Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
It’s hard to believe, but 30 years ago today, Keith Whitley passed away from alcohol poisoning at age 33.
Garth Brooks Trisha Yearwood, Mark Chesnutt, Larry Cordle, Caleb Daugherty, Kevin Denney, Tom Buller, Wesley Dennis, Joe Diffie, Corey Farlow, Carl Jackson, Cory and Dustin Keefe, Tracy Lawrence, Mark Wills, Darryl Worley, and Jesse Keith Whitley and Whitley’s widow, Lorrie Morgan will perform in his honor at a special concert event in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s CMA Theatre this evening in Nashville. The event has been organized by Whitley and Morgan. An exhibit dedicated to him has also just opened at the CMHoF. More on the event HERE.
We pause to remember him with his signature song:
It is always nice to encounter new music from Trisha Yearwood, one of the best female vocalists of the pre-millennial generation of country singers. While I would have preferred to have new country music from Ms. Yearwood, I really can’t complain about an album dedicated to the music of Frank Sinatra.
Frank Sinatra was such an omnipresent force in the music I heard growing up, that I find it hard to believe that it has been over twenty years since his death on May 14, 1998. Arriving on the scene in the mid- 1930s Frank continued to have hit records into the early 1980s. Along with Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra is one of the four faces that would belong on a Mount Rushmore of classic pop music (some would insert Perry Como, Joe Williams. Mel Torme or Tony Bennett alongside Crosby and Sinatra but this is my Mount Rushmore). Sinatra recorded for RCA (technically these were issued as Tommy Dorsey Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra), Columbia, Capitol, and Reprise/Warner Brothers. The A&R Director at Columbia was Mitch Miller, who was somewhat addicted to novelty songs and tended to pander to the pop market. Disgusted, Sinatra left Columbia for Capitol, determined to record only quality material. The Capitol and Reprise recordings are chock full of good material. Perfectionist that he was, Sinatra often re-recorded past material, usually bringing a new slant to the material, whether in orchestration, time signatures or approach. None of Sinatra’s remakes could be described as dreary or inferior.
In making this album, Trisha Yearwood has selected eleven songs that Sinatra sang over the course of his long career plus one new song. The album opens up with “Witchcraft”, a top twenty pop hit from 1957, written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh. It would be difficult to top Frank’s recording but Ms. Yearwood gives it a really good effort.
“Drinking Again” is a song I associate with Dinah Washington, one of the most soulful R&B singers ever. I like Yearwood’s version (and Frank’s version, too); however, neither version measures up to the Dinah Washington recording. Sinatra’s version is fairly obscure, appearing on several Sinatra sampler albums and anthologies.
Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen were among Sinatra’s favorite songsmiths, both separately and together. “All The Way” appeared in the film The Joker Is Wild and the song received the 1957 Academy Award for Best Original Song. It reached #2 on Billboard’s airplay charts and is a song that Sinatra would revisit several times. Trisha does a fine job with the song giving a properly nuanced delivery.
“Come Fly With Me” was the title track to one of Sinatra’s biggest albums, reaching #1 in the US and #2 in the UK in 1958. The song was not released as a single but it is a very well known song – if Billboard had charted album tracks, this song, with a swinging arrangement by Billy May, undoubtedly would have been a hit. Trisha does not swing with quite the flair of Sinatra (who does?) but she does a more than satisfactory job with the song.
Nobody associates “(Somewhere) Over The Rainbow” with Frank Sinatra, and although Sinatra recorded E.Y. Harburg’s classic song for Columbia in the mid-1940s, Frank would have been the first to tell you that the song forever belongs to Judy Garland. Sinatra version had the sort of ‘Hearts and Flowers’ arrangement that Columbia’s Axel Stordahl was known for, and Yearwood follows the same approach. Her version is very good, with an understated ending but I would have picked another song for this album.
“One For My Baby” is what Sinatra called a ‘saloon song’. A saloon is one of the last places I would expect to find Trisha Yearwood and while she does a nice job with the song, she does not imbue the song with the sense of melancholy that Frank breathed into this Johnny Mercer classic:
It’s quarter to three
There’s no one in the place
Except you and me
So set ’em up Joe
I got a little story
I think you should know
We’re drinking my friend
To the end
Of a brief episode
Make it one for my baby
And one more for the road …
You’d never know it
But buddy I’m a kind of poet
And I’ve got a lot of things
I’d like to say
And when I’m gloomy
Won’t you listen to me
Till it’s talked away
Well, that’s how it goes
And Joe I know your gettin’
Anxious to close
And thanks for the cheer
I hope you didn’t mind
My bending your ear
But this torch that I found
It’s gotta be drowned
Or it’s soon might explode
Make it one for my baby
And one more for the road
George & Ira Gershwin created “They All Laughed” back in 1937 for the film Shall We Dance starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Ginger sang the song in the movie and it is a perfect fit for Trisha. While I would not regard this as a Sinatra song (he recorded once, in 1980, as part of his rather odd Trilogy: Past Present and Future album), there is no doubt that Trisha does a superlative job with the song.
