Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
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: Joe Knows How To Live — Eddy Raven (RCA)
1998: How Long Gone — Brooks & Dunn (Arista Nashville)
2008: Do You Believe Me Now? — Jimmy Wayne (Valory Music Group)
2018: Meant To Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Big Machine)
2018 (Airplay): Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset — Luke Bryan (Capitol Nashville)
Moe Bandy released his fifth album, Here I am Drunk Again, on Columbia Nashville in 1976. The album, produced by Ray Baker, had two charting singles, both of which peaked at #11. The title track, a classic country shuffle, peaked first.
Sanger D. Shafer solely wrote the album’s second single, “She Took More Than Her Share,” as well as two other songs on the record. His three solo contributions are brilliant, and range from the delightful Texas fiddle tune “She’s Got That Oklahoma Look” to the excellent (and stone cold) “The Bottle’s Holding Me.” His final contribution, the steel-drenched “What Happened To Our Love” was a co-write with Bandy.
Eddy Raven is responsible for “Please Take Her Home,” a cautionary tale from our protagonist to the lover of the woman he finds too tempting to resist. “The Man You Once Knew,” a tale regarding a guy falling on hard times, was from Dallas Frazier. J.R. Cochran contributed “If I Had Someone To Cheat On,” a reverse barroom anthem where the guy wishes he had someone’s memory to drink away, the excuse to actually be in the joint in the first place.
“Mind Your Own Business” is the Hank Williams classic. The production is a bit slicker than the rest of the album, and slightly cluttered in places, but Bandy executes it was ease. “Then You Can Let Me Go (Out of Your Mind)” is far more sparse, with steel guitar to accentuate the melody.
Here I Am Drunk Again is an incredible album from start to finish, a collection of ten perfectly chosen tunes and not a clunker in the bunch. I have a love/hate relationship with country music from this era, I find a lot of what we’ve spotlighted through the years to be dated and not my kind of country, but this I love. If you missed this album the first time around, or need to revisit it after all these years, I implore you to check it out. You most certainly won’t be disappointed.
Grade: A+
Moe Bandy’s third (and final) album on GRC was Bandy The Rodeo Clown. Released in 1975, the album was the least successful of Moe’s three GRC albums, reaching only #27 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart, but the title track (and only single from the album) proved to be Moe’s biggest hit to-date, reaching #7 in the USA and #4 in Canada. The album was a hard-core country fan’s fantasy with such stalwart musicians as Charlie McCoy, Bobby Thompson, Bob Moore, Hargus “Pig” Robbins, Leo Jackson, Jimmy Capps, Johnny Gimble, Kenny Malone, Weldon Myrick and Dave Kirby present to ‘keep it country’.
I’m sure that many thought that Moe penned the title track, which was the first track on the album; however, the song actually came for the golden pens of Lefty Frizzell and Whitey Shfer. The story of a rodeo rider toppled by lost love, and winding up a rodeo clown, Moe is entirely believable as he sings the song.
Who was once a bull hooking son of a gun
Now who keeps a pint hid out behind chute number one
Who was riding high till a pretty girl rode him to the ground
Any kid knows where to find me
I’m Bandy The Rodeo Clown
Next up is “Somewhere There’s A Woman”, penned by Rex Gosdin and Les Reed. This song is a standard jog-long ballad that Moe handles well. This is followed by “Give Me Liberty (Or Give Me All Your Love)”, a ballad about a guy who is losing his girlfriend to her old lover.
“Nobody’s Waiting For Me” is a sad slow ballad about a down and outer, what used to be known as a weeper. This song was written by Whitey Shafer – it’s a good song and in the hands of George Jones, it might have been hit single material – but otherwise it is just an album track.
Side one closes with “I Stop And Get Up (To Go Out Of My Mind)”, a mid-tempo ballad with some nice harmonica by Charlie McCoy and fiddle by Johnny Gimble.
Side two opens up with an old warhorse in Don Gibson’s “Oh, Lonesome Me”. I’ve heard better versions, but Moe does an acceptable job with the song. Eddy Raven, who has been enjoying renaissance in bluegrass, penned “I Sure Don’t Need That Memory Tonight”. It’s a decent ballad but nothing more. Better is another Raven tune “Fais Do-Do”, a Cajun-flavored tune that I would liked better had it been taken at a slightly faster tempo. At a faster tempo this song would have made a good single. Yet another Raven song follows in ”Goodbye On Your Mind”, another mid-tempo ballad.
