Country Music

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I've been listening to Dolly Parton's album "Rock Star". The album came about after she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and jokingly said she'd better make some rock songs to justify it.

So she asked a whole bunch of rock legends whether they'd duet with her. Of course most of them agreed: it's Dolly Parton! I think the only ones who couldn't join her were Bob Seger for Night Moves (too ill) and The Rolling Stones for Satisfaction (touring).

About a third of the album is her and another singer dueting that other singer's music. Another third is Dolly and another singer singing either Dolly's someone else's song, with the remainder being Dolly solo songs, either hers or covers

Highlights:

Heart of Glass (with Debbie Harry)
I Hate Myself for Loving You (with Joan Jett)
Every Breath You Take (with Sting)
What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done For You (with Stevie Nicks)
Let it Be (with Paul and Ringo)
Bygones (with Rob Halford out of Judas Priest!)
Free Bird (with what's left of Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Satisfaction (with Pink and Brandi Carlile)

Guest musicians on various tracks include Richie Sambora, Elton John, Ann Wilson, John Fogerty, Melissa Everidge, Simon Le Bon, Nikki Sixx, Pat Benatar and Lizzo. Well worth a listen, there's something for everyone here.
 
This band The Schramms has been around since the early 90's. They sit in the spot between mainstream and alternative but mostly unloved in either category. Self described as "nasal twang", the payoff if you get over the sometimes hard to listen to vocals of Dave Schramm is some neat stringbend guitar action.

This is their cover of the Lucinda Williams song "Side Of the Road" which I found a bit disconcerting at first, not hearing it sung in a woman's voice, but I've got to like it over the years.




This one from their 2nd album fits the nasal twang description more accurately.

 
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Although his name was vaguely familiar, somehow I had missed the opportunity to make the acquaintance of Mr. Ray Wylie Hubbard - until yesterday.
He has been performing for more than 50 years and has released more than a dozen albums, founded on gospel blues, folk, country and Texas rock'n'roll.
An exceptional songwriter and a gifted, sometimes quirky singer. Here's a good example.

 

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Some 21st century bands that dip into the alt. country genre that people might be interested in.

David Nance & Mowed Sound - "Tumbleweed"




Rose City Band - "Rivers of Mind"
I was surprised to find this tune had a video and by the looks of it, it does seem to suggest that the band were going for a kind of a spacey country jam. Not sure what possessed me to buy this in retrospect as the vocals are barely there but it does have a soft choogle undercurrent.



D. Charles Speer & The Helix "Cretan Lords". This is something you can find pretty cheap - like most of my music collection.



Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band - "Learn 2 Re-Luv"
Posted a couple of other songs from this album on another thread. Favourite from late 2023. A band that makes me think there's some good people out there with nuance and humour, and maybe everything is going to be ok in the good old US of A in this golden age of bullsh*t.

 
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Lost a Country Music original today.

Buck White passed today at 94 after a full life and he has left a country musical footprint, great mandolin player and pianist and all round entertainer and performer.

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Had a stella solo career before he teamed up with his two daughters to form “The Whites”, Sharon and Cheryl ( his son in law was CM legend Ricky Skaggs who married Sharon ).




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I have fond memories of him and his music, always came across as down to earth and genuine and a great performer, he and the daughters were regulars on The Country Road TV, hosted by Wispering Bill Anderson.




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Country and Bluegrass to the very core.

Member of the Grand Ole Opry for 40 years, that makes him Opry Royalty in my eyes .

RIP 🪦 Buck White.
 
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Lost a Country Music original today.

Buck White passed today at 94 after a full life and he has left a country musical footprint, great mandolin player and pianist and all round entertainer and performer.

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Had a stella solo career before he teamed up with his two daughters to form “The Whites”, Sharon and Cheryl ( his son in law was CM legend Ricky Skaggs who married Sharon ).




View attachment 2204593





I have fond memories of him and his music, always came across as down to earth and genuine and a great performer, he and the daughters were regulars on The Country Road TV, hosted by Wispering Bill Anderson.




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Country and Bluegrass to the very core.

Member of the Grand Ole Opry for 40 years, that makes him Opry Royalty in my eyes .

RIP 🪦 Buck White.
Thank you for marking the passing of Buck White. Buck was mentioned in the history series - post # 1,111, for his contribution to Ricky Skagg’s most successful album, the 1982 "Highways & Heartaches" album - “… A roster of top-notch musicians was again assembled for this project, from pianist Buck White (Skagg’s father-in-law) … and Sharon White (Skaggs’ wife) who provided the background vocals on several tracks. …”

Here’s a very nice summation of Buck White’s career -

“… Buck White was the somewhat reluctant, but ultimately proud leader of one of country music’s most important bluegrass, country, and Gospel bands. … Along with Leroy Van Dyke and Willie Nelson, Buck White was one of the oldest living primary performers in country music … His passing marks the end of an era when family bands could still rise to the top of popularity in country music …” -
 
Although his name was vaguely familiar, somehow I had missed the opportunity to make the acquaintance of Mr. Ray Wylie Hubbard - until yesterday.
He has been performing for more than 50 years and has released more than a dozen albums, founded on gospel blues, folk, country and Texas rock'n'roll.
An exceptional songwriter and a gifted, sometimes quirky singer. Here's a good example.


I’m not surprised a Fredhead would appreciate Ray Wylie Hubbard! - another of those quintessential Texan singer-songwriters, in the tradition of fellow Texans like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Steve Earl and Jerry Jeff Walker etc. Hardly known at all outside Texas for most of his career, his fanbase dedicated but limited in numbers, he has really only become better known over the last 6-7 years, aged in his seventies. Despite his low profile, he has an interesting life story - he’s another that can write songs based on his own life experiences.

In the early 1970s, his band, Ray Wylie Hubbard & The Cowboy Twinkies, were erforming in countless honky–tonks and dance halls throughout Texas and Oklahoma, with Hubbard becoming one of the original Outlaw Country performers of the Texas music scene. In 1973, Jerry Jeff Walker recorded Hubbard’s funny social commentary of ‘Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother’ (post # 845), giving Hubbard his first taste of commercial success.

Hubbard seemed to be on the brink of having his own mainstream success, being signed to major label, Warner Bros. In 1976 the band cut “Ray Wylie Hubbard & The Cowboy Twinkies” in Nashville - but after they finished and returned to Texas, producer Michael Brovsky, thinking their sound was too raw and gritty to be commercial, weirdly added a load of "Nashville Sound" trimmings of overdub mixes and female backup singers to the recordings - all done without the bands knowledge. Released against the wishes of the band and just at the stage the Outlaw movement went mainstream - thus rendering the Nashville Sound trimmings dated, the record naturally bombed.

The heartbreaking ruination of Hubbard’s first album by the producer was taken badly by Hubbard - leading on to his hospitalisation at the age of 29 due to alcohol and drug abuse. More career frustration followed- “We were playing and selling out the same venues as Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff … but couldn’t get a record deal.” Hubbard’s 30’s were marked by multiple losses that sent him on a tailspin. His first marriage ended in divorce and both his parents died. His alcohol and cocaine addictions reached the point of out-of-control behaviour, blackouts, suicidal contemplation, hitting the proverbial “rock bottom”. So, at a time when most performers were in their prime, Hubbard, with no record deals in sight, was reduced to playing in those rough neck Texan honky tonks when he as sober enough to perform -and where at least he gained a cult like, loyal following.