They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly
They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony
It’s the same old cry
They laughed at me wanting you
Said I was reaching for the moon
But oh, you came through
Now they’ll have to change their tune
They all said we never could be happy
They laughed at us and how!
But ho, ho, ho!
Who’s got the last laugh now?
“If I Loved You” was a Rodgers & Hammerstein song from the Broadway musical Showboat. Again it is not especially thought of as a Sinatra song, although he recorded it for Columbia and Capitol, but, it is a nice song that Trisha handles well.
If I loved you,
Time and again I would try to say
All I’d want you to know.
If I loved you,
Words wouldn’t come in an easy way
Round in circles I’d go!
Longin’ to tell you,
But afraid and shy,
I’d let my golden chances pass me by!
Soon you’d leave me,
Off you would go in the mist of day,
Never, never to know how I loved you
If I loved you.
“The Man That Got Away” is another Judy Garland classic, this time from the pens of Harold Arlen & Ira Gershwin. Sinatra sang it as “The Gal That Got Away” but it works better from the feminine perspective, and I prefer Trisha’s version to Frank’s version.
“The Lady Is A Tramp” is a Rodgers & Hart composition from the play Babes In Arms. Trisha sings the song from the feminine perspective, and while the song works better sung from the masculine perspective, the main problem is that Trisha simply doesn’t swing as well as Sinatra.
“For The Last Time” is the only new song on the album, written by Trisha Yearwood and her husband Garth Brooks. It is a very good, but not great, song that Sinatra might have recorded as an album track. I am impressed that they came up with a song that could fit Sinatra’s milieu.
The album closes with “I’ll Be Seeing You”, a song written by Sammy Fain and Irvin Kahal in the late 1930s. While the song was huge hit for Bing Crosby and for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra, Sinatra very much liked the song and also recorded the song for Columbia and Capitol. He also featured it in concert
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In everything that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you
This is a very nice album indeed and I would give it an A-, docking it very slightly for some errant choices in material as regards Sinatra. That said, the arrangements are very good to excellent, and the musical accompaniment is excellent (unfortunately my copy is a digital download so I do not have a list of the musicians) and the songs are fine exemplars of well-crafted songs. This album will likely appeal more to fans of classic pop/pop standards than to fans of either traditional country or modern country but I would recommend the album to anyone interested in hearing the magic that occurs when an excellent vocalist is paired with worthy material.
Garth covers Ashley McBryde:
I have a confession to make. I’ve been falling for Garth Brooks’ marketing schemes for more than 20 years now. I’ve been smarter about avoiding his wicked games in recent years, but I have my share of his box sets and first addition albums with alternate covers in my expansive music collection. I also own the Chris Gaines album, mostly out of curiosity, which says way too much about my musical gullibility.
Brooks’ most recent marketing ploy occurred two weeks ago when he strong-armed the Country Music Association into letting him play what was then an unnamed new song he had recently recorded in tribute to Trisha Yearwood, live on the show. Neither Yearwood nor the audience had heard the song prior to the telecast.
As the story goes, Brooks approached the CMA with his idea for the performance. The producers turned him down, saying a ballad just wasn’t going to work for them the year. Unaccustomed to being told no, he did whatever he had to do to secure the slot.
I just wanted to hear the song and was honestly upset with the CMA for turning him away. I hate, more than anything, when producers and image consultants control what we see on screen. It’s become far more transparent in recent years on various awards shows.
I don’t believe the CMA corroborated his story, so who knows if it’s accurate, or just another ploy in his plan to drum up pre-buzz for this new song. It doesn’t matter at the end of the day if the song itself is worth the hassle to be given such visible exposure. When all is said and done, a quality song is always worth celebrating.
“Stronger Than Me,” which was composed by Matt Rossi and Bobby Terry specifically for Brooks, depicts a man who is awestruck that his woman is always there for him when he needs her:
She always says that I’m the rock that she leans on
But it’s so hard to believe
Cause she is always there when I start losing faith, going crazy
She saves me
And every now and then she just wants me to hold her
But that don’t mean she’s weak
The way she’s unafraid to let her feelings show just means she’s stronger than me
She lifts the weight of this whole world off of my shoulders
With nothing but the touch of her hand
And every day and I wake up and she tells me that she loves me
I feel more like a man
I know I always thought I had to have the answer
Be her strength and take the lead
But when it comes to everything that really matters
She’s stronger than me
I really like how Rossi and Terry build up the woman in the relationship to be more than the spouse or girlfriend. The man actually recognizes her worth and admits his own flaws, all characteristics I can stand behind.
I just can’t forgive the execution. This idea that the guy is “saved” or “feels more like a man” simply because of his woman irks me. Those feelings and revelations have to come from within, not as a by-product of a romantic relationship. What happens if the relationship ends? What happens if she’s not there anymore to build him up? He’s defining his well-being based on the relationship instead of standing on his own two feet. He needs to know he can be okay without her, too, a lesson he clearly never learns:
I’d give her anything in life that’s mine to give her
Till the last breath that I breathe
And if I have a choice I pray God takes me first
Because she’s stronger than me
Sonically, the piano-centric arrangement is tasteful, but I don’t hear any ounce of passion in the finished record at all. The mixing is muffled and sounds like they recorded the song into a mobile phone or similar device. Brooks doesn’t display his usual emotion or sincerity vocally, two characteristics that drew me to his music in the first place.
