If That Ain't Country

In this week's episode we're featuring the final album in Johnny Russell's six short years at RCA Records: "Here Comes Johnny Russell" (1975). A big man with a big heart and a big voice, Russell turned to songwriting in his mid-teens (mostly out of necessity) and in 1959 scored a B-side on Jim Reeves monster "He'll Have To Go". Russell's "In A Mansion Stands My Love" got the attention of Chet Atkins and it was that relationship which bore fruit many times over for the talented Mississippi entertainer. "Act Naturally" from Russell's pen proved highly lucrative when Buck Owens and a slew of others cut it in 1963 onwards, and he was soon hired to The Wilburn Brothers' Surefire Music where he worked for a number of years. Like many performers however, Russell wanted to sing - growing frustrated at his lack of opportunities he even moved back to California for a time before Atkins finally put him on RCA in 1971. Recognition in the form of several hits songs came Russell's way and his output over six years remained consistently strong. "Here Comes Johnny Russell" is an enjoyable listen and worthy of a feature this week.

In this week's episode we're traveling back to the mid-80s and remembering the two year, two album period where Reba McEntire could have staked her claim as the pre-eminent female voice of country's new traditional movement. Our feature album this week is 1985's "Have I Got A Deal For You", which continued Reba's sensational start for MCA Records (following up "My Kind Of Country" (1984)). Speaking of that period in her career in a later interview, Reba said: "I wanted steel guitar. I wanted fiddle. I didn’t want the orchestra coming in and playing on my songs. I wanted more country songs." And a move from Mercury to MCA saw that desire come to fruition - albums with well-selected songs dripping with steel guitar from Weldon Myrick and playful fiddle licks from fiddle maestro Johnny Gimble were hallmarks of Reba's material at this stage. As the new traditional movement really kicked into gear, however, McEntire's sound drifted further towards the pop charts and by the end of the decade 1985's "Have I Got A Deal For You" was ancient history. But what a history - let's explore!

In this week's episode we're cherry-picking the best hard country cuts from our twin feature albums on Roy Drusky: "Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2" [1965, 1968]. Blessed with a heckuva radio voice, when Drusky's baseball dream didn't materialise he found work as a DJ at several stations before coming to prominence as a songwriter. Hits with Faron Young and others in the late 50s eventually lead to a contract with Shelby Singleton's Mercury outfit in 1963. Seen largely as Mercury's answer to Eddy Arnold, Roy Drusky's smooth baritone fell firmly into the country crooner category; a subgenre out of favour with country fans today (a fact which might explain Drusky's relatively obscurity despite his success). However, with a keen ear for a good country song, Roy Drusky cut a number of great traditional country songs during his 60s heyday and we'll pull 'em out for ya this week!

In this week's episode we're jumping in the semi and travelling north to get our twang on with Winnipeg's Sean Burns & Lost Country. One of only a handful of traditional country acts playing that city, Burns and the band stayed busy in 2020. In between lockdowns they managed a Bakersfield EP and our feature album this week: an all big rig affair on "We Gotta Lotta Truckin' To Do" (2020). Anchored by Burns' unique and in-your-face delivery (bending notes within an inch of their lives), Lost Country race through a familiar-yet-fresh set of 13 truckin' covers (including one original). Leaning on the legends of this high-energy subgenre, renditions of songs made famous by Dave Dudley, Red Sovine, Del Reeves, Dick Curless and The Willis Brothers will keep your eyes wide and on the road. Recorded at their home away from home in the historic Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club in Winnipeg, "We Gotta Lotta Truckin' To Do" is a twangalicious and infectious slice of Sean Burns & Lost Country live and we couldn't help but include the whole dang thing in this week's show.

Red Steagall maintains that he was twenty-five years old before he knew anything other than mesquite trees, buffalo grass, barbed wire and Bob Wills. But after a move from his Texas Panhandle home to Hollywood in 1965, Steagall learnt quickly. During twenty years in the music business he worked with many of the biggest artists, producers, songwriters and musicians in country history. From running the West Coast office of United Artists Records to pitching songs to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin with Jimmy Bowen as part of Amos Publications, Steagall learnt the ropes from the business end. His own solo career never reached the heights it should have and though he might not be a national household name, Steagall's western swing-infused country music catalogue remains sorely overlooked: from a box of 45RPM singles, this week's show is a deep dive into Steagall's cavernous body of work and a chance to re-discover "Texas Red".