But of all the busloads of country singers who’ve gotten over alcohol and drug addiction, Hubbard has one of the most unlikely recovery stories of them all. Few, if anyone else, can give the long-troubled Texan legend, Stevie Ray Vaughn, credit for seeing the value in them as a musician and a human, and taking them aside to say that sobriety might be a better path forward. But Vaughn, having been clean and sober himself for a year, managed to get Hubbard to attend an AA meeting with him in 1987 - and 37 years later, the 78-year-old Hubbard hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol or drugs since!

Hubbard has become known for reaching out to others struggling with addiction, to return the favour Stevie Ray Vaughn extended to him. Hubbard doesn’t really have a lot of songs about getting sober. Many of his typically gritty songs are about his time in a drunken haze, like the song he wrote with another Texan honky tonk troubadour, Hayes Carll, who got sober recently himself, ‘Drunken Poet’s Dream‘ -
 

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Missed out on Tyler Childers tickets but somehow managed to score some today. Got into country 6 years ago and just year after my first concert (charley crockett) I get to see another of my favourites.

Like I previously mentioned in this thread it’s great to see these guys actually do full Australian tours and come to places like Perth. Got red clay strays tickets too and will try and get some for Isbell too later in the years.
 
Missed out on Tyler Childers tickets but somehow managed to score some today. Got into country 6 years ago and just year after my first concert (charley crockett) I get to see another of my favourites.

Like I previously mentioned in this thread it’s great to see these guys actually do full Australian tours and come to places like Perth. Got red clay strays tickets too and will try and get some for Isbell too later in the years.
You’ve done really well with both Charley Crockett and Childers - 2 of the best going around.
 
Is ray wylie hubbard country? From the few songs I’ve come across I’ve thought he’s rock and roll/blues rock
Though Patsfitztrick has already we’ll answered this for Hubbard (and his answer, with some variations, can be applied to many others), the wider question of just what is country music raises a hornets nest of opinions and answers. A sub-topic on the history series has been the ongoing swings between traditional country and pop, going back to the late 1950’s when Chet Atkins, as a producer, developed the pop-flavoured Nashville Sound (# 354) to broaden the commercial appeal (and hence record sales), beyond the southern rural, working class base, into the burgeoning suburbs. Country purists at the time were aghast, yet the Nashville Sound now falls within “classic country”.

One of the foundational and most influential country musicians,Jimmie Rodgers (# 120-122), derived his music directly from the blues of black cotton pickers and railway workers he worked with, and Merle Haggard amongst many others Rodgers devotees, continued this blues influence in country. The rockabilly artists of the 1950’s such as Carl Perkins, Johnny Horton and Sanford Clark were all considered as country until rock’n’roll was carved off into a seperate genre c1956 (Elvis’ first 3 # 1’s on the pop charts also topped the country chart). The 1970’s Outlaws were rock influenced and later came Garth Brooks and the class of ‘89.

On a recent long-haul international flight, I found an in-flight entertainment podcast on 21st century music trends. I wasn’t fully awake enough to remember his name, but he argued that the 21st century demise of rock music from the pop mainstream, after dominating for so long, has seen what remains of the once mainstream classic rock now rolled back into the country music genré - though excluding the former rock sub-genre of heavy-metal, which, with its own sub-genres, he noted is thriving (look at the popularity of the BF heavy-metal thread) but will never, by its nature, be quite mainstream without diluting it down.

Go to the many country honkytonks and bars these days in downtown Nashville and one actually finds a lot of classic rock - only it’s now considered country. I’ve even seen Grand Ole Opry acts that would’ve been described as heavy rock back in the 1970/80’s - and never would’ve been allowed at the Opry back then. We even see that most northern, urban of genres, rap/hip-hop, first created in the gritty Bronx before it was heavily gentrified, now blended by some into country music (in a way that never seems right to me).

And the debate on what’s country just goes on, given Beyoncé’s pop album “Cowboy Carter” taking out the best Country album Grammy - though this longish article describes the machinations of how that came about, and also touches on other issues, like how the major labels decides what gets played on country radio in the U.S. (now a massive nationwide market) -
 
Though Patsfitztrick has already we’ll answered this for Hubbard (and his answer, with some variations, can be applied to many others), the wider question of just what is country music raises a hornets nest of opinions and answers. A sub-topic on the history series has been the ongoing swings between traditional country and pop, going back to the late 1950’s when Chet Atkins, as a producer, developed the pop-flavoured Nashville Sound (# 354) to broaden the commercial appeal (and hence record sales), beyond the southern rural, working class base, into the burgeoning suburbs. Country purists at the time were aghast, yet the Nashville Sound now falls within “classic country”.

One of the foundational and most influential country musicians,Jimmie Rodgers (# 120-122), derived his music directly from the blues of black cotton pickers and railway workers he worked with, and Merle Haggard amongst many others Rodgers devotees, continued this blues influence in country. The rockabilly artists of the 1950’s such as Carl Perkins, Johnny Horton and Sanford Clark were all considered as country until rock’n’roll was carved off into a seperate genre c1956 (Elvis’ first 3 # 1’s on the pop charts also topped the country chart). The 1970’s Outlaws were rock influenced and later came Garth Brooks and the class of ‘89.

On a recent long-haul international flight, I found an in-flight entertainment podcast on 21st century music trends. I wasn’t fully awake enough to remember his name, but he argued that the 21st century demise of rock music from the pop mainstream, after dominating for so long, has seen what remains of the once mainstream classic rock now rolled back into the country music genré - though excluding the former rock sub-genre of heavy-metal, which, with its own sub-genres, he noted is thriving (look at the popularity of the BF heavy-metal thread) but will never, by its nature, be quite mainstream without diluting it down.

Go to the many country honkytonks and bars these days in downtown Nashville and one actually finds a lot of classic rock - only it’s now considered country. I’ve even seen Grand Ole Opry acts that would’ve been described as heavy rock back in the 1970/80’s - and never would’ve been allowed at the Opry back then. We even see that most northern, urban of genres, rap/hip-hop, first created in the gritty Bronx before it was heavily gentrified, now blended by some into country music (in a way that never seems right to me).

And the debate on what’s country just goes on, given Beyoncé’s pop album “Cowboy Carter” taking out the best Country album Grammy - though this longish article describes the machinations of how that came about, and also touches on other issues, like how the major labels decides what gets played on country radio in the U.S. (now a massive nationwide market) -
It’s good country is having it time in the sun and while I listen to many acts that blend country and other genres of music, it still irks me to see people like Beyonce considered as country and winning these awards
 
It’s good country is having it time in the sun and while I listen to many acts that blend country and other genres of music, it still irks me to see people like Beyonce considered as country and winning these awards
Absolutely agree. You kinda succinctly summed up in one sentence this article -
“… As Beyoncé said in her speech, echoing numerous inferences on her Cowboy Carter album, “I think sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists.”

But that is the reason for genre-specific Grammy categories. They are there to make sure pop stars worth $800 million dollars who are married to billionaires can’t come in and abscond with attention meant for performers who don’t feel like genre is something to “keep them in their place” but instead feel it’s something to honor and respect.

