Today, I am going public with a project that’s been 30 years in the making.

All Hang Separately is a new narrative song cycle that will be released in 2027. It’s based on the book Mad as Hell by Willis Rowell and tells the story of his involvement in the National Farmers Organization and its often-controversial efforts to save the family farm.

The song cycle explores whether a group of proudly independent men will sacrifice some of their cherished independence to save it—and the lengths to which they will go.

I’ve written the narrative for the song cycle and its lyrics, and I am excited to be collaborating with the Weary Ramblers on the music. The Weary Ramblers are an Americana duo of Chad Elliott and Kathryn Severing Fox. They are lovely people and amazing talents, and I am humbled to be working with them.

This three-decade journey started in my marketing agency career and gave me chance to meet the committed and cantankerous Willis Rowell. It featured a long pause and then post-retirement work to make good on a commitment. More recently, it’s included the good fortune to connect with Willis’ daughter, Debra, and to meet several members of the family of Oren Lee Staley, the inspirational leader of the NFO movement. (For more detail on the project chronology, please see separate project update.)

During this project, I’ve been grateful to have the support and encouragement of friends and family—and from the community that is the Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat.

There’s still lots of work to be done, but this thing is going to happen. Better late than never, I suppose.

Doug

My narrative song cycle titled All Hang Separately has been 30-plus years in the making. Here are a few highlights along that journey:

• 1993: I joined a marketing agency in Des Moines then known as Meyocks Benkstein Associates. One of my initial clients was the National Farmers Organization (NFO).
• 1996: I first recorded the idea of writing a screenplay about NFO.
• Late ’90: I started research for the screenplay that included reading two books by Willis Rowell. The first was National Farmers Organization: A Complete History—an “official” version of the NFO story. The other was Mad as Hell, Willis’ personal memoir of his involvement in the organization. The latter had more curse words.
• Early 2000s: I approached Willis and signed an agreement for rights to adapt his memoir.
• 2006: I shared an abbreviated draft of the screenplay with Willis. Unfortunately, he died shortly thereafter. He was 86 years old.
• 2006-2023: My career at Meyocks created additional demands, and I did little with All Hang Separately other than to note I should finish it sometime.
• 2024: After retiring from Meyocks, I turned my attention back to the screenplay and finished the first full draft in August. I attended my first Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ retreat in September, splitting time between the screenplay and songwriting sessions. (In my retirement, I also started writing song lyrics and engaged a couple local artists to write music for them.)
• 2025: I first wondered about bringing All Hang Separately to life in another form involving songs. Then in September, I’m sitting in a session of the Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat and a presenter shares a story about Aaron Sorkin‘s A Few Good Men. As this speaker tells it, Mr. Sorkin had apparently been shopping his screenplay without success—and thus developed the story as a stage play to bring it to life. Whether that story is true—or it just should be—I took it as a sign from the universe to develop All Hang Separately as a narrative song cycle. That led me to conversations with Willis Rowell’s daughter, Debra.
• 2026: I reached out to the family of Oren Lee Staley, the inspirational leader of NFO, and eventually connected with three of Staley’s children: Janice (and husband Terry), Gregg (and wife Nancy) and Cathy. Look for more information on those conversations in a subsequent project update. I also reached out to the Weary Ramblers and was humbled by their willingness to collaborate on the project.
• 2027: All Hang Separately will be released as a narrative song cycle.

Long and winding, right?

Doug