The album closes with “Signs Of A Woman Gone” by Rex Gosdin and Les Reed. The song is slightly up-tempo and while I find the presence of the Jordanaires in the introduction slightly distracting, Bobby Thompson’s fine banjo redeems the song as does Weldon Myrick’s fine steel guitar.
This is a solid country album, well sung by Moe with a solid country band. The problem with the album is two-fold: not enough tempo variation, and generally solid but unexciting songs. I do not mind listening to this album, but only the title track was worthy of single release. The first two GRT albums were better but I would still give this album a solid ‘B’.
After this album, Moe would be signed by Columbia, which purchased Moe’s back GRC catalogue. While Moe would not go on to have enormous success as an album seller, he would crank out a steady stream of successful singles for the next thirteen years.
1957 (Sales): Wake Up Little Susie — The Everly Brothers (Cadence)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): Wake Up Little Susie — The Everly Brothers (Cadence)
1967: I Don’t Wanna Play House — Tammy Wynette (Epic)
1977: Heaven’s Just a Sin Away — The Kendalls (Ovation)
1987: Shine, Shine, Shine — Eddy Raven (RCA)
1997: Everywhere — Tim McGraw (Curb)
2007: Don’t Blink — Kenny Chesney (BNA)
2017: What Ifs — Kane Brown ft Lauren Alaina (RCA)
2017 (Airplay): What Ifs — Kane Brown ft Lauren Alaina (RCA)
If you like real country music, the kind that was played before 2005, with meaningful lyrics written by master craftsmen like Dallas Frazier, Cindy Walker, Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran, Merle Haggard and Tom T Hall, where do you go to hear it live?
Unless you live in Texas, your best choice is to visit a bluegrass festival. Today’s bluegrass acts are vitally concerned about finding good songs, regardless of the copyright dates. They are not concerned about the feeding and watering of mediocre songwriters simply because they are part of the pool of co-writers. A typical bluegrass group will include anywhere from 20% upwards of classic country songs in their repertoire.
Exhibit number one is the most recent album, Country Grass, by Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road. This album is a bit of an outlier, because all of the songs are classic country, but one listen to this album and you will plainly hear that the legacy of 60s-90s country music is in good hands.
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road are a veteran act, having performed at the bluegrass festivals for over fifteen years. Lorraine plays mandolin and handles most of the lead vocals. She is joined by Ben Greene (banjo), Josh Goforth (fiddle), Brad Hudson (dobro) and Jason Moore (upright bass).
In putting this album together of classic country songs, Lorraine assembled a fine cast of guest stars, obtaining the services of the original artist where possible.
The album opens up with the Kentucky Headhunters’ song “Runnin’ Water”, a track from the Kentucky Headhunters’ fourth album. Doug Phelps of the Kentucky Headhunters sings lead on this entertaining track with bandmate Richard Young contributing harmony vocals. This track is straight ahead bluegrass.
Eddy Raven had a #1 record in 1984 with “I Got Mexico” and he chips in with the lead vocals on a track that is more bluegrass flavored than actual bluegrass.
“Darned If I Don’t, Danged If I Do” was a Shenandoah song. Shenandoah’s lead sing Marty Raybon has spent much of the last decade on the bluegrass circuit performing bluegrass versions of Shenandoah hits with his band Full Circle. The song is done in overdrive, but Marty remains one of the premier vocalists.
John Conlee is a long-time Opry veteran who had a decade (1978-1987) long run of top ten hits, including his 1983 #1 hit “Common Man”, taken at about the same tempo as his 1983 hit. Brad Hudson takes a verse of the lead vocal.
Crystal Gayle had a #1 Country / #18 Pop hit in 1978 with “Waiting For The Times To Get Better”. Crystal and Lorraine trade verses on this one, an elegant sounding song and arrangement.
Lee Greenwood had a #1 record with “Dixie Road” in 1985. Unfortunately, Lee’s voice has eroded over the years so having Troy Pope sing a verse is welcome.
Jim Ed Brown has a top twenty recording of “You Can Have Her” back in 1967. This was probably one of Jim Ed’s last recording before his recent death, but he was in very fine voice indeed. Tommy Long takes part of a verse and harmonizes on this jazzy ballad.
“Boogie Grass Band” was a big hit for Conway Twitty in 1978, the title explaining the feel of the song completely. Unfortunately, Conway has been gone for over twenty years so Lorraine simply got everyone involved in this project to take short vocal turns, preserving the original tempo.
