Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
As the ‘last man standing’ Billboard‘s country charts have taken on an almost mythical importance, yet for most of the 1940s and 1950s, Billboard did a relatively poor job in recording the history of country singles in that their various country charts only went 10-15 places deep.
Music Vendor (later Record World) started tracking country music in 1954 and immediately started tracking 55 chart places for country records, a depth of country charts Billboard wouldn’t approach until 1964 when Billboard went to 50 places. For purposes of simplicity, I will always refer to Music Vendor/ Record World as ‘Record World‘.
Joel Whitburn’s new volume Hit Country Records 1954-1982: Music Vendor/Record World performs a valuable service in restoring to the known discography of country music a staggering 1700 songs and 200 artists that Billboard failed to chronicle.
I always thought that the Wilburn Brothers had a relatively thin representation on the Billboard charts with 31 chart entries from 1954-1972, with many songs that I knew to have been at least mid-level hits not being tracked by Billboard. Turns out that the Wilburn Brothers were the poorest served of all country artists by Billboard with a staggering 30 songs not tracked by Billboard. Other artists with huge holes in their Billboard chart discographies include Hank Snow (26 songs), Eddy Arnold (23 songs), Kitty Wells (21 songs), Hank Thompson (21 songs), Johnnie & Jack (20 songs) and Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins, Ferlin Husky and George Jones (each with 19 songs).
Among Bluegrass artists, Flatt & Scruggs pick up an extra 15 chart entries, Mac Wiseman (13), Jimmy Martin (6), Bill Monroe (4), and the Osborne Brothers (4).
There were also apparently differences in how artists were classified. Country audiences always loved Brenda Lee, Elvis Presley, George Hamilton IV and Conway Twitty, a fact Billboard somehow failed to acknowledge. After missing “Jambalaya”, Billboard tracked “One Step At A Time”, and then missed the next eleven consecutive Brenda Lee songs including such monsters as “Dynamite”, “Sweet Nothings”, “Fool #1” and “Break It To Me Gently”.
The track record on Elvis was worse as Billboard failed to track “That’s All Right” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and “Blue Suede Shoes”, along with 15 more songs.
Record World tracked six George Hamilton IV singles before Billboard got around to recognizing “Before This Day Ends” as a country single. Ditto for Conway Twitty who Billboard picked up as country with “Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart”, after ten singles had already been tracked by Record World.
While most of the songs that Music Vendor/Record World picked up were second tier hits, there were some surprising Billboard misses uncovered such as the George Jones favorites “Tall Tall Trees”, “Eskimo Pie” and “Nothing Can Stop Me (Loving You)”. A very famous song from 1955 was Bobby Lord’s 1955 hit “Hawkeye”; Billboard missed the song entirely on any of its charts, whereas Record World had it charting for twelve weeks, reaching #16.
I mentioned that approximately 200 artists show up in this book that Billboard never tracked on its country charts. These include Carl Dobkins Jr (three songs including “My Heart Is An Open Book” which Record World has as a #2 country hit, and Billboard had reach #3 pop), Pete Drake (three instrumental singles), and Buddy Holly (four singles including “Peggy Sue” and “Maybe Baby”).
I’ve only had this fascinating book for two days and I will probably report further as time permits, but it would be remiss of me not to further examine the song that initially got me interested in charts. Yes – I do mean “Groovy Grubworm” by Harlow Wilcox and The Oakies. Cashbox had the record reach #1 on its country chart (#24 pop) for two weeks whereas Billboard had the record stall out at #42 on the country chart while reaching #30 on the pop charts. This was the biggest chart disparity ever between singles that reached #1 on either the Billboard or Cashbox country chart but not the other chart.
The record was hugely successful, selling a million copies between the US and Canadian markets (it was a top ten hit on several Canadian regional pop charts), so I was curious to see how Record World treated “Groovy Grubworm” on its country charts, recalling that Record World had the song chart higher on its pop chart (#23) than did either Cashbox or Billboard.
Drum roll please :
Record World had the song reach #3 for one week on its country chart during its thirteen week chart run.
