Country music from a fan's point of view since 2008
1959: The Battle of New Orleans — Johnny Horton (Columbia)
1969: Running Bear — Sonny James (Mercury)
1979: Nobody Likes Sad Songs — Ronnie Milsap (RCA)
1989: I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party — Rosanne Cash (Columbia)
1999: Write This Down — George Strait (MCA)
2009: Then — Brad Paisley (Arista Nashville)
2019: God’s Country — Blake Shelton (Warner Bros. Nashville)
2019 (Airplay): Whiskey Glasses — Morgan Wallan (Big Loud)
I am not a big Rosanne Cash fan, having found myself liking only about half of her output during her country singles commercial peak period of 1978-1990; however, since taking her focus off the singles market she has become a very interesting artist. Her 2009 album The List was a fine effort and her last album, 2014’s The River & The Thread (released on Blue Note), was truly an outstanding album.
Ms. Cash returns with her second album release for Blue Note, She Remembers Everything. Blue Note is a record label primarily known for jazz having been home to the likes of John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Horace Silver. While I would not regard Rosanne Cash as a classic jazz artist, her current work fits comfortably within the confines of modern jazz vocals. I suspect that I am much more of a jazz fan than most country listeners, and while this album should get some airplay from jazz stations, I suspect that you will need to buy this album if you want to hear the album and don’t listen to over-the-air jazz radio.
The title track is particularly striking as Cash sings about a woman who has survived a deep, but unidentified, trauma:
Before it all went dark
Was she like a streak of fire
A pane of glass, a beating heart?
The use of minor piano chords creates a somber effect, with no likelihood of a happy ending in the lyrics.
Fortunately, the rest of the album is less somber although somewhat inconsistent. I purchased the Deluxe Edition via digital download. Below is how I would rate the individual tracks (on a 5-star scale):
This is a very personal album for Cash, with little in the way of political overtones. “Everyone But Me” is a gentle ballad that sounds as if Rosanne could be singing it to her departed parents. “Crossing To Jerusalem” is a hopeful track about (eventual) personal solace.
I actually like the individual tracks more than I like the album because of the largely unvarying tempos. “Not Many Miles To Go” is as close as this album gets to an up-tempo number. I suspect that each listener will have personal favorites that vary from mine. I have found that in my listening, that I tend to listen to three or four tracks at a time, then returning later for more. There is much to contemplate in these lyrics and the album’s tracks are best heard when the listener can give proper attention.
1958: City Lights — Ray Price (Columbia)
1968: I Walk Alone — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1978: Sleeping Single In A Double Bed — Barbara Mandrell (ABC)
1988: Runaway Train — Rosanne Cash (Columbia)
1998: Wide Open Spaces — Dixie Chicks (Monument)
2008: Just A Dream — Carrie Underwood (Arista Nashville)
2018: Meant To Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Big Machine)
2018 (Airplay): She Got The Best of Me — Luke Combs (Columbia Nashville)
The last time we heard from Mandy Barnett was 2013, when she released I Can’t Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson. It’s taken five years for her to follow it up and she does so with an album that finds her exploring uncharted territory in her 22-year career.
As Barnett puts it frankly, Strange Conversation isn’t a country album. She recorded it in Muscle Shoals, and through inspiration from the area’s classic sound, she plays instead under the umbrella and within the sonic textures of modern-day Americana and she’s enlisted drummer Marco Giovino and guitarist Doug Lancio to serve as her producers. The former has worked with Robert Plant and Buddy Miller while the latter has collaborated with John Hiatt and Patty Griffin.
Strange Conversation opens with “More Lovin,’” an excellent cover of the song originally recorded by Mabel John. The groove, created by a nice mixture of upright bass and crashing percussion, gives the song an appealing jazzy groove. She travels back to the 1960s for her R&B and soul-infused version of “It’s All Right (You’re Just In Love),” which originates with the Alabama-based band The Tams.