Randy Travis was in no shape to perform so Tommy Long handles the vocals on “Digging Up Bones”. Meanwhile T. G. Sheppard is still with us, so he and Tommy Long handle the vocals on “Do You Want To Go To Heaven”. The instrumentation here is bluegrass, but the tempo remains that of the country ballad that T.G. took to #1 in 1980.
Jesse Keith Whitley is the son of Lorrie Morgan and the late great Keith Whitley. Jesse sounds quite similar to his father and acquits himself well on “Don’t Close Your Eyes”. Jeannette Williams contributes gorgeous harmony vocals to this track which is taken at the same tempo as Keith’s original.
It would be hard to conceive of a bigger country/pop hit than Joe South’s “Rose Garden”, taken to the top of the charts in 1970-1971 by Lynn Anderson. Not only did the song top the country and pop charts in the USA, it went top four or better in nine foreign countries. Lynn Anderson and Lorraine Jordan share the lead vocals on this song, which probably sounds the least similar to the original of all the tracks on this album. Lynn passed away last summer, so this is one of the last tracks (perhaps the last track) she ever recorded.
Lorraine’s band shines on the last track of the album “Last Date”. Although there were several sets of lyrics appended to Floyd Cramer’s piano classic, I don’t really like any of the lyrics I’ve heard, so I appreciate that this was left as an instrumental.
I picked up this disc about a month ago and it has been in heavy rotation in my CD player since them. I was inspired to write this when Jonathan Pappalardo posted a video of John Anderson singing with Lorraine and Carolina Road. John is not on the original (2015) version of the album, but his performance can be purchased on Lorraine’s website http://www.carolinaroadband.com/, and is on the new re-released version.
Even if you do not particularly care for bluegrass you might really like this album, chock full of solid country gold songs, fine vocals and exquisite musicianship. I give it an A-, docking it very slightly for the eroded voices of a few of the guests.
That Don’t Make Me A Bad Guy, released in 2008, was the second consecutive self-produced album from Toby Keith. It produced three singles, topped the country albums chart, and reached Gold status.
Keith was still a heavy-hitter at country radio when the album came out. The Bobby Pinson co-written power ballad “She Never Cried In Front of Me” was issued as the lead single. He’s attending his ex-girlfriend’s wedding, where he finally learns a bitter truth:
How was I supposed to know?
She was slowly letting go
If I was putting her through hell
Hell, I couldn’t tell
She could’ve given me a sign
And opened up my eyes
How was I supposed to see?
She never cried in front of me
The track went #1, and while very good, the choral arrangement is too bombastic. The excellent high energy “God Love Her,” another Pinson co-write that deservedly hit #1, came next. Keith assumes the role of the bad boy stealing the heart of the rebel child, a preacher’s daughter. It’s my favorite of Keith’s more recent singles. The unremarkable ballad “Lost You Anyway” peaked at #10.
Keith and Pinson co-wrote the majority of the album together, with mixed results. My favorite of their collaborations is the title track, a wonderful steel-drenched shuffle that should’ve replaced “Lost You Anyway” as the album’s third single. I also quite enjoyed “You Already Loved Me,” a ballad with a nice dose of banjo. Another ballad, “I Got it for you Girl” leans heavy on power, but keeps the suffocating clutter in check.
“Creole Woman” is pure dreck, an electric guitar drenched mess without much appeal. Even worse is “Time That It Would Take,” an aggressive rocker smothered in electric guitars. “Hurt A Lot Worse When You Go” isn’t terrible but it is a paint-by-the-numbers Keith ballad, a little bit loud with a strong vocal, but nothing he hadn’t already done with far more intriguing results.
“Missing Me Some You” is a bluesy ballad Keith wrote solely. It doesn’t do much for me, but he turns in an astonishing vocal that showcases his goods. I quite expected to hate the album’s final track, the Eddy Raven assisted “Cabo San Lucas.” It has the steel drums you would expect, but the song is a tender ballad and not the cheesy island-y affair you would think judging by the title.
That Don’t Make Me A Bad Guy is a mixed bag at best, an album with two distinct personalities. Keith finds himself playing the game more often than not, which drags the project down. But he sprinkles in moments where he actually tries to up his standards and rise about the generic rockers he and label probably felt would appeal to the masses at the time. If he’d stuck in that vein, and offered the listener a few more surprises, this album would’ve been a slam-dunk.
Grade: B
It seems to me that I never did finish off this series, the last installment being posted on February 11, 2014 (and the installment before that appeared April 9,2013). Here are some more songs from the 1980s that I liked. This is an expanded and revised version of the February 11, 2014 article which was a rush job :
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“Shame On The Moon” – Bob Seger
Bob’s 1982 recording of a Rodney Crowell song charted on the country charts in early 1983, reaching #15 in the process. The song was a bigger hit on the pop charts, reaching #2 for four weeks.