“Stronger Than Me” is very similar to the formula he perfected on Fresh Horses, but comes off like a half-hearted attempt at regaining the glory of that album. “She’s Every Woman” this is not, and that’s a damn shame.
Grade: C
To listen to “Stronger Than Me” click here
Prior to the 52nd annual CMA Awards telecast last week, it was heavily buzzed about that co-host Brad Paisley was going to sing a new song, his first from a new album, of which he’s only recorded 3-5 songs so far. One review I read even heralded the song as a return to his traditional country roots, and let’s face it, Paisley has become so irrelevant in recent years, it’s about the only move he could make that would actually make sense.
“Bucked Off” starts out innocently enough. Paisley is on a bar stool having a conversation with his woman, who is clearly ending their relationship. He likens himself to a cowboy on a bull, about to be thrown off. So you don’t mistake his situation, he sets the mood:
And George Strait’s on the jukebox in the corner
Singing about cowboys riding away
Name-checking Strait and his #5 hit from 1985 is totally appropriate in this instance. Then he goes on, laying the rodeo/cowboy imagery on thick:
You can go to Houston, Vegas or San Antone
And watch a bull rider hit the dirt
Or head down to this bar for a little cover charge
You can watch me get thrown by her
George Strait’s on the jukebox again
Says if I leave now I can still make Cheyenne
By the time Strait came around for a second time, I knew exactly what was going on. “Bucked Off” isn’t just another song in Paisley’s catalog. It’s a dedicated tribute to Strait. This jukebox reference, which in any other song would’ve gone to a different country singer, is forced and cutesy. Paisley doubles down on the bridge:
I think about those nights in Marina Del Rey
As this beautiful cowgirl slips away
But pain only lasts so long
And when you get bucked off you get back on
Going into his CMA performance, I was expecting what I thought to be true — Paisley was releasing a honky-tonk song to country radio, in pure form, not the faux honky-tonk Garth Brooks tried to pull over our eyes with “All Day Long.” Sadly, this isn’t the case.
But I will give Paisley credit where it’s due. “Bucked Off” is the most traditional country song released to radio since the leaves turned colors and began to fall from the trees. There is a full dose of steel and fiddle very audible in the mix. It has good bones, a catchy melody, and a somewhat engaging story. Paisley also deserves a tremendous amount of praise for not selling out like Keith Urban and using “Bucked Off” as a desperate attempt at relevancy.
He just takes the Strait thing too far (even the lettering and font of his name on the cover art is a nod back to when Strait portrayed Dusty Chandler in Pure Country). The right way to honor a country legend isn’t to sample that artists’ classic melodies throughout, nor is it right to drown those melodies and traditional instruments in a haze of guitars, no matter how well they’re played. He made similar mistakes on the trepid “Old Alabama.”
My issue here is that Paisley knows better. He proved that seventeen years ago when he took “Wrapped Around” to #2, as the second single from Part II. It showed how Strait influenced him, while correctly moving the genre forward into the new Millennium. It’s a pipe dream to think he would go back there, but I can always hold out hope, no matter how thin a sliver it might be at this point.
Grade: B
John Anderson may have opened his show Monday night at Boston’s City Winery with his 1981 #4 “I’m Just an Old Chunk Of Coal,” but judging from his brisk 90-minute set, the choice wasn’t self-referential. Armed with an acoustic guitar and his longtime accompanist Glenn Rieuf, he ran through hit-after-hit with merely a break to catch his breath.
Anderson traversed his whole career, jumping around so as not to put emphasis on any particular song or time period. He wasted no time getting to fan favorites like “Money In The Bank” and “Straight Tequila Night,” two of his signature tunes from his big comeback in the early 1990s. He dedicated the latter to the ladies in the crowd, which was at about half-capacity for the 300-seat venue, a respectable turnout considering the scorching heatwave and proximity to July 4th.
He didn’t talk much during the show, opting instead to give his fans their money’s worth of music. He introduced Rieuf as someone he’s known for more than 40 years and played with for more than 30. The two were perfectly in sync, with Anderson often turning to Rieuf between songs to figure out what would be sung next. Rieuf switched from acoustic guitar to dobro early on, giving the bulk of the songs some added texture Anderson couldn’t achieve with just his guitar alone.
When he did speak, Anderson made it count. He told a story about a day on his farm when he was trying to write a song. The ideas weren’t coming, and he was about to give up when his phone rang. Waylon Jennings was on the other end, requesting Anderson join him at the Ryman Auditorium to lend his talents to a live album he was making. The sessions, which took place in January 2000, would cumulate as the final album Jennings would release during his lifetime. Anderson then played “Waymore’s Blues,” the track they collaborated on together.