“Dream Too Real To Hold” jumps ahead to 1997 and came to Barnett via Greg Garing, who among his many contributions, worked with Kenny Vaughn to revitalize Lower Broadway in Nashville some time ago. It’s another excellent song, with nice jazzy undertones. The title track is a pleasant ballad which finds Barnett turning in a sultry vocal performance.
The album continues with “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done,” originally recorded and released by Sonny & Cher in 1972. Barnett mostly keeps the song within the same vein as the original, retaining Hiatt to sing on it with her. They work fine together and the lyric is good, but I hate the fuzzy and cluttered arrangement, which unnecessarily drowns them out. I know it’s in keeping with how the song was intended when written, but it’s very unappealing to my ears.
Tom Waits originally released “Puttin’ On The Dog” in 2000. The lyric, a sexual innuendo, is slinky and the song is downright obscure. Like the Sonny & Cher cover that preceded it, it’s also not to my taste. “All Night” is pure lounge and torch, as though it comes straight from an old smoky jazz club. It fits perfectly within Barnett’s classic wheelhouse.
Neil Sedaka pitched “My World Keeps Slipping Away” to Barnett directly. She evokes Rosanne Cash, who I could easily hear covering this song, on the sparse ballad, which she knocks out of the park. “The Fool” is not a cover of the Lee Ann Womack classic, but rather a tune written by legendary country and pop singer Lee Hazlewood. The barroom anthem, one of the album’s best tracks, revives Barnett’s classic sound and gives the latter half of the Strange Conversation some much-needed pep and variety. She closes the ten-track album with a cover of Andre Williams’ “Put A Chain On It,” a slice of straight-up R&B that features backing from the McCrary Sisters.
Besides insisting Strange Conversation isn’t a country album, which it most certainly is not, Barnett also says it purposefully doesn’t rely on the full-power of her voice. This choice, which makes use of her sultry lower register, gives the music a different feel from her previous albums, which I like. I certainly appreciate Barnett’s artistry and feel the end result is the album she set out to make. The tracks are on YouTube and I highly recommend you go check out the album for yourself.
Grade: B+
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: The Legend of Bonnie & Clyde — Merle Haggard (Capitol)
1978: It’s All Wrong, But it’s Alright — Dolly Parton (RCA Victor)
1988: It’s Such A Small World — Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash (Columbia Nashville)
1998: You’re Still The One — Shania Twain (Mercury Nashville)
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)
1958 (Sales): Ballad of a Teenage Queen — Johnny Cash (Sun)
1958 (Disk Jockeys): Ballad of a Teenage Queen — Johnny Cash (Sun)
1968: Skip A Rope — Henson Cargill (Monument)
1978: Don’t Break The Heart That Loves You — Margo Smith (Warner Bros.)
1988: Tennessee Flat Top Box — Rosanne Cash (Columbia)
1998: Just To See You Smile — Tim McGraw (Curb)
2008: Letter To Me — Brad Paisley (Arista)
2018: Meant To Be — Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line (Big Machine)
2018 (Airplay): Written In The Sand — Old Dominion (RCA Nashville)
We lost Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash within months of each other back in 2003, so 2018 marks a very sad 15th-anniversary farewell to the “Man In Black”.
The release last year of UNEARTHED, a nine album 180 gram vinyl box set (originally released on CD two months after his death) of unreleased tracks recorded by Rick Rubin, (it features some interesting pairings such as Fiona Apple providing guest vocals on Cat Stevens’ “Father & Son,” and the late Joe Strummer’s duets with Cash on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”) provides us with a excuse to take another look back at his career.
While modern country radio has no use for the likes of Johnny Cash, preferring more commercial fodder, other sections of the music industry have kept his music alive, whether on Willie’s Roadhouse (Sirius XM Radio) or through the musical press. Cover bands continue to play his music and while younger so-called country singers play music that bears little connection to country music, his music remains a staple of Roots-Rock, Texas Red-Dirt and Bluegrass performers
Make no mistake about it: Johnny Cash was a huge commercial success, despite his own apparent lack of concern about how commercial his music was at any given moment–Cash’s inquisitive artistry meant that he flitted from realm to realm, sometimes touching down in areas with limited commercial appeal.