There are Grammy awards for albums, artists and songs that defy genre. It’s called pop. The point of genre specific categories is to highlight works that adhere to the respective genres.

As much as Beyoncé’s win for Best Country Album will be celebrated, it knocks every little girl and boy who grew up wanting to be a country star and devoted their lives to the genre one notch down. It robs the genre of an opportunity to fete a performer who will be in the country genre next year, and the year after, and the year after that. It sets a dubious precedent that if you simply declare yourself “country” (or in Beyoncé’s case, you don’t), you can win a country Grammy.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter was a commercial disaster. It fell to # 50 in the albums charts in just 13 weeks, and out of the Billboard 200 completely after 28 weeks - staggering numbers for Billboard‘s recently-named “Pop Star of the Century”. But the media and Beyoncé Stans successfully launched a canard that Cowboy Carter was country, and a great album, despite nobody listening to it.

Ultimately though, it might not much matter. The Grammy Awards will take a big credibility hit with country fans. But the true story in country music continues to be the resurgence of actual country artists, actual country sounds, and meaningful songwriting. Beyoncé is simply an epiphenomenal anomaly with little lasting effect. …”
 
Absolutely agree. You kinda succinctly summed up in one sentence this article -
“… As Beyoncé said in her speech, echoing numerous inferences on her Cowboy Carter album, “I think sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists.”

But that is the reason for genre-specific Grammy categories. They are there to make sure pop stars worth $800 million dollars who are married to billionaires can’t come in and abscond with attention meant for performers who don’t feel like genre is something to “keep them in their place” but instead feel it’s something to honor and respect.

There are Grammy awards for albums, artists and songs that defy genre. It’s called pop. The point of genre specific categories is to highlight works that adhere to the respective genres.

As much as Beyoncé’s win for Best Country Album will be celebrated, it knocks every little girl and boy who grew up wanting to be a country star and devoted their lives to the genre one notch down. It robs the genre of an opportunity to fete a performer who will be in the country genre next year, and the year after, and the year after that. It sets a dubious precedent that if you simply declare yourself “country” (or in Beyoncé’s case, you don’t), you can win a country Grammy.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter was a commercial disaster. It fell to # 50 in the albums charts in just 13 weeks, and out of the Billboard 200 completely after 28 weeks - staggering numbers for Billboard‘s recently-named “Pop Star of the Century”. But the media and Beyoncé Stans successfully launched a canard that Cowboy Carter was country, and a great album, despite nobody listening to it.

Ultimately though, it might not much matter. The Grammy Awards will take a big credibility hit with country fans. But the true story in country music continues to be the resurgence of actual country artists, actual country sounds, and meaningful songwriting. Beyoncé is simply an epiphenomenal anomaly with little lasting effect. …”
Yeah really don’t care for mainstream country music or the country music the popstars a bring out. Have seen Post Malone so some great folk and country covers over the years but kinda disappointed with the stuff he brought out recently.

While Country is having it’s moments especially here it’s a pitty that the musicians they’re all getting around are the mainstream artists. That said Tyler Childers seems to have sold out all his shows here but he also isn’t as small as he used to be a fee years ago
 
… While Country is having its moments especially here it’s a pitty that the musicians they’re all getting around are the mainstream artists. That said Tyler Childers seems to have sold out all his shows here but he also isn’t as small as he used to be a fee years ago
I suppose it’s inevitable the mainstream country artists will, by definition (mainstream being the main or dominant market and will often have pop elements to make them more appealing to the mass market), benefit the most from the current popularity surge and cool factor in country music (which I’m not sure I’m comfortable with, but that’s irrelevant ).

Tyler Childers is a good one and has definitely raised his profile, as has Charley Crockett, who, since his Australian tour, has been packing out his shows across Texas - albeit still at smaller venues, which is just the way I like it. Others include the Canadians, Corn Lund and Colter Walk and Texans, Billy Strings and Cody Johnson, amongst many others working away out of the spotlight.
 
So after a busier than expected start to 2025, I’ve finally found a few days at home to squeeze in a bit more of the history series, after finishing 2924 with the neo-traditionalists (despite their music being distinctly different from the other), Ricky Skaggs and George Strait. Now we have the next neo-traditionalist, an Oklahoman raised on a cattle ranch and performed competitively in rodeos, just like George Strait, who which she shared some similarities and differences, both in her personal life (starting with her gender) and music. In fact, her recording career began in 1976, 5 years earlier than George - but it wasn’t until the 1980’s and her conversion to the neo-traditional movement that she really found her sound and success.

Reba McEntire was born in 1955, the third of four children. Reba was raised on a 3,000 hectare cattle ranch in the cowboy country of SW Oklahoma, near Texas. Her father, Clark, was a professional steer roper – and not just any pro steer roper, a son of a world champion steer roper and himself a 3 time world champion. But the cowboy was a cold, hard father who feared emotions, his kids believing he was even a bit cruel. He had no time for showing any affection. In her 1994 autobiography, Reba wrote - “… When we were growing up, I used to regret that Daddy never told us that he loved us …”. A true American cowboy who made that lifestyle his whole identity, in his mind, tenderness had no place in his life -"… He only liked being known as a champion cowboy …”. Clark demanded a lot from his 4 children. Reba started working on the ranch at age 4 and was rounding up cattle on horseback by the age of 6 years - “…. doing it from before daylight until after dark by the time I was 7”.

Reba’s affectionate and tender mother, Jacqueline, was the opposite to her stern husband, and, though she also pushed her children a lot, especially Reba. That's because Jacqueline, a teacher from grades 1 to 8 in a one-room rural schoolhouse, had dreamed of being a country singer and projected it onto her talented daughter. An excellent singer, she taught her children to harmonise, passing time in the family car as they traveled long miles on the rodeo circuit.

Despite growing up around rodeos, cattle and horses, becoming an very accomplished calf roper (just like George Strait), under her fathers expert but strict instruction, Reba was actually so nervous about her calf roping, always she would vomit up before competing, despite constantly winning competitions just like her world champion father and grandfather. But she never felt that way about singing. Her stage fright was limited to the rodeo arena under the intense scrutiny of her father but not on the stage, where she had the more positive support of ner mother, so singing was the career she ended up pursuing.

Though her family naturally encouraged Reba’s calf roping, they were equally supportive of her vocal endeavours. Music was always a big part of the McEntires’ lives with family gatherings where they would “… play music, sing and dance until daylight ...” (a familiar occurrence in the childhoods of this history series). Reba’s first performed with a microphone during a Christmas program held in the high school gym at age 6. But it was in 5th grade when she really decided she wanted to be an entertainer. She was in the 4-H club (Americas largest youth development club with 6 million members) doing skits, public speaking and singing, and at age 10, she won the Junior Individual Act in the national 4-H talent show, Reba’s first accolade for singing. In her memoir, Reba explained - “That victory made me like a hunting dog. I had tasted blood and now knew deep within my very soul that I was to be an entertainer”.