Like the majority of male country singers from his era, Anderson wears his patriotism on his sleeve. He turned in a poignant rendition of “1959,” the fifth single from his debut album, his first top ten, released in 1980. The song, about a solider’s heartbreak at learning his high school sweetheart, Betty, had broken her promise never to leave him while he was deployed, is as powerful today as it must’ve been 38 years ago. He followed with “An Occasional Eagle,” an ode to American Pride and a deep cut from 1983’s All The People Are Talkin’.
He stayed in the 1980s to bring the audience some real country music, “I Just Came Home to Count The Memories,” the title cut from his third album, released back in 1981. He also mined “Would You Catch A Falling Star” from the same album. Although it’s not my favorite of his songs, “Swingin’” has retained all the swagger he originally brought to his chart-topping recording in 1983.
To this day, I still become affected when I hear “I Wish I Could’ve Been There,” which he delivered beautifully Monday night. He said it was written about his life on the road, while the next song was composed about life “back home” in Apopka, Florida. “Seminole Wind,” which I’ve always adored, is probably the most unlikely song ever to hit the country airwaves and explode into a #2 hit. Released in August 1992, when Garth Brooks was decimating everything in his path, a lyric about conservation efforts in the Everglades was just a crazy enough concept to work.
“When I Get Down” was Anderson’s sole nod to his 2011 gospel album Praise For You and was accompanied by him recounting the hearing loss that kept him off the road, missing “seven months of work” in 2017. He’s thankfully recovered, which for a time, was in jeopardy. He and Rieuff left the stage for a brief moment, and when they returned, Anderson referenced his friend Merle Haggard, who he called one of the greatest country singers who ever lived. Anderson brilliantly sang the standard “Long Black Veil,” which he associates with the beginnings of his friendship with Haggard. He closed with his outlaw classic “Black Sheep,” which became his third #1 in late 1983.
Throughout his set, Anderson was ever the southern gentleman, pausing multiple times with “thank y’all so much” as the audience cheered between songs. He also felt his sound mixing was off, stopping at the top of the show a few times to tune his guitar and ask the sound people to adjust his guitar in the monitors. The sound was fine by my ears, but when he got it just right, we could enjoy the show without further tweaking.
The acoustic format, which Anderson said will be the sonic backdrop of his next album, worked well although I could’ve used a bit more instrumentation, especially on “Straight Tequila Night,” which seemed to be needing some extra ingredients, likely just a fiddle, to bring it even further to life.
At 63, Anderson still sounds fantastic, with his signature gravely rasp firmly intact. It was an unexpected treat to see someone perform whom I never even gave a second thought to seeing live. He made a point of saying he doesn’t come around “these parts that often,” meaning Boston, and he would like to come back again real soon. I for one, wouldn’t mind in the least if he did.
If you regularly follow current events in the world of country music, then you likely know Garth Brooks would be releasing a new single this week entitled “All Day Long.” In the lead up to the song’s release, Brooks said country music needs a “good damn honky-tonk song” and promised “All Day Long” would bring the fiddle back to country music. To stir the pot further, Brooks described the song as a mix of “Two of a Kind (Workin’ on a Full House), “Ain’t Goin’ Down (Til the Sun Comes Up),” and “Callin’ Baton Rouge.”
Brooks, like Taylor Swift, is a master marketer adapt at selling the listener and the fan whatever product he’s hawking at the current time. Right now that product is “All Night Long.” He got me through the door by stirring the pot of nostalgia by referencing three of his most enduring songs in the same breath as this new one. But just because he can get me through the door, doesn’t mean he can make me stay.
“All Day Long” does have fiddle and a heavy dose of steel. Brooks’ vocal is twangy and harkens back to his heyday in the 1990s. Heck, I can even hear Trisha Yearwood harmonizing with him throughout most of the evensong. I’ll give him credit for bringing all the right ingredients to the table. Each one is there, perfectly audible, and cannot be mistaken.
But “All Day Long” is not a honky-tonk song. I’ll repeat. “All Day Long” is not and never will be a honky-tonk song nor could it pass as one with even the most forgiving definition of the term. It’s faux southern rock with just enough token signifiers that it could pass as “country.” But he’s not fooling anyone. The majority of “All Night Long” is generic attitude with screaming guitars (if they’re not computer generated). The only place I ever hear anything remotely sounding like a fiddle is on the instrumental break on the bridge.
“All Day Long” is a product designed to keep Brooks in the public consciousness until he’s ready to announce his 2019 touring plans, which he’s already said will be his first ever stadium-only tour. It may work on that level, but as a song, it has very little to keep the listener engaged.