“Finally” – T. G. Sheppard
He worked for Elvis, sang background for Travis Wammack, and eventually emerged with a solo career worth noting, racking up 42 chart singles from 1974-1991. This 1982 single was one of fourteen #1 record racked up by Sheppard, eleven of them reaching #1 during the 1980s.
“Doesn’t Anybody Get High On Love Anymore” – The Shoppe
The Shoppe was a Dallas based band that hung around for years after their 1968 formation. In the early 1980s they had eight chart records, but this was the only one to crack the top forty, reaching #33. They had a record deal with MTM Records in 1985, but that label vanished, taking the Shoppe with them.
“Crying My Heart Out Over You” – Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs was one of the dominant artists of the first half of the 1980s with his bluegrass/country hybrid. Starting with 1981’s “You May See Me Walking” and ending with 1986’s “Love’s Gonna Get You Some Day“, Skaggs ran off sixteen consecutive top ten singles with ten of them reaching number one, This 1982 classic was the first chart topper. Eventually Ricky returned to straight bluegrass, but I like the hybrid recordings better. In my original article I spotlighted “Honey (Open That Door)“, a straight forward country Mel Tillis song recorded by Webb Pierce.
“Don’t Stay If You Don’t Love Me” – Patsy Sledd
Stardom never really happened for Patsy, who was a good singer marooned early in her career on a bad label. She was part of the George Jones-Tammy Wynette show in the early 1970s. This song reached #79 in 1987.
“Nice To Be With You” – Slewfoot
This band replaced Alabama as the feature band at the Bowery Club in Myrtle Beach. This was their only chart single, a cover of Gallery’s #4 pop hit from 1972 that reached #85 in 1986.
“King Lear” – Cal Smith
The last chart hit for the former Texas Troubadour. This song reached #75 in 1986.
“A Far Cry From You” – Connie Smith
After a six year recording hiatus, the greatest female country recording artist of all time returned with this one-shot single on the Epic label. It’s a great song but received no promotional push at all from the label landing at #71 in 1985. Unfortunately, this single has never appeared on an album.
“The Shuffle Song” – Margo Smith
Exactly as described – a shuffle song that reached #13 for Margo in early 1980. Margo had a brief run of top ten hits in the middle and late 1970s but the string was about over. In my prior article I featured “He Gives Me Diamonds, You Give Me Chills” but The Shuffle song is actually my favorite 80s hit from Margo. She lives in The Villages in Florida and still performs occasionally.
“Cheatin’s A Two Way Street” – Sammi Smith
Her last top twenty song from 1981. Sammi only had three top ten hits but made many fine records. This was one of them.
“Hasn’t It Been good Together” – Hank Snow and Kelly Foxton
The last chart record for the ‘Singing Ranger’. The record only got to #78 for the 65 year old Snow in 1980 but I couldn’t let pass the opportunity to acknowledge the great career of the most successful Canadian country artist. By any legitimate means of chart tracking, his 1950 hit “I’m Moving On” is still the number one country hit of all time. Hank had perfect diction and was a great guitar player.
“Tear-Stained Letter” – Jo-El Sonnier
A late bloomer, this was the forty-two year old Jo-El’s second of two top ten records and my favorite. It reached #8 in 1988. There were brief periods in the past when Cajun music could break through for a hit or two. Eddy Raven was the most successful Cajun artist but most of his material was straight-ahead country.
“Sometimes You Just Can’t Win” – J.D. Souther and Linda Ronstadt
George Jones charted this record twice, but it’s such a good song it was worth covering. This version went to #27 in 1982. J.D had a big pop hit in 1980 with “You’re Only Lonely” which reached #7.
“Honey I Dare You” – Southern Pacific
Southern Pacific was a bunch of guys who previously played with other bands such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doobie Brothers and Pablo Cruise, making some real good country music in the process. This was one of their four top ten hits of the 1980s. “A Girl Like Emmylou” from 1986 only reached #17 but the song tells you where this band’s heart was located.
“Lonely But Only For You” – Sissy Spacek
Loretta Lynn wanted to Spacek to portray her in the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter, and it turns out that Sissy can really can sing. This song reached #15 in 1983.