Cash had 24 songs reach #1 on the Billboard, Cashbox or Record World country charts (often all three), but unlike more chart-oriented artists including Webb Pierce, Buck Owens, Sonny James, Alabama, Conway Twitty or George Strait, Cash never ran off a long string of consecutive #1s, with his longest streak being four during 1968 when “Roseanna’s Going Wild,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “A Boy Named Sue,” and his iconic “Folsom Prison Blues” all reached the top of one of the charts.
1957 (Sales): Wake Up Little Susie — The Everly Brothers (Cadence)
1957 (Disc Jockeys): Fraulein — Bobby Helms (Decca)
1967: I Don’t Wanna Play House — Tammy Wynette (Epic)
1977: Heaven’s Just a Sin Away — The Kendalls (Ovation)
1987: The Way We Make a Broken Heart — Rosanne Cash (Columbia)
1997: How Your Love Makes Me Feel — Diamond Rio (Arista)
2007: Online — Brad Paisley (Arista)
2017: Body Like a Back Road — Sam Hunt (MCA)
2017 (Airplay): All the Pretty Girls — Kenny Chesney (Blue Chair/Columbia)
John D Loudermilk, a cousin of the legendary Louvin Brothers was a remarkable songwriter and artist in his own right, whose music crossed musical boundaries with eleements of country, rock and pop.
In March 2016 he was honoured by a star-studded tribute concert in Nashville, and selected performances from that occasion have now been released on CD/digital download and DVD. The concert is also set to be broadcast on PBS.
Opener ‘Everybody Knows’, performed by musician/singer/songwriter Harry Stinson, has a hypnotic 1950s pop-meets-Louvin Brothers feel. Singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman delivers the teenage romance ‘Language Of Love’ in a sprightly 50s doowop pop style, also adopted by Lee Roy Parnell in a slightly bluesier fashion on ‘Mr Jones’. Another songwriter paying tribute is Bobby Braddock, who takes on ‘Break My Mind’ quite effectively, accompanied by his own piano. Norro Wilson is also pretty good on the novelty ‘The Great Snowman’.
Bluegrass legend Doyle Lawson and his band Quicksilver race through ‘Blue Train’, which works perfectly with a bluegrass arrangement. Southern rocker Jimmy Hall takes on ‘Bad News’ which again works well in this setting. Buddy Greene, mainly a Christian artist, sings the tongue in cheek story song ‘Big Daddy’s Alabama Bound’; his vocals are limited, but the arrangement is great. John McFee of the Doobie Brothers is passionate on the politically fuelled anthem to the Cherokee nation now restricted to the ‘Indian Reservation’.
Rodney Crowell also rocks it up on ‘Tobacco Road, possibly Loudermilk’s best known song; this is highly enjoyable and one of my favorite tracks. I was less impressed by his wife Claudia Church on the syncopated pop of ‘Sunglasses’.
John Jorgenson of the Desert Rose Band. Jorgenson (who helmed the whole affair) is known for his guitar playing rather than his singing, but his vocals are perfectly adequate on the rocker ‘Midnight Bus’. I very much enjoyed his Desert Rose Bandmate Herb Pederson on ‘It’s My Time’, very much in classic Desert Rose Band style. John Cowan soars on the life-affirming ‘I Wanna Live’.
Rosanne Cash is tender on the lovely ‘Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye’, another highlight. Ricky Skaggs and the Whites team up on two songs. ‘Heaven Fell last Night’ is a lovely romantic ballad sung together by Ricky and wife Sharon, while Ricky takes the lead on the fun Stonewall Jackson hit ‘Waterloo’. I also enjoyed Becky Hobbs on the country hit ‘Talk Back Trembling Lips’.
Emmylou Harris’s voice is sadly showing the signs of age, but she is well supported by the harmony vocals of Pam Rose and Mary Ann Kennedy on ‘Where Are They Gone’. 80s star Deborah Allen also sounds a little worse for wear on her song, the wistful ballad ‘Sad Movies’. Loudermilk’s son Mike doesn’t have much of a voice, but he does his best on a pleasant version of the catchy ‘Abilene’, and is backed by (his own?) delightful guitar work.
