Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
In 1976 Moe’s contract was transferred to Columbia, but there were no immediate changes to his mursic, which remained uncompromisingly traditional honky-tonk, with prominent fiddle and steel, softened only by the Jordanaires’ backing vocals.
His first release on the new label, the title track of his new album, was his biggest hit to date, peaking at #2. Written by Paul Craft, the song is a wonderful tribute to the music of the great Hank Williams, with some of Hank’s song titles serving as the soundtrack to the protagonist’s own disastrous love life –
You wrote ‘My Cheating Heart’ about
A gal like my first ex-wife
The second single was less successful, only just creeping into the top 30, but is actually a very good Sanger D Shafer song in which the self-deluding protagonist has been stood up in ‘The Biggest Airport In The World’ (which at the time was Dallas-Fort Worth) by a fiancée he met only a week earlier – in a bar of course.
A couple of other Shafer songs also made the cut. ‘I’m The Honky Tonk On Loser’s Avenue’ anthropomorphises the barroom location of so many country songs and real life heartbreaks. ‘The Lady’s Got Pride’ is a strong song about the cheating protagonist’s unhappy stand-by-her-man wife.
‘You’ve Got A Lovin’ Comin’’, written by Roger Bowling, is a sincerely delivered love song to just such a long suffering wife from a man who has decided to change his ways.
In Bobby Bond’s ‘Hello Mary’ the protagonist calls home from the bar claiming he is engrossed in a ‘business deal’ (while actually gambling with friends). This is exactly the kind of tongue-in-cheek song Moe would later do with Joe Stampley, and it is very entertaining.
The up-tempo ‘Ring Around Rosie’s Finger’ was co-written by Connie Smith, and is about a player who has decided to settle down with his true love. ‘The Hard Times’, written by Edward Penney, Tom Benjamin and Hugh Moffatt, is a ballad about a couple dealing with financial difficulties but sustained by their love. ‘I Think I’ve Got A Love On For You’, written by Dallas Frazier and Larry Lee, is a pleasant but filler love song.
‘I’m Not As Strong As I Used To Be’ is about a heartbreak which has got only worse with time, and is another fine song.
Overall, this is a good and solidly country album. It has not been re-released digitally as such, but the tracks are all available on iTunes in rather poor quality.
Grade: A-
Male-female duets still exist today, although usually in the form of acts that always (or nearly always) perform as duets. Acts that normally perform as solo acts may combine for a song or two (“Special Events”), but rarely do they issue albums of duets
The album Classics, released in 1979, was the second (and final) album of duets released by the unlikely pairing of Kenny Rogers and Dottie West. Kenny, of course was a country & pop superstar but Dottie West was a veteran second-tier country artist, whose 1978 album with Kenny (Every Time Two Fools Collide) would trigger a brief renaissance on the United Artists/Liberty label.
I am not sure why this particular pairing came about, although I have some suspicions. United Artists was not a major player in country music and did not have a deep roster of female artists. Billie Jo Spears, arguably the leading female country singer on the label, did not have a voice that would blend well with Kenny’s voice.
The recently signed Dottie West, on the other hand, had a track record of being able to blend and harmonize with male singers. Her track record at RCA had included successful recordings with such diverse singers as Jim Reeves, Don Gibson and Jimmy Dean. Dottie’s first album and the second album, released on the heels of the first duet album, did not produce any top fifteen hits but the first duet album did produce a #1 and a #2 single.
That brings us to this album, a collection of some county songs, some borderline pop-country-easy listening songs and some pop songs. Produced by Larry Butler, the album was not quite as successful as its predecessor duet album, but still sold over two million copies.
The album opens up with “All I Ever Need Is You”, a top ten pop hit and #1 Adult Contemporary hit for Sonny & Cher and a top twenty county hit for Ray Sanders, both versions in 1971. This version would rise to #1 on the country chart. While not as country as the Sanders version (still my favorite), it is not as pop as the Sonny & Cher versions. Both steel guitar (by Pete Drake) and string arrangements are featured in the arrangement. The song works well as a duet.