“Standing Tall” – Billie Jo Spears
Billie Jo Spears, from Beaumont, Texas, was incredibly popular in England and Ireland, where “Blanket On The Ground” and “What I’ve Got In Mind” were top five pop hits in the mid 1970s and she had many more lesser successes. Many of her later albums were not released in the US but she had a substantial US career with thirty-four charted records, including two #1 hits. “Standing Tall” reached #15 in 1980.
“Chain Gang” – Bobby Lee Springfield
More successful as a songwriter than as a performer, Springfield had two chart sings in 1987 with “Hank Drank” (#75) and “Chain Gang” (#66) which was NOT the Sam Cooke hit. Bobby Lee was both too country and too rockabilly for what was charting at the time. I really liked All Fired Up, the one album Epic released on him.
For his third album, T Graham Brown moved to a new producer, Ron Chancey. The mixture of country, blues, soul and rock was similar to his previous work, but with a little more country mixed in. The production does feel a little dated, particularly the backing vocals, but the song quality is high, and the vocals are great.
The plaintive mid-paced love song ‘Darlene’ was the first single. It was very successful, becoming Brown’s third and last #1 hit, and although the production sounds a bit dated now, the vocal is solid and the song quite nice. The Paul Craft-penned title track, an excellent soulful ballad previously recorded by both Jerry Lee Lewis and Barbara Mandrell, is given an emotional delivery by Brown, backed up by a brass section, and peaked at #7.
The last single. ‘Never Say Never’ flopped in comparison, topping oyt at #30. A rather shouty blues/rock style number reminiscent of Eddy Raven, it has little to do with country music and sounds very dated today. This and the R&B ‘You Left The Water Running’ are the only tracks I don’t like at all on the album.
The remaining ballads are much more country sounding than any of the singles, and are all excellent songs. The slow agonised ‘This Wanting You’ was written by Brown with Bruce Bouton (a legendary steel player) and Bruce Burch, and is a highlight with relatively stripped down production. ‘I’ll Believe It When I Feel It’, also written by Brown, is another very good downbeat ballad with a little more of a bluesy feel as the protagonist fails to get over someone. The waltz-time ‘The Time Machine’ (a great Dennis Linde song) refers to a jukebox whose songs remind the protagonist of happier times with a lost love.
One of the best songs on the album, ‘The Best Love I Never Had’ is a regretful cheating song written by Kent Blazy and Jim Dowell:
We came so close
So close I thought I had her love – for a time
She could never break the ties that bind
She was never really mineAnd I never will forget those nights
The taste of stolen love is sweet but never right
I’d face the fires of Hell just to hold her tight
But I wanted her that bad
Oh, but she belonged to someone else
I knew, but oh, I couldn’t help myself
The protagonist of the midpaced ‘I Read A Letter today’ (another Brown tune) gets a nasty surprise when he discovers his beloved is planning on leaving by opening her message to her secret love. A great song and passionate lead vocal is somewhat let down by dated production.
‘She’s Okay And I’m Okay’, written by Harlan Howard, revisits a failed relationship.
While certainly no New Traditionalist, T Graham Brown brought interesting diversity to country radio in the late 1980s, and this album is a good example of his style. Some of the production sounds dated now, but his vocals are always strong.
The album is unfortunately not available digitally, but it’s worth finding a cheap used CD.
Grade: A-
By the late 80s, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was routinely peaking in the upper regions of the country charts and had even scored two number one hits along the way. But they’d yet to release their signature song, which would change when Hold On hit stores in July of 1987.
The album saw three singles released. Non-descript rocker “Baby’s Got A Hold On Me” came first, peaking at #2. The album’s third single “Oh What A Love” was much better, with a pleasant acoustic-based shuffle arrangement featuring prominent mandolin. The mid-tempo ballad comes off a tad cheesy today, but the arrangement and tight harmonies from the band keep it listenable.
Between those two singles, which are forgettable at best, came the aforementioned signature song. Written by Wendy Waldman and Jim Photoglo, “Fishin’ In The Dark” is an iconic single from the period, a modern masterpiece that sounds as timeless today as it did twenty-seven years ago. The combination of Jeff Hanna’s commanding vocal and Josh Leo’s flawless production is irresistible. Not since Alabama’s “Mountain Music” a full five years earlier had an opening sequence (Gentle acoustic guitar plucking building to include twangy electric guitar, ribbons of harmonica, and attention-grabbing drum beats) been so identifiable.
Eddy Raven took his version of “Joe Knows How To Live,” written by Max D. Barnes, Lyle Graham, and Troy Seals to number one in 1988. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s version is just as good as Ravens, albeit identical except for Hanna’s smoother vocal tone and the band’s inclusion of harmonica.
