You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2010.
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March 31
Why today? Kathy Mattea’s first Top 5 hit, a cover of a Nanci Griffith song, was released on this date in 1986.
About the record: Mercury 884573-7, recorded late 1985 in Nashville. Released March 31, 1986. Reached No. 3 on Billboard‘s country chart. Also appeared on Walk The Way The Wind Blows, Mercury 830405, released 1986. It reached No. 13 on Billboard‘s country album chart.
“This beautifully crafted song tells the love story of two ordinary people whose love survives the trials, the sorrows, the tragedies and the ups and downs that life throws at us.” That description, by British folk duo “jiva” on their Web site, sums it up pretty well. Mattea’s version was one of four Top 10s on her breakthough Walk The Way The Wind Blows album.
About the artist: Mattea did mighty well for herself back in the mid-’80s through the early ’90s. Her music was steeped in folk and bluegrass elements, but it was quite commercial. I remember a great talk-show special in 1992, hosted by Burt Reynolds from the stage of the Ryman Auditorium and featuring four of the top female country stars of the time: Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Lorrie Morgan and Kathy Mattea. She was coming off the emotionally powerful “Where’ve You Been,” and she more than held her own with her more established colleagues and with Reynolds. Check out her career story on Allmusic.com.
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March 30
Why today? Well, it was on this date in 1976 that the album Wanted: The Outlaws, which featured previously released material from edgy artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser, was certified gold. (It would become country music’s first platinum — that is, million-selling — album.) However, I looked at the song list and wasn’t feeling it. So I snagged one of my favorite Waymore numbers, from the following year. Blogger’s prerogative!
About the record: RCA PB-11118, recorded 1977 in Nashville. Released September 1977, reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart. Also appeared on Waylon & Willie, RCA Victor APL1-2686, released January 1978. Topped the Billboard country album chart.
To my mind, this Chips Moman and Bobby Emmons composition is the best song on the Waylon & Willie album. It was the final track on side two, and it’s always great when an album ends on a strong note. As for the album itself … it’s more hype than high note, although it topped the country chart and climbed to No. 12 on the pop album chart.
About the artist: Waylon Jennings’ journey through American popular music was interesting, to say the least. His “outlaw” ways make him a hero to those who criticize the Music Row music factory, and his raw talent should be clear to everyone. See for yourself, on his Allmusic.com biography.
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March 29
Why today? It’s the 124th anniversary of the day Coca-Cola — the pause that refreshes, the real thing, the stuff that things go better with — was first concocted down in Atlanta.
About the record: MCA 41041, recorded in the spring of 1979 at Glaser Sound Studio in Nashville. Released June 1979; reached the top of Billboard‘s country chart. Also appeared on Mr. Entertainer, MCA 3167, released 1979. Reached No. 21 on Billboard‘s country album chart.
How many times have we featured a performer who’s a fantastic writer turning someone else’s song into a hit? Well, here it is again. Mel Tillis has written some of country’s most memorable numbers, including “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” and “Heart Over Mind.” But not this — it came from the pen of Sandy Pinkard, half of the country comedy/parody team Pinkard & Bowden. And it’s a good record, especially for 1979. Wish I knew who played steel on it.
About the artist: Mel Tillis hails from Florida, sired Pam Tillis and is a former Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year. Those are just the highlights. Get a fuller picture by way of his Country Music Hall of Fame profile.
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March 26-28
Why today? In honor of Reba McEntire’s 55th birthday on Sunday, I’m playing my favorite of all the Oklahoma redhead’s work on this weekend edition of 3 Chords a Day.
About the record: MCA 52468, recorded July 1984 at The Music Mill studio in Nashville. Released September 1984; reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s country chart. Also appeared on the album My Kind Of Country, MCA 5516, released October 1984. It reached No. 13 on Billboard‘s country album chart.
About the artist: Reba McEntire, says William Ruhlmann in his Allmusic.com bio of her, “was the most successful female recording artist in country music in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time she scored 22 number one hits.” One of them was “How Blue,” which appeared on her most-country of albums.
We haven’t heard from her here in a long time; she was the fifth artist I featured on what then was 3 Chords and a Tweet, back in August. What I said then still holds true: “I’m not a love-every-song fan of Reba McEntire. But her good ones … are really good.” The featured song that day was “Somebody Should Leave,” the other No. 1 single contained on My Kind Of Country. That, and this, are good stuff.
Enjoy, and I’ll see you Monday.
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March 25
Why today? It’s the fourth anniversary of Buck Owens’ death – an event that came 47 years and two days after the release of “Second Fiddle,” his first charted single.
About the record: Capitol F4172, recorded Oct. 9, 1958, at the Capitol Tower studio in Hollywood. Released March 23, 1959; reached No. 24 on Billboard’s country chart. Also appeared on the album Buck Owens, Capitol T 1489, released Jan. 30, 1961.
As the liner notes to the reissue of that eponymous 1961 album attest, “[t]he sound that became the legend starts right here.” This was a few years before the classic Buckaroos lineup of Don Rich, Tom Brumley, Doyle Holly and Willie Cantu was assembled; the pickers you hear include the great Ralph Mooney on steel and Jelly Sanders on fiddle. Gotta love that shuffle, too. It may be forever associated with Ray Price, but Buck’s early Capitol sides did that familiar beat proud.
I’ve always liked the line “Like an early morning paper / the news you get just part.” These days, I have to say, it’s never been more true.
About the artist: Check out this and that previous 3 Chords a Day posts on Buck Owens and follow the links.
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March 24
Why today? This song started it all for Marty Robbins — the “A” side of his first single, released on this date in 1952.
About the record: Columbia 4-20925, recorded Nov. 14, 1951, at the Radio Recorders studio in Hollywood. Its first album appearance was on the first of several comprehensive Robbins reissue projects by Germany’s Bear Family Records.
About the artist: Columbia Records already had a singer in the Eddy Arnold mold — George Morgan — in the early 1950s. Yet here was Martin David Robinson, plowing the same ground on his first session for the label. Apparently the bosses, alerted to Marty Robbins by Little Jimmy Dickens, recognized what the young Arizonan could bring to the table and figured he could do more than croon country weepers. Indeed — he could sing anything, as he’d prove soon enough. Honky-tonk, rockabilly, Hawaiian, Western, traditional pop, Nashville Sound, countrypolitan … what a talent. And you don’t have to take it from me. Take it from Pete Townshend of The Who, by way of his gentle tribute to the great Marty Robbins.
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March 23
Why today? “Hello Darlin’,” one of the great country records of all time, was released on this date 40 years ago.
About the record: Decca 32661, recorded Nov. 18, 1969, at Bradley’s Barn studio in Mt. Juliet, Tenn. Released March 23, 1970. Reached the top of Billboard‘s country chart. Also was the closing track on the album Hello Darlin’, Decca DL7-5209, released June 1, 1970. Reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s country album chart.
About the artist: He took his stage name from a map of the Southwest (Conway, Ark., and Twitty, Texas). Like recently featured artist Charley Pride, he gained some prominence on the baseball diamond under his birth name, Harold Jenkins. He hung out briefly at Sun Records in Memphis, became an early rock ‘n’ roll star on MGM Records, then in the mid-’60s shifted labels (to Decca) and genres (to stone country). He wrote “Hello Darlin’” and made it his signature country song. Learn more about all that, and the great career that followed, from the good folks at the Country Music Hall of Fame, where he was enshrined posthumously in 1999.