I wasn’t previously familiar with Cory Chisel and Adriel Denae, an Americana/folk duo and rela-life married couple. Their version of the part spoken airline tragedy story song ‘Ebony Eyes’ is prettily harmonised although the individual voices are not that strong. Also new to me was Beth Hooker, who delivers a sultry blues version of Turn Me On’. Guests from further afield include Australian fingerpicking guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel on an instrumental track.
This is a worthy tribute which reminds the listener of both the musical breadth and quality of Loudermilk’s oeuvre.
Grade: B+
The past continues to cast a looming shadow over Rodney Crowell on his latest album, produced by Jordan Lehning and Kim Buie. He has written about his difficult East Houston childhood before, and he revisits it more graphically than ever on ‘East Houston Blues’, a reflective and gripping contemplation of a very tough past which might have ended very badly. The song seems to be set in an alternative world in which he never got out of it:
I grew up hungry
And I grew up hard
Took the streets and alleys
For my own backyard
I got a breakin’-and-enter
On my list of crimes
Been before the judge
One too many times…I’m a third-born child
My mother’s only son
Which means exactly nothing
Without a loaded gun
I don’t believe in love
This I guarantee
If there’s a God above
He’s got it in for me
This song opens the album, which is bookended with his recollections of his arrival in ‘Nashville ‘72’ and early friendship with Guy and Susanna Clark. He drops lots of names of his musician friends from that era, some of whom will be more familiar than others to the average listener. Susanna Clark’s recent death may perhaps have sparked off this nostalgic mood, and ‘Life Without Susanna’ addresses this sense of loss. While it is well written and clearly heartfelt, the rather histrionic vocals make it hard to listen to.
In another echo of times past, ex-wife Rosanne Cash joins Rodney on ‘It Ain’t Over Yet’, together with John Paul White, formerly half of Americana duo The Civil Wars. A rueful yet optimistic look at growing older partly inspired by Guy and Susanna, this is an excellent song which is being promoted as a single:
It’s like I’m sittin’ at a bus stop waitin’ for a train
Exactly how I got here is hard to explain
My heart’s in the right place,
what’s left of it I guess
My heart ain’t the problem,
It’s my mind that’s a total mess
With these rickety old legs and these watery eyes
It’s hard to believe that I could pass for anybody’s prize
And here’s what I know about
The gifts that God gave
You can’t take ’em with ya
When you go to the grave
The funky ‘I Don’t Care Anymore’ is also about growing older, and no longer bothering about appearances or what others think.
An unexpected guest is Sheryl Crow, who duets with Rodney on ‘Tied To Ya’ which he wrote with Irish musician Michael McGlynn. This is a kind of love song with a pretty melody and rather vague spiritual but not religious lyrics. I much preferred the delicately understated pensive ‘Forgive Me Annabelle’, about a former love and his own past failings, set to a beautiful string arrangement. ‘Reckless’ is a song about dreaming about cheating on a true love, with another classical style arrangement.
‘Storm Warning’, a co-write with poet Mary Karr, with whom Crowell collaborated on his album Kin a few years ago, is an intense description of a tornado, but (while entirely appropriate for the song) it is a bit loud and cluttered for me to actually enjoy. In contrast, the mellow, poetic ‘Forty Miles From Nowhere’ is lovely.
I don’t think I would call this album country, and maybe not even Americana. But it is an excellent, mature piece of work.
Grade: A
When discussing country music released in the late 1980s, it’s almost customary to frame it within the context of the new traditionalist movement. But it’s easy to overlook the fact that not every artist releasing albums at that time adhered to the sound ushered in by Randy Travis on Storms of Life. Acts like Alabama, K.T. Oslin, Rosanne Cash and others were sticking with the pop-country sound that had dominated the better part of the decade. These artists were not only going against the trend, they were dominating at radio alongside everyone else.
