A blast of classic country ... once a day, every day
Nov. 28: Today’s the silver anniversary of what turned out to be Randy Travis’ audition for Warner Bros. Nashville. It happened at the Nashville Palace restaurant, where Travis was an employee who also sang. Two months after showcasing for Warner’s Martha Sharp, Travis begins recording. Here’s the story of his first No. 1 hit, off the killer album Storms Of Life.
Click to view Sept. 27 installment
Nov. 27: The movie Sling Blade opened in the United States 13 years ago today, giving audiences a taste of just how mean Dwight Yoakam could be when he put his mind to it. Maybe some of that meanness is what led Baby to bug out, prompting Dwight’s drawling lament: “Please, please, Baby baby, come back home.” Wonder if she has in mind for him what ol’ Billy Bob done?
Click to view the Oct. 23 installment
Nov. 26: Happy Thanksgiving from me at home in 2009 and Ernest Tubb at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in 1966, back when it was the Grand Ole Opry House. I don’t know what show this is from; by the looks of it, maybe an internal National Life & Accident Insurance Co. video. But whoever the audience back then for this performance of his Top 5 hit from 1963, E.T. proves he could command a stage even while standing in one spot.
Click to listen
Nov. 25: Who am I to argue with one of Nashville’s pre-eminent country music historians, Grand Ole Opry announcer and WSM-AM 650 DJ Eddie Stubbs. In his mind, label execs acquired a real treasure when old-line country singer turned proto-rocker Enos “Skeets” McDonald signed on, but they squandered it by failing to promote his material.
Stubbs said so on the air more times than I can count, often on either side of playing this fine honky-tonker. He must be right, because I know a fair bit about hillbilly history and had never even heard of the guy before I started tuning in to the Stubbs show. If you’re where I was then, listen up — you’re in for a treat.
Click to listen
Nov. 24: Johnny Paycheck’s 36-year career had its ups and downs, during stints as a stone honky-tonker, a strings-abetted countrypolitan and, by the time “Slide Off Your Satin Sheets” was released in 1977, an outlaw. The Billy Sherrill-produced gem doesn’t sound “outlaw” to me, but it did lead Paycheck out of a three-year-long trough in the charts.
Click player at left to listen. Recorded from Columbia LP in my collection.
Nov. 23: The history books tell us that Hank Williams wrote “Cold, Cold Heart” 59 years ago today. It was a huge hit for him, and dozens of others have recorded it, from Tony Bennett to Louis Armstrong to Norah Jones. But this is my all-time favorite version, a Ray Price album cut from 1964 that exemplifies for me the pinnacle of Nashville’s days as a recording center.
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Nov. 22: Last month we heard ol’ Conway at his honky-tonk finest on an early effort in the country phase of his career. Fast-forwarding 16 years to 1983, we find him in the studio on this date, laying down a wistful interpretation of a great Harlan Howard composition, and adding to his reputation as the best friend a song ever had.
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