If That Ain't Country

In this week's episode, we're featuring the fourth and final album on Warner for 80s twangers Highway 101: "Bing Bang Boom" (1991). "Bing Bang Boom" was also the first album for the band after the departure of lead singer Paulette Carlson, who's husky vocal had defined Highway 101's music for the first four years of their existence. Instead, they employed Nikki Nelson to take the reins - and there are plenty of pundits who say that Nelson didn't stand up in the shoes left by Carlson. Perhaps not as an identifiable a vocal, admittedly - it's this reviewer's opinion that Nelson's voice fit Highway 101's sound wonderfully. The band loses nothing as they power through a set of neo-traditional tunes on "Bing Bang Boom" that ought to have performed better on the charts. Highway 101's best commercial days were behind them, but with highlights including the rollicking "Storm Of Love"; the twangalicious heartbreaker "River Of Tears"; a stellar version of "Restless Kind" before either Travis Tritt and Trisha Yearwood got to it and the aching "The Blame" - the foursome have smoothed over any cracks left by Paulette Carlson's departure.

In this episode, we're featuring the first Capitol LP for the booming baritone of Tony Booth: "The Key's In The Mailbox" (1972). Born in Florida, Booth relocated to New Mexico and even though his step-father was a steel guitarist, being a musician was not initially the intention for Tony Booth. Eyeing a career as a music teacher, once Booth got wind of the pay scale, he jokes, the life of an entertainer seemed a little more appealing. After graduating from venues in New Mexico to the Vegas circuit, Booth began playing California clubs with some regularity and in the late 60s/early 70s, The Tony Booth Band became the house band for the legendary Palomino Club in North Hollywood. Testament to his popularity were two wins as "Best Non-Touring Band" in 1970 and 1971 as well as "Most Promising Male Vocalist" in 1971 at the Academy Of Country Music Awards. A friendship with Buck Owens developed and with this first Capitol release, Booth stamps his own style on the Bakersfield Sound - which to this reviewer's ears, owes an awful lot to the dancehalls of Texas. After his Capitol days were through, Booth toured as bassist for a dozen years with Gene Watson's Farewell Party Band and was talked into performing again in 2006 by Heart Of Texas Records bossman Tracy Pitcox - and at the time of writing, Tony Booth was still going strong. This 1972 Capitol debut holds some true honky tonk gems from Booth at the top of his game: but rather than single out individual highlights, it might just be easier to say there aren't many duds on this stellar album, which has your toe tapping from woe to go.

In this week's episode we're featuring an excellent western swing/country music album from Houston's The Original River Road Boys: "Country Music High" (1985). Formed in 1971 by fiddlers Clyde Brewer & Bob White, The River Road Boys were extremely active in their first decade and a half - releasing nine albums prior to "Country Music High". We'll focus on the contribution of Clyde Brewer to the world of western swing in this episode: a man who grew up idolising Texas fiddle pioneer Cliff Bruner and who went to work with honky tonk pianoman Moon Mullican at the age of 17. A respected Texas and western swing musical historian, Clyde Brewer retired at the age of 55 from the Houston Public Works department in the year of our feature album's release to focus on The Original River Road Boys, and his dedication is apparent on this sensational collection of songs. With Jim Johnson on vocals and Dusty Stewart on steel, Brewer & the boys burn through a fresh and ridiculously danceable set of western swing and country music - highlights include a tribute to an iconic Texas Playboys western swing vocalist in "Ode To Tommy Duncan"; a fast-paced rendition of Cindy Walker's "You're From Texas"; a well-chosen cover of Bob Wills' "Go Home With The Girls In The Morning" and the blood-pumping title track. This is a group you won't hear from every day but who've earned their place in the history of western swing.