You can easily add Sawyer Brown to this category, as well. Their fourth album, Somewhere In The Night, arrived in May 1987 under the direction of Ron Chancey. He had taken over for Randy Scruggs who wouldn’t produce a Sawyer Brown album until The Boys Are Back, two years later. Many know Chancey’s son Blake from his notable production work with David Ball, Dixie Chicks, Montgomery Gentry and Gretchen Wilson in the 1990s-2000s.
Sawyer Brown wasn’t exactly dominating at this point in their career. When Somewhere In The Night was released, the band was on a streak of six consecutive singles missing the top 10. Their most recent, “Savin’ The Honey for the Honeymoon” has petered out at #58. They needed a reverse in fortunes, and while this wasn’t the album to get them there, it did give them a slight reprieve with radio.
The title track, co-written by Don Cook and Rafe VanHoy, had originally appeared on the Oak Ridge Boys classic Fancy Free six years earlier. Sawyer Brown’s version retains a 1980s sheen, complete with dated harmonies and synth piano, but is otherwise an excellent and restrained ballad. The track peaked at #29.
The album’s biggest success came when second single “This Missin’ You Heart of Mine” peaked at #2. The ballad, co-written by Mike Geiger and Woody Mullis, is a wonderful example of the other side of late 1980s country music. While it might sound a bit dated today, the production is nicely restrained with Chancey framing their harmonies beautifully.
Kix Brooks, Kenneth Beal, and Bill McClelland are responsible for the album’s final single, “Old Photographs,” which stalled at #27. The lush ballad isn’t a strong one, a bit of filler that never would’ve made it as a single in any other era.
“In This Town,” co-written by Tom Shapiro and Michael Garvin, would’ve made a fantastic choice for a single, and probably would’ve sailed up the charts behind “This Missin’ You Heart of Mine.” Everything about the ballad is on point, from the melody to the harmonies.
Somewhere In The Night contains its share of uptempo material, so it’s curious why the label didn’t see fit to break the ballad fatigue with one of these tracks. Two such songs were solely penned by Dennis Linde. “Dr. Rock N. Roll” is a slice of catchy slick pop while “Lola’s Love” is a nice dose of country-rock. The latter is the better song, and as a single for Ricky Van Shelton from his 1994 album Love and Honor, it peaked at #62. Linde also wrote “Still Life In Blue,” a mid-tempo ballad with dated accents of synth-pop.
The percussion-heavy “Little Red Caboose” was written by Steve Gibson and Dave Loggins and recorded by Lee Greenwood on his 1985 release, Love Will Find Its Way To You. The results are catchy and brimming with personality.
“Still Hold On” was originally released by its co-writer Kim Carnes in 1981 and Kenny Rogers in 1985. The ballad soars, thanks to Mark Miller’s vocal, which is an outstanding example of pathos that hints at the gravitas he would bring to the band’s 1990s hits “All These Years” and “Treat Her Right.”
The final track, “A Mighty Big Broom” was written solely by Miller. It’s the album’s most adventurous track, with a rock-leaning arrangement and a silly lyric.
When approaching Somewhere In The Night, I fully expected not to be able to pick out the Sawyer Brown I know from this set of songs. I came to the band like all my country music, in 1996, long after “The Walk” had revolutionized their sound and grounded them with depth and substance. So I was surprised I could hear subtle hints of what the band would eventually become, on this album. It’s a stellar project through and through, with a nice batch of above average material.
Grade: A
The celebrity marriage is the stuff of legend in country music, where iconic pairs either come together as the loves in each other’s lives or break apart as fame and fortune stuck their formidable wedge where it shouldn’t belong. The success rate hasn’t been high, which should be expected, from pairs in such an industry.
One such union is that of Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash. The pair met when he produced three tracks on her European-Only debut album. She would venture to California to play with his band The Cherry Bombs. They married in 1979 and had their first child in 1980 and moved to Nashville the following year. Cash and Crowell would divorce in 1992.
