Homegrown Musgrove Pencil Company

sure is!’” After writing the song, Young asked friend and fellow artist, Kane Brown, to sing it with him. They revised the lyrics, which already had references to Rutherford County, Tenn. (where Young grew up), to include Hamilton County, Tenn. (where Brown is from). The song also mentions Nashville’s Davidson County. The music video, which won this year’s CMT award, shows Young and Kane singing from a rooftop overlooking Music City, and includes shots of some of those real-life friends. Since bursting onto the country music scene 15 years ago, it’s been a steady ride for Young. He’s had a stream of No. 1 hits, been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and so far, had the rare opportunity to stay with the same record label his entire career. “You can put in all the work in the world and some of that stuff is going to be out of your hands,” Young explains. “The fact that I’ve been able to stay at one label my entire career has been very cool because you don’t hear those stories very often. You hear more about people moving around or getting to a point where, okay, now it’s time to go our separate ways. That may happen at some point, but the fact that I’m still here means something. When I started my career, my first three songs were not hits. None of them even broke 37 on the charts. So, the fact that I can look back at all of these No. 1s and Top 5s and other gold singles that may not have even been on radio, is just wonderful.” A powerful vocalist, Young’s talent as a songwriter has also helped cement his strength as an artist. One song on the album called “Drowning” touches on the loss of a close friend. “That was a tough song to write, but it was very cathartic,” he says. “It was about a buddy of mine I lost many years ago in a car accident. He was there one day and the next day he was gone, and I’d never really dealt with that sort of loss before.”

and Josh Hoge and they wrote a song to touch on dealing with grief over the loss of someone gone way too soon. “Whether it’s a close friend or a family member, most people at some point in their life have that instance where they lose somebody,” Young says. “And one of the things about grief is sometimes it’s not all at once and then it goes away. It comes in waves and goes back and forth and it’s something you continually get through.” The song, which was an early release, has resonated with many of Young’s fans.

“A lot of people have come up to me and said they needed the song,” he says. “And that means the world to me.” His ability to connect with people — through music, as well as his personal and professional relationships, — has only added to his staying power as an artist. Just like his “Famous Friends” song suggests, he hasn’t forgotten where he came from. In January, he returned to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro for the grand opening of a learning lab and entertainment center that bears his name. It came nearly two years after he donated $50,000 to renovate an older building on campus for its use. He’s been honored to work with the school on a number of things. “Yeah, this is my hometown and where I went to school,” Young says. “They named a building after me which is really wild. I feel really lucky I’ve been able to maintain that relationship with them and that they wanted that relationship with me. There are plenty of people who have been to that school.” As Young looks ahead to the release of the new album, he’s grateful for an incredible year, so far. “Seeing the success of the single has been great,” he says. “And I know it sounds trivial because I’ve been really lucky to have the number of albums I’ve had, but putting out new music is always exciting. After a year-and-a-half away from performing and everything else, now with it all starting back up, it feels really special. And I’m not going to take any of it for granted.”

Pam Windsor is a freelance music, feature, and travel writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Putting a Fine Point on It

Henry Hulan

By Tom Adkinson | Photography courtesy of Musgrave Pencil Co., Steve Haruch and Tom Adkinson

Musgrave Pencil Co. is well into its second century of turning out topquality pencils as a thriving survivor in an industry that has largely moved overseas.

Henry Hulan knows pencils. He should. He’s worked in pencil manufacturing for most of his 80 years, following in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather. “Granddaddy” James Raford Musgrave created the company in 1916, and a fourth generation is positioned to keep it going. Musgrave Pencil Co. was a major reason former Tennessee Governor Buford Ellington once dubbed Shelbyville, 60 miles south of Nashville, “Pencil City.” Musgrave Pencil, other manufacturers, and numerous support businesses made the nickname quite logical until foreign competition practically erased U.S. pencil making. In addition to the pencil manufacturers in Pencil City’s heyday, there were machine shops, imprinters, eraser manufacturers, graphite core manufacturers (don’t call what’s inside a pencil “lead,” it’s a graphite core), box makers, and shippers.

Today, all that remains is Musgrave Pencil, but its pencils still fly off the production lines quite nicely, thank you. Hulan knows of only three other major U.S. pencil companies. “We were lucky to have a few stable customers that basically kept us in business (in some lean times),” Hulan says, noting that a solid market remains for Musgrave’s American-made pencils — even if they command a premium price — compared to lesser-quality imports.