Bruce Springsteen solely wrote “Angelyne,” a slick slice of synth drenched country rock that contains a good lyric but is packaged too neatly for my taste. Richard Leigh co-wrote “Blue Ridge Mountain Girl,” a brilliantly excused ballad that would’ve been even stronger had Hanna sang lead. Karen Staley wrote the album’s closing number, “Tennessee.” I love the fiddle, steel, and band harmonies on the track, but the overtones of synth drown out any real enjoyment of the neo-traditional leaning track. Wayne Holyfield co-wrote “Dancing To The Beat of a Broken Heart,” which still leans on the synth, but is better with Hanna in the lead.
Various members of the band contributed songs to the project as well. Hanna co-wrote, “Keepin’ The Road Hot,” a generic number similar to Restless Heart’s style at the time. Jimmie Fadden, meanwhile, solely wrote “Oleanna.” The production on the ballad is too synth driven, and Fadden’s vocal is bland.
Hold On is a mixed bag of an album, heavy on synth, and lacking any real identity beyond “Fishin’ In The Dark.” The harmonies are fantastic, though, but to today’s ears the album is a bit too 80s.
Grade: B
1954 (Sales): I Don’t Hurt Anymore — Hank Snow (RCA)
1954 (Jukebox): Slowly — Webb Pierce (Decca)
1954 (Disc Jockeys): Oh Baby Mine (I Get So Lonely) — Johnnie & Jack (RCA)
1964: My Heart Skips A Beat — Buck Owens (Capitol)
1974: I Don’t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore — Charlie Rich (Epic)
1984: I Got Mexico — Eddy Raven (RCA)
1994: Wink — Neal McCoy (Atlantic)
2004: Redneck Woman — Gretchen Wilson (Epic)
2014: This Is How We Roll — Florida Georgia Line ft. Luke Bryan (Republic Nashville)
2014 (Airplay): Play It Again — Luke Bryan (Capitol)
Just like her current tourmate and last month’s Spotlight Artist, Pam Tillis, Lorrie Morgan had recorded a number of sides for Hickory Records before her rise to fame, and saw those early recordings cynically re-released in an attempt to capitalize. Licenced to Curb and packaged as the optimistically titled Classics in 1991, the music shows Lorrie could definitely sing beautifully (perhaps a little too sugar-sweet at times on the ballads), but shows little artistic individuality, with the music typical of the pop-country of the latest 70s and early 80s.
‘The First Few Days Of Love’ is a mellow ballad written by Sanger D Shafer and Eddy Raven and smothered in strings. It’s a little sleepy, and now sounds very dated, but Lorrie sings it well. Along similar lines is ‘In For Rain’, although that one works a little better than the rather boring ‘Let It Be Yesterday’.
The best tracks are all up-tempo. ‘Say The Part About I Love You’ is a beaty up-tempo number with a cynical lyric about a one night stand with a sexy but obviously shady man. The production does sound dated, as is often the case with material with a pop-country influence, but Lorrie’s committed, energetic vocal makes it quite enjoyable.
I also liked the assertive demand to a spouse, ‘Who Do You Know In California’, which like ‘Say The Part About I Love You’, was written by Eddy Raven. The catchy ‘Ain’t Got Time To Rock No Baby’, a withering putdown of a needy and juvenile lover is another winner:
I only meant to love you, not to raise you
I thought you were already grown
Liz Anderson’s ‘Tell Me I’m Only Dreaming’ is not bad, although the dated production hampers it a bit, It charted in the lower reaches of the country charts in 1979.
Only the first seven tracks are on the iTunes version (no doubt a copyright issue). The CD version adds another three fairly forgettable cuts, which I think come from 1984. ‘Don’t Go Changing’ is a bland ballad with strings and choir-style backing vocals which was a flop single; ‘Easy Love’ is equally bland mid-tempo pop-country song; and ‘Someday We’ll Be Together’ is a boring cover of a pop hit for R&B group the Supremes (which Lorrie may have known from the Bill Anderson/Jan Howard country hit version). None is worth tracking down separately.
At this point in her career, Lorrie was showing few signs of star quality, and this compilation is of historical interest only.
Grade: C-
Dos Divas, the new collaborative effort from Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan, has been one of the most anxiously awaited albums of the year, at least as far as the MKOC staff is concerned. Our roster of spotlight artists has been entirely contingent on its release; when a July release date was announced, we finally had the green light to go ahead and shine the spotlight on Pam Tillis.