They’re back together twenty-five years later for “It Ain’t Over Yet,” which finds Crowell tracing their love story in song, from his perspective:
For fools like me who were built for the chase
It takes a right kind of woman to help you put it all in place
It only happened one in my life but man, you should have seen
Her hair two shades of foxtail red
Her eyes some far-out sea blue-green
With stark honesty, he goes on to blame himself for their demise:
I got caught up making a name for myself
You know what that’s about
One day your ship comes rolling in
The next day it rolls right back out
And you can’t take for granted
None of this shit
The higher up you fly boys
The harder it is you’re gonna get hit
Cash takes the reins on the final verse:
I’ve known you forever and ever and ever it’s true
If you came by it easy you wouldn’t be you
You make me laugh
You make me cry
You make me forget myself
I do love the message that in love as in life, we’re only human:
It ain’t over yet
Ask someone who oughta know
Not so very long ago
We were both hung out to dry
It ain’t over yet
You can mark my word
I don’t care what you think you heard
We’re still learning how to fly
It ain’t over yet
There’s so much about this song to admire. “It Ain’t Over Yet” is devoid of animosity, which is remarkable, and paints time as an almighty healer. Crowell, as a songsmith, has never been sharper with his imagery or conviction.
The record itself, though, suffers from overcrowding. As much as I admire John Paul White’s contributions, and his buttery vocal is gorgeous, what is he doing here? He plays an intermediary in an intimate moment that would’ve ultimately shone brighter if it were left to Crowell and Cash alone. That version would’ve been transcendent. This one is a hair slightly below, although still very much worthy.
Grade: A-
The mid-1980s found Crystal Gayle shifting record labels yet again. Elektra shuttered in 1982 during the chart reign of True Love, which Razor X reviewed earlier this week. Another significant shift was the addition of Jimmy Bowen, who shared a producer credit with Allen Reynolds.
By the time Cage The Songbird came along in October 1983, Gayle was recording for Warner Bros. exclusively with Bowen, who had officially taken over for Reynolds after ten albums. The resulting record was squarely within the trends of the era, following the likes of Rosanne Cash and Emmylou Harris by featuring a Rodney Crowell song, which by this time had become one of the hottest songwriters in Nashville. The album also featured cuts by Elton John and Hugh Prestwood among others, and while it maintained a glossy sheen, Cage The Songbird was loaded with well-chosen material.
The Prestwood cut, which opened the album, was issued as the lead single. “The Sound of Goodbye” is an excellent and bright uptempo contemporary number that ranks among my favorites of hers. It hit #1, as did the album’s third single, Tim Krekel’s lightweight rocker “Turning Away.” Gayle just missed the top spot with “I Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love,” an adult contemporary-leaning piano ballad by Joey Carbone. The fourth and final single, “Me Against The Night,” a nice mid-tempo ballad, peaked at #4.
Crowell, who was Gayle’s labelmate at the time, contributed “Victim or a Fool,” a ballad he recorded on his eponymous album two years earlier. Gayle brought an urgency to her version, courtesy of the electric guitars and driving tempo, that contrasted with the sadness Crowell highlighted with his interpretation. Both recordings are interesting although you can’t ignore Gayle’s commercial sheen – the lyric is all but buried beneath the noise.
John supplied the title track, a ballad he wrote with Bernie Taupin and Davey Johnstone. The lyric, which recounts a celebrity’s tragic life and death, was a reimagining of Édith Piaf’s passing as if she had committed suicide. The tone may be grim, but Gayle delivers a gorgeous performance of a spectacular song.
“Take Me Home” was lifted from the soundtrack of a Francis Ford Coppola movie of the same name. The album consisted of duets and solo performances by Gayle and Tom Waits, who composed the songs himself. The ballad is stunning and excused from not being country at all, thanks to its origin.
Norman Saleet, another composer far outside the country realm, shows up on Cage The Songbird with “On Our Way To Love,” a ballad outside of my tastes. Saleet is best known for writing Air Supply’s “Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)” and you can hear that influence in the melody here as well.