Sometimes when I’m down and all alone
Just like a child without a home
The love you give me keeps me hangin’ on
Oh honey, all I ever need is youYou’re my first love, you’re my last
You’re my future, you’re my past
And loving you is all I ask, honey
All I ever need is you
The Wynette, Richey, Sherrill composition “ ‘Til I Can Make It On My Own” is up next. The song was a #1 country hit for Tammy Wynette in 1976. The song works as a duet but is in a key where Kenny seems to be struggling to hit some of the notes.
“Just The Way You Are” was a #3 Billboard / #2 Cashbox top ten pop hit for writer Billy Joel in 1977. The arrangement of this song reeks of cocktail lounge balladry. I’d rather hear Billy Joel perform this song and I am no fan of his music.
Randy Goodrum penned “You Needed Me”. Goodrum would co-produce Dottie’s 1979 album Special Delivery and write six of the songs on that album. I think that this song, as recorded by Anne Murray (#1 pop / #4 country), , was his biggest hit as a songwriter. The arrangement on this one is definitely easy listening.
“(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” was made famous by B.J. Thomas, winning the 1976 Grammy Award for Best Country Song. The song’s writers, Larry Butler and Chips Moman definitely cleared the bases with this song as it went to #1 on the country, pop and A/C charts in the US, nearly duplicating that success in Canada. Kenny & Dottie do a nice job with the song although the arrangement can be best described as ‘countrypolitan’. Steve Glassmeyer is featured on soprano sax.
It’s lonely out tonight
And the feelin’ just got right for a brand new love song
Somebody done somebody wrong songHey, wontcha play another somebody done somebody wrong song
And make me feel at home while I miss my baby, while I miss my baby
So please play for me a sad melody
So sad that it makes everybody cry-why-why-why
A real hurtin’ song about a love that’s gone wrong
Cause I don’t want to cry all alone
There is no questioning the country credentials of the next song, “Together Again” written by the great Buck Owens. Although initially released as the B side of Buck’s 1964 single “My Heart Skips A Beat”, most disc jockeys played both sides of the record resulting in both songs reaching #1, although in different weeks.
Unfortunately, the song is given an easy listening arrangement with strings and keyboards and not a trace of a steel guitar in the arrangement. There is a key shift whenever Kenny takes over from Dottie in singing a verse. I liked Dottie’s vocal on the song, Kenny’s not so much. The net effect is really disappointing.
Paul Craft was a successful songwriter who penned “Midnight Flyer”. The song is probably best remembered for Eagles recording of the song, although the song entered the realm of bluegrass music
through the Osborne Brothers terrific single recording of the song in 1973. Producer Butler gives the song the (fairly) acoustic arrangement the song demands. Kenny & Dottie acquit themselves well on this song.
Oo, Midnight Flyer
Engineer, won’t you let your whistle moan?
Oo, Midnight Flyer
I paid my dues and I feel like trav’lin’ on
A runaway team of horses ain’t enough to make me stay
So throw your rope on another man
And pull him down your way
Make him into someone who can take the place of me
Make him every kind of fool you wanted me to be
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were a highly successful songwriting team and Phil Spector was a successful producer and occasional songwriter best known for his ‘wall of sound’ production style. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” was certainly the biggest hit that the Righteous Brothers would ever have, and possibly the most successful song from the Mann-Weil songwriting team. After hearing the Righteous Brother’s version it is difficult to accept any of the cover versions, of which there have been many. Kenny & Dottie do a decent job with the song, which is given a somewhat subdued ‘wall of sound’ production, but it pales in comparison to the original.
“Let It Be Me” is a popular song originally published in French in 1955 as “Je t’appartiens”. Written by Gilbert Becaud & Pierre Delanoe, the song became a worldwide hit when Manny Curtis appended English lyrics to the song. The Everly Brothers (#7 pop – 1960) and a duet by Betty Everett and Jerry Butler (#5 pop – 1964) cemented the song’s popularity in the English speaking world. In 1969 Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry had a pop and country hit with the song. Kenny and Dottie sing the song quite well – I think Kenny’s best vocals on this album are to be found on this song. The song is not country, the arrangement is very orchestral, but the net effect is very nice.