During high school, Reba’s mother wanted her to take music classes, but since none were offered, so she helped to create the Kiowa High School Cowboy Band herself. This gave rise to the Singing McEntires, where 3 of the family’s 4 children, Reba, her older brother, Del (nicknamed Pake) and younger sister, Susan, would get together every chance they got and sing. Reba recalled - “Pake played acoustic rhythm guitar and sang melody. I sang high harmony, and Susie sang the low. Bloodline harmony…is the closest harmony in the world, I think“ (a viewpoint supported by this history series - see the Louvin Bros, the Everly Bros and the Browns)

Clark Rhyne, a history and art teacher at the high school, played guitar for the group. They recorded a song at a local recording studio in Oklahoma City called “The Ballad of John McEntire’, penned by Reba about her world champion steer roper grandfather, who was also a steer roper like her father. They even scraped together enough money to press 500 copies of the record and sold them to whoever would buy one, so this little vanity project has historical significance as Reba’s first recording. However, the Singing McEntires began to dissolve when her brother graduated from high school in 1971.

After graduating high school herself in 1973, McEntire enrolled at Oklahoma State University, majoring in elementary education, just like her mother had done, and played music on the side, appearing in local clubs and rodeos - just like George strait was doing at the same age. She caught the attention of hardcore country singer Red Steagall when they shared a bill at a concert at Oklahoma City's National Rodeo Finals in 1974, the superbowl of the U.S. rodeo circuit. Reba was chosen to perform the national anthem for the large crowd and big TV audience. Steagall encouraged Reba to pursue a career in Nashville. Though she finished her bachelor’s degree in 1975, the first thing she did, armed with an introduction letter by Steagalk, was to hightail it straight to Nashville, where she recorded some demos. These recordings, her first real shot at success. soon landed her a contract with Mercury Records. But Reba was far from an overnight success, far from finding her right sound.

In 1976, Reba, at age 21, having just married Charlie Battles, a major rodeo star 10 years her senior. (she had continued to compete in rodeos as a barrel racer while getting her degree), released her debut Mercury single, ‘I Don't Want to Be a One Night Stand’. It only reached an unlucky # 88. Her next 2 singles fared no better, at # 86 and # 88 respectively in 1977, while her first full-length debut LP, ladened with the clunky, reverb-heavy pop production of her singles, didn't bother the chart at all, nor did her next 2 pop-burdened albums, released in 1979 and 1980. McEntire did score a hit single when she teamed with her label-mate Jacky Ward for the double-sided single ‘Three Sheets in the Wind’/‘I'd Really Love to See You Tonight’, reaching # 20 in 1978. The duets with Ward, which included ‘That Makes Two of Us’, another modest Top 40 hit in 1979, at least raised McEntire's profile and in 1979 she had her first solo hit - a cover of one of Don Gibson’s heartbreak classics, ‘Sweet Dreams’, made famous by one of Reba’s childhood idols, Patsy Cline. Reba’s version reached # 19, her first Top 20 solo hit and then ‘(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven’ became her first Top 10 hit in 1980.

Reba began to reach the Top Ten with regularity from 1980, beginning with the # 8 ‘(You Lift Me Up) To Heaven, the # 5 ‘Today All Over Again in 1981, then the # 3 ‘I'm Not That Lonely Yet’ in 1982, as well as two additional Top 20 hits. Her desire to have more uptempo material for her live shows inspired her to record the blues and gospel influenced ‘Can’t Even Get the Blues No More’. Finally, in 1982, after 7 years of trying, she had, at age 27, her first # 1 single, after 16 previous single releases. The Tom Damphier and Rick Carnes penned song from 1981's “Unlimited” album launched McEntire into the most successful period of her career, though her classic country sound still lay ahead.

It’s an early indication of Rebas’s ability to be theatrical on record, even though she was still being held back, as her producer - this seems unbelievable now but was true at the time - actually directed Reba not to use her distinctive twangy vocal curlicues. Despite the muzzle put on her natural vocal twang by Mercury, McEntire proved to be a powerful, compelling singer, emoting effectively, even when restrained from a fully realised performance. -


After waiting 7 years for her first # 1 single, McEntire earned her second just a few weeks later with ‘You’re the First Time I’ve Thought About Leaving’, a reversion to type, going back to the waltzy ballads that had defined her recording career up until this point, before ‘Can’t Even Get the Blues’ provided an uptempo diversion. It’s an excellent song, for sure, but she’s still annoyingly restricted by her current producer’s insistence she not do the distinctive vocal licks that make her one of the most distinctive vocalists of any genre. It casts a pall over all of her work on Mercury.

McEntire, with her powerful vocals (though her natural country twang was kept in tight check by her label, insisting on a pop-country friendly suburban sound) appeared poised for stardom, but her career proceeded with halting momentum during the early 1980’s. While she continued to place high on the singles charts with country-pop singles, not one of her 4 over-produced Mercury albums released from 1980 to 1984 cracked the Top 20. During this time, Reba was increasingly at odds with her record label, arguing over promotion, material and sound; the label insisting on steering McEntire toward softer, pop-oriented music.

So fed up with Mercury and their country-pop direction, Reba signed with MCA - only to deliver another pop-soaked album.. New MCA label head Jimmy Bowen hated her debut album for the label. “Just a Little Love” was drenched in strings but didn’t have fiddle on a single track. Only the title track reached the Top 10. When Ricky Skaggs, followed by George Strait, broke through to success with a return to traditional country instrumentals and sound, Reba decided, once and for all, to follow their trail. If fellow cattle rancher and former rodeo performer, George Strait could do it, then, darn it all, so could she. Bowen paired McEntire with established producer Harold Shedd for her next album, and she was actively involved for the first time in her career, directing the studio musicians to add fiddle and steel where she wanted them. Satisfied with her efforts, she returned to the road. But the journey to her breakthrough 1984 “My Kind of Country” album was a rocky one

When Reba got back into Nashville and heard the finished tracks, she flew into a rage and demanded a meeting with Bowen. Shedd had removed all the fiddle and steel and replaced it with syrupy strings and keyboards, undermining her as an artist - and just at a time when the neo-traditionalist movement launched by Skaggs and Strait was making this pop-soaked sound redundant. McEntire insisted that Bowen finish the album with her - “I said, “I would really like things more country. I don’t want orchestra and violins. I want a steel guitar and a fiddle”. That started me having more control of the songs that I recorded. I did find my own way, but I went back to my teachers – Dolly, Loretta, Tammy – and saw what they did to pave the way for women in country music. And I took that wisdom and added it to what I wanted to do, which was go back to the steel guitar and fiddle”.

Reba’s original arrangements were restored, but Bowen asked for one career-alerting change from McEntire. He noticed that her studio vocals were nothing like how she sounded on the road, where she bent and twisted notes with a fiery twang. She responded that her producers up until that point had told her not to sing like that on the record - it was simply too country and too stylised for the market … in their view. Much like with George Strait during this time period, a tectonic shift was made in how Reba records were crafted. Now, the backing tracks would be designed to fit around her vocal, instead of her holding back so she could fit in with what the musicians had already recorded.

The back-to-basics 1984 “My Kind of Country” album features old country covers from Connie Smith, Ray Price, Faron Young and others. But one that wasn’t a cover was the John Moffat penned ‘How Blue’, which became her third # 1 in 1984. Reba flaunted the flexibility she’d found with a defiant twang - she accompanied herself with soaring bluegrass-inspired harmonies and used a band chock full of traditional country instruments - pedal steel guitar, fiddle and banjo.

