Thursday March 10th, 2016 COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS

COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS

Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer

Thursday March 10th, 2016

Email: djdclassics@gmail.com


STORY BEHIND THE SONG


A lot of recordings have been defined as too pop – but still made the country
charts and according to Norro Wilson – Tammy Wynette's 1973 number one –
"Another Lonely Song" was one of those songs!

He commented: "Billy Sherrill and I wrote that song . That was my only Grammy
Award winning song. You know I didn't come from a pure country background. I
grew up singing in quartets. But my family listened to Rosemary Clooney and
Perry Como and all that. We didn't tune into the Grand Ole Opry when I was a
kid. But that doesn't mean you can't adapt to writing country songs."

"And Billy Sherrill came from about the same background - not all that involved
with country music. But we applied what we had learned to country music and that
song is an example of that. Billy was better than me in making those unique
chord changes. Now some folks might say that song was a little too pop - but it
was a hit anyway."

Tammy Wynette's Epic Records single "Another Lonely Song" came on the country
music charts December 29th, 1973 and made it to number one.

It was her 22nd charted song and on the charts for 15 weeks.

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MORE STORAGE ROOM FINDS:

OLD MAGAZINE ODDS AND ENDS: three copies of "No Depression" magazine – 2002
issue has a 14 page spread on Johnny Cash – June issue has a 12 page spread on
Ray Price – a 1995 issue of "Radio Ink" – 145 pages covering the 75th
anniversary of radio – six copies of "Country Music Reporter" – published in
Texas in the 1970's – two issues of "California Country" – 1970's music
magazine – a 1993 "StarQuest Magazine" – Eight issues of "MCA Notes," – news and
photos of MCA country artists from 1990 – ten issues of 1999 and 2000 edition of
"Country Music Greats Magazine" – info and photos of classic country greats
P-L-U-S a 143 page 1985 hardback edition of "History Of Country Music In
Hampton Roads." This is a history book of Virginia Beach WCMS Radio- plus
exclusive photos of all the classic country artists who appeared on the
station. Fifty Dollars - including Media Mailing – PayPal – Check OR Money
Order . PayPal email: djdclassics@gmail.com

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q: I have read that Glen Campbell is worse. Do you have an update?
A: Glen has been battling Alzheimer's disease since 2011, and according to the
latest update - he is now in Stage 7 of the disease and is no longer able to
verbally communicate.

Q: I'm a big Merle Travis fan and my son says the radio folks mentioned a
Merle Travis Guitar Day. Do you know anything about that?
A The Merle Travis Thumbpicking Weekend will take place at the Ozark Folk
Center May 12-14th - to celebrate the thumbpicking tradition made popular by
guitarist Merle Travis, the father of "Travis Picking." Events will include:
Beginning to advanced three-hour master classes taught by Shane Adkins (national
thumbpicking champion and performer), Kirby Easler (an up-and-coming protégé of
John Knowles), and Randy Buckner (performer/instructor and Merle Travis
historian). The fees for the master classes will also cover registration for the
contests and admission to the Friday & Saturday shows.

Q: Whatever happened to The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band? I haven't heard anything
about them in a long time.
A: To celebrate their 50th anniversary, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's concert
at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, filmed in the fall, is set to air on PBS
throughout March. The concert paired the NGDB with John Prine, Sam Bush, Vince
Gill, Rodney Crowell and Jerry Douglas, Jerry Jeff Walker, Alison Krauss and
Byron House, as well as former members Jimmy Ibbotson and Jackson Browne.

Q: My cousin says that Patsy Cline was killed in a car crash on her way home
from the Grand Ole Opry. I thought she was killed in a plane crash. Please
settle this.
A: Patsy Cline was killed in a plane crash on March 5th, 1963. On March 3rd,
1963, she performed three benefit shows at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial
Hall in Kansas City, Kan., to raise money for the family of DJ Jack "Cactus"
Hall, who had been killed in an automobile accident that January. Hawkshaw
Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, Dottie West, Billy Walker, George Jones and Wilma Lee and
Stoney Cooper also appeared at the benefit shows, which were intended to help
Hall's widow.
Her final song was a brand-new tune, "I'll Sail My Ship Alone," which she had
recorded in February. Following a standing ovation, Cline slept at the Town
House Motor Hotel, where she stayed until March 5, after weather prohibited her
from flying out any sooner. On March 5th, Cline, along with Cowboy Copas and
Hawkins, perished in a plane crash near Camden, Tenn., on their way back to
Nashville.