In this week's episode, we're featuring one of the best albums in the long career of Buck Owens: "Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard" (1961). Born in Detroit and barely receiving nine years of formal education, Harlan Howard relocated to Tucson then Los Angeles in the mid-fifties seeking a steady wage. It was there he was introduced to several early Bakersfield pioneers, including Wynn Stewart and Buck Owens. Extremely handy with a turn of phrase, Howard's stock skyrocketed when Charlie Walker cut "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down" and the following year Ray Price and Guy Mitchell's versions of "Heartaches By The Number" prompted a move to Nashville, where the songwriter earned the nicknames "The Irving Berlin Of Country Music", "Dean Of Nashville Songwriters" and "Mr. Songwriter". Few in country history have had as many hits with as many artists, and Howard's partnership with Buck Owens is legendary. This album, put out shortly after the third Owens/Howard hit in "Foolin' Around", has Buck covering several current hits from the pen of Harlan Howard, as well as many more from the deep songbook of the talented writer. Set in an era before the tele twang element of the Bakersfield sound had come to fruition and before Don Rich was let loose on harmony vocals - if you had to buy only one Buck Owens album, "Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard" may well be it.

In this week's episode, we're featuring a snapshot of Carl Vaughan's stint in Nashville: "The Monument Years" (1968-1972). Born in Cleburne, Texas, Vaughan took a job at the tender age of four on a local radio station and proved a very adept entertainer, playing over the next several decades to big crowds around the DFW area in some of the roughest bars and clubs on the circuit. During a very popular residency at "Rustler's Rest" in Fort Worth, where Vaughan and his band were playing and packing 'em in six nights a week, Nashville sent a producer down to see what all the fuss was about. A well received spec session followed in 1968, and suddenly Vaughan had offers on the table from five of country's biggest labels. He elected to sign with Fred Foster and Bob Moore's Monument Records and over the next four years were born some very successful singles that saw Carl Vaughan tour from coast to coast, playing most all major US cities and states and even Ronald Reagan's first inauguration celebration. Never having set out to be a musician, however, Vaughan moved back to Texas in '72 and dabbled in many business interests while keeping busy with music all the while. Our feature album this week is but a taste of Carl Vaughan's range and versatility in country music, which as we'll hear, continues to this day.

In this week's episode, we're featuring a solid traditional country release from the often overlooked career of Freddy Weller: "The Roadmaster" (1972). As a member of popular rock/pop act Paul Revere & The Raiders in the late 60s, it was his version of Joe South's "Games People Play" which shot him to country stardom. Weller never recaptured that level of fame but spent most of the 70s recording country to mixed commercial results. His hits dropped off completely after 1980, but as a writer he kept an iron in the fire and scored considerable success with a BMI one-million spinner in Reba McEntire's "They Asked About You" as well as "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers" for Bob Luman. Freddy Weller also co-wrote every SINGLE one of the tracks on "The Roadmaster" (frequently collaborating with Muscle Shoals session staple Spooner Oldham) and solid gold country cuts like "Bars Have Made A Prisoner Of Me", the dark but humorous "Ballad Of A Hillbilly Singer", some wonderful trembling steel in "An Oldie But A Goodie" and the kicking title track warrant a revisiting of Freddy Weller's underrated but extremely worthy place in country music history.

In this week's episode, we're featuring the first album in fourteen years from bayou-dweller John Mark Davis: "Bayou Self Sessions" (2018). John Mark Davis was gigging in and around the Beaumont/Port Arthur region in Texas at the same time that Mark Chesnutt, Tracy Byrd and Clay Walker were getting signed to major labels out of Nashville. They shared many of the same clubs, booking agents and contacts: the opportunity and talent to make it big was there. However the responsibility of a young family kept John Mark Davis living on the bayou, providing for a wife and two small children. Three decades later Davis' "Bayou Self Sessions" was born, an extraordinarily good collection of twelve traditional country tracks, including ten originals. Completed between Port-Neches, TX and Covington, GA and in direct consultation with his enthusiastic fanbase, this release runs the gamut from overwhelming tearjerkers to songs of hope and resilience; drinking anthems and tributes to the way it used to be. With prolific tele twang and steel guitar whine, highlights include the devastating "Love Me Back", another tearjerker written by John Mark Davis' younger brother Greg Chief Davis in "Together Alone" and the excellent harmonica cameo in "As Long As You Believe In Me". The timing wasn't right the first time around for John Mark Davis.. but it is now.