Listen to Reba’s singles in sequence, and ‘How Blue’ is a revelation right out of the blue. One of the greatest vocalists of all time had been hiding in plain sight for years, and now she had finally been unmuzzled. The coolest thing about this record is how McEntire makes it a conversation with herself in the chorus, doing her own call and response as she handles the lead and background vocals herself. It’s a fearless choice that few singers could pull off, and she makes it work so beautifully. She did so with a fantastic song in its own right. John Moffat’s lyric has classic country music themes, but it’s way of presenting them was fresh for that time -
“… If I sink any lower, I’ll go under / If I cry anymore, I’ll go blind /
Lord, there ain’t no relief for this missing you grief
/ How long can you torture my mind? …” -

The 1984 track, and its acclaimed “My Kind Of Country” album placed McEntire in league with the two male faces of country’s burgeoning neo-traditionalist movement, Ricky Skaggs and George Strait. She’d recorded plenty of rootsy material on previous album cuts, but ‘How Blue’ allowed her to publicly pledge her allegiance to “real” country. But as good as ‘How Blue’ is – it isn’t even the best # 1 single from the album .

Sometimes, it pays as an artist to say “No.” Reba was meeting with the legendary songwriter Harlan Howard, whose name has popped up often in this history series, the writer of over 100 major hits and who famously coined the oft-quoted phrase defining a great country song as “Three Chords and the Truth”. He was pitching his latest offering of songs for Reba’s upcoming “My Kind of Country” album. After Reba told Howard she wasn’t hearing what he was playing her, he smiled and brought out a composition he had co-written with Chick Rains. Harlan went on to tell her that if she had liked the earlier material, he would never have played her this one. ‘Somebody Should Leave’ became her 4th # 1.

‘How Blue’ demonstrated that McEntire was a vocalist to be contended with. ‘Somebody Should Leave’ goes further, demonstrating her ability to give voice to a woman’s internal anguish. I won’t mince words here - this is as good an impending divorce ballad as has ever been written - and Reba sings it better than anyone else could’ve done. The song’s most gut-wrenching line – “… You need the kids / and they need me …” – is delivered with multiple layers of heartbreak. She’s sad for what her husband will lose, she’s sad for how her kids will suffer without him, but she also knows this story can only end one way - the “… babies down the hall …” will be staying with her. The song is nearly all internal monologue, and we feel her pain as she fakes reading a book to pass the time - “… I’m so sad I don’t know what I’ve just read …”. and later, when the couple exchanges their only words of the evening -“We say ‘good night,’ and turn and face the wall / We lay here in the darkness, and the tears start to fall …”, we’re being let into the most intimate moments of a marriage while it’s on the verge of collapse.

It’s an extraordinary record where everything comes together as if preordained by fate - the perfect song by the perfect songwriter for the perfect singer at the perfect time -


Reba’s 9th studio album, released in 1985, "Have I Got a Deal for You" was a continuation of the neo-traditional style that made her previous “My Kind of Country” album a big seller. Unlike its predecessor, which had 2 #1 hits, the highest-charting singles were the #6 title song ‘Have I Got a Deal for You’ and the #5 ‘Only in My Mind’, which is unique amongst all of her singles. Although Reba had dabbled in songwriting since childhood and has written dozens of songs, she was one of those artists, like George Strait, who had the ability to write a song, but not a hit song - with one exception to prove the rule.

‘Only In My Mind’ is the only single of McEntire’s 4 decade career to be solely written by her. It also stands as one of her finest vocal performances. The truth sometimes hurts, and it definitely had an effect on both the man who asked it in this - and the woman who had to give it to him -


Reba’s 10th studio album, “Whoever's in New England”, followed in 1986, was a bull's-eye, Reba’s first album to crack the Top 10, powering all the way to # 1. The first reason was the title song, written by Kendal Franceschi and Quentin Powers, and sung by McEntire with the clenched emotion the lyrics required. Against a stately ballad setting, the singer embodies the character of a Southern wife whose husband is, or so it seems to her, taking more business trips to Boston than he really needs to. The singer's sense of martyrdom is both unbearable and irresistible, and Franceschi and Powers achieved the added effect of casting the story in a South vs. North context. A mere 121 years since the end of the Civil War, that was a subtext that remained compelling to Southerners.

‘Whoever’s In New England’ made Reba a household name. Its Northeastern subject matter (the U.S. Northeast, home of those damn Yankees, may as well be in China, or better still, hell, according to many Southerners), made it an unusual setting for a country song. But it remains one of the most impactful records of Reba’s career. She was already the reigning CMA and ACM Female Vocalist of the Year for 2 years when ‘New England’ topped the chart, but despite her increasing popularity on the radio and in the industry, her album sales were stuck in the mediocre rangs, with ‘My Kinda Country, at # 13, being her only Top 20 album. That changed when Reba found the perfect song to fully present her theatrical talents - a Nashville Sound-flavoured power ballad about a woman who suspects her husband is cheating on her when he goes on business trips. She had topped the chart 5 times prior to this in 1986, but this represented her career-defining moment.

McEntire’s own interpretation of the lyric is that the woman is lonely, with an overactive imagination, which plays well into her performance, where she pulls off one of her signature musical tricks for the first time, pairing her Oklahoma twang with a pure pop melody. That whole new traditionalist thing had kept her attention for a couple of albums, but McEntire was too creatively restless to limit herself to a style that would ultimately be claimed by younger artists on the horizon anyway.

‘Whoever’s In New England’ was also Reba’s first single to include a music video, a perfect fit for the cinematic scale of the recording and the budding acting skills of the artist. A successful tool for selling records, it helped to widen her exposure outside the genre and become a headline act. But the reason the clip worked so well is that it remained in service to the song, which tells the story of a woman confronting her husband's infidelity - or imagined infidelity, as Mcentire interpreted the song - during his frequent business trips to New England. Crying foul at her husband's thinly veiled disguise of doing business in Boston, the singer painfully, or pathetically, reminds him he'll "… always have a place to come home to / When whoever's in New England's through with you…" -


Reba had won her first CMA Female Vocalist of the Year award in 1984 and was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1986. It was her first platinum record and solidified her new superstardom when she was named the “Entertainer of the Year” by the CMA in autumn 1986. 'Whoever's in New England' also earned McEntire the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance in 1987, partly thanks to being accompanied by Reba’s music video.

So we leave Reba Mcentire for now in 1986, at age 31, having seen her solidify her status as a leading artist in country music, after switched from her pop-country sound to joining Ricky Skaggs and George Strait in the neo-traditional country movement at just the right time. By 1986, this former junior rodeo star had .achieved 5 # 1 hits and 7 others making the Top 10, and she had finally added to that with a # 1 album in 1986.

Along the way, Reba had collected a raft of awards, including the ACM female vocalist of the year for 4 consecutive years from 1983 to 1986, while she also landed the CMA equivalent award for 1983, 1984 and 1986. She won both the CMA’s and ACM’s most prestigious award, Entertainer of the Year, in 1986, while both the album “Whoever’s in New England” and its title song won the Album, Song and Video of the Year Awards from both - and then came the Grammy for best female vocalist. But much more is still to come.
 