Q: A few weeks ago the radio guys were talking about Don Williams going on the
road for another tour and today they were talking about him retiring. Do you
have any information?
A: Don Williams has announced his retirement after six decades of making music
and entertaining. He commented, "It's time to hang my hat up and enjoy some
quiet time at home. I'm so thankful for my fans, my friends and my family for
their everlasting love and support." He was the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year in
1978 and "Tulsa Time" was the ACM Record of the Year for 1979. In 2010, Don was
inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Q: I have heard that Bill Anderson is writing a new book. Do you have any
information?
A: Bill will tell his life story in a new 360 page autobiography,
"Whisperin' Bill Anderson: An Unprecedented Life in Country Music," set for
September release. The book
shares memories of his radio broadcasting days, his time on the Grand Ole Opry
stage with other legends and being awarded BMI's first country Icon Award.

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A T T E N T I O N: R A D I O S T A T I O N S:
Our short form daily radio feature, "Story Behind The Song" is now
available to radio stations at no
charge.

For information, email me at djdclassics@gmail.com

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NUMBER ONES ON THIS DATE

1949
Don't Rob Another Man's Castle - Eddy Arnold
1957
There You Go - Johnny Cash
1965
I've Got a Tiger by the Tail - Buck Owens
1973
'Till I Get It Right - Tammy Wynette
1981
Do You Love as Good as You Look - The Bellamy Brothers
1989
I Still Believe in You - The Desert Rose Band

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TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY

1920
Born on this day in Conasauga, Tennessee, was Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns,
American country musician, comedian, and mandolin player. He was better known by
his stage name Jethro from his years with Henry D. Haynes as part of the comedic
musical duo Homer and Jethro. In 2001, Burns and Haynes were inducted into the
Country Music Hall of Fame.
1933
Born on this day, was Ralph Emery a country music disc jockey and television
host from Nashville, Tennessee. He gained national fame hosting the syndicated
television music series, Pop! Goes the Country, from 1974 to 1980 and the
nightly Nashville Network television program, Nashville Now, from 1983 to 1993.
1963
Born on this day, was Frederick Jay "Rick", Rubin, American record producer.
Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American
Recordings who released Johnny Cash's American Recordings (1994), a record
including six cover songs and new material written by others for Cash at Rubin's
request. The album was a critical and commercial success, and helped revive
Cash's career. Rubin introduced Cash to Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt", and the
resulting cover version of it on The Man Comes Around would become a defining
song of Cash's later years.

1971
Born on this day in Cairo Georgia was Daryle Singletary, country music singer.
Singletary entered the top 40 of the Hot Country Songs charts five times in the
90's, reaching #2 with "I Let Her Lie" and "Amen Kind of Love", and #4 with "Too
Much Fun".
1979
Soul James Brown appeared at The Grand Ole Opry. Brown (who was in Nashville
recording new tracks), was not the first non-country act to perform at the Opry,
and wouldn't be the last, but Brown's appearance caused an immediate media
frenzy during which several Opry regulars expressed their disdain at the Soul
singers appearance.
2003
Johnny Cash was admitted to Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee to undergo
treatment for pneumonia.

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BRINGING OUT THE LYRICS.
By: Jack Blanchard

In Rock and Pop it doesn't seem to matter so much,
but in Country we want to hear the words.
I hear too many recordings where the lyrics are lost.

If the words aren't audible
there are several possible culprits.
The singer may not be making them clear,
or the producer and engineer aren't recording them right.

Sometimes the singer tries too hard to sound Southern or Country,
and it comes out slurred and run together.

Here's a trick to get rig of Singer's Lockjaw:
Pretend you're singing to a deaf person
who is reading your lips.

When Misty and I record vocalists
(ourselves and other artists)
we use a soft-knee compressor on the mike
and maybe later in the mixdown.
The compressor brings out the low notes,
the soft words,
and the nuances that give an artist identity.

We set the compressor conservatively at 2.5:1 or less.
The compressor itself should be inaudible.

Sometimes the voice needs presence, or edge.
To add vocal presence
we boost the frequency slightly at 3kHz,
and maybe a touch at 4kHz.
For an "airy" vocal sound, 5kHz and 1 kHz work.
Too much presence can make the voice brassy and thin.
A little can make it sound good, and bring out the lyrics.

Enhancers like Aphex and BBE can help with general clarity,
and instrument/vocal separation,
but they are based om phasing
and can cause distortion if overdone.

We try to get backup lead instruments to play in the cracks
between the singer's phrases, not during,
and we try not to have too much going on
in the singer's frequency range during the vocals.

Misty and I find it helpful to analyze the lyrics beforehand,
marking on lyric sheets where we want to take breaths,
and which words we want to punch.

If a song is good enough to record
the lyrics should be heard.

