Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
1959: Billy Bayou — Jim Reeves (RCA Victor)
1969: Until My Dreams Come True — Jack Greene (Decca)
1979: Every Which Way But Loose — Eddie Rabbitt (Elektra)
1989: Big Wheels In The Moonlight — Dan Seals (Capitol)
1999: Stand Beside Me — Jo Dee Messina (Curb)
2009: She Wouldn’t Be Gone — Blake Shelton (Warner Bros)
2019: Tequila — Dan + Shay (Warner Bros. Nashville)
2019 (Airplay): This Is It — Scotty McCreery (Triple Tigers)
1958: Bird Dog / Devoted To You — Everly Brothers (Cadence)
1958 (Disk Jockeys): Alone With You — Faron Young (Capitol)
1968: Mama Tried — Merle Haggard (Capitol)
1978: I’ve Always Been Crazy — Waylon Jennings (RCA)
1988: Addicted — Dan Seals (Capitol)
1998: How Long Gone — Brooks & Dunn (Arista Nashville)
2008: Waitin’ On A Woman — Brad Paisley (Arista)
2018: Meant To Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Big Machine)
2018 (Airplay):
1958 (Sales): The Story of My Life — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1958 (Disc Jockeys): The Story of My Life — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1968: Sing Me Back Home — Merle Haggard (Capitol)
1978: What A Difference You’ve Made In My Life — Ronnie Milsap (RCA)
1988: One Friend — Dan Seals (Capitol)
1998: Just To See You Smile — Tim McGraw (Curb)
2008: Our Song — Taylor Swift (Big Machine)
2018: Meant To Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Big Machine)
2018 (Airplay): I Could Use A Love Song — Maren Morris (Columbia Nashville)
Kenny Rogers released his most recent album, You Can’t Make Old Friends, in October 2013. It was his inaugural release for Warner Bros. Nashville and first record of all new material in seven years.
The title track, co-written by Don Schlitz with Caitlyn Smith and Ryan Hanna King, reunited Rogers with Dolly Parton. The mostly acoustic ballad is a masterful look at two singers contemplating their advancing age, wondering how they’ll go on one day without each other. The song peaked at #57 as the album’s only single.
You Can’t Make Old Friends is peppered with contributions from some of the finest writers to emerge out of Nashville in the past thirty years. Schlitz appears again, alongside his longtime co-collaborator Paul Overstreet, on “Don’t Leave Me in the Nighttime,” which features accordionist Buckwheat Zydeco. The track is good but would’ve been a lot stronger had it been given a 1990s styled arrangement.
Allen Shamblin also has two cuts. He wrote the contented “All I Need Is One” with Marc Beeson and the reflective “Look At You” with Mike Reid. The latter is the stronger song by a mile, but pails in comparison to “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” which is the pair’s masterpiece.
The album closes with Dan Seals’ “It’s Gonna Be Easy Now,” which he recorded on On The Front Line in 1986. Rogers’ version is a terrible mix of raspy vocals and an overbearing arrangement that drowns the song in faux-rock.
“When You Love Someone” comes from the pen of Gretchen Peters and composer Michael Kaman. Peters originally recorded the tune as a duet with Bryan Adams for the animated film Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron in 2002. The track, a tasteful ballad, is very good although it does get list-oriented.
Dave Loggins co-wrote “Neon Horses” with Ronnie Samoset. The song has good bones but flies off the rails when Rogers begins cooing “la la la” throughout. “Dreams of the San Joaquin,” co-written by Randy Sharp and Jack Wesley Roth is one of the album’s most well-written and strongest offerings.
A pair of tunes come from the minds of more contemporary songwriters. Casey Beathard co-wrote “You Had To Be There,” a dark ballad relaying a phone call between an absentee father visiting his son in prison. Power rocker “Turn This World Around,” which comes from Eric Paslay, Andrew Dorff and Jason Reeves, casts Rogers in a modern light that renders him unrecognizable. “‘Merica” is a national pride anthem that I found unappealing.