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So welcome back to 1986, with former junior rodeo star, Reba Mcentire now, at age 31, having ascended to become the biggest current female name in country music, with her own brand of neo-traditionalism, highlighted by her latest album, the chart-topping Whoever’s In New England”. Now yesterday I wrote the album “… was a bull's-eye, Reba’s first album to crack the Top 10, powering all the way to # 1. The first reason was the title song …”. But the other reason was the album
surrounded it with other material of similar ilk, female-oriented ballads. But it also had one that stood out for its lack of emotional angst. On the contrary, it was scornfully defiant - and perhaps because of this, being decidedly more cheerful than the rest, it also went all the way to # 1.

Reba has often been referred to as country music’s last victim queen before the next wave of female stars guided the genre to more independently minded material, culminating in the breakthrough of Shania Twain in the mid-1990’s. But maybe this should be reassessed after a listen to ‘Little Rock’. Refer back to the emotional anguish of ‘Somebody Should Leave’, then hear her liberation on ‘Little Rock’. She was already a lot more versatile in the mid-1980’s than now given credit for.

Written by Bob DiPiero, Pat McManus and famed radio personality Gerry House, the second single from “Whoever's in New England“ to reach # 1, ‘Little Rock’ is pure Reba, as she brings tempo and a clever play on words. Placing no price tag on love, choosing to trade in a life of luxury for the hope of finding "… someone who cares a lot …". Reba slips off her diamond and walks away from the finer things - "… But when he finds this ring he'll see / He keeps everything but me…". Nothing to do with Little Rock, Arkansas, the infectious tune shows the woman picking true love over a wealthy man as she chooses to “… slip off this little rock ...”. Those jazzy curlicues that she wasn’t allowed to put on ‘Can’t Even Get the Blues’ Mercury recording are in full force here as she leaves behind a man who gave her plenty of material comforts - “… All that don’t mean nothin / when you can’t get a good night’s lovin’….”

There isn’t a moment of hesitation in Reba’s performance as she leaves her rich husband with nothing but the clothes on her back. No looking back over her shoulder, no moment of regret for the love and luxury lost. She’s gonna go out and get her good night’s lovin’, and her inattentive husband can keep the little rock -
“… When he finds this ring he’ll see / he keeps everything but me ...” -

Shortly after ‘Little Rock’ topped the chart, McEntire got a big trophy for her mantle. After becoming the third woman to win Female Vocalist of the Year 3 times (and the first to win the ACM equivalent for 4 consecutive years), she became just the fourth woman to win the prestigious CMA Entertainer of the Year. (another woman wouldn’t win until Shania Twain in 1999).

Reba’s 11th studio album “What Am I Gonna Do About You”, jointly produced by McEntire and Jimmy Bowen,.was released in 1986 and became her second consecutive #1 album and spawned two #1 singles, ‘What Am I Gonna Do About You’ and ‘One Promise Too Late’. The title track, penned by Jim Allison, Doug Gilmore, and Bob Simon, is the first single Reba released after becoming a bona fide superstar, and you can tell. Her confidence reaches an entirely new level. She takes a song that was somewhat clunky in its original 1986 version by Con Hunley, The lyrics, rewritten for the female perspective, make it feel very much of its time period - yes, a woman has gotten her heart broken, but she’s going to work every day, flirting with one of her co-workers, and leaning on the neighbours to get some stuff around the house done.

It would all be OK if she didn’t keep running into the man who broke her heart. The heartbreak grows in intensity over the course of the track. Her perfect delivery of “… It doesn’t take long when you’re shopping for one …” twangs at just the right syllable. (you’re comes out as yeeuuure.) But the emotional climax is what really makes this. If you think the power notes at the end of ‘Whoever’s in New England’ were an anomaly, just listen to the virtuoso conclusion of this track and know that Reba the diva had fully arrived. Her gift is so unique that even getting about 10 syllables out of the word “through” doesn’t sound over the top. The emotion in her voice is so strong, one can get swept up in all the pain -


The second # 1 single from Reba’s chart-topping “What Am I Gonna Do About You” album, ‘One Promise Too Late’ is a classic country lyric in the vein of ‘Almost Persuaded’, but this is more than just an almost cheating song. The woman here isn’t passing up a weekend tryst. She’s actually met the man of her dreams, and she knows that he is who she is meant to be with. “… I met someone before you ..l” is the last line she’s able to deliver straight before her voice starts cracking – “… And my heart just couldn’t waiiit…” So no matter how much she adores him, she’s got to stick with the guy she married because she didn’t think her soulmate was on his way.

Written in an era when people - especially females in the rural South and mid-west - still married very young, some still in their teens, this song resonated with many who had matured to regret their earlier immature decision. McEntire twanging a heartbreak song while bathing in fiddles is about as good as country music gets, and it showcases her unique strengths as a pure country vocalist. She’s an all-time great who is pretty versatile as a stylist, but she’s at her best when she does pure country like this. The harmonies are stunning in the chorus, and even the lack of a second verse reinforces the song’s message - sorry, can’t stick around, I might do the wrong thing - “… I can’t have you, but I never will forget you…” -


As mentioned yesterday, Reba's first marriage was to steer wrestling world rodeo champion and cattle rancher Charlie Battles. When the pair tied the knot in 1976, she was 21, he 31. At first, all went swimmingly, living on his Oklahoman cattle ranch. Reba commuted to Nashville for recording sessions, just like George Strait has done throughout his career. She was able to spend much time on the road with her husband, following the rodeo circuit through the mid-west. While he starred on the arena, she headlined the music entertainment (which is a big part of every major rodeo).

But problems arose when Reba's career really took off in the 1980’s, culminating in the runaway success of her “Whoever’s In New England” album. This success resulted in Reba spending more time away from home and the rodeo circuit, either in Nashville or touring in major southern cities east of the Mississippi, away from the mid-west cowboy country. Charlie wasn't happy with his wife's “overnight” success, celebrity status and frequent absences and asked her to slow down. She refused and divorced Charlie in 1987. She also moved from their Oklahoman ranch to Nashville to further her career. Reflecting much later on her relationship with Charlie, Reba, in a CNN interview, explained - "… I loved Charlie with all my heart, I wanted to marry him. We had a lot of fun. We rodeoed together, we ranched together. I guess I chose my career over my marriage".

With “The Last One to Know” we enter Reba McEntire’s forgotten era of hits, encompassing the 9 singles pulled from her final 3 studio albums with Jimmy Bowen as co-producer - “The Last One to Know”, “Reba” and “Sweet Sixteen”. Five of those singles went to #1, but they are mostly forgotten today. They were first overshadowed by the megahits featured on her first “Greatest Hits” collection for MCA, and then they went completely down the memory hole when Reba’s superstar 1990’s era kicked off with 8 classic singles. Of the five # 1 singles, this is one of the best, exceeded only by a truly brilliant ballad from the “Reba” album.

Recorded as McEntire went through the process of divorce from Charlie Battles, “The Last One to Know“ is understandably heavy on songs about breakups and the uncertainty of the future, ‘The Stairs’ - about domestic violence - being particularly moving. Written by Matraca Berg and Jane Mariash, the title song, ‘The Last One to Know’ was the first single from the album and became McEntire's 9th # 1 hit in 1987. Most of the credit for what works here can be attributed to 2 women - Reba, naturally and songwriter Matraca Berg. But even a standout vocal from Reba can’t quite overcome the blandness of the production, which cries out for the twang that started to fade from Reba’s work at this time. Still, among her late 1980’s work, this 1987 # 1 chart topper is a highlight. Betrayal is heard loud and clear -
"… It would be easier to face the mornin' / If you were holding me tight / But you left me without a warning /
Holding on to a heartache / while she's holdin' you tight …"
-

Fun fact - McEntire had to go back to the studio and re-record ‘The Last One to Know’ because she had unwittingly changed the lyric “Oh, why is the last one to know …” to “The wife is the last one to know …“. No-one in the studio picked up on the error at the time of the initial recording.

