Congressman Cohen Remembers Singer-Songwriter J.D. Souther
Played “New Kid in Town” after 2006 House victory
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) spoke from the House floor today remembering singer-songwriter J.D. Souther, who passed Tuesday at 78. Souther wrote songs covered by the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt and others. In his remarks, Congressman Cohen recalled a living room concert Souther and Jackson Browne held during the Congressman’s first election to Congress in 2006 when they played “New Kid in Town” in his honor.
In those remarks, Congressman said in part:
“This morning, I woke up to bad news. One of my friends, J.D. Souther…, a great singer-songwriter and an actor to boot, passed away yesterday in New Mexico at the age of 78. J.D. wrote a lot of songs that the Eagles did, Linda Ronstadt did, covered, and performed some of them, too…When I was elected to Congress, he came to Memphis with Jackson Browne to do what I consider probably the greatest fundraiser in history. It was a small house…and the two of them did an hour concert for the few people who could cram into that living room. And J.D. sang ‘New Kid in Town’ about me, saying I’m going to be ‘the new kid in town’ in the Congress…I think about that a lot.
“When I got elected, J.D. called me and said, ‘Steve, you’re going to The Show.’ Well, ‘The Show” is major leagues parlance for going to the major leagues, and we were both baseball fans. He was just a great guy. He was smart as hell. In the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He had a great voice…I kind of got him from Warren Zevon who was my pal and Warren kind of willed him to me. Warren was dying and he said, ‘Steve, I’ve got a friend who’s moving to Nashville and you-all should be friends.’ When I met him in Nashville, he said ‘I need to get something out of this and I want to get married. Can you marry me?’ And I could do marriages and I married him at Burt Stein’s house and Rodney Crowell was the only witness. The marriage didn’t take but I did the best job I could. J.D. was my friend. A great American songwriter. He will be missed.”
See the entire floor speech here.
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