If That Ain't Country

In this week's episode we're featuring an irresistible live album from Hank Thompson & The Brazos Valley Boys: "At The Golden Nugget" (1961). Recorded over two nights in March of '61 during a six-week, six-night-per-week stint at Vegas' famous Golden Nugget Gambling Hall & Casino, Thompson & band are at the top of their game. Steel Guitar Hall Of Famer Bobby Garrett once said that his three years with Hank Thompson & The Brazos Valley Boys (1960-1963) was the highlight of his illustrious career. On "At The Golden Nugget" we are treated to a prime example of the musical innovation, tight musicianship and infectious brand of western swing and honky tonk that made Thompson so popular during his 50s and 60s heyday. The set list incorporates incendiary instrumental breaks and solos from the accomplished band, delightful casino ambience and Thompson's friendly disposition during and between songs. A glittering example of Billboard magazine's "Top Country & Western Touring Band" at their very peak.

In this week's episode we're featuring the first album in seven years for JD Crowe & The New South: "Lefty's Old Guitar" (2006). Never one to be rushed into releasing new material, banjo institution JD Crowe worked more than six years of road and bluegrass festival dates with the nucleus of The New South's line up in perfecting this album. Rickey Wasson is superb on lead vocals for the first time in his tenure with Crowe and Dwight McCall on mandolin and occasional lead offers fine accompaniment. Pioneering since his days with Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys, Crowe again brought in Steel Guitar Hall Of Famer Doug Jernigan on several tracks on "Lefty's Old Guitar" (including the title track) and the album's classic country overtones are deliciously plain to hear. A wistful cover of Max D. Barnes' "In My Next Life" (also recorded by Merle Haggard) is the jewel in the crown of this fine collection; a cut from hard country gem Wayne Kemp is an excellent addition in "She Knows When You're On My Mind Again" and a romping cover from fellow Kentucky banjo legend Red Spurlock on "Loneliness" is only a taste of some of JD Crowe & The New South's finest work since the 70s.

In this week's episode we're featuring the second album (of three) for Michigan's Larry Ballard: "Honky Tonk Heaven Is A Hell Of A Place To Be" (1976). "Discovered" and produced by the legendary Pete Drake, there is precious little information out there about Larry Ballard's three albums for Capitol in the 70s. The second of those, however, features some of the finest country singer/songwriter material you've never heard of. With audible ties to multiple genres a la Gary Stewart of the same era, it's no surprise to learn Ballard has a background in rock 'n' roll. Once the switch to country came, Drake assembled a fine studio group to back Larry Ballard and the steel strains of Paul Franklin are simply delightful. Pictured in a cafe corner booth on the front of the album nursing a half-empty beer, cigarette in hand staring wistfully out the window, such classic country imagery doesn't lead us astray: "Honky Tonk Heaven" has plenty to like for listeners willing to dig past the big names in the record bin.. and it makes you wonder why Ballard seemingly disappeared after 1977.

In this week's show we're featuring a duet album that time forgot - Kitty Wells & Red Foley and their "comeback" LP on Decca: "Together Again" (1967). First paired together on a record label hunch in 1953/54 in Springfield, Missouri while Foley was hosting the popular Ozark Jubilee TV show - three singles were released on Wells/Foley and all were hits. A full LP followed but busy schedules meant it wasn't until 1967 that the two were truly "together again" for our feature album. On paper, Kitty Wells' high-pitched hillbilly warble and Red Foley's buttery-smooth baritone seems an odd pairing. But it just works. Three singles from the album charted and those cuts were Foley's first (and last) to do so in almost eight years. A somewhat poignant posthumously-released of Scotty Wiseman's "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" became Foley's last single after his passing in 1968, and Wells/Foley's final duet album serves as a pleasing reminder of the talents of two of country's elders (even in 1967) past their respective commercial (but not vocal) peaks.

This week we're celebrating 400 episodes (!) of the show by playing a stack of that twangy, steel-rich brand of country music known as The Bakersfield Sound. We'll pack in as much West Coast country as we can this week til we run out of time - a tonne of the big Bakersfield names right through to the less-than-household figures. From Buck Owens and Merle Haggard to Roy Nichols and Tommy Collins - it's our Bakersfield Birthday Bash and it's gonna be twangalicious! Yes, that's a word (as of now).