Of the prominent producers in country music through the years, I probably like Bowen’s work the least. He’s not distasteful to his artists, but his bland tendencies have marred his work significantly. His choices aren’t in the least bit country, either, which probably aids in my overall dissatisfaction. To that end, I really wanted to enjoy Cage The Songbird and I do find many of the album’s tracks, especially “The Sound of Goodbye” very appealing. But while I can mostly appreciate the crossover aspects, the majority of the ballads just don’t hold my attention.
Grade: B
Tammy Wynette, once again, teamed with Billy Sherill for her third album, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, released in 1968. It would be Wynette’s first chart-topping album, fueled by the success of the now-classic title track.
The Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman penned ballad was Wynette’s fastest rising single to date and quickly topped the charts. She had gained a reputation for selecting material highlighting the woman’s perspective, a fascist sorely lacking in mainstream country music at the time. I first became familiar with the song through Rosanne Cash, who recorded a more contemporary take for Tammy Wynette Remembered following her death in 1998.
As was customary at the time, the album features a bevy of covers. Wynette turns in a rather strong rendition of “Gentle On My Mind” and a fantastic cover of “Honey,” which I’d never heard from a woman’s perspective before. I wasn’t as crazy about “Yesterday,” which with a country arrangement just doesn’t work. “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde,” however, is one of the record’s strongest cuts. “Sweet Dreams,” on the other hand, is much too maudlin for my tastes.
George Richey, Wynette’s widower co-wrote “Come On Home,” an excellent ballad about an ‘old faithful’ wife perfectly content with her husband’s cheating. Sherrill co-wrote “Kiss Away,” a fabulous steel-soaked showcase for Wynette’s impressive vocal range. The jaunty “When There’s A Fire In Your Heart,” also wonderful, was co-written by Merle Kilgore. The final cut, “Lonely Street,” another very good ballad, was co-written by country singer Carl Belew.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E is the rare 1960s country album that hits all the right notes. The covers worked well with Wynette’s voice and I really liked the arrangements. If you haven’t heard this one before, I highly recommend seeking it out.
Grade: A
Asleep At The Wheel released their fourth live album, Back To The Future Now: Live At Arizona Charlie’s Las Vegas back in May 1997. The project, consisting of twelve tracks, opened with a spirited take on “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens.” They followed with “Miles and Miles of Texas” and “Roly Poly,” and “Ida Red,” which are equally excellent and feature guest vocals from Tracy Byrd.
The album was culled from a club date in December 1996. The sound of the concert captures the intimacy of the night perfectly, and there truly isn’t a wasted moment in the whole set. I very much enjoyed their spirited reading of “My Baby Thinks He’s A Train,” a song I tend to associate solely with Rosanne Cash’s hit recording. They tear through the Moon Mullican classic “Cherokee Boogie” and more than prove their prowess on “Fat Boy Rag.”
“The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” is a highlight and one of the strongest additions to their set. “Hot Rod Lincoln” is far more charged than the most traditional fare but the breakneck lyric fits in just fine. They also stun on “Boggie Back to Texas” and album closer “House of Blue Lights.”
The centerpiece of the show is the set’s sole ballad, “God Bless The Child.” The song is perfection, clocking in at seven plus minutes. It also uses the fullness of the band in all its glory. There aren’t enough good things I can say about the project, one I strongly recommend. It may be redundant as far as Asleep At The Wheel live albums go, but on its own, it’s definitely worth seeking out.
Grade: A
Asleep At The Wheel recorded their only album for MCA Nashville in 1985. The project, their second to be self-titled, didn’t have any singles released to radio. The album features an eclectic selection of material, interspersing covers and original tunes.
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys originally recorded three of the album’s songs. The versions found here are excellent, with “Deep Water” and “Your Red Wagon” being highlights. Junior Brown provides Lap Pedal Steel on the former, his first recorded appearance. I also enjoyed “Across The Alley From the Alamo” even though I don’t have a connection to the Texas landmark.
I was disappointed in opening number “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” a traditional song that typically shreds much harder than their slightly somber interpretation. Chris O’Connell joins Benson for a duet of John Hiatt’s “This Is The Way We Make A Broken Heart,” a tune Rosanne Cash would take to #1 a few years later.