Grade: C-
You can hear the song HERE
1958 (Sales): Oh Lonesome Me / I Can’t Stop Loving You — Don Gibson (RCA Victor)
1958 (Disk Jockeys): Oh Lonesome Me — Don Gibson (RCA Victor)
1968: Have A Little Faith — David Houston (Epic)
1978: It’s All Wrong, But it’s Alright — Dolly Parton (RCA Victor)
1988: Cry, Cry, Cry — Highway 101 (Warner Bros)
1998: Two Piña Coladas — Garth Brooks (Capitol)
2008: I Saw God Today — George Strait (MCA Nashville)
2018: Meant To Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Big Machine)
2018 (Airplay): You Make It Easy — Jason Aldean (Broken Bow)
With a secure livelihood as Vince Gill’s backing singer, and husband Kenny playing fiddle for Vince, Dawn recorded a self-released album in 2002. This is a pure country album, full of great songs superlatively sung. Listening to it makes one regret that Dawn had not enjoyed mainstream success.
A few country classics are included, There is a super version of honky tonk classic ‘A-11’. Connie Smith duets on an vibrant and assertive version of the Mel Tillis kissoff tune ‘Unmitigated Gall’. Amore obscure revival is ‘My Ears Should Burn (When Fools Are Talked About)’, a minor hit in the 60s for Claude Gray and written by Roger Miller. It is a great country shuffle about regretting cheating on an ex. A more recent cover is the wonderful gospel-tinged ‘Fit For A King’, written by Carl Jackson and Jim Rushing in high lonesome bluegrass style and recorded by several artists including Garth Brooks. Dawn’s stunning version is one of the finest readings and my favorite track here.
As far as I know all the other material was new. ‘No Place To Fall’ is a regretful ballad about a young widow scared for the future alone with her baby. The steel-dominated ‘The Lonely In Me’ is another beautiful song filled with sadness over a troubled relationship as the wife decides to leave her cheating husband.
‘Love In The Making’ is a pretty love song with a soothing melody. ‘Right Here In Heaven’ is a sophisticated loungy ballad about a happy marriage, beautifully sung. ‘Don’t Take Your Hands Of My Heart’, another love song, sounds like a Marty Robbins western ballad.
‘Barbeque On My Birthday’ is a lighthearted western swing which offers a nice change of pace.
In ‘Talk To Me’, Dawn appeals to a husband who is not interested any more. The closing track, ‘Sweet Memories’ is another outstanding ballad with some gorgeous steel courtesy of John Hughey.
This is an excellent album which I would strongly recommend to traditional country fans who appreciate great vocals.
Grade: A+
Ty England released his third album in the fall of 2000. The record, his first and only on Capitol Nashville, was produced by Garth Brooks. The album spawned three singles, none of which even made a dent on the charts. Highways & Dance Halls found England recording as Tyler England for the first time.
The mid-paced “Too Many Highways” and similarly mid-tempo “I’d Rather Have Nothing” both failed to chart. They were sandwiched between “I Drove Her to Dallas,” which bottomed out at #53. The middle single, the only true ballad of the group, was the best of the bunch.
The album includes a pair of songs written by Bruce Robison. “She Don’t Care About Me” has an engaging melody and nice traditional production. The other one is “Traveling Soldier,” which of course was made famous by Dixie Chicks three or so years later. England’s version is very good, but I didn’t care for the intrusive background singer on the chorus.
Three of the album’s songs would also appear on Brooks’ own The Lost Sessions in 2005. “My Baby No Está Aquí No More” has wonderful production but a hideous rhyme scheme. The other two were the aforementioned “She Don’t Care About Me” and “I’d Rather Have Nothing.”
“Collect From Wichita” is a pleasant and “I Knew I Loved You” is engaging. “Blame It On Mexico” is a cover of the George Strait song from 1981. England closes out the album by reprising “Should’ve Asked Her Faster” in collaboration with Steve Wariner.
Highways & Dance Halls is a very good album with a strong sense of song and wonderfully traditional production from Brooks. The weak link here is England, who lacks the personality vocally to elevate these songs and create worthy moments. He’s a wonderful singer, which he more than proved on his RCA releases, but everything here is too clean, neat and precise.
Grade: B+
The press conference, which just concluded in the Rotunda, was hosted by Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks:
Born in 1963, Ty England met Garth Brooks while attending Oklahoma State University and roomed with Garth while in college. Thereafter, he was a member of Garth’s band for a few years until signing with RCA in 1995.
Far more traditionalist than Garth, Ty’s eponymous debut album, released in August 1995, would prove to be his most successful album, reaching #13 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. The album would generate Ty’s only top twenty hit and two more charting singles, neither of which cracked the top forty.
First up is “Red Neck Son”. Released as the third single from the album, the song died at #55. It’s not a bad song but I doubt that I would have released it as a single.
“Smoke In Her Eyes” was the second single released on the album. Written by Hugh Prestwood, this tender ballad really should have done better than #44.
Her heart could tell at a glance
She would be falling for him
She knows she’s taking a chance
But still goes out on a limbShe knows he could be for real
Or he could be in disguise
Although she may have a heart on fire
She don’t have smoke in her eyes
“Should Have Asked Her Faster”, an Al Anderson-Bob DiPiero composition was the first and most successful single released from the album, reaching #3. The song is a mid-tempo tale about a guy whose courage is too slow:
In a little dance hall just outside of Dallas
I dropped my drink when she came walking by
By the time I got a grip she slipped through my fingertips
And left me with my big mouth open wideI should’ve asked her faster but I waited too long
In a red hot minute like a flash she was gone
I didn’t get her number, I never got her name
A natural disaster, I should’ve asked her faster
“Her Only Bad Habit Is Me” (Don Cook, Harlan Howard) and “You’ll Find Somebody New” (Aaron Barker, Dean Dillon) are both slow ballads, competently sung.