Albums such as this can be either the product of an inspired pairing or be disappointments that fail to measure up to raised expectations. After listening to Dos Divas for almost a week, my initial impression is that it is a bit of both. The fourteen tracks consist of six duets and four solo efforts from each artist. The album opens with the ballad “I Am A Woman”, followed by the girls-gone-wild anthem and current single “I Know What You Did Last Night”. I didn’t much care for “I Am A Woman” at first, but have grown to appreciate it more after repeated listenings. “I Know What You Did Last Night” is done with tongues firmly in cheek. It is clearly not meant to be taken too seriously, but it gets a little less amusing every time I listen to it. The Tex-Mex flavored title track, which Tillis and Morgan co-wrote with Mark Oliverius, falls completely flat. The production is too heavy-handed and the constantly changing of tempo is distracting.
After listening to the first three tracks, I was getting ready to write the album off, but fortunately things get better, for the most part, after this. The fourth track, a cover of the 1958 Mel Tillis-Webb Pierce-Buck Peddy tune “I’m Tired”, featuring a prominent lap steel guitar track, is hands down the best song on the album. Too bad it clocks in at less than two minutes and is the album’s only number representing traditional country music.
It is at this point that the album begins to alternate between solos between the two ladies, and for the most part, they are substantive and well written songs, beginning with the morning-after regrets expressed in “Last Night’s Make Up” performed by Lorrie. “That’s So Cool”, which Lorrie wrote with Eddy Raven and Frank Meyers, finds her re-connecting with an old high school sweetheart. It’s the most light-hearted of the Morgan solo numbers, but it works quite well.
“Old Enough To Be Your Lover” is the best of the Tillis solos, though it is slightly marred by some over the top jazz scatting. Pam is portraying a cougar, dating a much younger man, and sings the song with such obvious relish that it’s hard not to get caught up in it. The album closes with two more duets, both of which are better than the collaborations from the beginning of the album. “Bless Her Heart” deals with the time-honored tradition of some ladies of delivering sugar-coated poison arrows. The closing track “What Was I Thinking”, another Tillis-Morgan co-write finds the two ladies, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, second-guessing the wisdom of some of the decisions they’ve made in the past.
It’s been six years since we’ve heard any new original music from Pam Tillis; nothing here quite rises to the level of the material she delivered on Rhinestoned. Morgan has been more prolific during this period, with mixed results. Her solo numbers on Dos Divas trump anything that she’s done on her last couple of albums, and one can only hope that her next solo album will be this good. Her voice has not held up as well as Pam’s, but she is in better vocal form here than she has been in quite some time.
Content aside, Dos Divas does disappoint in two important areas: packaging and sound quality. I dislike CDs packaged in cardboard rather than jewel cases. It was the trend towards digipacks several years back which helped push me to start making my music purchases digitally. I was also disappointed in the poor mastering of this album — a consequence, I suppose of the inherent budget constraints of a release funded by the artists and not a major label. The opening track sounds like it was burned onto a CD from a 128kbps mp3. The sound quality issues are less apparent on the other tracks but they are there.
Overall, Dos Divas is a bit of mixed bag; the duets get a bit silly at times, but there are some real high points among the solos. It is by no means a candidate for Album of the Year, but it’s worth checking out.
Grade: B-
Here are some more songs from the 1980s that I liked and remember. See if you recall any of these records:
“Memory Machine“– Jack Quist
This 1982 song about a jukebox reached #52. I don’t know anything about Jack Quist other than that he originally was from Salt Lake City, but I am familiar with the song’s writer Ted Harris as he wrote such classics as “Paper Mansions” and “Crystal Chandeliers”.
“On Second Thought” – Eddie Rabbitt
Released in 1989, this song peaked at #1 in early 1990. This was Eddie’s most traditional sounding hit and my favorite of all of Eddie’s recordings.
“Don’t It Make Ya Wanna Dance” – Bonnie Raitt
This song was from the soundtrack of Urban Cowboy and reached #42.
“Right Hand Man” – Eddy Raven
Eddy had sixteen consecutive top ten records from 1984-1989. This song is my favorite although it only reached #3. Eddy would have five #1 records during the decade with “Joe Knows How To Live” and “Bayou Boys” being the biggest hits.
“She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)” – Jerry Reed
There are few artists that could get away with recording a song with such a title but Jerry Reed was that one of a kind who could. The song reached #1 in 1982, one of Jerry’s few #1 records. There are those who consider Jerry to have been the best guitar player ever (Chet Atkins among them). Jerry passed away a few years ago perhaps depriving the genre of its greatest all-around talent.