In this week's episode, we're featuring the one and only album in the decades-long career of Rose Lee Maphis: "Rose Lee Maphis" (1960). Well may you wonder how one is active in country music for over five decades and have only one album to your name, but the answer is a simple one: Rose Lee Maphis was one half of "Mr. & Mrs. Country Music" with husband and country guitar wizard Joe Maphis: the "King Of The Strings" as he was dubbed. Together they tore up the 50s and 60s as one of the most in-demand country music couple acts going and most all of Rose Lee's recorded output was with her husband, first on the West Coast as popular members of the "Town Hall Party" TV show in LA and later in Nashville after the Maphis clan relocated there in the late 60s. Joe Maphis passed away in 1986 but Rose Lee stayed in Tennessee and into her nineties could be found in downtown Nashville if you knew where to look. Thankfully her one foray into the studio as a solo act in 1960 was a memorable one and the wonderful amalgamation of mountain music, hillbilly and country/western was put into wax (and the history books) by Columbia. Take a listen to the hillbilly pedigree of this pioneering gal of country music with "musical accompaniment" from her late husband - highlights include the plaintive "Release Me"; the jumping guitar from her spouse in "My Curly-Headed Baby" and "Bury Me Beneath The Willow" and her take on the wonderful "Pins And Needles (In My Heart)".

In this week's episode we're featuring an all-star duet album from Hank Thompson: "Hank Thompson & Friends" (2018). Originally released on Curb Records but becoming out of print shortly afterwards, our feature album was expanded and re-released on Heart Of Texas Records in 2018. In 1996/97, at the time that the original sessions were laid down, Hank Thompson hadn't been in studio for almost a decade. He must've thought that was too long, because Thompson became the driving force for our all-star duet feature album and he rounded up some of the 90s biggest stars to contribute to this project. The voices of Vince Gill, Brooks & Dunn, Lyle Lovett, Tanya Tucker, Marty Stuart and others were in their prime at the time this album was recorded and Hank Thompson, a Country Music Hall Of Famer at 72, was sounding pretty dang good too. After his passing in 2007, Hank's widow Ann Thompson Womack and her husband Ray uncovered a DAT tape of the entire session - and with the help of Heart Of Texas' label boss Tracy Pitcox, it was discovered that two extra tracks had been omitted: a Joe Diffie collaboration on "Been Down That Road" and a solo track in "The Bluest Rose In Texas Tonight". Expanded, re-packaged and re-released in 2018, you can add "Hank Thompson & Friends" to your collection today at www.hillbillyhits.com. Highlights are plentiful, and a few of the best include the written-for-the-purpose duet with George Jones on "Hey George, Hey Hank"; Thompson's last single and music video in "Gotta Sell Them Chickens" with Junior Brown and the jewel in the crown is the trio of Hank T., Kitty Wells and Tanya Tucker reliving "The Wild Side Of Life/It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels". Country music history never sounded better.

In this week's episode we're featuring the only album from the short, mysterious and tragic career of Curtis Leach: "The Indescribable Curtis Leach" (1964). Born in Catoosa, Oklahoma just outside of Tulsa, Leach wrote his first song at age ten. After moving out to California, he began to be recognised for his prodigous songwriting talent and by the time the mid 1960s had rolled around, he'd had several songs recorded by Wynn Stewart, Bobby Bare, Buddy Cagle and others. On the strength of his 1964 single "Highway Man" (later recorded by Red Simpson and Ernest Tubb), which appeared on the Cash Box charts - he signed an exclusive songwriting contract with Dewey Groom, of Longhorn Records out of Dallas, Texas. And so was born our feature album - twelve tracks, all written or co-written by Curtis Leach speak to the level of country talent that he was. If not for a murky and untimely homocide on the front lawn of his residence in Mesquite, Dallas, Texas - there's little doubt that Curtis Leach could have gone places, because that man had country music talent in spades. Highlights include several wonderful recitations, such as "Golden Guitar" (a national hit for Bill Anderson merely months after Leach's passing); the Okie-pride in "Oklahoma, Home Of My Heart"; the magnificent and fuzzy "Wheelin' And Dealin'" and one which has appeared on many late 20th Century truck driving compilations, "Highway Man".