Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
The McCarters were three young sisters from near Dolly Parton’s neck of the woods. The Gift, released in 1988 was truly a revelation resembling nothing else being played on the radio at that time. One critic described the album as the sequel to the Trio album that Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt had not gotten around to making yet.
High praise indeed and based on this album, the McCarters seemed to have a bright future ahead. The shimmering sibling harmonies and brilliant acoustic settings made this album something special and unique. I should note that this is NOT a bluegrass album, although I would not be surprised to hear the songs on bluegrass radio. With the exception of the piano and presence of drums, all of the instruments on the album are acoustic, played by such aces as Mark O’Connor (fiddle, viola, mandolin, mandola), Carl Jackson (acoustic guitar) and John Jorgenson (acoustic guitar, mandolin, mandocello). Jennifer McCarter was the lead singer on all songs, with younger twin sisters Lisa and Teresa providing the vocal harmonies.
The album opens up with “I Give You Music” a story ballad written by Dennis Adkins. This was the third single released from the album. It charted at a disappointing #28 (#16 in Canada).
Next up is “Timeless and True Love”, the debut single released in late 1987. Written by Austin Roberts, Charlie Black & Buzz Cason, the song soared to #5. The song is a very nice ballad featuring Mark O’Connor’s fiddle through the arrangement:
For mine is a timeless and true love
An endless river rollin’ on and on
Forever and ever for you love
Oh mine is a timeless and true loveJust look at how the mountains reach up to the sky
So strong against the hard winds as the years go by
My love is no less tender born of fire and steel
And the world could never change the way I feel
This is followed by a Bill Graham-Carl Jackson-Buddy Landon collaboration “Flower In The Desert”, a mid-tempo ballad with some excellent fiddling by Mark O’Connor. The song is album track with strong Appalachian overtones.
Lola Jean Dillon was a successful songwriter who wrote several of Loretta Lynn’s big hits and co-wrote with L. E. White the funny Conway Twitty / Loretta Lynn duet “You’re The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly”; “Where Would That Leave Us” is not a humorous but a fine ballad about a relationship that seems to be the salvation of the singer.
“I Know Love” comes from the pens of Randy Albright, Mark D Sanders and Lisa Silver. The song is a another slow ballad, nicely sung, but I do not think the song is anything special; however the next track “The Gift” by Nancy Montgomery is indeed something special .
Darling let me tell you the way I truly feel
A simple explanation from a heart so real
I have been the whole world over and sailed a thousand seas
And still come back to you[Chorus}
Now I believe that gold is not so precious or so real
For I Have Seen The Miracle of Love As It’s Revealed
And When You Hear This Song I Hope That You Will See
The gift I give to you, my love forever true
“The Gift” would be the biggest hit reaching #4 (#2 in Canada). After that it would be downhill, as it would be for the rest of this album, four more songs that fit nicely in context with the album.
The Gift appeared at one of those brief moments in history when something as retro sounding as this album could break through, if only momentarily. In 1989 the ‘New Traditionalist’ movement (in reality the new honky-tonk traditionalist movement) would have its leading avatars appear thus wiping out the market for The McCarters’ music. In fact after the first two singles, the market had already turned away from the McCarters. A second album would follow and then it was over.
I would give this album an A+, but as much as I enjoyed the album at the time it was released, I realized that it was an outlier and unlikely to be repeated.
Loretta Lynn is enjoying a creative renaissance in her 80s. Her latest album was originally expected more than a year ago, but its release was delayed due to health issues and Loretta wanting to able to promote it. Produced by Loretta’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash, the long-awaited album has proved to be well worth waiting for. While Loretta’s voice is obviously not what it was in her 1960s/70s heyday, it is surprisingly strong for someone of her years, and actually better than in the 1980s.
Her songwriting skills are also still strong, and she wrote or co-wrote all but one of the 13 tracks. Admittedly, half are older songs, including enjoyable retreads of two of her signature songs – ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ and ‘Don’t Come Home A Drinking’. There are also two obscure songs originally written and recorded at the dawn of Loretta’s career in 1960. ‘My Angel Mother’ is a pretty, gentle, folky song, and ‘Darkest Day’ is a classic country shuffle about a husband leaving – very nice.
The title song and lead single was originally recorded in the 1980s, and has a nice arrangement and a subdued but emotional vocal as Loretta bemoans an alcoholic husband. The simple faith of ‘God Makes No Mistakes’ made its first appearance on Loretta’s Van Lear Rose album in 2004, and is better here with a more sympathetic arrangement.