You Can’t Make Old Friends is far from a terrible album, but it is Rogers’ usual mixed bag of styles and sonic textures. He doesn’t make any wide sweeps but he does choose material that runs the gamut from great to good to awful. In other words, this is a typical Kenny Rogers album.
Grade: B-
1957 (Sales): : Fraulein — Bobby Helms (Decca)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You — Ray Price (Columbia)
1967: Laura What’s He Got That I Ain’t Got — Leon Ashley (Ashley)
1977: I’ve Already Loved You In My Mind — Conway Twitty (MCA)
1987: Three Time Loser — Dan Seals (EMI America)
1997: How Your Love Makes Me Feel — Diamond Rio (Arista)
2007: Take Me There — Rascal Flatts (Lyric Street)
2017: Body Like a Back Road — Sam Hunt (MCA)
2017 (Airplay): Small Town Boy — Dustin Lynch (Broken Bow)
1957 (Sales): A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation) — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1957 (Jukebox): A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation) — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): Four Walls — Jim Reeves (RCA)
1967: It’s Such a Pretty World Today — Wynn Stewart (Capitol)
1977: Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love) — Waylon Jennings (RCA)
1987: I Will Be There — Dan Seals (EMI America)
1997: It’s Your Love — Tim McGraw with Faith Hill (Curb)
2007: Good Directions — Billy Currington (Mercury)
2017: Body Like a Back Road — Sam Hunt (MCA)
2017 (Airplay): In Case You Didn’t Know — Brett Young (Republic Nashville)
1957 (Sales):Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1957 (Jukebox): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): Young Love — Sonny James (Capitol)
1967: There Goes My Everything — Jack Greene (Decca)
1977: Let My Love Be Your Pillow — Ronnie Milsap (RCA)
1987: You Still Move Me — Dan Seals (EMI America)
1997: Nobody Knows — Kevin Sharp (Asylum)
2007: Watching You — Rodney Atkins (Curb)
2017: Blue Ain’t Your Color — Keith Urban (Capitol)
2017 (Airplay): Guy With A Girl — Blake Shelton (Warner Bros.)
1956 (Sales): Heartbreak Hotel — Elvis Presley (RCA)
1956 (Jukebox): Heartbreak Hotel/I Was The One — Elvis Presley (RCA)
1956 (Disc Jockeys): Crazy Arms — Ray Price (Columbia)
1966: Think of Me — Buck Owens (Capitol)
1976: All These Things — Joe Stampley (Dot)
1986: Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold) — Dan Seals (EMI America)
1996: Time Marches On — Tracy Lawrence (Atlantic)
2006: Summertime — Kenny Chesney (BNA)
2016: H.O.L.Y. — Florida Georgia Line (Republic Nashville)
2016 (Airplay): Wasted Time — Keith Urban (Capitol)
1956 (Sales): Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford (Capitol)
1956 (Jukebox): Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford (Capitol)
1956 (Disc Jockeys): Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford (Capitol)
1966: Giddyup Go — Red Sovine (Starday)
1976: Convoy — C.W. McCall (MGM)
1986: Bop — Dan Seals (EMI America)
1996: It Matters to Me — Faith Hill (Warner Bros.)
2006: Jesus, Take The Wheel — Carrie Underwood (Arista)
2016: Die a Happy Man — Thomas Rhett (Valory)
2016 (Airplay): Die a Happy Man — Thomas Rhett (Valory)
Contemporary star Jake Owen covers a Dan Seals classic:
1955 (Sales): The Cattle Call/The Kentuckian Song — Eddy Arnold (RCA)
1955 (Jukebox): I Don’t Care — Webb Pierce (Decca)
1955 (Disc Jockeys): I Don’t Care — Webb Pierce (Decca)
1965: Behind The Tear — Sonny James (Capitol)
1975: Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain — Willie Nelson (Columbia)
1985: Meet Me In Montana — Marie Osmond with Dan Seals (Capitol/Curb)
1995: I Like It, I Love It — Tim McGraw (Curb)
2005: Something To Be Proud Of — Montgomery Gentry (Columbia)
2015: Strip It Down — Luke Bryan (Capitol)
2015 (Airplay): Save It For a Rainy Day — Kenny Chesney (Blue Chair/Columbia)
It isn’t terribly difficult to understand why Dean Dillon never became a major recording star; as it has been noted by others several times already, at times he sounds like George Strait and, at other times, Keith Whitley, but he is a decidedly less distinctive vocalist than either of them. He’d also discovered that it was more lucrative to pitch his best material to country music’s heavy hitters, rather than saving them for himself. The combination of a lesser vocalist and less than first-rate material is hardly a formula for success.
