Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic
Dave Penny‘s opening observation in the liner notes to Doin’ The Tennessee Wig Walk — the 26-song compilation taken from Bonnie Lou‘s King years — reminds me of Roy Lanham‘s similar quandary of being too jazz for country and vice versa: Too pop to be embraced by the country community
Judy Lynn – “America’s Western Sweetheart” – would get her one and only 45 picture sleeve, tragically enough, for this cheerful-sounding honky tonk tale in which the singer informs us she has only seconds to live before the “kindly” stranger who offered a ride at the train station prepares to
It’s not really a secret that US country & western music has had an influence on Jamaican music going all the way back to ska’s early years. Dave Katz — whose authoritative books on Jamaican music history (Solid Foundation: An Oral History Of Reggae and People Funny Boy: The Genius
This full-page ad in Billboard‘s “World of Country Music” special edition gives every indication that 1967 promised to be a break-out year for Molly Bee: Billboard October 28, 1967 The previous year, inside the gatefold sleeve of 1966’s Freak Out – the groundbreaking debut double album by Frank Zappa‘s Mothers
Paul Hemphill‘s The Nashville Sound: Bright Lights and Country Music — published in 1970 during a particularly vibrant musical era — includes this passage about the pushback against attempts to de-emphasize country’s less “polished” elements in order to increase the music’s appeal in the (more lucrative) “pop” marketplace: It isn’t
Grandpa Jones‘ toe-tappin’ countrypolitan “Hip Cat’s Weddin’” is one of Zero to 180’s recent discoveries: “Hip Cat’s Weddin’” Grandpa Jones & His Swingin’ Grandchildren Recorded November 1960 Too little has been written about Boudleaux Bryant‘s clever composition and its fetching arrangement — virtually nothing, in fact. “I Don’t Love Nobody”
As noted in Zero to 180’s recent history of Bethlehem Records in the “Post-Syd Nathan” era (i.e., starting in 1958, when Nathan had acquired 50% of the label), Ruppli’s King recording sessionography indicates that some new recording had taken place at King’s Cincinnati studios in a few instances connected to
I forget where I picked up my copy of 100 All Time Country Hall of Fame Hits – Vol. 2, double-LP set from 1977 that was originally “nationally advertised on TV!” The friendly price tag comes at a cost, though — 12 (even 13) songs per side, thus, a noticeable
On my one and only visit to Northampton, Massachusetts (NRBQ‘s 35th anniversary show in 2004), I ducked into a second-hand vinyl shop and came away with a K-Tel country collection from 1976 — Country Superstars – 20 Greatest Hits This collection of early-to-mid 70s hits includes 1976 dieselbilly hit “Roll
Yesterday’s piece about Mayf Nutter included a link to the January 13, 1973 edition of Billboard, that happened to feature an adjacent news item naming all the artists who played with Buck Owens at a recent Christmas event in Bakersfield: Buck Owens and his group drew more than 5,000 with
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