The one outside song is an even older one – traditional murder ballad ‘Lulie Vars’ which is very effective with a stripped down acoustic arrangement. (The song, originating from Kentucky where I presume Loretta heard the song as a child, and based on a real murder in 1917, is marginally better known as ‘Lula Viers’.) (Incidentally the real Lula was related to the famous Hatfield family.)
My favorite of the new songs is the delightful ‘Ruby’s Stool’, an amusing tale of misbehaviour and rivalry among an older generation of “honky tonk girls” who have not retired into a less combative way of life. Loretta wrote this with Shawn Camp, who also co-wrote ‘I’m Dying For Someone To Live For’, a lovely song about the loneliness of widowhood, with some very pretty mandolin; and also the charming gospel ‘The Big Man’, which I love.
Veteran songwriter Lola Jean Dillon teamed up with Loretta to write ‘Another Bridge To Burn’. This is a great song about moving on from a bad relationship to a better life:
I don’t suppose I’ll ever love him
Quite the way that I love you
When he sleeps into my dreams
I don’t wake up feeling blue
What we don’t have in common
We make up for in concern…Through the years I’ve cried a river
One teardrop at a time
I kept that old bridge standing strong
Just in case you changed your mind
I can’t live on dreams for ever
At least reality returns
With his hand in mine we’ll light the aflame
You’re another bridge it’s time to burn
Daughter Patsy co-wrote two songs. ‘Ain’t No Time To Go’, a delicate appeal to a loved one to live, is rather charming with some delightful folky fiddle. ‘These Ole Blues’ has a lovely Hank Williams style vibe about it.
I didn’t necessarily have high hopes for this record beforehand, but it has been a positive revelation. Loretta Lynn really is a living legend of country music, and this is a very fine album.
Grade: A+
1977 saw the release of another solidly traditional honky tonk album for Moe. The title track, the album’s sole single, was a faithful Hank Williams cover with a very authentic steel-laced arrangement, which was a top 10 hit for Moe. The song offers sympathy and fellow-feeling to a friend with marital woes.
A notable inclusion is what I believe is the first recorded version of ‘Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind’, later one of George Strait’s biggest hits. It was written by Sanger D Shafer, a regular writer for Moe, and his wife Darlene Shafer. Moe’s version is fine in its own terms – a great traditional honky tonk ballad, and one is left wondering if it might have been a major hit single for him, but Strait fans are likely to prefer that more familiar version.
Sanger Shafer also co-wrote one song with Moe, the closing ‘She’s Everybody’s Woman, I’m Nobody’s Man’, which could easily have been a hit. It is about a former cheater obsessing after the tables have been turned:
As I watch her at the bar with all those men around
I know before closing time one or two won’t be turned downOnce she thought I was the only man
But when I cheated every night
It made her understand
That she don’t have to live a life
Of staying home alone
…I’m starving for her love
But she’s got more than she can stand
I’m watching my world melt like castles in the sand
She’s everybody’s woman and I’m nobody’s man
‘She’s An Angel’ is on much the same theme, with an added side of self-delusion, written by Harlan Howard and Lola Jean Dillon. Here Moe insists “she’s a good girl, overacting”.
‘A Four Letter Fool’ is another fine song, with some pretty Spanish guitar, and a regretful lyric about a man who has thrown away domestic happiness in favour of “a few forbidden pleasures”.
‘So Much For You, So Much For Me’, an anguished look at the division of spoils following a divorce, is a cover of a Liz Anderson single from the 60s. Bill Anderson and Mary Lou Turner write ‘All The Beer And All My Friends Are Gone’, in which the protagonist finally has to face the cold hard truth about his broken heart. ‘Someone That I Can Forget’ is a sad ballad previously recorded by Jim Ed Brown, loaded with steel guitar.
‘The Lady From The Country Of Eleven Hundred Springs’ is a bouncy up-tempo number about a woman who can outdrink the protagonist and his purse. Moe turns his attention to the rampant hyper-inflation which plagued the 70s in ‘High Inflation Blues’, in a Jimmie Rodgers style country blues, complete with yodel:
It could drive a man to drinkin’
But I can’t afford the booze
I got those heart breakin’, escalatin’, high inflation bluesThe cost of livin’ keeps goin’ up
And taxes ain’t goin’ down
I’m just treadin’ water and trying not to drown
Mr Carter I know you’re up there
And I sure could use a hand
So won’t you please have mercy on
The common working man
This is an excellent album. It is not readily available as such, but the tracks can be found on iTunes (in the relatively poorer quality reproduction noted previously).
Grade: A+
My Kind of Country 