Like most of Kenny’s albums, this is essentially a pop album with a nod toward country music. There would be no more duet albums by this pair and after a brief resurgence in 1979 through early 1981, Dottie’s solo career would fade away (not surprisingly as Dottie would turn 50 in 1982). The younger Rogers (b. 1938) would continue to have varying degrees through the end of the 1980s, followed by a long coda.
I like parts of this album, but there are tracks I tend to skip over – I give it a C+
Sadly, far too little of the Whites’ music is available digitally, including most of their most commercially successful work. This album, originally released in 1983, has somehow found its way onto iTunes – it would be good if its successors were to follow it. In many respects it was their debut as The Whites, since previous music had been billed as Buck White, mostly with The Down Home Folks. Following Buck’s daughter Sharon’s 1981 marriage to rising superstar Ricky Skaggs, the band (now consisting of Buck with daughters Sharon and Cheryl) was signed to Curb/Warner Brothers, and the album (which Skaggs produced) was released in June 1983.
Half of the album’s ten tracks ended up as singles, as the label was trying to break a group whose old-time traditional roots flew in the face of the then popular Urban Cowboy sound. An initial single, a cover of the classic ‘Send Me The Pillow You Dream On’ did not do well, and was never included on an album, but the next attempt, the lovely ‘You Put The Blue In Me’ was a top 10 country hit in 1982. Sharon White’s honeyed voice is backed up by the group’s gentle harmonies on this pretty but sad song.
The more upbeat ‘Hangin’ Around’ and ‘I Wonder Who’s Holding My Baby Tonight’ (a beautiful ballad) both reached #9, also featuring Sharon’s lead vocals. Like many groups who have multiple lead singers, one of them is clearly superior to the others, and in the case of the Whites, it was Sharon, who sang lead on all the singles from this album. ‘When The New Wears Off Of Our Love’, written by Paul Craft, was less successful, peaking at only #25, but it is a pretty tune. The final single, and almost-title track, the slow and wistful ‘Give Me Back That Old Familiar Feeling’ took them back to the top 10.
Sister Cheryl took the lead on the upbeat gospel ‘Follow The Leader’ and the gentle romantic ballad ‘I’ll be Loving You’. While she lacks Sharon’s lovely natural tone, she is nonetheless a fine singer.
Buck takes over on the retro ‘Blue Letters’, with the trio harmonising together on the chorus. Son law Ricky Skaggs can also be heard in the harmonies on ‘Old River’. Buck also sings the blues authentically, on the old Moon Mullican tune ‘Pipe Liner Blues’.
Ricky Skaggs produced the set beautifully with clean, sparkling arrangements allowing the vocals to shine. The musicians include the great Jerry Douglas.
This is a charming album which I warmly recommend.
Grade: A
After this album, Curb moved the Whites to an affiliation with MCA, and regrettably none of the albums they made for that label is commercially available today apart from their Greatest Hits, which I would also recommend.
Crystal Gayle released her eponymous debut album in February 1975. The legendary Allen Reynolds produced the record, which was her first for United Artists. It peaked at #25.
The first single was “Wrong Road Again,” written by Reynolds. The short ballad is lyrically generic, but found significance sonically. The heavy orchestration was a sharp diversion from sounds typically associated with country music at the time. The gamble, which became a genre norm going forward, paid off – the song rose to #6.
She wouldn’t receive as a warm a reception with the album’s other two singles. “Beyond You,” which she co-wrote with Bill Gatzimos, is a gorgeous piano ballad that petered out at #27. The far more appealing, and a lot more country, “This Is My Year for Mexico” peaked at #21.
