it drumming, make it strumming.” The song’s primary propulsion should come from stacked acoustic guitars, with drums more to augment than dominate the rhythm.

When Tashian eventually recorded the songs in at the Royal Plum recording studio (also known as his garage), Kennerley would sit in the corner making notes. Though an award-winning producer himself, Tashian appreciated a second pair of ears checking the blind spots he might have with his own performances. “He would have both sides of a piece of notebook paper filled with copious notes about every song,” Tashian recalls. “He'd say, that word right there, you need to sing that again. Or you should have a tambourine come right here. He’s a perfectionist, and that’s what these songs needed.”

Tashian recorded most of the instrumentation – including, yes, all six acoustic guitar tracks – himself, but brought in a few ringers. Buddy Miller (baritone guitar and octave mandolin), Russ Pahl (pedal steel) and Sarah Buxton (vocals) add beautiful touches throughout the album. “A few years ago I did Buddy’s SiriusXM radio show with my dad,” Tashian recalls of how Miller’s involvement came about. “As I was walking out the door, he said, ‘Hey, have you talked to Paul Kennerley lately?’ I said no, and he said, ‘Well, if you ever want to make an album of some of those songs with him, I would love to do that.’”

Tashian remembered that exchange. A few years later, he texted Miller. “Remember when you said I should make an album with Paul? Well, I finally did.”