“A Swing Like That” by Billy Lavelle and David L. Lewis is an up- tempo romp that I would have released as a single. The track features some neat fiddle by Aubrey Haynie and steel by Paul Franklin, and has a strong western swing feel to it.
The remaining songs (“New Faces in the Fields” written by Harley Allen, Denise Draper and Steve Hood; “The Blues Ain’t News to Me” from the pens of Wayland Holyfield and Verlon Thompson; “It’s Lonesome Everywhere” by Verlon Thompson, Reese Wilson and Billy Spencer; and Hugh Prestwood’s “Is That You”) are all slow ballads, competently sung by England.
In fact, I would have released “Is That You” as a single. The song is an outstanding ballad, and while I do not know how it would have done as a Ty England single, I’m dead certain that either Garth Brooks or George Strait would have had a monster hit with the song:
They had been together way too long
For him to start again
So he does most of his living in the past
Round the house he never says a word
Til something makes him ask
Is that youTappin’ my window pane
Is that you
Or just a draft movin’ that candle flame
Something round here keeps my heart
From breakin’ right in two
Is that youIn the dark he rises from a dream
And takes a look around
Makin’ sure there really isn’t someone there
He could swear he heard her call his name
Quiet as a prayer
Is that you
Therein lies the problem – Ty England is a very good and pleasant singer, but there is nothing distinctive about his voice. Produced by Garth Fundis, Ty England is a solid country album featuring songs by the cream of Nashville’s songwriting talent and the cream of Nashville’s session men:
Bobby All — acoustic guitar (tracks 2,3,5,6,7,9,10) / Eddie Bayers — drums (tracks 1,2,9)
Richard Bennett — acoustic guitar (tracks 4,8) / J. T. Corenflos — electric guitar (track 10)
Stuart Duncan — fiddle (track 3)/ Paul Franklin — steel guitar (all tracks except 4)
John Gardner — drums (tracks 4,8) / Aubrey Haynie — fiddle (track 2,5,6,7,9,10)
John Hobbs — piano (tracks 5,6,7,10), organ (track 10) / Paul Leim — drums (tracks 3,5,6,7,10)
Mark Luna — background vocals (tracks 2,10) / Brent Mason — electric guitar (all tracks except 10)
Weldon Myrick — steel guitar (track 4) / Dave Pomeroy — bass guitar (all tracks)
Steve Nathan — Wurlitzer electric piano (track 1), piano (tracks 2,4,8,9), keyboards
Hargus “Pig” Robbins — piano (track 3) John Wesley Ryles — background vocals (track 3)
Billy Joe Walker, Jr. — acoustic guitar (track 1) Dennis Wilson — background vocals (tracks 2,4,5,9)
Curtis “Mr. Harmony” Young — background vocals (track 1,6)
Good songs and competent singing – I like this album and would give it a B+, but Ty is only as good as his material, and this was his best album.
We were all saddened here at MKOC by the sad news of the premature death of Daryle Singletary. We’d never covered him as one of our Spotlight Artists because he had a relatively small discography, and had reviewed his more recent releases independently. However, we have decided to combine a look back at his earlier career with two other artists who also emerged the same year, 1995. This was after the neotraditional revival had begun to subside, and none of our three choices had as long a period of commercial success as they deserved.
Daryle Singletary was born in Cairo, Georgia, in 1971. Blessed with a classic country voice, a rich, deep baritone, he began singing in his youth, and moved to Nashville while still in his teens. Having the kind of voice which could make any song sound better, he soon found work singing demos for songwriters. It seems that some of those demos are currently in the hands of an opportunistic label which released a single to capitalize on the publicity following Daryle’s death, but has been forced to withdraw it.
One of those demos, ‘An Old Pair Of Shoes’, was submitted to Randy Travis, who was seeking new material. Randy was impressed not only by the song, which he duly had a minor hit with, but by the singer. He became a mentor to the newcomer, helping him get a deal with Giant Records and co-producing Daryle’s debut album in 1995.
That album resulted in one big hit, the #2 peaking ‘I Let Her Lie’, and Daryle followed it up with a few more top 5 hits as well as some less successful singles. However, he did not sell enough records, and after three albums he moved on from Giant to a series of independent labels. Although he was no longer a real commercial prospect, the music itself was better than ever as he matured as an artist. He was something of a standard bearer for traditional country music in the new millennium.
His most recent album was a superb collection of duets with Rhonda Vincent. His tragic death has robbed us all of many years of great music.
