Outlaw Country (4 page)

He hummed to find the key as The Guilty Party fired up the quick two-step that was
Jackson
. Colton remembered the original with Johnny and June. He’d listened to it once or twice the day before, but then the partying had started. In the original, they’d came in together, but Gracie had some lines marked for herself. Colton decided he’d give her the benefit of the doubt.
 

Looking over, Colton gave the girl with the champagne voice a nod. She opened her mouth to sing the first lines...

Pure gold. Pure, solid, chart-topping gold. Roger couldn't believe it. Colton had been dead to the world not twenty minutes before recording maybe the best take of his young, destructive life. Everyone in the control room knew it, too. Even Kathleen, a woman who Roger suspected didn't know how to smile, was beaming as Colton and Gracie traded lines about a love gone sour. In the Johnny and June version, you could hear the passion in their voices as they sang, but Roger didn’t think it held a candle to what he had just heard. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and it snapped him out of the trance.

Kathleen leaned over. “Tell me I’m not crazy. Tell me this is good.”

Roger’s head ambled back and forth at an achingly slow pace. “This isn’t good. This is magic. I’m calling Arvin.” He pulled out his phone and backed into the hallway, keeping his eyes on Colton and Gracie Hart until he was in the hallway of the small studio.

“Arvin? Yeah. You are a genius...”

Kathleen couldn’t believe what she was witnessing. With Gracie’s vintage dress and that Colton boy dressed like a greasy mechanic, she saw Johnny and June reborn in front of her. For a second, Kathleen could look past Colton’s hand on the small of Gracie’s back as they leaned together for the last chorus.

Had that really only been the first take? Kathleen thought she had just forgotten about a warm-up or a few takes while they got in sync with each other. The engineer confirmed what she had suspected, though.

He spoke into a small microphone that pumped into the vocal room. “Wow, all right. Just.
Wow
. Let’s do another one for safety. Colton, you think you might wanna stick to the original lyrics?”

“No.”

The man at the controls nodded. “Yup. Okay.” It was matter-of-fact. Kathleen hated to agree with his decision, but he was right. Colton shouldn’t change a damn thing. His additions added a bit more sauciness to such already hot and flirty lyrics. Kathleen knew it, Gracie knew it, and everyone on the other side of the glass knew it.

They did a second take, and Kathleen marveled at how it sounded exactly like the first. It was if the song couldn't get any better. Kathleen had a wide smile on her face. She had the thought that those two in a room together could dish out perfection over and over again.

A few hours later, no one could really understand what had happened. The chemistry was beyond comprehension. Everyone agreed that covering
Jackson
for the charity album couldn't be the only time Gracie’s voice was captured alongside Colton’s. After some scrambling, The Guilty Party was brought back in.

“
Louisiana Woman
”, “
Mississippi Man
”
, “Hey, Good Lookin’
”
, “He Stopped Loving Her Today
”
, and others were laid down with Colton and Gracie trading off verses. The harmonies were flawless, and the takes were solid from start to finish.

Just when she thought they had run out of songs they all knew that would work as duets, Gracie noticed that Colton had disappeared. The band was tinkering with a few covers that the engineer had suggested. Roger was on the phone, and so was Gracie’s mother. Colton was the only one missing from Muscle Shoals.

She wandered out into the hallway, catching snippets of Roger’s conversation, “I know it means rearranging the tour, but you didn’t see what I saw, Ar.”

Gracie knew exactly what Colton’s manager was talking about. She hadn’t seen it; she had
lived
it. The magic was something she couldn't put into words. Even her mother looked in a good mood. Gracie searched Kathleen’s face for concern. She didn't see any, but Gracie knew that her
own
mind was clouded. Clouded with the music; clouded with the feeling; clouded with Colton. It was the nerves she had felt meeting Colton for the first time turned upside down. The nerves became something much more. Everything she had ever been on stage seemed to be a thing of the past. She was overflowing with power and confidence, but because of boys like Shepard, doubt wasn't far behind.

Had Colton felt that magic, too? Had he felt that magnetic pull between them as they brought the lyrics to life? Gracie was afraid that despite her feelings for Colton, it had just been another day; another girl. Her heart raced as she tried to keep her fears at bay. She pushed open the simple shop door to the outside world. That’s when she saw a sight that stopped her heart.

Colton was sitting on the gravel, his back to the wall of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. He had a legal pad in his hand, and he was scribbling furiously. His mouth moved, but Gracie couldn’t pick out the words. She wanted to watch him for eternity. She was aware of the Colton Wade on stage; he was in his element then. What she saw in front of her was a different kind of beautiful. That powerful creation was happening right before her eyes. Gracie was often disillusioned with songwriting when she did it, but Colton made the songwriting process seem so powerful and mysterious again. She was dying to see what he was scribbling on the paper.

 
Colton looked up at her, and Gracie felt like she had been caught spying on the neighbor. “Sorry, I’ll...I’ll be inside.”

“Nah, grab an acoustic and get the hell back out here.” His voice had no hints of suggestion.
 

Gracie spun on her heels to grab the first six-string she could find.

Colton watched the hem of her dress rise as she turned. He groaned and told himself never to forget those long, tanned legs beneath the white dress. They were screaming at him to release them from what little fabric was keeping them from being free.

He looked down at the messiest words he’d ever spewed. They were rough, raw, and he liked them that way. Words that would normally take him weeks of agonizing had come in a matter of minutes, and they couldn’t be changed. Any edit or replacement would only shatter the image painted on the glass.

The door opened, and Gracie’s Hummingbird Martin came into view. The woman who had sparked something inside of him followed. He scrawled chords across the top of the lyrics. He heard them in his head, and he already knew how it would sound. The music wasn’t anything complicated, but Colton’s songs never sounded lush until The Guilty Party got ahold of them. He knew this case would be no different.

Fifteen minutes later, Colton and Gracie walked back into the studio. They had run through the song a few times; enough for both to get their parts. As they came into the small studio, Colton was easing Gracie’s nerves, “Nah, the band will pick it up in a heartbeat. You’ll make your interview.”

Kathleen spoke up, “Actually, I got the journalist to come here. I know a good thing when I hear it.”
 

Within a half hour, Gracie Hart and Colton Wade with the Guilty Party had a decent take of “
Standin’ Next To Destiny”
. It was rough and tumble like Derrick Trucks sitting in with the Rolling Stones. Roger and Kathleen were talking about distribution strategies before the final note finished ringing out.

When they stepped out of the vocal booth, the reporter and photographer were waiting. What was scheduled to be an interview with Gracie Hart turned into an interview with her and Colton together.

The photographer noted that the two looked perfect together. Outside of Muscle Shoals Sounds, she had them lean against the brick wall. Kathleen didn’t like Gracie’s head on Colton’s shoulder, but the manager inside of her was beating out the mother. She knew it would be just a shot for the single cover and nothing more. Her heart pounded, but Kathleen Hart clenched her hands and bared it.

Roger’s heart raced. He knew Colton was on the precipice of something big. One tip in the right direction, and he’d reach a level of stardom like most only dream of. A hit single with Gracie Hart could be just the ticket. He didn’t particularly care where Colton’s hands were. The single was about finding love right in front of you, with Colton’s trademark wit and innuendo icing the entire cake, so he wanted the two singers to look like they were all over each other.

Colton’s manager was already prepared to get the rumor out that the two were an item, and he’d leak a few cell shots of his own to prove it. The photographer was snapping away and getting plenty of juicy shots, which would only fuel the fire.

His phone buzzed, and Roger headed back towards the front of the building. “Yeah, Ar. Good news, I hope?”