March 29, 2024

The Real “Seven Bridges Road”

Posted on October 2, 2016 by in Features

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The most southern of the seven bridges alluded to in Steve Young’s famous classic “Seven Bridges Road.”

By Willie G. Moseley

One of the earliest, most-enduring “unplugged” (acoustic) songs by a rock band usually playing electric was the Eagles’ 1980 live rendition of “Seven Bridges Road.” Penned by Alabama native Steve Young (1942-2016), many music fans know the song is about a county road on the outskirts of Montgomery. Few, however, are aware the tune was actually written in Montgomery, and that friends of Young’s who witnessed the song’s composition included a future state Attorney General and an acclaimed news reporter and book author.

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Steve Young in Montgomery, 1960s. (photo courtesy Jimmy Evans)

Young, originally from Gadsden, was an itinerant songwriter and guitarist who often played in Montgomery in the 1960s. His usual venue was the Shady Grove folk club, on the corner of Cleveland Avenue (now Rosa Parks Avenue) and Fairview Avenue. In earlier years, the night spot had been the popular Roxy Drive-In.  It was there Young befriended a fellow music lover and up-and-coming lawyer named Jimmy Evans, and they became roommates. Decades later Evans would be elected Alabama’s Attorney General, and he recently recalled his own development of music appreciation as a youngster.

“I worked for my father,” Evans noted, “who processed gravel out of a huge pit out on the Old Selma Road. Near there, an elderly black gentleman lived in a shack in the middle of a huge cotton field. They called him Alabama Sam, and he used to allow me to listen to him play guitar, and I was in awe. That’s where it started for me.”

Evans also remembered the glory days of the Shady Grove in the ‘60s.

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Jimmy Evans with “Scooter.” (photo by Bob Corley)

“When the Roxy restaurant closed down, John Russell, who was nicknamed ‘Sweet Pea’, rented it and made it into a club centered around bluegrass and folk music,” Evans said. “I met Steve out there, and later, we rented an apartment together over on Capital Avenue. He had played in Birmingham with some folk group, and was classically-trained on guitar. He stayed here a long time, but would be going back and forth to California. He had other jobs besides playing when he was here, because he had to make a living.”

Reportedly, Young’s jobs in the Capital City included a before-sunup route as a milkman for Hall Brothers Dairy.

Evans was also familiar with Montgomery’s Woodley Road south of the four-way intersection with McInnis Road and Virginia Loop Road. That stretch was known locally as Seven Bridges Road, and Evans and friends had frequented the country two-lane since their high school days.

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Two bridges along Woodley Road as it winds southeast out of the city. (photo by Bob Corley)

“Woodley Road turned off to the left and went to Orion,” Evans remembered. “I’d go down to Orion a lot to listen to a guitarist named C.P. Austin. The county road that went straight ahead became Mt. Zion Road. There had been seven wooden bridges, and we’d go out there a lot… I thought it was the most beautiful place around Montgomery that I’d ever seen. That road was a ‘cavern’ of moss; it looked like a tunnel.”

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The late author Wayne Greenhaw at a 2011 book signing at Capitol Book & News. (photo by Bob Corley)

As for the inspiration for the song, writer Wayne Greenhaw (1940-2011) recalled accompanying Evans and Young on outings down the road to visit Austin  in his anthology My Heart is in the Earth: True Stories of Alabama and Mexico (River City Publishing). Evans recounted one particular sojourn.

“That night, there was a full moon,” he said. “We were in my Oldsmobile, and when I stopped, Steve got out on the right side fender. We sat there a while, and he started writing down words. That’s the way I recall that song coming about.”

Young completed the song in the apartment he shared with Evans. The erstwhile Attorney General acknowledged the power of the imagery of “Seven Bridges Road,” noting that the exquisite harmony vocals in the Eagles cover, and in other versions by famous artists, was a bonus.

“I think he just wrote it for himself; I don’t think harmony singing was originally part of it, but it turned out to be fantastic,” said Evans. “He recorded it, and he’d told me that the Eagles’ version was coming out. I recall some country female singers recording it as well, but (the Eagles’ rendition) was the most successful.”

As for the local response to the Eagles’ version of “Seven Bridges Road,” former radio icon Larry Stevens, whose morning show often attracted more than half of all radio listeners in Montgomery, recalled the interest in the song, even though it was recorded live.

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Former radio personality Larry Stevens at his advertising agency in Montgomery. (photo by Bob Corley)

“I’d say (the percentage of live songs that were hits) was very low,” Stevens said. “Once that song was released, it came to my attention it was about Montgomery. I found out it was about Woodley Road, and I was living in Spring Valley (subdivision) at the time. I even got a letter from an elderly lady who recalled going out to Seven Bridges Road when she was a child. It was full of vivid details.”

Stevens recorded a monologue in which he read the woman’s letter with music in the background.

“I sent it to Casey Kasem,” he recalled, “I thought it might be of interest to him, and I was actually invited to read it as a guest host on American Top 40, and I never did.”

Stevens tracked down Young in California, and interviewed him on the air. The veteran radio personality believes the song would have been added to the playlist even without the local reference in its lyrics.

“It was unique, clean, and simple with great harmonies,” said Stevens. “A rare example of ‘less is more’ with pure talent.”

Montgomery County engineer Lonnie McGough’s office still gets inquiries about Seven Bridges Road.

“It doesn’t happen a lot,” McGough said. “Maybe once every six months. Most people contact us out of curiosity, because they heard the Eagles’ version. I’ve never heard anyone mention the Steve Young version.”

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Ex-Eagle Don Felder performing “Seven Bridges Road.” (photo by Willie G. Moseley)

Music aficionados who are still fans of “Seven Bridges Road” can hear an excellent rendition in modern times, performed in concert by ex-Eagle Don Felder and his band. Felder’s version utilizes electric bass and drums in addition to churning acoustic guitars, and the harmony vocals are impeccable. The result is yet another classic interpretation of the iconic song.

Steve Young and Jimmy Evans kept in touch after the growth of Young’s music took him away from Montgomery, and they experienced success in their respective careers. The former attorney general misses his old friend, who died in March.

“Steve wrote some beautiful music,” Evans said wistfully. “He was a great guitar player, too. He’d do session work in Nashville, and performed live with a lot of famous players.”

Author/columnist/lecturer Willie G. Moseley is the Senior Writer for Vintage Guitar Magazine, News Editor Emeritus for The Tallassee Tribune, and the author of twelve books.  He can be reached at willie@vintageguitar.com. Special thanks to Ham Wilson and Lonnie McGough for research assistance.

 

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