Nevertheless, none of this means that Dillon’s recordings are not worthwhile; on the contrary, most his albums contain at least a handful of enjoyable tracks. 1991’s Out Of Your Ever Lovin’ Mind is a prime example. Co-produced with Blake Mevis, it was Dillon’s first release for Atlantic Records and his highest-charting solo album, peaking at #58. Because of his close ties with George Strait, Dean Dillon’s name is associated with traditional country music. It is, therefore, somewhat surprising to hear the pop influences that permeate many of the album’s tracks. Synthesized keyboards – which I thought were pretty much out of vogue by 1991 – are quite prominent on many songs, including the opening track “Friday Night’s Woman”, a somewhat dull number that was the collection’s only single to crack the Top 40 (landing at #39), as well as the schmaltzy “Best Love Friends”, which is a Dillon co-write with Buddy Cannon and Vern Gosdin. The saxophone-laced “She Knows What She Wants” sounds like something Dan Seals might have recorded during his “Bop” era. The more traditional “Holed Up In Some Honky Tonk”, which preceded “Friday Night’s Woman” as the album’s first single, draws more comparisons to Keith Whitley but unfortunately every time I listen to it I can’t help thinking that Whitley would have done a much better job with the song.
Fortunately, despite getting off to a rocky start, the album does pick up by the fifth track. “Holding My Own”, arguably the album’s best track, preceded the better-known George Strait version by a year. It’s a decent effort, but again, the keyboards make the track sound instantly dated. “Don’t You Even (Think About Leaving’)” is a pleasant, though not terribly memorable song that at least doesn’t cause the listener to think about other singers. It was the album’s third and final single, peaking at #62. “Her Thinkin’ I’m Doing Her Wrong (Ain’t Doing Me Right)” is another Keith Whitley type number but unlike “Holed Up In Some Honky Tonk”, it is a great song and it’s a bit surprising that someone else didn’t come along and have a hit with it.
“A Country Boy (Who Rolled The Rock Away)” is a surprisingly effective Buddy Holly tribute; “You Must Be Out Of Your Ever Lovin’ Mind” is superior to any of the album’s singles.
Out Of Your Ever Lovin’ Mind is not a great album, but it is an above-average effort that recovers nicely after the first three tracks, with a few moments (“Holding My Own”, “Her Thinkin’ I’m Doin’ Her Wrong” and the title track) that approach greatness. There is nothing ground-breaking or earth-shattering here, but it’s worth picking up a cheap copy.
Grade: B
Holly’s second album for MTM, released in 1987, built on the success of ‘Daddy’s Hands’ and a hit duet with Michael Martin Murphey (the charming ‘A Face In The Crowd’), and saw her cementing her status as a rising star for the fledgeling label. Her high soprano voice is well suited to the songs selected.
The mid-tempo ‘Love Someone Like Me’, which Holly wrote with Radney Foster, was the lead single, and it only just missed the top spot on the country chart. It had previously been recorded bluegrass style by the group New Grass Revival; Holly’s version is a little more on the pop-country side and the production has dated a bit, but it isn’t bad, thanks mainly to her vocal.
Better is ‘Only When I Love’, a post-breakup number in which the protagonist is mostly okay – until she falls for someone else. It was one of a brace of songs written by Holly with her most frequent writing partners, Tom Shapiro and her brother Chris Waters, and reached #4.