Reba’s final 2 albums of the 1980’s were also her final 2 albums with co-producer Jimmy Bowen, who had rocketed her career into the stratosphere. These 2 – 1988’s “Reba” and 1989’s “Sweet Sixteen” – find McEntire preparing to be a legacy act, moving away from the current sounds on the radio and developing her live show to the point she was regularly selling out arenas. Both these albums sold well and produced three # 1 singles between them, but radio success was less consistent. “Reba” launched with an antiseptic cover of ‘Sunday Kind of Love’, which had a striking period piece music video but was otherwise forgettable, reaching # 5, her lowest charting single since her “Whoever’s in New England” breakthrough to super-stardom. But she rebounded with the best single from this brief era - the Rick Bowles and Will Robinson composed ‘I Know How He Feels’

It has the only fresh production approach on the “Reba” album, bordering on pop-country, building slowly to a crescendo as more instrumentation joins in over its running time. At the start, there’s barely any accompaniment at all, showcasing her increasingly theatrical vocals, which are especially spine-tingling here. Reba does well playing the bad guy on this track, and you feel her pain as she sees the man she treated so poorly leaving her behind in the darkness as his light shines on someone else -


‘I Know How He Feels’ is the first of three consecutive # 1 singles in 1988/89, which make up her final chart toppers of the decade. Not bad for a lady who almost became a legacy act 4 decades ago! That said, Reba closed out the decade with two # 1 hits that were frankly mediocre covers. The first is 1988’s ‘New Fool at an Old Game’, a pleasant enough ballad originally recorded by a suitably young Michelle Wright, who took it to the Canadian top fifteen in 1987. Wright’s deeper vocal gave the slight song a bit of heft and its narrator a sense of agency. It’s such a “helpless little girl” kind of song that singing it softly would really drive home its infantilising lyrics - which is exactly what McEntire does, to a degree. The weakness is so forced, like the 34 y.o. McEntire is holding back 98% of her ferocious energy to eke out the gobsmacking juvenile lines - “… I don’t know the rules / Teach me how to play ….”. I’ll spare you from it.

Reba McEntire’s final # 1 single of the decade was also her final # 1 single with Jimmy Bowen as her co-producer. Bowen amazingly blocked McEntire from recording ‘Fancy’, given its subject matter (more on that tomorrow), but somehow he signed off an Everly Brothers ‘Cathy’s Clown’ (post # 395) cover, and it is easily the worst # 1 single of Reba’s lengthy career. The Everly original, with its extraordinary tight, high Appalachian harmony, is a song of stark defiance, where a man finds his grit and refuses to be Cathy’s clown anymore. McEntire rewrites it into a ballad where she’s pouting over the guy who is still very much Cathy’s clown. It’s a bizarre mess of a re-write where she’s trying to win a man’s heart by pointing out his emasculation, then gently reassuring him that she’s even more pathetic and weak than he is, so “pick me!”. An unmitigated disaster, with a laughable video to boot - albeit it still got to # 1 in 1989, showing the loyalty, if not the good taste, of her fanbase, I nearly selected it here for a contrast, just because it was so bad.

But though Reba ended the 1980’s below her best, she could boast 13 # 1 hits and a host of awards for the decade. Her next visit to the top kicks off her true imperial era, so it all worked out in the end - but not without a horrible tragedy. But that’s for tomorrow.
 
I suppose it’s inevitable the mainstream country artists will, by definition (mainstream being the main or dominant market and will often have pop elements to make them more appealing to the mass market), benefit the most from the current popularity surge and cool factor in country music (which I’m not sure I’m comfortable with, but that’s irrelevant ).

Tyler Childers is a good one and has definitely raised his profile, as has Charley Crockett, who, since his Australian tour, has been packing out his shows across Texas - albeit still at smaller venues, which is just the way I like it. Others include the Canadians, Corn Lund and Colter Walk and Texans, Billy Strings and Cody Johnson, amongst many others working away out of the spotlight.
I really like Charley Crockett but the change in his voice in both the way he sings and even speaks really intrigues me. Not only does it change over years but from albulm to album. It puts question marks over how genuine he is. That said his music is still great and heads and shoulders over alot thats out there
 
We’re back In 1989, when Reba McEntire married Narvel Blackstock, after kicking around with him for 2 years since she divorced her first husband (and Narvel split from his first wife). Now aged 34, Reba had hired Narvel to play steel guitar in her touring band back in 1980. Shortly after their respective divorces, Reba fired her band’s manager and replaced him with Narvel. He soon worked his way up to Reba’s personal manager and finally to husband when they tied the knot in 1989. The pair quickly became a power couple, together forming Starstruck Entertainment, which took over all aspects of Reba's career - and finances. Reba also gained an instant family - 3 step-children from Blackstock’s first marriage - Chassidy, Shawna, and Brandon. Months after the 1989 wedding, Reba gave birth to a son, Shelby Blackstock - who grew up to be a professional car racer, currently racing in touring cars.

By 1990, Reba had already become one of the most successful female artists in country music history, dominating the awards circuit with record-breaking runs as Female Vocalist of the Year at the CMA and ACM Awards, as well as winning the 1986 CMA trophy for Entertainer of the Year. Her record sales were consistently gold and platinum, and she hadn’t missed the Top 10 with a single since 1984. Her last album of the 1980’s, “Sweet Sixteen” (her 16th album overall, but her 14th studio album), produced 5 Top 5 hits, spending 13 weeks at # 1 on the albums chart. She was also a top draw touring act and popular media personality, regularly co-hosting awards shows and having a high enough profile to appear on the network talk shows.

But Reba was wise enough to know that things were slowing down and that the competition was growing more fierce. While recuperating from her difficult pregnancy, she decided to switch co-producers, tapping MCA executive Tony Brown to helm her 16th studio album with her. This resulted in another change of direction, away from the neo-traditional sound of the last half of the 1980’s (though her 1988 “Reba” album was a foretaste of this change) to a more contemporary, if not quite pop, sound - she still mostly kept her twang. For the first single from their new album, “Rumor Has It”, the pair chose Reba’s cover of a 1988 album track, ‘You Lie’, from Cee Cee Chapman’s debut album.