In this week's episode we're featuring a mid-80s album on for the always-country Moe Bandy: "Motel Matches" (1984). Bandy made traditional country music and rarely deviated from it. Respected country historian Bill Malone called Moe Bandy's music "a breath of fresh air through the fetid morass of country pop" - and even though it was 1984, "Motel Matches" was more of the same. Throughout his career thus far, Bandy had specialised in hard country songs about drinking and cheating (often depicted in the artwork on some of country's most glorious album covers) and a good chunk of our feature album is firmly in his wheelhouse once more. A relationship with songwriter Whitey Shafer which began with "Bandy The Rodeo Clown" and "I Just Started Hating Cheating Songs Today" in the early 70s continues with "In Mexico" and "Don't Start Me Cheatin' Again". Other highlights include one of two singles in "It Took A Lot Of Drinkin' (To Get That Woman Over Me)" and a comfortable song for Bandy (a 2007 Texas Rodeo Hall Of Fame inductee) in "The Horse That You Can't Ride".

In this week's episode we're featuring a sterling album from the son of a western legend in Rex Allen, Jr.: "Ridin' High" (1976). His Daddy was Rex Allen Sr - "The Arizona Cowboy" or "The Golden Voice" - and he remained an overarching figure throughout his son's career. Blessed with the same set of incredibly rich vocals as his father, Rex Allen. Jr became a truly country AND western performer, earning a string of mainstream hits in the 70s and 80s as well as induction into the Western Music Hall Of Fame in 2008. "Ridin' High" has Allen's wonderful voice on full display - not an uptempo album by any means but one which fits like a glove. Steel guitar from Pete Drake compliments Allen's version of "Teardrops In My Heart" (cut by his Daddy in 1947); the sultry "While The Feeling's Good" would give Conway Twitty a run for his money; the mournfully guilty "I Love Everything I Get My Hands On" sits sensationally next to a couple of old western classics in "Streets Of Laredo" and "San Antonio Rose". A snapshot of Rex Allen, Jr. at his finest.

In this week's episode we're featuring the third and final album on Giant Records for Daryle Singletary: "Ain't It The Truth" (1998). One of the 90s finest and loudest voices for traditional country music, Singletary was only with Giant a short time and was dropped from it's roster following this album's three singles lacklustre chart performance. The year before it's release, Giant Records had been restructured and Singletary was rightly nervous about his position - however, when president Doug Johnson saw the Georgia baritone perform Randy Travis' "1982" and Vern Gosdin's "Do You Believe Me Now" at Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon, he was sold. There was genuine label hype around "Ain't It The Truth" - plenty of speak of a "career record" and "The Note" was supposed to be a big smash, but none of that happened. However, Singletary's third and last record for Giant gives us a taste of what was to come: a hardcore country traditionalist slipping into the shoes of a torchbearer for a cause and an artform, which is what he remained until his terribly sad passing in 2018. Sterling stuff from a legend.

In this week's episode we're focusing on "The Man Behind The Music": the prolific songwriting talent and success of Oklahoma's Roger Springer. A diehard Merle Haggard fan since his teens, Springer was born and raised around Caddo, OK and at age 28 in the late 80s, he quit his job at JC Potter Sausage Company and moved to Nashville. After a record deal fell through there was two choices ahead of Springer: go back to the sausage company or become a hit songwriter. Backtracking wasn't an option - so, taking notes from greats like Dean Dillon and Whitey Shafer, Springer began songwriting in earnest. Over the rest of the next decade, Roger Springer enjoyed several big hits with his good buddy and kindred spirit Mark Chesnutt, George Strait, Daryle Singletary, Wade Hayes and a host of the 90s best: from the decade of hats, mullets, square jaws we celebrate the songs of Roger Springer, some of the stories behind them and a good ol' boy who's down home ways and easy-going demeanour didn't seem changed in over three decades and counting in country music.

In this week's episode we're featuring Vern Gosdin's final charting album on Columbia: "Out Of My Heart" (1991). Already into his 50s by the time commercial success finally came his way in the 1980s and having suffered his share of setbacks, Gosdin's voice had aged to perfection by 1991. Described as "a walking heartache" by one reviewer, Gosdin's music during his commercial peak relied heavily on haunting background vocals - hearkening back to his history with brother Rex Gosdin in the 60s as some of the West Coast's finest harmony singers. With three divorces to draw from it was true that Gosdin's musical trademark was sorrow. And there are plenty of weepers on this week's feature album. The equally painful "A Month Of Sundays"; "The Song Wrote Itself" (while I cried) and the forlorn "The Bridge I'm Still Building On" have Vern in comfortable territory. But to see the lines on his face when Gosdin sang the exquisite and tragic "The Garden" on The Grand Ole Opry in 1991 is to understand the feeling the man put into his music and how he earned the nickname "The Voice".