Wade Hayes is an excellent partner for this retrospective, as he too is a traditional leaning artist whose period of success was far too short, although he has a naturally plaintive voice made for country music. Wade was born in 1969 in Oklahoma, where his father had a country band, and he grew up playing guitar and mandolin. He moved to Nashville in 1991 after dropping out of college, and secured a job as Johnny Lee’s guitarist. He also began writing songs and singing demos. His break came through songwriter Chick Rains, who helped him sign with Columbia in 1994.
He was an immediate success, with his debut single ‘Old Enough To Know Better’ topping the charts in 1995. However, after an initial flurry of hits he was unable to maintain his momentum, and after three albums moved to Monument in 2000. This failed to revive his fortunes. He then teamed up with Alan Jackson’s fiddle player Mark McClurg to form a short-lived duo named McHayes, but their sole single failed to catch attention.
After a spell in Randy Owen’s band, Wade returned to making his own music at the end of the 2000s, self-releasing a new album. His career was then further stalled by serious health issues. He fought off two bouts of cancer which were thought by his doctors to be terminal, and is now active again.
Our third artist is Ty England. Gary Tyler England was born in Oklahoma in 1963. He was Garth Brooks’ college room mate, and when Garth got his Capitol record deal Ty joined his road band. In 1995 Ty got his own solo deal with RCA, and a big hit with ‘Should’ve Asked Her Faster’. He later moved to his old boss’s label and was rebilled as Tyler England. However, his post-major label career was less notable than that of our other spotlight artists this month. His one self-released album was not very good, and he is no longer involved in the music business.
We hope you enjoy this retrospective look at three artists who were all regarded as the next big thing 23 years ago.
Moe Bandy released his first album on Curb Records, No Regrets, in Spring 1988. It was produced by Jerry Kennedy.
The first single from the record was the #8 peaking “Americana,” which marked Bandy’s final time inside the top ten. The mid-paced ballad is earnest in its depiction of American pride.
Two more singles were released. “Ashes In The Wind” is a pleasant ballad about a burned-out love affair that died at #47. “I Just Can’t Say No To You” is a string-laced ballad that fared better, hitting #21.
The album stays in a contemporary vein that was popular at the time, for those who weren’t strictly following the new traditionalist movement. I read that Bandy was criticized during this era of his career for straying so far from his roots at a time when his classic style was as popular as ever.
No Regrets doesn’t boast many notable tracks, and the uptempo material is kept to a minimum. The only exception was the piano-heavy title track, a jive, that doesn’t owe much to country music but does have some wonderful licks throughout. “Nobody Gets Off in this Town” was subsequently recorded by Garth Brooks on his debut album a year later. Bandy’s take on the song, which is very reminiscent of something Keith Whitley would’ve recorded, is excellent and worth seeking out. “The Champion” is another strong addition to the long lineage of rodeo songs in the genre, although I found the lyric could’ve been written more sharply.
This album is neither here nor there as a whole. It’s very pleasant to listen to, but there really isn’t anything truly exceptional about it.
Grade: B
Back in 1993, Delta Music issued four albums in their Live in Branson MO, USA series. While I think the intent was to go farther, only albums on Johnny Paycheck, Faron Young, Connie Smith and Moe Bandy were ever released.
Live albums are always a bit of a gamble; some of them are quite good, others are a waste of material. Moe Bandy Live in Branson MO, USA is a pretty decent album; moreover, at the time it was issued it was the only live recording available of Moe as a solo artist (I believe that is still the case).
Moe is accompanied by the following musicians on this recording from June 26, 1992. The album was recorded at the Moe Bandy Americana Theatre, so which of these musicians were members, if any, of these were members of Moe’s road band, I cannot say:
Phil Coontz – leader & steel guitar
John Clark – fiddle, accordion, steel & acoustic guitar, mandolin
Scooter Hill – acoustic guitar, harmonica, keyboards & harmony vocals
John Parmenter – accordion, fiddle & harmony vocals
Kris Spencer – harmony vocals
Ed Synan – piano, synthesizer & harmony vocals
Shawn Tull – guitar & harmony vocals
Tony Walter – bass & harmony vocals
Terri Williams – vocals
Whatever the case, these musicians do a nice job of presenting Moe in a country context.
The album opens with “Another Day, Another Dollar”, the Wynn Stewart classic which is used to give the band a chance to show off. Moe sings the first verse and the chorus.
Next up is Ian Tyson’s “Someday Soon” which hit #21 for Moe in 1982. The song was long familiar to audiences through the Ian & Sylvia, Judy Collins and Chris LeDoux recordings (plus it was an album track on countless albums by other artists). Suzy Bogguss would have a slightly bigger hit with the song a few years later.
“Hey Joe” was written by Boudleaux Bryant and was initially a hit for Carl Smith, the father of Carlene Carter and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Carl took the song to #1 for eight weeks in 1953, the first of many #1 records written by Boudleaux Bryant. Moe &Joe (Stampley) reached the top ten with the song in 1981. This version is an up-tempo straight ahead version that I like better than the Moe & Joe duet.
“It’s A Cheating Situation” written by Curly Putman and Sonny Throckmorton, was one of Moe’s two #1 singles (Record World & Canada RPM). Terri Williams fills the Janie Fricke role here – she’s not as accomplished a singer as Fricke but acquits herself quite well.
