Down in Orburndale: A Songwriter's Youth in Old Florida

by Bobby Braddock

Bobby Braddock, one of the most successful country songwriters of all time, is a living legend. His smash hit "He Stopped Loving Her Today" won the Country Music Association's Song of the Year Award in two consecutive years and was voted "Song of the Century" in a poll conducted by Radio & Records magazine and "greatest country song of all time" in a poll conducted by the BBC. In this captivating narrative, Braddock demonstrates that he is as much at home writing the story of his life as crafting an award-winning country tune. Warm, candid, intimate, and laugh-out-loud funny, Down in Orburndale -- the title plays on the Southern pronunciation of Braddock's hometown of Auburndale, Florida -- recounts his colorful saga up to age twenty-four, when he decides to move to Nashville and pursue a career as a professional songwriter. Braddock retains enormous affection for his Florida upbringing, back in the mid-twentieth century when "Florida was still Southern," oranges were more essential than tourists to the state's economy, and every small town seemed to be populated with actual eccentric characters right out of a Southern novel -- like Bobby's father, twenty-four years older than his mother, with a voice that was "a cross between Foghorn Leghorn and W. C. Fields." Braddock's sensory memory of his childhood infuses his storytelling with the sights, sounds, smells, and significance of everyday living. When he tells tales of playing rock 'n' roll music in the Deep South of the early 1960s, readers experience some of the decade's most significant moments from a different perspective (for example, his band was in Birmingham, Alabama, when the Ku Klux Klan murdered four little girls). Along the way, he battles depression, hypochondria, and panic disorder, marries, and finally finds his true calling. Rednecks, religion, Florida, oranges, swamps, politics, racism, love, sex, illness, family, murder, and dreams -- all fill the pages of Braddock's compulsively readable ode to his youth. But it is music, above all else, that drives the story, providing a soundtrack for a life lived large.

271 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a reasonably interesting account of Braddock's early life, centered on Auburndale, Florida. I'm somewhat familiar with the area, so Braddock's well-crafted stories easily conjured images in my mind.
But it's an incomplete biography. Braddock is famous as a country song writer and this book doesn't cover that portion of his life.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Bobby Braddock's autobiography. Braddock is an acclaimed country music songwriter, but this book is not about his illustrious career in Nashville. In Down in Orburndale, he tells the colorful story of his childhood and early adulthood in Auburndale, Florida in the 1950s and 1960s before he made the Nashville scene. Braddock is as good a storyteller as he is a songwriter. His descriptions of the place and faces in his life makes for a great read.

[R B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was like running into an old friend or neighbor and reminiscing about the good ol days. I also grew up in Imperial Polk County and even though I'm twelve years Mr. Braddock's junior I had many the similar experiences. Time and change moved slow in the pre-Disney world of my youth. He does a wonderful job of bringing to life a time and place that's long gone except in our memories.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bobby is a friend from my days in Nashville, so this was a great read for me. Bobby is a man of enormous talent with a heart as big as all the world, and it comes through in his prose just as it does in his music.

[andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing mostly about growing up in Polk County and his aspirations for music. Local folks might be interested...Lots of history.

[Brent Grider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Songwriter ( He Stopped Loving Her Today, George Jones), and a great author to boot!