Songwriter, producer, artist and musician Keith Gattis, who died Sunday at age 52, left behind a legacy of musical contributions to projects for artists including Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Randy Houser, Charlie Robison, George Jones, Sara Evans and Waylon Payne.
Gattis was born May 26, 1971, in Georgetown, Texas, and began performing in the Austin area as a teenager, before relocating to Nashville.
In 1996, Gattis released his self-titled album for RCA Nashville, which included the singles “Real Deal” and “Little Drops of My Heart.” In 2002, Gattis became a guitar player for Dwight Yoakam and contributed to Yoakam’s albums, including 2005’s Blame the Vain and 2004’s Dwight’s Used Records. In 2005, Gattis released another album, Big City Blues, via Smith Music Group. Along the way, he penned songs that would become hits for Chesney and Strait, and contributed musically to an array of projects for artists including Randy Travis, Payne and Houser.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to support Gattis’ family, and at press time, had raised over $141,000.
Here’s a look at Gattis’ top Billboard Country Airplay hits as a writer and artist in ascending order.
“Little Drops of My Heart,” Keith Gattis, No. 53
In 1996, Gattis was an artist signed with RCA Records Nashville. He made his first foray onto Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart with this solo-penned track, which was produced by Norro Wilson. The track peaked at No. 53, but it was rooted in the piano-inflected, honky-tonk boogie so popular in the mid-1990s and positioned Gattis as a neo-traditionalist with plenty of twang.
“Let It Go,” George Strait, No. 46
Strait has a “Hakuna Matata” moment in this easy-going, loping song that was the lead-off track from his 2015 album, Cold Beer Conversation. Strait, already renowned for being laidback, takes it to a whole new level of nonchalance on this toe-tapper, written by Gattis, Strait and Strait’s son Bubba. Accepting life on life’s terms is the only way to go, Strait sings, and fighting fate leads to a world of misery: “Let it go/you really gotta let it go,” Strait stresses. “Let it all wash on under the bridge/blow it a kiss/Give it a rest ‘cause it is what is is.”
“What Whiskey Does,” Randy Houser featuring Hillary Lindsey, No. 31
The first single from Houser’s acclaimed 2019 album, Magnolia, was also produced by Gattis, who wrote the track with Houser and Lindsey. The swaying track, bolstered by stellar steel guitar work, reflects on letting the whiskey Houser’s about to partake in, do its thing—good or bad. Maybe it will “make me lose my mind” or “make me put my first through this wall,” he sings and those are only two of the possible options. Regardless, the contemplative track hits all the right notes as Houser gives in to chilling on a bar stool and letting the liquor lead him.
“I Got A Car,” George Strait, No. 17
Written by Gattis with the legendary Tom Douglas, George Strait landed a top 20 hit in 2014 with this charming mid-tempo full circle story song that starts Strait’s character picking up a woman hanging out in a “cotton dress/ summer tanned pretty,” with his main selling point seeming to be that he has a car. They amble into a relationship, taking it one day at a time as they take to the road with no particular goal. Cut to an indeterminate time later, she’s pregnant, the power’s out in their small home and she’s fretting, but he’s still got a car and once again, it will get them where they need to go.
“When I See This Bar,” Kenny Chesney, No. 14
In 2013, Chesney earned a top 15 Country Airplay hit with this song, which Gattis wrote with Chesney. The song was included on Chesney’s Life on a Rock album. In 2013, Chesney told Billboard that “When I See This Bar” “defines a time when I first started going to the Virgin Islands, and I had a group of people I became great friends with. It was completely different from the life I had built on the road, and here [in Nashville]. They didn’t know what I did, or they knew and didn’t care. And I think that all of us, no matter where you live or what your reality is in life, all of us have that circle of friends that have that place they hang out. For me it was a beach bar. I think a bar has a way of connecting all those friends, you have an emotional attachment to that place, even if you don’t know it at the time. That’s the place you guys meet, people fall in love at that bar, they fall out of love at that bar, I think it’s possible for them to fall back into life at that bar.”
“El Cerrito Place,” Kenny Chesney, No. 10
In 2012, Chesney earned a top 10 on the Country Airplay chart his version of Gattis’s “El Cerrito Place,” which Chesney co-produced with Buddy Cannon. The song had previously been recorded by Charlie Robison on his 2004 album Good Times, and Chesney included his own version on his album Welcome to the Fishbowl. In 2012, Chesney told Billboard that he realized the risk in recording a song that already has some well-known versions.
“‘El Cerrito Place’ was one of them, because it’s been cut twice before and both were really good,” Chesney said, adding that songwriter Keith Gattis’ version “is incredible, and I heard Charlie [Robison’s] version of it 10 years ago when it came out, and it haunted me. Now all this time has passed, and I still think it’s a little taboo to touch it-but I sure felt it. The time was right for me vocally and emotionally to sink my teeth into that song.”