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)
1954 (Sales): Slowly — Webb Pierce (Decca)
1954 (Jukebox): Slowly — Webb Pierce (Decca)
1954 (Disc Jockeys): Oh Baby Mine (I Get So Lonely) — Johnnie & Jack (RCA)
1964: Together Again — Buck Owens (Capitol)
1974: I Will Always Love You — Dolly Parton (RCA)
1984: Someday When Things Are Good — Merle Haggard (Epic)
1994: That Ain’t No Way To Go — Brooks & Dunn (Arista)
2004: Redneck Woman — Gretchen Wilson (Epic)
2014: Play It Again — Luke Bryan (Capitol)
2014 (Airplay): Play It Again — Luke Bryan (Capitol)
Legendary blues rocker Delbert McClinton has had a number of connections with country music, particularly as a songwriter but also duetting with Tanya Tucker and touring with Willie Nelson. His son Clay, based in Texas, recruited country songwriter and producer Gary Nicholson to produce his latest solo album, and while it is an eclectic album, it draws strongly on his country influences, with Tex-Mex, blues and jazz thrown in the mix.
Clay isn’t as distinctive a vocalist as his father, but his rough-edged voice works well on his material. It has a naturally melancholy tinge which is at its most effective on the wearied waltz ‘A Woman That Can’t Be Explained’, which has a slightly ragged 70s outlaw country feel which is very attractive. One of a number of Nicholson/McClinton collaborations, this is my favorite track. The protagonist is as puzzled by his sweetheart’s many contradictions when they split as when they first get together.
The pair’s laid-back ‘Wildflowers’ admires free-spirited women in a more straightforward way.
The cheerful honky tonker ‘Beer Joint’ (co-written with dad Delbert, and featuring backing vocvals from 60s rocker Bruce Channel) is another favourite, in which the protagonist turns down an expenses-paid exotic trip in favour of a party at his local bar.
The rueful ‘Hydrated’ faces a hangover with witty resolve and the hair of the dog:
Everything I read says you need at least 8 glasses a day
So put a little more ice in your drink and you might get enough that way
I ain’t no nutritionist but let’s make one thing clear
There’s a whole lot of corn in alcohol and there’s a whole lot of water in beer
…
Drink plenty when you exercise
Drink plenty out in the sun
I get my electrolytes mixing Gatorade and rum
It was written by Clay and Nicholson with Tom Hambridge, as was the very different ‘Sound Of A Small Town’, a gently understated and beautifully detailed portrait of life in a rural community. ‘Bound For Glory’ is a fine tribute to American folk pioneer Woody Guthrie.
‘Stories We Can Tell’ is a co-write with dad Delbert, and has the bluesy groove typical of the latter’s work. A sultry cover of 60s pop hit ‘Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)’ is in similar vein. Bluesy mid-tempo love song ‘Nobody Knows My Baby’ is a bit dull.
Delbert helps out vocally on a sturdy version of his classic song ‘Victim Of Life’s Circumstances’. a number of other covers are also included. The country classic ‘Poison Love’ (a hit for Johnnie & Jack in 1951) gets an enjoyable Tex-Mex makeover with joyful fiddle and accordion work, which works really well. ‘What A Little Love Can Do’, written by producer Nicholson with Stephen Bruton for the Crazy Heart soundtrack, is quite good
I was very pleasantly surprised by this album, particularly the quality of the songwriting.
Grade: B+
During the late winter & early spring of 1979, listeners of country radio were treated to the unusual strains of “Someone Is Looking For Someone Like You”. Amidst the clutter of the last vestiges of the Outlaw Movement, the dying gasps of the Nashville Sound and the nascent Urban Cowboy movement, this lilting and beautiful melody was unlike anything else being played. Released on the independent Lifesong label, the song suffered from spotty distribution (which turned into no distribution at all when Lifesong’s distribution deal fell apart) yet made it to #11 on Billboard’s Country Chart. For Gail Davies, this song turned out to be her career breakthrough, leading to a record deal with Warner Brothers.
Gail Davies (originally Patricia Gail Dickerson) was born into a musical family in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, on June 5, 1948. Her father, Tex Dickerson, was a country singer who occasionally appeared on the Louisiana Hayride. When Davies was five, her parents divorced and her mother took her and her two brothers to the Seattle area. At some point, her mother remarried and she and her brothers were adopted by their stepfather, Darby Davies, and took his surname. One of her brothers was Ron Davies, a renown songwriter and performer, who wrote songs that were recorded by such luminaries as David Bowie, Three Dog Night, Joe Cocker, Dave Edmunds, Jerry Jeff Walker and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
After graduating from high school in 1966, Davies moved to Los Angeles where she was briefly married to a jazz musician. After her divorce, she found work as a session singer at A&M studios. While at A&M she was befriended by songwriter Joni Mitchell and A&M recording engineer Henry Lewy who introduced her to the production end of the business, where she was able to sit in on a number of noteworthy recording sessions, including a John Lennon session that was being produced by Phil Spector.
