Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
This insanely catchy dance tune hit the scene long before the line-dancing craze of the early 1990s, but I have a feeling if those young country fans had done their homework back then, this one would have been getting played in the host of country dance clubs that dotted the nation from Atlanta to Seattle at the time. Released in 1980 as a single from the Smoky and the Bandit II soundtrack, it reached #10 on the country charts and must have really stood out from the pack on the radio at the time with it’s acoustic guitar opening and the twin fiddles in the chorus.
Tanya, like so many of her fellow Texans, has recorded several odes to her homestate, most notably ‘Texas When I Die’, but this is my favorite of them. It was produced by the legendary Snuff Garrett, and his years as a rock and roll producer bring an edge to even the traditional country instruments themselves, a style Mutt Lange would adopt for Shania Twain’s records in the mid 90s.
Actually, the more I listen to it, the more I think this song would have suited Shania Twain perfectly. The lyrics are catchy, but there’s certainly more groove than grit to them:
Lead off with the Cotton-Eyed Joe,
Buckin’ winged, and heel and toe,
Hold me close for the Pecos Promenade
For instance, while the fiddles are obviously a factor to the chorus, they never take over the sound like so many fiddle-laced numbers do. The guitars and vocals are mixed just as prominently, and I like it. Glen Campbell provides harmony as he and Tanya were in a relationship at the time and this period began her commercial decline. ‘Pecos Promenade’ would prove to one of only two Tanya Tucker singles to go top 10 between 1980 and 1986. This classic was certainly no indicator that Tucker was about to go into a major artistic decline; it’s innovative, and Tanya sells the song with her trademark throaty vocals, and the production behind her is near perfection.
Grade: A
Written by: Larry Collins, Sandy Pinkard, Snuff Garrett
Listen to ‘Pecos Promenade’ or buy the mp3 from Amazon.
My Kind of Country 
I don’t like this as much as Tanya’s earlier dance themed hit, San Antonio Stroll.
I like them both a lot.
Truth is that Tanya Tucker probably issued more good singles than any other female country singer alive. While her best singles rarely reached stratospheric heights, outside of a few singles on MCA they all reached at least B or B+ quality