Holly and Chris wrote the third and last single ‘Strangers Again, a rueful ballad about the pain of a breakup, in which they are left
not even friends.
Wistful fiddle backs up Holly’s emotional vocal, making this by far my favorite of the singles.
The Dunn/Waters/Shapiro team also wrote one of my favorite tracks, ‘Why Wyoming’, in which a cowboy’s jilted sweetheart bemoans the competition of the wide open spaces:
He’s the only cowboy that I’ve got
And you’ve got all you need
He could never love a woman
Like he loves being free
Tell me, why, Wyoming
Do you take him from me?
The beautiful ballad ‘Fewer Threads Than These’ (also recorded by Dan Seals) is another highlight, with Holly supported by a sympathetic harmony vocal.
Jim Croce’s ‘Lover’s Cross’ is a pretty sounding but angsty ballad about breaking away from a difficult relationship:
It seems that you wanted a martyr
Just a regular girl wouldn’t do
But I can’t hang upon no lover’s cross for you
The small town lifestyle is often idealised in country songs, and the big city seen as a poor alternative. Holly offers a more jaundiced view with her vibrant reading of ‘Small Towns (Are Smaller For Girls)’. This winsome depiction of the limitations of small town life for a restless teenager was written by Mark D Sanders, Alice Randall and Verlon Thompson. The protagonist feels stifled and restricted by a life where:
Everybody that she knew knew every move she made
So she stood behind the backstop playing sweet 16
While the boys were stealing bases and pitching for their dreams
…
She knows that there’s gotta be more
Small towns are smaller for girls
She learned to dance around desire
And act like the nice girls act
So the boys found out about love with the girls across the tracks
While their souls burned holes through the heat of the southern night
She was reading about New York City with her daddy’s flashlight
Holly hedges her bets a little though, with her fond tribute to a ‘Little Frame House’, with the Whites singing harmony vocals. The title track is an idealistic eulogy to the central importance of love, written by Dave Loggins and Don Schlitz.
The production on the up-tempo ‘Wrap Me Up’ (a Radney Foster co-write) sounds a bit tinny now, and this is the only track I really don’t like.
This is not easy to find at a reasonable price these days (partly because it was on a label which lasted only a few years), but it is a fine album which is well worth checking out if you can find it.
Grade: A
Being related to a famous country entertainer can be a mixed blessing. Although the family ties can open doors for the aspiring singer, they can also serve to set unrealistic expectations. Just ask Roy Acuff Jr., Ronnie Robbins (billed as Marty Robbins, Jr.), The Lynns (daughters of Loretta Lynn), Riley Coyle (daughter of Jeannie C. Riley), Pake McEntire (Reba’s brother), Jay Lee Webb (Loretta Lynn’s brother), Peggy Sue (Loretta Lynn’s sister), and Hillman Hall (Tom T. Hall’s brother), each of whom issued an album or two and then disappeared. John Carter Cash has avoided the problem entirely by working behind the scenes.
Then there are those who achieve modest success and carve out respectable careers but never achieve top-drawer status, such as Shelly West (daughter of Dottie West), David Frizzell (brother of Lefty Frizzell), Tommy Cash (brother of Johnny Cash), Carlene Carter (daughter of Carl Smith and June Carter) and Thom Bresh (son of Merle Travis). Jazz guitarist Lenny Breau, son of country stars Hal Lone Pine and Betty Cody, might have fit into this category had he not died young.
True superstar success for those with famous kinfolk is indeed rare. The three biggest that come to mind are Crystal Gayle (Loretta Lynn’s sister), Lynn Anderson (the daughter of songwriter Casey & singer-songwriter Liz Anderson) and Hank Williams Jr. Pulling up behind these three are George Morgan’s daughter Lorrie, Rosanne Cash and this month’s spotlight artist, Pam Tillis.
Pamela Yvonne Tillis was born on July 24, 1957 in Plant City, Florida, the daughter of singer-songwriter-actor-comedian Mel Tillis.
