You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2009.
Click to listen
Sept. 30: In the 1930s, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys perfected the fusion of hillbilly, pop, jazz and blues known as Western Swing. By the time they laid this one down in Chicago 73 years ago today, they were the king of the Southwestern dance bands.
Click to listen
Sept. 29: Jerry Lee Lewis turns 74 today, which is as good a reason as any to dip into his wonderful country catalog from the late 1960s. They call him The Killer, a word that also describes this song. He recorded for Smash, a word that also describes this record.
Click here to listen
Sept. 28: You’re more likely to know this song from George Strait’s chart-topping version in 1988. But go back 34 years from there and you’ll find this honky-tonk classic by “the Singing Sheriff,” Faron Young.
Click to listen
Sept. 27: Among country’s schlock-slayers of the mid-1980s, Randy Travis stands tall. “On The Other Hand” is one of the seminal records of the genre’s neotraditionalist strain, even if getting there required two bites at the apple.
Sept. 26: Marty Robbins — one of country music’s finest and most versatile singers and adored by his fans — would have been 84 years old today. That calls for a triple gift from him to us: his classic cowboy ballad “El Paso” and its two sequels.
Click to listen
Sept. 25: It took father-daughter duo Royce and Jeannie Kendall many years and many miles to become an overnight success. But they caught fire in 1977 with this catchy number that really stood out on the radio.
Click to listen
Sept. 24: “Look who’s coming through the door … I think we’ve met somewhere before,” Hank Snow sang at his recording session on this date in 1973. The next words were the song’s title, but they could easily have been “hello, hit record.” Because that’s what “Hello Love” was to become: a surprise No. 1 in the twilight of his great career.
