Classic Rewind: Tanya Tucker & Kris Kristofferson – ‘For The Good Times’

Week ending 6/6/09: #1 this week in country music history

1949: Lovesick Blues — Hank Williams (MGM)

1959: The Battle of New Orleans — Johnny Horton (Columbia)

1969: Singing My Song – Tammy Wynette (Epic)

1979: She Believes In Me — Kenny Rogers (United Artists)

1989: Where Did I Go Wrong – Steve Wariner (MCA)

1999: Please Remember Me– Tim McGraw (Curb)

Classic Rewind: Tanya Tucker & Glen Campbell – ‘Dream Lover’

Single Review: Tanya Tucker – ‘Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)?’

As we have already seen, Tanya was never afraid of controversial song choices, and in 1973, when she was still only 15, she picked David Allan Coe’s song ‘Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)?’ as the title track and lead-off single of her third album, released in December that year. In fact, this song was controversial mainly because it was someone of Tanya’s tender years singing it rather than because it was intrinsically shocking.

It was undoubtedly an adult lyric. Defenders of the song pointed out that the ‘field of stone’ of the title referred to a graveyard, and the song was about til-death-do-us-last true love, rather than anything sordid, but the imagery is quite strong at times, and Tanya’s earthy vocal belied her youth. If her age was not known, no-one would guess this was sung by such a young girl. The controversy did not affect the single’s commercial success to any degree. It became her third straight #1 hit early in 1974.

Does the track stand up today? Unquestionably yes; I’ve been listening to it repeatedly while working on this review, and it hasn’t grown tiresome. The production is impeccable. It opens in rather subdued fashion, with Tanya’s voice starting unaccompanied, joined within a couple of bars by a soft bell-sound. The song is allowed to build gradually as Tanya’s vocal becomes more urgent and is joined by a choir of echoing background singers, with more instruments joining the mix and swelling strings as the vocal gets yet more intense in the chorus.

Remembering Conway Twitty (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993)

Conway Twitty’s untimely death on June 5, 1993 was a devastating loss to country music. On the 16th anniversary of his passing, we’d like to take a look back and pay homage to the man who was known as “the best friend a song ever had”:

Create a covers album

There are some songs that are so closely associated with their original performers that they just sound foreign coming from the mouths of even the best singers. Covers albums can be a blessing or a curse for this reason. And in my opinion, some get it right and some don’t. Some artists make a covers album that stays very true to the original recordings of the songs and others take the tracks, change the arrangement and make them their own.

Two that come to mind are Alan Jackson’s Under The Influence and Wynonna’s recent release Sing: Chapter One. While both Alan and Wynonna mostly culled their songs from the songbooks of 1970s country music, the arrangements the two put on their respective albums are vastly different. Alan Jackson elected to record a selection of country classics and didn’t variate from the sound of the originals much. For instance, the music track on ‘Once You’ve Had the Best’ from Under the Influence is virtually interchangeable with George Jones’ original recording of the song. Jackson still gives the lyric a worthy reading and the entire album is still a favorite of mine. To the contrary, Wynonna – whose picks on her own covers album were about half country songs and half R&B, blues, and rock and roll chestnuts – took country standards like ‘Are The Good Times Really Over’ and ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ and put a very contemporary spin on them.  I am not saying one way is correct, or that one is even better than the other.  It’s really a matter of personal taste on the part of the artist and the listener.  

Martina McBride and Patty Loveless have recently released covers albums with very traditional material and production, but one of them seem to be much better-suited for singing hard-core country than the other.  So should the singer’s actual catalog be taken into account when they’re recording an album of material previously done by others?  Case in point:  Timeless was by far more of a stretch from the albums Martina McBride had been making than Sleepless Nights was from Patty Loveless’s recent records.  So were Martina’s fans unreceptive to the traditional sounds of her album?  Would she have fared better with tracks from the likes of Reba, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, or even Alabama?  Certainly her fans would have been more familiar with those names than Ray Price, Lynn Anderson, or Ernest Tubb.  It’s my opinion that artists like Alan, Wynonna, Patty, and Martina have an obligation to their fans to stay true – and pay homage through their music – to the artists, songs, and sounds that came before them and defined the genre they call home.  But that’s another post entirely …

My question to you is this:  Who would you like to hear a covers album from?  And what songs would you like them to include on it?

I will start:  I would like to hear a covers album from George Strait.  And just a few of the songs I’d like to hear Strait’s take on would be Conway Twitty’s ‘This Time I’ve Hurt Her More (Than She Loves Me)’, Hank Williams’ ‘Cold, Cold Heart’, and maybe even the B.J. Thomas tune ‘(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song’.