As the daughter of one of the best-known songwriters around, and living in Nashville, Tillis was exposed to the elite of the country music industry even before her father had achieved recording star status. She made her Grand Ole Opry debut at the age of eight in an appearance with her father singing “Tom Dooley.” She grew up wanting to be a performer and tried her hand at songwriting at an early age and also found some work as a background singer. The results of an automobile accident at age 16 derailed her career for a while as several years of reconstructive facial surgery were needed to restore her appearance. Following her surgeries, Tillis enrolled at the University of Tennessee; then later at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, forming her first band. Since her only real interest was music, she eventually dropped out of college to pursue her own musical career.
Wanting to make it “on her own,” Tillis went to San Francisco where she joined a jazz-rock band Freelight.
After tiring of the San Francisco scene, she returned to Nashville and found work as a demo singer. She signed with Warner Brothers. in 1982, where she took a shot at pop success. Her sole album for Warner Brothers was Above and Beyond The Doll of Cutey. During the period between 1983 and ’87, Warner Brothers would issue at least eight singles on Tillis, five of which charted on Billboard’s Country chart, although none made the Top 50–not surprising since they were not being marketed as country singles. Unreleased were early versions of several of her later hits, which were released after she achieved success.
During this period, Tillis signed on as a staff songwriter with Tree Publishing in Nashville, where she shifted her focus to contemporary country music and achieved much success as a songwriter, with artists as diverse as Chaka Khan, Martina McBride, Gloria Gaynor, Conway Twitty, Holly Dunn, Juice Newton, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Dan Seals, and Highway 101 recording her songs.
Her visibility was greatly improved when she started making regular appearances on shows aired on the late lamented Nashville Network, especially on Nashville Now, a nightly variety show hosted by Ralph Emery. By 1991 she had signed with Arista Records, where her career took off. For part of this period (until 1998) she was married to fellow songwriter Bob DiPiero.
The Arista years saw Tillis emerge as a steady and reliable hit-maker as the following list demonstrates:
•“Don’t Tell Me What To Do” / “Melancholy Child” – #5 (1990)
•“One Of Those Things” / “Already Fallen – #6 (1991)
•“Put Yourself In My Place” / “I’ve Seen Enough To Know” – #11 (1991)
•“Maybe It Was Memphis” / “Draggin’ My Chains” – #3 (1991)
•“Blue Rose Is” / “Ancient History” – #21 (1992)
•“Shake The Sugar Tree” / “Maybe It Was Memphis” #3 (1992)
•“Let That Pony Run” / “Fine Fine Very Fine Love” – #4 (1992)
•“Cleopatra Queen Of Denial” / “Homeward Looking Angel” – #11 (1993)
•“Do You Know Where Your Man Is” / “We’ve Tried Everything Else” – #16 (1993)
•“Spilled Perfume” / “Till All The Lonely’s Gone” – #5 (1994)
•“When You Walk In The Room” / “Till All The Lonely’s Gone” – #2 (1994)
•“Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)” / “Ancient History” – #1 (1994)
•“I Was Blown Away” / “Calico Plains” – #16 (1995)
•“In Between Dances” / “They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To” – #3 (1995)
•“Deep Down” / “Tequila Mockingbird” – #6 (1995)
•“River And The Highway” / “All Of This Love” – #8 (1996)
•“It’s Lonely Out There” / “You Can’t Have A Good Time Without Me” – #14 (1996)
•“All The Good Ones Are Gone” / “Land Of The Living” – #4 (1997)
•“I Said A Prayer” / “Lay The Heartache Down” – #12 (1998)
•“Every Time” / “You Put The Lonely On Me” – #38 (1998)
After 1998, the hits started drying up as the next wave of young performers arrived.
Tillis’ Arista albums were generally quite successful, starting with 1991’s Put Yourself In My Place which had three Top 10 hits in lead single, “Don’t Tell Me What to Do,” “One of Those Things” and “Maybe It Was Memphis.” The album ultimately reached gold status.