O’Connell is similarly terrific singing lead on both Paul Young’s sinister “Baby” and the rip-roaring “Switchin’ In The Kitchen.” Willie Nelson contributes harmonies to his “Write Your Own Songs,” a lyric he penned in response to the record executives who dared interfere with his artistic process. The final two numbers, “Liar’s Moon” and “Shorty” are Benson originals and both are quite good.
There exists a dated sheen to this album, which is to be expected given its age (it was released 31 years ago). But the musicianship and their tightness as a band nicely shine through the slightly warmed over tones. I don’t regard Asleep At The Wheel as an exceptional album, but it is very, very good and worth seeking out.
Grade: A
1956 (Sales): Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford (Capitol)
1956 (Jukebox): Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford (Capitol)
1956 (Disc Jockeys): Sixteen Tons — Tennessee Ernie Ford (Capitol)
1966: Giddyup Go — Red Sovine (Starday)
1976: Convoy — C.W. McCall (MGM)
1986: Never Be You — Rosanne Cash (Columbia)
1996: It Matters to Me — Faith Hill (Warner Bros.)
2006: Jesus, Take The Wheel — Carrie Underwood (Arista)
2016: Die a Happy Man — Thomas Rhett (Valory)
2016 (Airplay): Die a Happy Man — Thomas Rhett (Valory)
1955 (Sales): I Don’t Care — Webb Pierce (Decca)
1955 (Jukebox): I Don’t Care — Webb Pierce (Decca)
1955 (Disc Jockeys): I Don’t Care — Webb Pierce (Decca)
1965: Is It Really Over — Jim Reeves (RCA)
1975: Feelin’s — Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty (MCA)
1985: I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me — Rosanne Cash (Columbia)
1995: Someone Else’s Star — Bryan White (Asylum)
2005: Mississippi Girl — Faith Hill (Warner Bros.)
2015: House Party — Sam Hunt (MCA)
2015 (Airplay): House Party — Sam Hunt (MCA)
Whether the medium is literature, film or music, sequels rarely live up to the reputations of the original projects they follow. For that reason and because both Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell have been known to experiment with a variety of musical styles, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I heard that they were teaming up for a second duets album. While The Traveling Kind isn’t quite as good as 2013’s Old Yellow Moon, it’s an example of a sequel done properly. It also, thankfully, finds them sticking more closely to their country roots than many of their post-commercial peak projects.
Recorded in Nashville last July and produced by Joe Henry, The Traveling Kind consists of eleven tracks. Rodney had a hand in writing nine of them, three of which include Emmylou as a co-writer. While I didn’t much care for the bluesy “Weight of the World”, their other two compositions (with co-writer Corey Chisel — the title track and the steel guitar-laden “You Can’t Say We Didn’t Try”, are excellent. I particularly enjoyed the duo’s take on “No Memories Hangin’ ‘Round”, Rodney’s 1979 composition that was originally a Top 20 hit for Rosanne Cash and Bobby Bare.
My favorite track is “Just Pleasing You”, a Crowell co-write with Mary Starr that sounds a lot like an old Hank Williams song with a tune that faintly resembles “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)”. Almost as good is “If You Lived Here You’d Be Home Now”. Both are sure to please fans who miss the way country music used to sound.
Only two tracks come exclusively from outside songwriters: “I Just Wanted To See You So Bad” is an uptempo and quite enjoyable Lucinda Williams song, and “Her Hair Was Red”, is a Celtic-tinged number by Amy Allison which is a perfect vehicle for Emmylou.
The entire album is tastefully and sparsely produced, with an emphasis on acoustic instruments, with very little assistance from backing vocalists. Unlike a lot of “duet” projects, Harris and Crowell actually sing with — as opposed to around — each other. It is a quiet album that never allows the production to get in the way of the songs. I highly recommend it for fans of both artists, as well as for any country fans are dissatisfied with modern country radio’s typical offerings.
Grade: A
My Kind of Country 