Single Review: Tanya Tucker – ‘Blood Red and Goin’ Down’

Few songs illustrate the stark changes that have taken place at country radio over the past thirty-odd years better than “Blood Red and Goin’ Down.” Nowadays radio is programmed to appeal to the soccer moms and the subject matter is kept light and non-controversial (in other words, bland.) As such, a song such as this one, were it written and released in 2009, would never see the light of day at radio. Thankfully that was decidedly not the case in 1973 when “Blood Red and Goin’ Down” became Tanya Tucker’s second #1 hit.

Written by Curly Putman, who is best known for having written “The Green Grass of Home” and for collaborating with Bobby Braddock on “He Stopped Loving Her Today”, “Blood Red and Goin’ Down” tells the story of a man’s search for his adulterous wife and her lover, from the point of view of the couple’s ten-year-old daughter.

The title refers specifically to the setting Georgia sun and also serves as a metaphor for the story’s violent ending. The story takes place within walking distance of Augusta; in the first verse the wronged husband informs his daughter that her mother has run off with another man, apparently not for the first time, and they set out on foot for the city to find her. Along the way, the daughter is at a loss for words as her father wonders out loud where he went wrong and how his wife could abandon them.

Building up to the climax, the father and daughter search the bars and honky tonks of Augusta and eventually find the illicit couple. At this point, the song packs its final punch as the daughter reveals,

He sent me out to wait, but scared, I looked back through the door. And Daddy left them both, soaking up the sawdust on the floor.

The daughter is non-judgmental of her father’s actions, much in the way the young girl in Martina McBride’s “Independence Day” didn’t say “if it was right or it was wrong” twenty years later.

It isn’t clear whether the narrator’s father kills his wife and her lover, or just beats them senseless. One review I once read stated that he shot them both to death, but there is never any mention in the lyrics of a gun. Regardless of their interpretation, the words of the final lines of the song make the listener stop and pay attention, and they are just as chilling now as they were 36 years ago when the record was first released.

Written by: Curly Putman

Grade: A

You can listen to “Blood Red and Goin’ Down” at Last FM or purchase the track from iTunes or Amazon MP3.

Classic Rewind: Tanya Tucker, Paul Davis & Paul Overstreet – ‘I Won’t Take Less Than Your Love’

Recommendation: ‘Garth Must Be Busy’

I miss Garth Brooks too.

Single Review: Tanya Tucker – ‘What’s Your Mama’s Name’

Released in 1973, “What’s Your Mama’s Name” was the title track and lead single from Tanya Tucker’s second album for Columbia Records. Written by Earl Montgomery and the legendary Dallas Frazier and produced by Billy Sherrill, this is a typical country music story song in three verses.

In the first verse we are introduced to a young man named Buford Wilson who has recently arrived in Memphis, and we are told that he is looking for his lost love. By the end of the verse, it is revealed that he has been approaching little green-eyed girls and asking them, “What’s your mama’s name, child?” Even in those days when pedophelia and crimes against children weren’t in the daily headlines, folks were clearly uncomfortable with this behavior.

In the second verse, ten years have passed, and Wilson has descended into alcoholism, but is still approaching young green-eyed girls. He is arrested and sentenced to 30 days of hard labor in the county jail for bribing a young girl with a nickel’s worth of candy if she reveals her mother’s name.   There is to be no happy ending to this sad story as the third verse reveals.   Wilson, now an old man, has died a pauper, and among his possessions a letter is found that explains his behavior:

It said, ‘You have a daughter, and her eyes are Wilson green.’

Saw it coming, didn’t you?   Tucker’s vocal delivery is strong and gives no hint that the singer was only 15 years old.   “What’s Your Mama’s Name” became Tanya’s first #1 hit and the LP from which it was taken became her first gold album.  It remains one of the best known songs in her catalog.

Grade:  A+

Written by:  Dallas Frazier & Earl Montgomery

Listen to “What’s Your Mama’s Name” at Last FM or purchase the track from iTunes or Amazon MP3.

CD Bargain: Tanya Tucker – ‘Greatest Hits’

Columbia, MCA and Capitol Records have all released compilations of Tanya Tucker’s hits with the same title – ‘Greatest Hits’. The Capitol collection is available for $5.98 (CD) or $4.58 (MP3) from Amazon. It covers her first three years on Capitol (1986 through 1989), including such hits as “One Love At A Time”, “Just Another Love”, “Love Me Like You Used To” and “I Won’t Take Less Than Your Love.” If you don’t own any of Tanya’s music, this is a good place to start.

