Jim Hartline
Singer / Songwriter
About.
Plump Puppy Music is the current publishing arm of Jim Hartline's song writing career. Previous names include Hep Me Lloyd Music and Hattiecake Music. Plump Puppy Music is affiliated with ASCAP. The logo was designed by my dear friend and wonderfully talented Nashville artist, Jennifer Dickinson.
A Little History...
Way, way back in the mid/late seventies, I was living and writing songs in eastern Virginia, playing both solo gigs and as the Hartline part of the duo, Hartline and Richardson, with R Bruce Richardson being the Richardson part. Bruce and I also played together for a year or so in Austin. During that fuzzy late seventies time frame, I had been making trips to Nashville to drop off cassettes with publishers in hopes of sparking some interest in my songs. Rob Galbraith, who was working with Ronnie Milsap at the time, called me in Virginia one afternoon and said he was interested in publishing "Slow Dancing" and "Drinkin' and Drivin'," two of the songs I had left with him. He also suggested that if I was really serious about writing songs, I should move to Nashville. I turned in my intent to resign at the end of the academic year from the elementary school where I was teaching, and moved to Nashville in the summer of 1978. Goodness, that was a long time ago.
Forty some odd years, a couple ex-wives, a few wonderful dogs and cats, several more songs published at different companies, and many many stories later, I'm still here. There were years where I was too busy with teaching, counseling, restoring houses, and the general paddling like crazy to keep my head above water, and so my music and writing took a back seat to my grown-up life. Not entirely though, as I did keep playing writers nights, writing, and meeting new friends and co-writers all along the way. Just not as my main gig.
Plump Puppy Music came to be as a by-product of finally finishing a song in early 2022 that I had been working on since late 1995. (No one will ever accuse me of being prolific nor speedy). "She Walks on Water" had such a strong hook, that I simply could not come up with anything that could measure up. Any attempts ultimately led to disappointment. Then sometime around Christmas, 2021, the ideas for the simple, but concise verses bubbled to the surface. It may be one of the only songs I've ever written where I chose not to write a chorus. And, as an additional blessing, I also finished another song that I'd been working on for the last couple years. That one was, "I Am the Water." Needless to say, I was pretty tickled. Although I hadn't pitched a song to anyone in thirty years or so, I felt that these two were not only well written, but that they were commercially viable as well. So, I called ASCAP, and rather than revive the last iteration of my publishing, it was recommended that I start anew. Thus, Plump Puppy Music.
This website is designed to give folks a chance to listen to my music and to perhaps give a little feedback on the songs. I hope you enjoy your visit here. Thanks for listening.
Jim