Gifted with perfect pitch, technique and vocal control, Dawn Sears remains a criminally underappreciated country talent. There were few voices in recent memory quite like Sears': every time she opened her mouth to sing, you could see her soul. This week it's a stack of Dawn Sears at her country best - from two major label albums, one independent a couple with western swingers The Time Jumpers, Sears' career is thoroughly worth revisiting.

Big, bright, bold, vivid, colourful and appealing - it could only be a Starday album! And that's what we've got this time for another piece of bonus content this week - usually exclusive to our Patreon members - it's called "COVER TO COVER", where we take a great traditional country album and play it right the way through, from front to back, in order and in full. And trust me when I say it's music you won't hear anywhere else - we specifically check to make sure our COVER TO COVER albums aren't on Spotify before featuring! Aside from the regular show, we'll be doing COVER TO COVER at least once a month for our Patreon members at any level and intermittently I will be releasing a COVER TO COVER episode as a podcast to you here, but for the most part, this feature is intended as a piece of bonus content - so enjoy! This time we go cover to cover on a typical Starday album for The Willis Brothers: "Road Stop: Juke Box Hits" (1965). The unmistakable high hillbilly harmony of The Willis Brothers found at home at Starday and they enjoyed their biggest hits in the early 60s, including (as on this album) plenty of cleverly-written uptempo novelty material.

In this week's episode we're featuring the first of three albums compiled on the sensational Curtis Potter on Heart Of Texas Records: "Them Old Honky Tonks". Plucked from a budding career in Abilene in his late teens, Potter joined Hank Thompson's legendary Brazos Valley Boys as frontman and bass player and released his first solo album on Hank T.'s own label (Dot) in 1971. A working relationship with legendary producer and songwriter Ray Pennington began in about 1974 at RCA, but by the mid 80s Potter found himself without a contract. Initially co-founded by Pennington with the intention of giving Curtis Potter a home to record at, Step One Records was formed in 1984 and in those mid 80s, Potter and Pennington were busy in studio. The majority of that material, for whatever reason, remained unreleased until Pennington handed it over (with his blessing) to Potter, who sought to have it released at Heart Of Texas Records. Transferred untouched from the original reel-to-reel tapes, "Them Old Honky Tonks" became the first of three compiled albums from Potter's mid 80s time at Step One on Heart Of Texas: heavy on the honky tonk shuffles and heavy on twin fiddles and steel guitar. Curtis Potter, as a student of the "Ray Price school of singing", is in fine voice on this collection - unearthed from a period when Potter and Pennington were making some of the finest hard country music never heard until now.

NB. Big thanks to Justin Trevino for the help in compiling this episode!

In this week's episode we're featuring an album from the commercial peak of singing cowboy Chris LeDoux: "Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy" (1992). LeDoux's talent with a cowboy song earnt him a loyal fanbase and impressive sales as an independent artist over 22 albums in the 18 years to 1990. However, legitimate national stardom eluded him until a young Garth Brooks namechecked his idol in "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" in 1989. Though radio barely allowed him a "hit", LeDoux's fanbase only continued to grow on the back of his signing with Liberty/Capitol as well as his relatable and sometimes high-energy material and stage show. Despite pyrotechnics and coast-to-coast touring, LeDoux remained a humble, down-to-earth and sometimes shy family man who's inspiration for music remained in the sport of rodeo, his wife, kids and life in The West.

In this week's episode we're featuring a killer all-original album from classic country torchbearer Dale Watson: "Whiskey Or God" (2006). After stints in Houston, Los Angeles and Nashville, Watson ended up in Austin, Texas around the time a record deal with Hightone came to fruition in the mid 90s. Over the next decade or so, Watson established himself in that city as a very popular draw and around the world as a staunch traditionalist whose music hails back to a time when Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash ruled the airwaves. The five or six years leading up to "Whiskey Or God" were tough for Watson - his girlfriend's sudden passing in 2000 was the catalyst for a particularly rough stretch - and there was even very serious talk about giving up music for good. Thankfully, Watson was able to turn it around and "Whiskey Or God" proved he hadn't missed a beat. Fourteen all-original and sensationally twangy tracks made it exceptionally hard to narrow down the playlist for this week's show: highlights incude a handful of two-step floor fillers like "Sit, Drink And Cry" and "It Hurts So Good"; a cut later found on the "Truckin' Sessions" trilogy twangs to perfection on "No Help Wanted" and the cajun fiddle and Watson's Lone Stars rip through the infectious "I Ain't Be Right, Since I've Been Left". "Whiskey Or God" is just another Dale Watson album. They're all that good.