Reynolds also contributed “Loving You So Long Now,” an excellent guitar-driven mid-tempo number reminiscent of his work with Waylon Jennings. Gayle also shines on Paul Craft’s “Counterfeit Love (You Know I Got It),” a gentle uptempo number. Canadian Country Singer Ray Griff, who passed away earlier this year, wrote the jaunty and steel drenched “Gonna Lay Me Down Beside My Memories.” Singer/songwriter Marshall Chapman is behind the fantastic “A Woman’s Heart (Is A Handy Place To Be).”
I also love the ear-catching “Hands,” which may have a slightly cutesy lyric, boasts the strongest production work on the entire album. Crystal Gayle also features the first rendition of “When I Dream,” which Gayle would rerecord as the title track to her 1978 album. Issued as a single it would peak at #3. I much prefer the version found here, which finds the song in a more organic setting, with a nice cadence. Lush ballad “You,” written by Dolly Parton was the only song on the album not quite to my tastes.
As we know from Occasional Hope’s excellent review of I’ve Cried The Blue Right Out of My Eyes, these aren’t Gayle’s first recordings. Paul also pointed out United Artists issued three low-charting singles prior to the release of “Wrong Road Again,” her fourth single for the label. But these are the songs that saw Gayle as the artist she would become, her own woman, outside of her sister’s shadow. Reynolds has crafted an excellent showcase for her while simultaneously contributing to a changing landscape in country music (I always refer to as ‘slick country,’ although a more fitting moniker may exist) that wouldn’t be properly rectified for another decade. But it’s still a fabulous album, that nicely fits into the greater legacy of the genre.
Grade: A
Brown had fought a longstanding battle with alcohol, and this intensified after he lost his deal with Capitol. Having overcome it with the support of his wife Sheila, he returned to music in 1998 with the independent Wine Into Water, co-produced by his old friend Gary Nicholson.
The title track is stunning, perhaps the best thing Brown has ever cut, and drawing deeply on his own experiences. It is a moving plea from an alcoholic struggling with his compulsions, and begging God for help one last time:
So many times I’ve hurt the ones I love
I pushed them to the edge of giving up
They stood by me but how much can they stand
If I don’t put this bottle in your handsTonight I’m as low as any man can go
I’m down and I can’t fall much farther
Once upon a time you turned the water into wine
Now on my knees I’m turning to you Father
Could you help me turn the wine back into water?I shook my fist at Heaven for all the hell that I’ve been through
Now I’m begging for forgiveness
And a miracle from you
The song was a big success o the Christian country charts, but the lack of major label muscle stopped it from repeating the feat on mainstream radio.
Almost as good is the melancholic ‘Keep Me From Blowing Away’, a wonderful Paul Craft song once recorded by Linda Ronstadt and also by Willie Nelson. Brown’s version features Marty Stuart on mandolin and showcases his own emotional vocals.
Nothing else is quite as good, but I enjoyed ‘Happy Ever After’ (a non-charting single for Gail Davies in 1990). Brown’s version is beefier, both in terms of the production and his vocals, but the latter give it a real emotional heft, focussing on the slog of building a love into a life together. I also liked the rockabilly piano-led ‘Hide And Seek’ and the soulful ‘Accept My Love’. ‘A Better Word For Love’ is a jazzy loungy ballad which makes an interesting change of pace.
‘Good Days, Bad Days’ is a bit dull. ‘Never In A Million Tears’ is very powerfully sung but an average song. ‘How Do You Know’ is a black gospel tune which is also well done.
The funky and partly spoken ‘Memphis Women And Chicken’ comes across as self-indulgent to me, but will appeal to those who like that style. The shouty ‘Livin’ On doesn’t do anything for me either.
This album contains two great tracks, and a number of good ones, and is Brown’s usual mixture of stylings.
Grade: B
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-
RIP: the songwriter Paul Craft died on Saturday aged 76. He was the writer of this among many other fine songs, and was one of those old school writers who never needed to co-write. He had just been elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this month. There is an excellent tribute/obituary by Peter Cooper in The Tennesseean.
