Long before Seidina Reed made an album honoring Jerry Reed, father and daughter had already shared a recording. Their duet, “You Know What,” appeared on Jerry Reed’s 1978 album Sweet Love Feelings, preserving their voices together decades before the tribute project began.
Jerry Reed died on September 1, 2008. In 2015, Seidina Reed released Today Is Mine: A Tribute to My Father, Jerry Reed. Between those two recordings lies a less familiar story: an early attempt to launch a recording career, musicians who stayed connected across decades, and the practical work of getting a deeply personal album finished.
A recording that never reached the public
Seidina Reed’s recording history included a project that listeners never had the opportunity to buy. Drummer Ric McClure recalled participating in a four-song demo session at Pete Drake’s studio on Nashville’s Music Row in 1981 or 1982.
According to Ric McClure, Jerry Reed played guitar during the session. Jerry Reed, manager Frank Rogers, and others tried to use the recordings to secure a record deal for Seidina Reed. The project did not receive a commercial release.
Ric McClure kept a cassette of those sessions. Decades later, Ric McClure would work with Seidina Reed again on the tribute album that finally reached listeners in 2015. That connection gives the later release a history stretching well beyond the months spent preparing it.
A daughter’s idea needed a helping hand
In the crowdfunding appeal for the tribute, Seidina Reed explained that preparations for a first album were underway when guitarist Richard Smith suggested recording an album of Jerry Reed’s songs. Seidina Reed described the idea as something long wanted.
Friends volunteered time to get the recording started. The musicians Seidina Reed thanked included Richard Smith, Brent Mason, Dane Bryant, Bart Pike, Ric McClure, Mike Wyatt, and Julie Adams.
Work on 13 songs began, but the project reached a standstill. Seidina Reed sought $22,500 through an Indiegogo campaign to help complete the recordings, cover mixing and mastering, prepare artwork, manufacture CDs, and support the release.
One detail in the appeal was especially revealing: Seidina Reed wanted to pay the friends who had already contributed their work. The request acknowledged the people helping turn a family tribute into a finished record.
Seidina Reed also made clear that the project carried two meanings. It would celebrate Jerry Reed’s life through music, and it would be Seidina Reed’s first album.
Thirteen songs with a family history behind them
Today Is Mine: A Tribute to My Father, Jerry Reed was released on June 11, 2015. The finished album contained 13 tracks and approximately 45 minutes of music.
Ric McClure later recalled that Lorrie Morgan contributed harmony vocals on three songs. Among the performances Ric McClure singled out was “Misery Loves Company,” a Jerry Reed composition previously recorded by Porter Wagoner. The selections offered room to remember Jerry Reed’s songwriting as well as the personality familiar from records, television, and movies.
For listeners returning to “You Know What,” the earlier duet offers a different kind of connection. Jerry Reed and Seidina Reed can still be heard together on a recording made during Jerry Reed’s lifetime. The later album lets listeners hear Seidina Reed approach a larger collection of Jerry Reed’s music.
The story is held in those recordings and in the musicians who helped make them: a father playing guitar at an early session, a drummer keeping the cassette, and friends returning years later to help a daughter finish an album bearing her father’s name.