‘You Lie’, written by Bobby Fischer, Charlie Black and Austin Roberts. is a good song already, but McEntire’s cover was her finest up until this point, sounding like a turbo-charged Tammy Wynette, mixed with the emotive vocal power of Patsy Cline. Whereas Reba’s final singles, co-produced by Jimmy Bowen, sounded stuck in the eighties, ‘You Lie’ debuted a fresh and contemporary sound, with more aggressive production and a more challenging vocal for her to deliver a dramatic melody, allowing her voice to soar into the stratosphere in the stunning chorus. Her ability to sing a soaring melody without losing her twang allowed her to stake her claim as a big-throated country diva, every bit as tethered to country music (just like Patti LaBelle or Whitney Houston remained tethered to R&B). A masterpiece, one of the most unique sounding records of her career.‘You Lie’ was immediately different from the singles that preceded it, it’s lyrics showing a woman who knew that a relationship was over - and wanted to be set free -


‘You Lie’ kicks off McEntire’s imperial phase. where she went from simply being the top-selling female country artist to being a multi-platinum star who could keep up with the men at the head of the pack. With a string of blockbuster singles that were consistently excellent, Reba managed to reach new levels of commercial success while most of her 1980’s peers (with the obvious exception of George Strait) were being left behind. On the strength of the # 1 ‘You Lie’, Reba’s “Rumor Has Itbecame her fastest-selling album to date, selling over a million copies in only 7 months.

Reba followed ‘You Lie’ in 1991 with the album’s title track, that lays down the power ballad template that would become Reba’s signature style in the coming years. It’s a relatively simple formula - take the structure of a pop power ballad, add some country instrumentation, and let Reba completely loose. The more she pushes her vocal limits, the more country her vocal becomes, with her natural twang being most prominent when she’s reaching for difficult notes.

Later down the road, McEntire would stumble by trying to make actual pop-flavoured music, which goes against her strengths. But on a classic like ‘Rumor Has it’, she really delivers, taking a simple small-town cheating experience and infusing it with drama and pathos, playing the part of a jilted lover -
"… I wouldn't have believed my ears, but I see it in your eyes / Those stories going 'round this town aren't lies…" -


Reba scaled new career heights in 1991, again awarded the Entertainer of the Year in both the CMA and ACM and claiming her 5th ACM Top Female Vocalist trophy, extending her own record. The next single relaeased from “Rumor Has It”, ‘Fancy’ only reached # 8 at the time - but has endured since to eventually, became her signature hit. in this case, the charts don’t tell the full story of the song’s impact. McEntire turned this song into a tour de force on stage, using the moment to don some of the most glamorous attire in her show, becoming her go to encore performance.

Written and originally recorded by Bobbie Gentry (Of ‘Ode To Billy Joe’ fame) and was a hit for her 22 years earlier, in 1969 (see post # 533). But it was Reba’s 1991 version of the harshly realistic, provocative song that became part of country music’s canon and is still considered one of her best songs. A story of a rags-to-riches young woman who is forced by her impoverished mother to earn a living on the streets, it’s hard to find a single as well-suited to her intuitive spunk and effortlessly backwoods flair as this one. It exudes the female strength that was so much a part of her sound, but people of any gender could identify when McEntire belted the lyric -
“… I might’ve been born just plain white trash / but Fancy was my name…” -


Since topping the charts with “Rumor Has It” in early 1991, Reba had been experiencing the biggest commercial success of her career. It achieved platinum status faster than any album of hers to date. She was happily married, had a 1 y.o. son and 3 step-children she had bonded with; her professional and personal life seemed perfect. Than unspeakable tragedy struck. A plane en-route to Nashville on the way back from a private concert, carrying 8 members of her band and 2 crew, crashed into a mountain at night shortly after taking off from San Diego, killing all on board. The crash was caused by pilot error

Meanwhile, a second plane carrying the rest of her band made it successfully to Nashville. The news was reported nearly immediately to McEntire and her husband, who were sleeping at a nearby hotel - "… By the time that long, terrible weekend was over, we were emotionally and physically exhausted …" she wrote in her autobiography. The L.A. Times reported - "… She was very close to all of them. Some of them had been with her for years. Reba is totally devastated by this. It's like losing part of your family. Right now she just wants to get back to Nashville...". Reba, her husband and hair stylist returned on their own plane following the accident. Two days after the crash, Reba scheduled a memorial service for the families of the victims. Nine days after the accident, she performed at the Academy Awards ceremony, singing the Best Original Song nominee ‘I'm Checkin' Out’ from the film Postcards from the Edge. In addition, Vince Gill and Dolly Parton offered their help in reorganising her touring band.

Reba honours the memory of those who died that day each year on March 16, the anniversary of the crash. In 2016, on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, she took a special trip to San Diego and took a helicopter up to the crash site. But back at the time, she channeled her grief into her 16th studio album, “For My Broken Heart”, dedicating it to the deceased members of her road band. Released in October 1991, it contained songs of sorrow and lost love about "all measure of suffering”. The album was now titled after the heartbreak ballad which she previewed with a gut-wrenching performance of it on the 1991 CMA Awards. This doesn’t happen often, especially in a career as lengthy and successful as McEntire’s, but “For My Broken Heart”, hits the trifecta - it’s her best album, it’s her biggest album, and it is her first to produce three # 1 hits.

Before the crash, Reba had already identified a heartbreak ballad to record as a duet with young superstar Clint Black, but preparations for her next studio album were detoured by the tragedy. Only the quietly moving ‘If I Had Only Known’ might be considered a tribute to the members of McEntire's band who died in the crash, but the tragedy creeps into her voice and her song selection. Throughout the album, McEntire dwells on regrets, unvoiced feelings, and missed chances.

It surely would’ve been fine as a duet, but it’s hard to imagine ‘For My Broken Heart’ being as achingly beautiful as it is with Reba singing it alone. It’s a song about grieving over a broken relationship, but the details of the lyric capture just how mundane the grieving process is, no matter what you’re mourning - “Lord, the sun is blinding me / as it wakes me from the dark / I guess the world didn’t stop for my broken heart”.
How can life be going on outside like nothing happened, while I’m in here falling apart? But I’m going to “…stumble to the coffee pot …”, even if “… it takes all the strength I’ve got…” She’s going to survive, but it’s going to hurt like hell.


‘Is There Life Out There’ (which I almost excluded from selection - not to my taste) almost wasn’t a Reba McEntire single. An unnamed major artist was set to record it, but made a request of songwriter Susan Longacre - change the line in the chorus, “… Is there life beyond her family and her home …” to something less controversial (for in the South, to this day, any perceived attack on the traditional family doesn’t tend to go down well). Longacre refused, and the song found its way to Reba instead, who included it on her landmark “For My Broken Heartalbum and released as its second single, becoming her 16th # 1. She filmed an epic and triumphant music video for the single, where a mother balances her job as a waitress and her responsibilities at home with earning a college degree. The clip ends with her graduating, while her family cheers on.

There’s no such celebration in the actual record, which is frozen in time at a moment of hesitation and regret, the subject married with young children, but realising she also has some unfulfilled dreams to chase along the way. As the woman in the song remembers thinking she was ready for marriage and homemaking (and Reba may well have identified with her, having married young, and then eventually left that marriage to chase her career), she contemplates action she never actually takes - “… Would she do it the same as she did back then? / Oh, she looks out her window and she wonders again…” The production is all nervous anxiety, with a carefully plucked guitar capturing her tormented indecision - though a choir also steps in to provide backing vocals. Like so many of the songs on “For My Broken Heart”, it grants the listener no easy answers and no easy way out of the emotions being felt -


And that’s it for another day - actually for severak days I’ve just been called up to the Murray region for the next 3 days at least, So there’ll be an intermission with Reba’s history, leaving her for now in 1991, having gone through the tragic loss of 8 members of her band, but with her career at an all-time high - and still with much more to come.
 
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