Her 1992 follow-up Homeward Looking Angel was equally successful, with “Shake the Sugar Tree” and “Let That Pony Run” reaching the Top 5. Homeward Looking Angel reached platinum status. In 1993, she won her first major award: the CMA Awards’ Vocal Event of the Year with George Jones and Friends for “I Don’t Need Your Rockin’ Chair.”
In 1994, her third Arista album, Sweetheart’s Dance, was released, reaching #6 on the Billboard’s Country Album chart (her highest placement). Singles “Spilled Perfume” and “When You Walk in the Room” both became Top 5 hits and she had her only #1, “Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life),” helping push the album to platinum status.
Issued in late 1996, All of This Love, became Tillis’ last gold non-compilation album. The only single to reach Top 10 status was “The River and The Highway.” It was the first album she produced on her own.
In 1997, Arista released her first (actually only) Greatest Hits album. The compilation featured two new tracks, both released as singles: “All the Good Ones Are Gone” and “The Land of the Living,” both of which reached the Top 5 in 1997. This collection also went platinum.
After 1997, the country music market shifted, becoming more youth-oriented and less country, with a resultant drop in both chart and sales success for Tillis. Her 1998 album Every Time featured “I Said A Prayer”, which just missed the Top 10 and was her last Top 20 single. Her last Arista album, issued in 2001, Thunder & Roses performed reasonably well on the album chart (both it and Every Time reached #24) but generated no real hit singles.
Since 1998 Pam Tillis has remained active, both in live appearances, occasionally performing with her father Mel, and occasionally recording. She became a Grand Ole Opry member in 2000, which was several years before her father, and had the honor of inducting him into Opry membership. She has tried her hand at acting, both on stage and on television, with considerable success.
She still records occasionally. In 2002 she fulfilled a lifetime dream of recording an album of songs written by or associated with her father. Titled It’s All Relative, the album found Pam ignoring the Mel Tillis template and giving her own interpretation of her father’s material, most notably on “Heart Over Mind”.
She started her own record label, Stellar Cat, and issued her album Rhinestoned under that imprint in 2007. One of the singles from the album, “Band In The Window,” earned considerable acclaim, although the album ultimately yielded no hits.
All told, Pam Tillis had over 30 chart records including 13 Top 10s. In 1994 she was named the Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year. In 1999, she earned a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. When CMT did their countdown of the 40 Greatest Women of Country Music in 2002, Tillis ranked at #30. Kevin Coyne of Country Universe ranked her at #35 in his 100 Greatest Women of Country Music countdown in 2008.
Discography
With the exception of the Warner Brothers album, which originally was issued on vinyl and audio cassette, all of Tillis’ subsequent recordings have been released on CD. Most of the titles remain in print, others can be located used with a little bit of effort. Unlike country singers from generations before, the Pam Tillis catalog is fairly shallow with a total of a dozen original studio albums, plus some anthologies (Greatest Hits, Super Hits, Best Of, etc.) and whatever unreleased tracks may be lying around in somebody’s vault. Accordingly, collecting a fairly complete Pam Tillis collection isn’t that difficult, especially since her Warner Brothers debut recently was reissued on CD by Wounded Bird. All of her post-Warner Brothers albums are worthwhile and even her debut album (which I originally purchased on vinyl) has its moments.
The Ernest Tubb Record Shop currently has seven of her albums available as well as several anthologies.
There is a need for a decent two-disc set containing about 40 of her songs. Lately, the German label Bear Family has been issuing some less-than-exhaustive sets. Maybe they will step up to the plate –she’s worth a decent anthology.
Pam Tillis is still actively performing – you can catch up with her at her website http://www.pamtillis.com/ . She does have some product for sale there as digital downloads including a Christmas album and a duet single (with Kris Thomas) titled “Two Kings” which is about Elvis Presley and Martin Luther King, Jr. Her long-awaited duet album with Lorrie Morgan comes out later this month.
My Kind of Country 