The Oak Ridge Boys had a big hit with this song. This is the writer’s own version:
Musicians Against Childhood Cancer is the umbrella name for an annual charity concert by some of the best current bluegrass musicians. In 2006 a compilation of tracks recorded at the concert over the years was released in aid of St Jude’s Hospital, and this sequel contains performances from more recent years. The music was all recorded live but the excellent mixing would not be out of place in a studio set. The musicianship is without exception superb, as one might expect, and this is a fine bluegrass sampler in its own right, with a range of subject matter. The two CD-set includes a generous 39 tracks.
The outstanding track as far as I’m concerned is Bradley Walker’s cover of ‘Revelation’, a somber Bobby Braddock vision of the Second Coming which was originally recorded by Waylon Jennings and more recently served as the title track of an album by Joe Nichols. Walker’s superb 2006 debut album Highway Of Dreams has been far too long waiting for a follow up and it is good to hear him again. He is accompanied by a simple acoustic guitar backing allowing the bleakness of the song to take center stage.
I’m a fan of the compelling sibling harmony of the Gibson Brothers, and they contribute the fascinating ‘Ragged Man’, a tale of bitter sibling rivalry. The brother who is reduced to homeless poverty while the brother once preferred by their mother now rolls in riches, rails against “that golden boy” and warns him to “watch his back”. I’m also a big fan of Brandon Rickman’s soulful voice, and he teams up with bandmates from the Lonesome River band for a beautifully judged reading of the traditional ‘Rain And Snow’. Later the Lonesome River Band provide one of the best instrumentals on offer, the lively ‘Struttin’ To Ferrum’, which holds the attention all the way through.
Rhonda Vincent sings a simple but lovely, plaintive version of the traditional ‘The Water Is Wide’. She also sings harmony on Kenny and Amanda Smith’s take on gospel classic ‘Shouting Time In Heaven’. Marty Raybon is excellent on the gloomy Harlan Howard song ‘The Water So Cold’ (once recorded by country star Stonewall Jackson), which sounds made for bluegrass. Read more of this post
For part six of this series, as always, just some songs I liked, one song per artist, not necessarily the biggest hit, (although I feel free to comment on other songs by the artist).
“Forgive and Forget” – Eddie Rabbitt (1975)
Prior to this, Eddie was known, if at all, as a songwriter. This record got to #12, but did better than that in some markets, and gave Rabbitt his first significant hit. The next song “I Should Have Married You” got to #11; after that the next 33 singles would crack the top 10 with 19 of them getting to #1 on either Billboard and/or Cashbox.
“Ladies Love Outlaws” – Jimmy Rabbitt and Renegade (1976)
The title track of a 1972 Waylon Jennings album, for some reason RCA never issued the song as a Jennings single, although it got considerable airplay (it didn’t chart because Billboard did not track non-singles airplay at the time). Jimmy’s version was good (Waylon’s was better) and got to #80, his only chart appearance.
“Ain’t She Something Else” – Eddy Raven (1975)
Eddy’s second chart single reached #46 and became a #1 record for Conway Twitty in 1982. It took Raven eight years and 16 singles to have his first top 10 hit. Can you imagine any artist being given that much slack today
“Whatcha Gonna Do With A Dog Like That” – Susan Raye (1975)
Susan Raye had the Buck Owens organization behind her, was very pretty, and sang well. Despite those advantages, she never really became a big star, probably because her heart wasn’t in it. This song got to #9, one of six solo top tens she was to enjoy. In theory “(I’ve Got A) Happy Heart” was her biggest hit, reaching #3, but she got so much pop radio action on “L.A. International Airport” that it sold a million copies.
Read more of this post
1949: Slippin’ Around — Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely (Capitol)
1959: Country Girl — Faron Young (Capitol)
1969: Okie From Muskogee — Merle Haggard (Capitol)
1979: Come With Me — Waylon Jennings (RCA)
1989: Bayou Boys — Eddy Raven (Capitol)
1999: I Love You — Martina McBride (RCA)
2009: Cowboy Casanova — Carrie Underwood (19/Arista)
1949: One Kiss Too Many — Eddy Arnold (RCA)
1959: The Battle of New Orleans — Johnny Horton (Columbia)
1969: I Love You More Today — Conway Twitty (Decca)
1979: Shadows In The Moonlight — Anne Murray (Capitol)
1989: In A Letter To You — Eddy Raven (Universal)
1999: Amazed — Lonestar (BNA)
2009: I Run To You — Lady Antebellum (Capitol)
My Kind of Country 