After the monster hit that was ‘Swinging’ the only way was down for John Anderson. He continued to incorporate pop and rock influences in his music for few years after All The People Are Talking, with diminishing returns both commercially and artistically. He was still hitting the top 10 sporadically, but in 1987 the time came to move on from Warner Brothers and try a new start, with a new label (MCA), new producer (Jimmy Bowen), and new sound (back to country, albeit less hardcore than his earliest work). The appropriately titled Blue Skies Again was the first of John’s comeback attempts.
The leadoff single, ‘When Your Yellow Brick Road Turns Blue’, failed to crack the top 40, although it is an excellent song with a beautiful melody with nods to ‘Over The Rainbow’, and has one of John’s finest vocal performances, as he portrays a husband offering unconditional love to a restless wife in the process of leaving him to pursue her dreams:
“You say that somewhere over the rainbow there’s a star that youve been wishing on
Well, is the grass really all that greener than here where you belong?
I hope that you find what you’re after and all of your dreams come true
But remember that I’ll always be here when your yellow brick road turns blue.”
John’s most successful single on MCA was ‘Somewhere Between Ragged And Right’, a duet with Waylon Jennings which Jennings wrote with Roger Murrah. The only song on the album to venture away from relationship themes, it sets out a series of interesting similes but offers no real resolution:
“We’re all polyester poets and pickers of a kind
With far too many questions for the answers in our minds…
Like a busload of taxi drivers learning how to fly
We’re on automatic pilot driftin’ through our lives.”Sadly, the pairing of two of the most iconic and distinctive voices in country music doesn’t really work, as the two make no attempt to blend and seem to be fighting for precedence on the lines where they sing together.
The third and last single from the album was ‘It’s Hard To Keep This Ship Together’, which John wrote with Fred Carter Jr. It was the closest track to the more rock-influenced sound of recent years, but failed to make an impact at radio; not altogether surprising, as not only had the tide of commercial country music moved in the direction of the neotraditionalists, but the song itself is not very interesting. The metaphor of stormy weather addressed to a rocky relationship works better in the post-breakup title track, a mournful ballad written by Michael P Heeney with some sweet fiddle from Joe Spivey.
‘There’s Nothing Left For Me To Take For Granted’, written by John with Lionel A Delmore is another gloomy look at the aftermath of a broken relationship, and is a very good song as the protagonist finds all the couple’s old friends want nothing to do with him, and “the hardest part for me is stayin’ sober., and livin’ inthe past with broken dreams”. On a more positive note, John wrote a cheerful mid-tempo love song with his wife Jamie, ‘Just For You’. It is not particularly memorable, but pleasant filler.
I Wonder Do You Think Of Me was the first posthumous release for Keith. It was the album he was working on at the time of his death, the planned follow-up to his breakthrough Don’t Close Your Eyes. Inevitably, his death lent an additional poignancy to the songs when audiences first heard them. Even now, it is hard to completely separate the album from the circumstances of its release. Even though Keith did not write any of the songs included, many of them seem to strike a chord with his life. He clearly had a strong input into the selection of material, and he got a co-production credit with Garth Fundis.
Only three singles ended up being released to promote the album, the first being the title track, which reached #1. This excellent song by the legendary Sanger D. Shafer is really a wistful appeal to an old high-school girlfriend who “just drifted away” when they graduated, but the title, and Keith’s delicately mournful delivery, made it eerily appropriate as a tribute to him. The song has a copyright date of 1986, and I understand it was originally considered for inclusion on LA To Miami.
The label seem not to have wanted to capitalize too much on the personal tragedy, because their pick for a follow-up single was the most optimistic song on the album. The mid-tempo ‘It Ain’t Nothin”, a paean to the love of one’s spouse making up for all the troubles in life, was Keith’s last #1 hit. It is pleasant enough, but lacks the emotional impact of the best of Keith’s work; he was at his best when singing a sad country song.
My Kind of Country 