Each of us has different methods and tastes.
I'm sharing ours just in case it may help somebody.

Jack Blanchard
http://jackandmisty.net

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VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH
By: Stan Hitchcock
Last night was one of those nights…you know the ones where you wake up at 2 or 3
AM wide eyed awake and so you don't want to bother your wife with your tossing
and turning and getting up is the only answer.......
Late nights and short sleeps are the remnants of a pickers life. We never got to
live regular hours like most folks, and if you do it long enough...it becomes
entrenched in your lifestyle and physical routine. But, it is kinda pleasant,
being up in the old farm house, long after the house and all others in it have
dropped off to restful slumber. Trouble is, staying up late still doesn't change
the fact that the first light that breaks over that mountain is my wakeup call.
When we were all traveling from town to town, whether it was in my old gospel
music days or after I was on the country music trail, the long nights were times
of reflection, deep talks, warm emotions left over from the performances....just
a closeness with the other members of your group of traveling gypsy musicians
that only members of some military unit or some other highly adrenaline
connected pursuit gives to those who have shared the experience. I've always
loved the after show times with the other members, the feeling that you hooked
it pretty dang good this time, and talking about some funny things that might
have happened back stage or off camera. In some groups different routines
develop...on Ernest Tubb's bus, after shows and going to shows, it was an
endless poker game that never stopped....in others it might be sharing a
songwriting session...of course in some it was fun and games time...Johnny
Cash's show, when traveling in the early days, was into very involved pranks and
practical jokes. Every group has some special storyteller, which prompts all the
rest to divulge their innermost secrets and happenings on other musical
journeys. It's a very select society of music and musicians that travel in such
close proximity to one another. Of course, in the old days, in the 40's and
50's, the main concern was not how to enjoy yourself...it was how do I get a
place to stretch out my leg for awhile...sitting three to the front seat, three
to the back, and in bad weather you might be sharing the back seat with the big
stand up bass with the neck sticking across the front seat. Entertainment is
full of funny things happening, it's just the nature of the life....you can't
travel and go at break neck speed for long periods of time, sleep deprived and
emotionally spent most of the time without funny things happening. The time in
my band when Vic Thomas, the drummer, thought it would be funny, in the middle
of our show, to reach up in the very quiet part of one of my songs, and stick
one of his drum sticks in my guitar picker, Bruce Osbon's ribs, thereby causing
Bruce who was extremely goosey...to jump and swing his guitar neck into my back
end with such force that it knocked me winding out into the middle of the dance
floor, where I landed with all the grace and dignity of a turtle turned over on
his back, staring up at the revolving glass ball that threw flashes of light
around the room for the dancers, gasping for breath and still trying to finish
that last note on the song I was singing. That same night, after the last song
was sung, we all trooped back to the dressing room to find that someone had
broken in, while we were on stage, and stole everything of value that we had,
jewelry, money, tuners, personal items....heck, we didn't have much, just the
flotsam of a pickers life on the road, but we kinda liked it and did not greet
the break-in with much appreciation. Yeah, late night pickers, all night truck
drivers, late shift factory workers, all night cafe waitresses and cooks, police
on late night duty.....it's not a natural lifestyle....and it will cause you to
forever be a lone duck on a strange pond. Yeah, strange Pond…like the Honky Tonk
in South Texas that had The Stan Hitchcock Show booked and when we drove up to
the joint and went in to set up…sure enough the Stage was surrounded by chicken
wire. When I asked the Owner about that he just said, "Oh, don't worry bout that
wire, if a fight breaks out just keep on playing, I'll handle it"…and sure
enough, during our last set of the night the dangedest fight broke out and
everyone in the room (women and men) were banging on each other and throwing
Pearl Beer bottles across the room, kicking and stomping and screaming…and one
old bad cowboy decided he was gonna get around the chicken wire and get me (I
was still singing) and Buck Evans (band leader, harmony singer and bass player)
hooked his long neck Fender bass under the drunks chin and flipped him back out
in the middle of the melee where he was lost under the kicking stomping
boots…and my musicians never missed a note of the song. The crowd fought for
about 15 minutes, then picked themselves up, wiped the blood off their noses and
bought each other another bottle of Pearl, and sent a round up to the bandstand
to the Band that didn't stop (we just wanted to get the heck out of South Texas
before round two started. In that part of Texas the weekend fight was kinda like
their Sporting Event.
We laughed about that all the way back to Nashville…yessirreebob, good times in
old time country music.
Stan Hitchcock
www.hitchcockcountry.com -

http://www.hitchcockcountry.com



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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not
fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.
– Psalm 3:5-6 (NIV)

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