Things moved rapidly for Davies, and by 1974 she was touring with the legendary Roger Miller and made her national television debut as his duet partner in 1974 singing on the Merv Griffin Show. During this period, she began writing songs and signed with EMI Publishing in 1975. Her first major success as a songwriter came when Ava Barber, a regular cast member of television’s Lawrence Welk Show, had a hit single with “Bucket to the South,” which reached #14 in 1978 on the Billboard Country Chart. This led to a contract with CBS/Lifesong Records in 1978 and the release of her first album simply entitled Gail Davies. Read more of this post
Since her decision to leave the confines of even a sympathetic label like Rounder, Rhonda Vincent seems to have discovered a new freedom to record as she wishes. The first album she released on her own label was the conventional (and very good) Taken, but her follow-up was her excellent country duet project with the great Gene Watson. Third time around, Rhonda has decided to go back home to record her first live gospel album. She has produced an acclaimed live album in the past, and she has always mixed in religious material alongside the secular, as well as releasing a gospel album when she was working with her parents’ family group, the Sally Mountain Band. This is her first combination of the two, and to do so she chose to record the tracks live at Rhonda’s home church, Greentop United Methodist, in Greentop, Missouri. It is not precisely a concert performance, as I gather breaks were taken between tracks. The church has very clean acoustics; indeed this sounds like a studio set with occasional polite applause. Rhonda is in predictably excellent voice, and The Rage play and harmonise impeccably throughout. The production and arrangements are all meticulous, thanks to Rhonda and her fiddle player and son-in-law Hunter Berry. Some of the material is familiar, having been picked out by Rhonda from some of her past recordings
There is a bit of a slow start, with the nicely done but unexciting opener, a revival of ‘I Feel Closer To Heaven Everyday’ which she sang as a youngster with her family’s Sally Mountain Band. A sensitive vocal then brings life to ‘Blue Sky Cathedral’, a pretty story song about an elderly relative feeling closer to God in the midst of the beauties of nature than in church.
Rhonda wrote the slow wailing acapella ‘His Promised Land’ (with Lisa Shaffer), but although I liked the swooping melody reminiscent of an 18th century hymn tune, unfortunately I didn’t care for the droning harmonies. ‘Fishers Of Men’, another acapella number later in the set, has a more engaging arrangement, and this version seems to have more vibrancy than her earlier cut of it, on 2003’s One Step Ahead. The pure bluegrass ‘Where We’ll Never Say Farewell’, an older song written by Larry and Eva Sparks, picks up the mood and tempo, with some great instrumental breaks and a committed vocal.
‘Silent Partner’ (written by Jeff Barbra and Darrell Webb) is also excellent; the partner is, of course, Jesus, and the lyric engagingly applies the metaphor of business life:
Now I’ve found my calling
I’m working for the Man
The pay is so much better
With the great life insurance planMe and my silent partner
We’re always side by side
He helps me run this business that I call life
He is the best advisor
And I can reach him any time
Me and my silent partner Jesus Christ
Turning to the hymn book, ‘Just As I Am’ gets a tasteful, rather subdued reading with soothing close harmonies. Rhonda’s heartfelt version of ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ is beautifully sung. ‘Walking My Lord (Up Calvary’s Hill)’ is more upbeat musically despite the subject matter, and is sung partly as a tribute to Wilma Lee Cooper.
The charming ‘God Put A Rainbow In the Clouds’ (an old Johnnie & Jack number) features vocals from Rhonda’s band members, and is just great fun. The joyful narrative of the Old Testament story of ‘Joshua’ also features prominent vocals from the guys, and is a delight.
‘Prettiest Flower There’ is a pretty and sentimental story song which Rhonda recorded on All American Bluegrass Girl in 2008, and sings here as a tribute to her late grandmother. ‘The Last Best Place’ (included on her secular Raging Live set a few years ago) looks at the prospect of reuniting after death, with a lovely melody and solemn fiddle fitting the elegiac mood. Rhonda sings it quite beautifully. On a similar theme, Rhonda first recorded Carl Jackson’s lovely ‘Homecoming’ twenty years ago, and revives it nicely here.
The vibrant ‘Where No Cabins Fall’ harks back to traditional country gospel vocals with its call-and-response vocals. ‘Help Me To Be More Like Him’ is sweet and sincere, with particularly sympathetic backings, and I like this a great deal.
Not everyone is interested in religious music, so this album may appeal to a smaller group of Rhonda’s fans than her secular material. Committed fans may possibly be disappointed that a fair proportion of the material is familiar from Rhonda’s previous records. However, it is a beautifully produced, played and sung album from an artist at the peak of her ability, with very little to criticize.
Grade: A
My Kind of Country 