LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The art of songwriting takes time, skill, and passion to put together a full piece. For one Kentucky man, his songwriting inspiration comes from his roots in eastern Kentucky.
“I moved here when I was 10 years old,” said Darrell Pittman. “I grew up in Ohio. They drug me down here kicking and screaming, and when I look back, I realized… I grew up here. Those were the most formative years of my life. I moved here at the end of fifth grade, and I graduated high school, so those eight years were the most formative years of my life.”
Pittman dug his roots into Powell County and Stanton, and he has always spent a little extra attention looking at song lyrics. In fact, it started as a way to make a little money from his dad.
“He would pay me a dollar a song to sit down and see if I could figure out the lyrics to the words, because you couldn’t Google lyrics back in the 70’s,” said Pittman with a smile on his face. “I’d sit down and I’d try to pull the lyrics out of these songs so he could learn it and him and his band could play it later that week.”
Around age 14, Pittman began to learn how to play guitar. From there, he also started writing songs.
“I started listening to Springsteen and Steve Earl, that’s when I really started to appreciate the ability to put words and music together in a manner when you’re not just singing about something shallow, but you’re singing about something that matters.”
Pittman shared 2018 is when he really started to get serious about his songwriting. His stage name became D Boone Pittman, and he began to show his heart for Kentucky.
“I think this is the most beautiful place on the planet,” said Pittman. “I think the people that live here are wonderful people. There’s just so much here to sing about and write about.”
“There’s so many stories and there’s so much history and there’s so much folklore and there’s such a rich mine of things,” said J Tom Hnatow, producer and musician who works with Pittman. “It’s kind of an endless source of inspiration and that’s really exciting to see that and sort of peripherally be a part of that.”
The D Boone Pittman discography includes a number of songs about places, people, and the culture of eastern Kentucky, and each song has a story behind it. Pittman shared one of these stories from when he played a show at the Cummins Ferry Campground in Salvisa, right beside the Kentucky River.
“It just happened to be the Saturday after the storms hit eastern Kentucky back in ’22,” Pittman began. “The Kentucky River of course it was way up. The water was just completely littered with stuff… People’s lives were literally floating downstream.”
“It was weird for me because I had to turn around and entertain a campground full of folks for three hours after witnessing that and knowing there were people just up the road whose lives were completely shattered and destroyed.”
That day inspired a song of heartache titled, “The Gig Downstream.” It also influenced songs of hope, like “East of Ravenna.”
“Ravenna really wasn’t a part of the system that got hit by the storms, but geographically everything east of that part of Kentucky was,” shared Pittman. “That was really meant to be a song of hope that I dedicated to the victims of the eastern Kentucky floods.”
Pittman’s songwriting earned him multiple nominations for the Josie Awards, which honors independent artists from all genres all over the world. This fall, Pittman won, earning a Songwriter of the Year Personal Portfolio award.
“You may go for weeks, months, wondering if you’re ever reaching anybody or getting through or if your music even matters,” said Pittman. “Something like getting nominated for a Josie award is just a huge confidence boost, and it just kind of gives you a resurgence, just kind of gives you the energy to move forward and keep making music.”
Pittman was proud to be one of 15 Kentuckians who earned an award, and he accepted it on stage at the Grand Ole Opry.
“It's not surprising, because right Kentucky’s making the best music in the country,” he said. “That’s just my opinion. I think we’ve got some of the most talented musicians right here writing great songs.”
You can find more about D Boone Pittman and his work hereon his website.
