Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
The first major label album for Alabama was My Home’s In Alabama, although it was actually their fourth album. By the time RCA released this album in 1980, Alabama was a tight, cohesive band with a distinctive sound of their own and a decent track record of success with two of their MDJ singles having charted in 1979 (“I Wanna Come Over” at #33), and early 1980 (“My Home’s In Alabama” at #17).
With My Home’s In Alabama, Alabama was instantly transformed from a successful regional act into a national goliath Although the group was sometimes described as being country-rock or rock country, this album wasn’t close to fitting that category as the band didn’t begin to approximate the rockin’ sound of the Allman Brothers, Poco, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker or even Hank Jr. for that matter. Even the title track is essentially a country song with extended instrumental breaks.
The album opens with “My Home’s In Alabama”, written by Teddy Gentry. I am not sure, but I think this track is a remake of the single released on MDJ. The track runs 6+ minutes and received considerable airplay after this album was released:
Drinkin’ was forbidden in my Christian country home
I learned to play the flattop on them good ol’ gospel songs
Then I heard about the barrooms just across the Georgia line
Where a boy could make a livin’ playin’ guitar late at night
Had to learn about the ladies; too young to understand
Why the young girls fall in love with the boys in the band
When the boys turn to music, the girls just turn away
To some other guitar picker in some other late night place
The next track is another Gentry-Owen composition “Hangin’ Up My Travelin’ Shoes”, a song which might have made a decent single but definitely not a better single than the actual singles that were released. The song is an up-tempo song about what the narrator is going to do now that he’s found the girl of his dreams:
‘I’m folding up my wings for you, I’m hanging up my travelin’ shoes’.
Teddy Gentry and Richard Scott penned “Why Lady Why” which was the second official RCA single released and the band’s second #1 single. The single was a slow ballad which Owen was able to wrap his vocal cords around to great effect. It is a nice ballad, although not especially country.
“Getting Over You” by Cary Rutledge, is a slow ballad , a good song but not particulary single-worthy. The next song, “I Wanna Come Over” written by Richard & Michael Berardi, actually was a single on MDJ, although I don’t recall hearing it while it was in single release.
“Tennessee River” was the first single released from the album and the first major label release for Alabama. It shot straight to #1 and has remained in the repertoire of bar bands and cover bands since it was first released 35 years ago. This upbeat song features a hot fiddle and was a great number for dancing (not that I, with my two left feet, ever danced to it):
I was born across the river in the mountains where I call home.
Lord, times were good there, don’t know why I ever roamed.[Chorus]
Oh, Tennessee River and a mountain man, we get together anytime we can.
Oh, Tennessee River and a mountain man, we play together in mother nature’s bandMe and my woman’s done made our plans on the Tennessee River, walkin’ hand in hand
Gonna raise a family, lord settle down where peace and love can still be found
“Some Other Place, Some Other Time” was written by Jeff Cook and features Jeff on lead vocals. The song is a nostalgic ballad and frankly, I don’t understand why RCA insisted that Randy Owen be the ‘face of the franchise’ as far as single releases were concerned.
Teddy Gentry wrote “Can’t Forget About You”, a nice ballad that was simply too long (5:39) to consider as a single. Yes, I know “My Home’s In Alabama” runs 6:27 and was issued as a single but that was a pre-RCA release.
“Get It While It’s Hot” was written by all three band members and Richard Scott. It’s kind of a funky R&B number, perhaps more suitable for dancing than listening. I regard it as the weakest track on the album, but it likely never was meant to be anything more that an album track.
The album closes with another Jeff Cook lead vocal on a track Jeff wrote with Richard Scott. “Keep On Dreamin’” is an excellent mid-tempo that would have made a good single.
I suspect this album featured more and better musicians that Alabama had available to them on MDJ, as the additional musicians are a Who’s Who of ace session men, including Jack Eubanks on acoustic guitar, Sonny Garrish on pedal steel guitar, Terry McMillan on percussion and Fred Newell on electric guitar. Alabama’s Jeff Cook plays lead guitar, with Teddy Gentry on bass guitar, Randy Owen on rhythm guitar and Mark Herndon on drums. All of the band members are involved with the vocal harmonies.
My Home’s In Alabama really got the ball rolling for the band, reaching #3 on the country album charts and #71 on Billboard’s all genre albums chart. Successful as this album was, the next eight albums would all reach #1 country and the next three would be top ten albums on the all genres album chart. As Frank Sinatra once sang “The Best Is Yet To Come”.
Kathleen Alice (Kathy) Mattea was born June 21, 1959, in South Charleston, West Virginia, the daughter of a coal miner and steeped in the lore and culture of the coal mines. While some think of her as a country singer and others regard her as folk, bluegrass or neo-Celtic, I prefer to think of Kathy Mattea as a quintessentially American singer and just leave it at that.
While Kathy had an extended run of top-twenty chart success running from 1986 to early 1993, Kathy’s records became increasingly more interesting once the focus on chart success subsided and she focused more on music she found interesting. With Coal, Kathy reached her career apogee, at least as far as artistic success is concerned.
Coal has always been a subject of great interest, whether to folklorists, economists or politicians. Coal is one of America’s greatest natural resources and the source of heated debate on how to mine it, how to utilize it and indeed whether or not to mine and utilize it all. While I have always been either an urban or suburban dweller, my grandfather, Otto Jetzork, was a coal miner who died at the young age of forty-three from “black lung” disease, so at a young age I started reading about coal miners and coal miners.
Ms. Mattea selected an excellent group of songs for her album and an excellent group of pickers including Marty Stuart (mandolin, acoustic guitar), Stuart Duncan (fiddle, banjo) and Byron House (acoustic bass).
The lead-off track is “The L&N Don’t Stop Here In Anymore”, a Jean Ritchie composition that some may remember as the title track of a New Coon Creek Girls album from 1994. Quite a few artists have recorded the song including Johnny Cash. Kathy does an excellent job with the song which, with slightly modified lyrics, could apply to the fate of many company towns, whatever the industry
I was born and raised at the mouth of Hazard Hollow
The coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty row all empty
Because the L & N don’t stop here anymore
This is followed by another Jean Ritchie song, “Blue Diamond Mines”. I think I heard the Johnson Mountain Boys do this song on the radio but I wasn’t very familiar with the song; since I find Jean Ritchie’s voice rather annoying I’ve tended to avoid her recordings. Given the quality of these two songs, I may reconsider and seek out some of her recordings. Kathy, as always, is excellent. This track features vocal harmony by another Kentucky girl, Patty Loveless:
You old black gold you’ve taken my lung
Your dust has darkened my home
And now I am old and you’ve turned your back
Where else can an old miner go
My Kind of Country 