“Rodeo Romeo” a typical Bandy song that reached #10 in 1981, is up next, followed by the first of two Moe Bandy compositions in “Many Mansions”, about a down and out homeless person’s faith in what is to follow:
Hope is a thing with feathers that perches on the soul
Said the homeless young man standing there strong against the cold
I reached into my pocket, said a penny for your poetry
But when I handed him a dollar bill he was shaking his head at me
And he said these words to me
In my Father’s house are many mansions
Though tonight some make their beds along the streets
Where I’ve seen lives still by winters bitter chill
In my Father’s house there’s a mansion for me
“The Horse You Can’t Ride” is an interesting song composed by Blake Mevis. Moe had this song on one of his albums, so it has not been widely heard but I think it is a compelling song. I think maybe Garth Brooks should hunt down this song and record it.
His boots were all beat up from the dust and the weather.
His face and hands were tanned like sun dried leather.
He rolled a Bull Durham reefer, as he thumbed my diesel down.
He said he had just blew Dallas on the first wind out of town.He must have read my face, I didn’t think it was showing.
Anyway that old cow poke had a way of knowing.
He said judging from the way your broken up inside.
My guess would be that you just found that horse that you can’t ride.We all find that horse that we can’t ride.
He kicks you in the heart and leaves you laying in your pride.
But every cowboy worth his salt knows its worth a little hide.
To fall and get back up on that horse that he can’t ride.He said son now I have done an awful lot of living.
It’s too late for me to ever be forgiven.
The devil holds the mortgage on my saddle and my soul.
‘Cause I left heaven crying on a ranch in El Paso.We split a pint or two by the time we got to Austin.
He told me how he loved it and then he told me how he lost it.
When nothing meets nowhere with nowhere.
I stopped and let him down.He said son now this is where you are headed,
If you don’t turn this rig around..
We all find that horse that we can’t ride.
He kicks you in the heart and leaves you laying in your pride.
But every cowboy worth his salt knows it’s worth a little hide.
To fall and get back up on that horse that he can’t ride
This is followed by “Hank Williams You Wrote My Life”, a quintessential Moe Bandy song if ever there was one.
Moe Bandy didn’t seem to write a lot of songs but the ones he did right were quite good. “My Wish For You” is about a father’s wishes for his child’s well-being.
The album closes with three of Moe’s later, less hard-core country hits, plus an early hit. The later hits are “You Haven’t Heard The Last of Me” (#11 – 1987), “Till I’m Too Old To Grow Young” (#6 – 1987) and Moe’s last top ten hit “Americana” (#8 – 1988). Because Moe did not have an orchestra, these recordings have a more solidly country sound than the post-Columbia albums from which these songs were taken. Sandwiched in between these numbers is an early GRC hit, written by Lefty Frizzell, “Bandy The Rodeo Clown.”
The only real criticism I have of this album is that on a few songs, I would have preferred that Moe’s voice be a little more front and center in the mix. A few of the tracks, most notably “My Wish For You” have a quasi-acoustic setting.
This is a really fine and enjoyable album that shows off the range of Moe’s talents, and is the only exemplar of Moe’s live show of which I am aware.
Grade: A-
1958 (Sales): Great Balls of Fire — Jerry Lee Lewis (Sun)
1958 (Disc Jockeys): The Story of My Life — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1968: For Loving You — Bill Anderson & Jan Howard (Decca)
1978: Take This Job and Shove It — Johnny Paycheck (Epic)
1988: Somewhere Tonight — Highway 101 (Warner Bros.)
1998: Longneck Bottle — Garth Brooks (Capitol)
2008: Our Song — Taylor Swift (Big Machine)
2018: Meant To Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Big Machine)
2018 (Airplay): Like I Loved You — Brett Young (Big Machine)
1957 (Sales): My Special Angel — Bobby Helms (Decca)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): My Special Angel — Bobby Helms (Decca)
1967: For Loving You — Bill Anderson & Jan Howard (Decca)
1977: Here You Come Again — Dolly Parton (RCA)
1987: Somewhere Tonight — Highway 101 (Warner Bros.)
1997: Longneck Bottle — Garth Brooks (Capitol)
2007: Our Song — Taylor Swift (Big Machine)
2017: Meant to Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Warner Bros.)
2017 (Airplay): I’ll Name the Dogs — Blake Shelton (Warner Bros.)
1957 (Sales): My Special Angel — Bobby Helms (Decca)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): Wake Up Little Susie — The Everly Brothers (Cadence)
1967: For Loving You — Bill Anderson & Jan Howard (Decca)
1977: Here You Come Again — Dolly Parton (RCA)
1987: Do Ya — K.T. Oslin (RCA)
1997: Longneck Bottle — Garth Brooks (Capitol)
2007: Our Song — Taylor Swift (Big Machine)
2017: Meant to Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Warner Bros.)
2017 (Airplay): Light It Up — Luke Bryan (Capitol)
My Kind of Country 