CD Giveaway: Keith Whitley – ‘RCA Country Legends’

Update: Congratulations to Stacy Peterson. She won our Keith Whitley giveaway for May.
I’ll be contacting you via email.  Stick around for more giveaways soon! 

All month long we’ve been telling you about the life and music of Keith Whitley.  Now we’re going to give you a chance to win some of the great music he made.  There have been several compilations and hits packages of Keith’s catalog released by RCA and I think this is one of the best of the bunch. Released in 2002 it includes 16 of his biggest hits like ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’, ‘I Wonder Do You Think Of Me’, and ‘When You Say Nothing At All’ as well as remastered versions of several tracks – ‘Til A Tear Becomes A Rose’ with Lorrie Morgan, ‘I Never Go Around Mirrors’ and more. 

To enter, just leave a comment telling us your favorite Keith Whitley song before 11:59 PM Sunday May 31, 2009.  Good luck and thanks for visiting us.

If you just have to have this album now, it’s readily available at Amazon.

Single Review: Tanya Tucker – ‘Delta Dawn’

When a 13 year-old Tanya Tucker was inked a recording contract with Columbia Records, she knew just the kind of songs she wanted to sing – and the kind she didn’t want to sing. Legend has it Tucker was pitched the song ‘Happiest Girl In The Whole U.S.A’ and turned it down, saying it was too ‘fluffy’ for her. (Donna Fargo would have her breakthrough hit with it, taking the song to the top of the charts in 1973.)  What she wanted was a song with some meat on its lyrical bones – and she found it with ‘Delta Dawn’, a tale of a spurned former beauty and the toll it takes on her mind.  

The song was released as the debut single for the teen vocalist and rose to the #6 position on the country charts and a subsequent cover by Helen Reddy topped the pop charts the following year.  It’s since been covered by countless artists.  The two singles to follow from the album, ‘Love’s The Answer’ and ‘The Jamestown Ferry’ both fared better on the country chart, reaching the top 5.  But ‘Delta Dawn’ remains the signature song of one Tanya Tucker and has become a standard across genres.

As the story goes, Delta Dawn was quite the beauty – ‘prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on’.  Back many years ago, a dishonorable gentleman promised to marry Delta Dawn and she’s spent the better part of her adult life waiting for him to return, slowly going out of her mind in the process. I’m resisting the urge to just quote the entire song for you here – so if you haven’t heard this classic, listen here.

Tanya delivers this dark tale of deception and mental illness with the conviction (and the pipes) that rivaled that of any of her adult peers.  One of my favorite things about Tanya Tucker – and the thing I relate to most – was her whole ’13 going on 40′ persona.  Producer Billy Sherill provides just the right backdrop of harmonica and even the host of background singers seem to fit this song perfectly.  As far as these southern gothic story songs go – and there are many – this is one of the best.

Grade: A+

Written by: Alex Harvey and Larry Collins

Buy the mp3 from Amazon.

Spotlight Artist: Tanya Tucker

Like most males of my generation, I had a serious schoolboy crush on Olivia Newton-John, but she was replaced rather quickly in my affections by Tanya Tucker. Nearly 30 years later, Tanya remains one of my very favorite country music performers, so I am pleased to announce that she is our spotlight artist for the month of June.

Tanya Denise Tucker was born on October 10, 1958 in Seminole, Texas. By the time she was 13, she had become a major country music star, having been signed to a Columbia Records recording contract by Billy Sherrill, and having reached the #6 position on Billboard’s country singles chart with her first outing, “Delta Dawn”.

Despite her tender age, Tucker became known for releasing what her future producer Jerry Crutchfield described as a series of “hot and sweaty” songs, tackling a variety of very adult topics, including mental illness, alcoholism, illegitimacy, rape, and murder. A switch to MCA Records in 1975 resulted in material with less heavy themes, but despite some initial success, it also marked the beginnings of a series of personal problems and a career decline.

By the mid-1980s, she had been written off as a has-been. Her credibility was in tatters and she was without a recording contract when Jerry Crutchfield persuaded a very reluctant Jim Fogelsong, Director of A&R at Capitol Records, to give Tanya one more chance. Tanya proved that she could still deliver the goods when “One Love At A Time”, her first single for Capitol, peaked at #3 on the Billboard chart in 1986. She remained a fixture at the top of the charts and on the Capitol Nashville roster through the late 1990s.

Today, Tanya Tucker is one of a very small group of performers who can lay claim to have had chart success spanning four decades. On June 30th, Saguaro Road Records will release My Turn , her first album in seven years. I hope you’ll join us as we look back at the career highs and lows, and the triumphs and missteps of this very interesting living legend and country music icon.