Contemporary Nashville songwriters and artists talk about the best modern country songs. Many end up talking about Miranda Lambert’s song. “The House That Built Me.”Tom Douglas is the co-writer of this and other classics in the past few decades and is the narrator. “Love, Tom,”Just announced that the streaming service Paramount Plus will be available exclusively on February 24,
The trailer shows the world-renowned songwriter performing in a variety of Nashville locations, including the Ryman Auditorium and the Shelby Street Bridge downtown. He also offers narration derived form a well-remembered and inspirational acceptance speech that he gave when he was inducted into Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Monument Records will release a 10-track companion album of the same name, for which Douglas will be joined by some of the country artists he’s written for and/or with, including Lambert, Tim McGraw (“Grown Men Don’t Cry,” “Southern Voice”), Lady A (“I Run to You”), Chris Janson and Collin Raye (“Little Rock”).
The film’s production partners include Sandbox Productions — headed up by Nashville uber-manager and Monument label head Jason Owen , who’s one of the executive producers — and Sony Music Entertainment’s Premium Content Division. It’s directed by Irish filmmaker Michael Lennox, who was nominated for an Oscar and has won a BAFTA award for his short films.
Douglas’ script, like the acceptance speech from the Songwriters Hall it’s rooted in, incorporates the text of a letter he wrote to a Nashville aspirant years ago. “People have often asked me about the creative process,”Douglas says it in the trailer. “I received a letter from a desperate young songwriter asking for advice. I did what any good songwriter does: I wrote him back… ‘Dear friend, you ask me why the hell am I here? We all got here the same way, i suppose —we followed the song… We have a gift and with it comes an immense responsibility. Mine is really a story of failure. I wanted to give up, but i can’t give up on something that I love. You can’t either,”He says.
Douglas, a past Oscar contender and Grammy nominee, has also written for Luke Bryan. Pink, Celine Dion. Kenny Chesney. Kenny Chesney. George Strait. Florida Georgia Line. Kane Brown.
Douglas described the film in a statement as “a letter of hope to a desperate world. Yes, it’s a film about songwriting and the creative process, but really, it’s a film for anxiety addicts, underdogs, underachievers, true believers, never-say-die-ers, keep on try-ers, the broken-hearted (and) can’t-get-started, optimistic pessimists.” Referencing another executive producer, Austin Fish, and co-writer/co-producer Tommy Douglas, he added, “Austin, Michael, Tommy and I are deeply grateful to Paramount Plus, Jason Owen, Sandbox, and Sony Music Entertainment for going on this journey with us.”