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Channeling the adventurous Southern spirit of To Kill a Mockingbird’s Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, Nashville singer-songwriter, author and actress Lauren Braddock blends colorful autobiography and Gen X nostalgia in the wistful new single, “The Green, Green Grass of Junior’s Farm.” Penned with her dad, Country Music Hall of Fame songwriting legend Bobby Braddock (“He Stopped Loving Her Today”), the gently rolling tune recalls indelible memories planted in the fertile mind of a wide-eyed 8-year-old Lauren, while also commemorating the 50th anniversary of the six-week working holiday of former Beatle Paul McCartney and family at the 133-acre Wilson County, Tennessee, farm of Bobby Braddock’s frequent collaborator, Claude “Curly” Putman, Jr., and his wife, Bernice. McCartney, who had taken to calling Curly “Junior,” would be inspired to write “Junior’s Farm,” which would become a Top 5 hit just months after their visit, in October 1974.

Produced by Bobby Braddock at Sony Music Publishing Studios, the single features some of Nashville’s A-list musicians, including Chad Cromwell on drums, Mike Brignadello on bass, Mike Rojas playing keyboards and Bobby playing mini-Moog. Don Henry, who produced, sings and plays guitar on the joyously Beatlesque “Hippie Farmer,” the single’s B-side, also plays guitar, banjo and contributes backing vocals to “The Green, Green Grass of Junior’s Farm.” A fellow Beatles aficionado, Henry is a prolific tunesmith perhaps best-known for the 1990 Grammy-winning hit, “Where’ve You Been,” co-written with Jon Vezner and recorded by Kathy Mattea.

“Don is like my big brother from another mother,” says Lauren of her California-born friend and fellow musician, who began writing at age 13 and has since had songs recorded by Ray Charles, Conway Twitty, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, among many others. “Don and I had a cut by Blake Shelton called ‘If I Was Your Man,’ says Lauren. “I wrote the first couple of lines in that song when I was about eight: “If I was a cloud I’d make baby raindrops and they’d feed the treetops.” 

Hailed by Amplifier magazine for her story songs that “brim with spunk, wit and passion,” Lauren Braddock’s latest release combines the titles of Curly Putman’s globally recognized hit, “Green, Green Grass of Home” and “Junior’s Farm,” one of the songs that was inspired in part by the McCartney’s Nashville-area visit. The new tune memorializes Lauren’s frequent childhood playground, unlocking a delightful treasure trove of a young girl’s bucolic memories of a more innocent time. Raised in Nashville, and educated in New York and Los Angeles, nature and artistic pursuits have been hand-in-hand throughout Braddock’s life. “I always loved to write,” she says. “I loved to act. Loved arts, animals, I was a tomboy. I would go into Tree (her dad’s world-famous music publisher’s offices) with my dad and take my “critters,” hermit crabs and sea monkeys, like Elly May [from The Beverly Hillbillies]. The Putman family farm was the location for a number of firsts in young Lauren’s life. It’s where she first fired a BB gun at tin cans, where she spent hours fishing and where she also held a baby for the first time, all milestones depicted in the lyrics of the song. “It just struck me that I had all these first experiences at what would become iconicized as ‘Junior’s Farm,’” she notes of the inspiration for the song’s deeply personal, historical lyrics. 

“As a Beatlemaniac, that thrilled me! When I was little, I remember saying I wanted to be a magician, like Daddy.” While young Lauren, who grew up in a suburban Nashville neighborhood, may have confused the word “magician” with “musician,” there’s certainly been no shortage of magic in the hundreds of songs her father has written and had recorded by scores of artists including Marty Robbins, Tammy Wynette, Jerry Lee Lewis and Toby Keith, among others. Bobby Braddock signed with music publishing giant Tree in 1966, the year Lauren (whom he nicknamed “Jeep”) was born, and the same year Tom Jones had a global smash with Putman’s “Green, Green Grass of Home.”  Two years later, Braddock and Putman scored their first Number One as co-writers with “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” recorded by Tammy Wynette. In addition to his songwriting, Braddock also produced country superstar Blake Shelton’s first three albums and co-produced the fourth. So, when Lauren played “The Green, Green Grass of Junior’s Farm,” for him, he couldn’t help but contribute a dash of magic to it. 

“He really liked it and I saw his wheels turning, not wanting to jump in but not being able to help himself almost,” she recalls. “He said, ‘I have a line and you don’t have to use it but it might be the best line I’ve ever written.’ How do I say no that that?” The humorously double-entendre line, “Paul McCartney rolled in on the grass,” opens the song’s second verse, which moves musically from late-Beatles-inspired touches to a “Band on the Run” homage as Lauren recalls Paul and Linda’s discovery of Putman’s son Troy’s dirt bike, which the couple rode around the property during their stay.

The McCartney family first arrived in Music City on the night of June 6, 1974 while the Paul McCartney and Wings LP, Band on the Run was riding high on the charts, The visit was facilitated in part by Linda McCartney’s father, Tree International attorney Lee Eastman, who contacted Tree executive vice president Buddy Killen, who suggested the use of his expansive property for the visit and band rehearsal. Killen would introduce the McCartney’s to Bobby Braddock at the Tree offices, with Bobby recalling Paul, who was dressed in a dark blue leisure suit, cuffing him on the arm when Bobby jokingly pretended not to recognize him and referred to him as “Paul Smith, the bluegrass guy.” Although he declined their dinner invitation, not wanting to intrude, Bobby says now, “It was 15 minutes I will never forget.” 

As soon as I started thinking about it, it just kind of flowed,” Lauren says of the song that conjures special memories for baby boomers and Gen-X’ers, and provides fascinating historical context for those who missed out on Beatlemania, classic country, flower power and life before the internet, smart phones and social media. “It was a kinder, gentler time,” says Lauren. “I remember hitchhiking with my dad during that time period. The innocence of being able to do that is gone, the baby that I talked about in the song is gone, Linda’s gone, my mother’s gone, Curly and Bernice are gone. It was such an innocent moment that’s gone now.” 

A multitalented writer, entertainer and author, and an intensely compassionate wife, mother and animal lover, Lauren Braddock imbues the sweet innocence of her memories throughout “The Green, Green Grass Of Junior’s Farm” and “Hippie Farmer” with the gifts of a poet’s keen eye, a musician’s clever tongue, and a child’s wide-open heart.