Friday Night Cool Country Music

Have you watched any so-called "country" videos lately? Well, they're hideous. Don't even get me started.

Okay, I'll start a little.

One weekend afternoon, I couldn't find anything on TV, so I thought I'd check out the latest happenings in country music. (I don't listen to it on the radio, so I'm completely clueless.)

Well, let me tell you; it's hideous. One can only take so much of it, I found. I listened (sorry, watched) about four videos, hoping there would be some semblance left somewhere of actual country music. Alas.

What I found is, there are a bunch of very young guys, with names like Wade or Chad or Lance or whatever; and they're all horribly henpecked, apparently.

Some poor guy (Wade or Chad or...wait...let me look it up....Walker Hayes! Hey, I wasn't far off the mark!) was singing about how his girl can "wear the pants" in the relationship. In the video, we see her apparently scolding him for something, or everything. He ends up in a park singing his pitiful song, and she drives up to pick him up, and nags him about whether he made any money today.

Really? Is this his mommy or his girlfriend? But he seems perfectly happy with the arrangement (poor little sissy), so who am I to judge?

Another video, by some boy/girl group (or should I say girl/boy?) was a poorly-made ripoff of Grease. I don't know what it was about, frankly, but they were in a bowling alley, and each had their "posse" with them. I don't know; I'm so confused.

Then I saw something where Reba McEntire (Eek! Plastic surgery gone awry!) was a Dear Abby-type character, and the fighting couple ended up at her house for...tea or something. I turned the sound off at some point.

Thus ended my experiment.

I am so out of touch. Have I been asleep for the past twenty years?

When I last left country music; scratch that; when I last ENJOYED country music, it was great. I've loved country music my whole life. I don't recognize THIS STUFF. What the hell is it? Seriously. Can people actually perform these songs with any modicum of self-respect?

I'm not saying you have to be in love with Hank Williams or Ray Price or, you know, Webb Pierce or Hank Snow or Kitty Wells. Heck, even I don't like all those people.

I'm not talking 60 years ago; I'm talking about music in the not-that-distant past.

Stuff like this:



Or this:

Crazy Over You @ Yahoo! Video

Okay, this is from 2005, so c'mon; it's not old!



Frankly, I could throw any Dwight Yoakam video on here, and be done. But I don't want to short-change others.

Can't find any recent Marty Stuart videos, but trust me, he's doing GREAT work. It's just that his label didn't support him, so he can't make videos nowadays. Bastards. But I still like this one:


Hey, how about this?



Not to leave the ladies out. When Paulette Carlson was still with Highway 101, they were great. Here's one to prove that:



What can one say about Mark Chesnutt? He's cool, ultimately cool. What a voice. Too damn bad the record labels don't get that.



Pick any song by George Strait. Yea, pick any one.



I could go on and on. But I won't. If you wanna know what country music used to be, well, here you go.

Now it's all about gym lockers and men wearing aprons.

But have at it, kids. If that's what you like. I still have all my CD's, so I'm good. And yea, I do have ALL these CD's.

Hey, I'd still be buying music if y'all hadn't ruined it. But y'all do whatever your business model calls for.

Time marches on.

Yet, I leave you with this:



Makes me remember when I used to love music.

The CMA Awards - Let's Hope They Were Great In '88!

Isn't it great to look back and remember all those things from, say, 21 years ago? Things that maybe we'd rather forget, but then again, who knows what we might rediscover? Maybe something good!

In the world of news in 1988, we got ourselves a new President. Remember this?



Yea, that guy did a lot of great things for us. Hmmm, let's see now. What did he do? Well, he went into Iraq, sort of, but didn't finish the job; leaving us to inherit this big mess that we found ourselves in, just a few short years later. He begot a son who single-handedly demolished the Republican Party. Oh yea, and he DID raise taxes. So, I guess our new President in 1988 hit a triple!

Which is why I prefer to talk about pop culture!

In 1988, we enjoyed this classic movie from Tim Burton. (And boy, doesn't Alec Baldwin look young here!)



Another hit movie from 1988 was "Cocktail"; a movie that I never actually saw. But I do own the soundtrack CD.

Why didn't I see it? Well, c'mon. It did star Tom Cruise.

The only reason I'm including it here is so that I can include the Beach Boys video of "Kokomo". For some reason, this song gets dissed a lot. I don't get what the vehement hate of this song is all about. It's catchy. It's the Beach Boys. I like it.



And it not only features the glorious voice of Carl Wilson singing the high parts, but also Mike Loooove "fake playing" the saxaphone!


I'm not sure what happened to pop music in 1988, but according to the top songs of the year, it took a steep nosedive.

However, here's a good one (did you forget about this one?)



Here's another pop hit from 1988. Remember Rick Astley? Of course you do! Sure, he looks like a little kid, but he does have a great voice. Although the whole disco beat thing is sort of dated - even for 1988.

Never Gonna Give You Up @ Yahoo! Video

So, with that bit of background information, let's move on to the 1988 CMA awards, shall we?

Probably the most amazing happening of 1988 was that Chet Atkins stepped up to again claim the prize for MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR! Sure, you (and I) thought that Chet's time in the spotlight had passed. Oh no! Chet was back! And frankly, I think the CMA should rename this award the "Chet Atkins Musician of the Year Award". I mean, really.

Here's a clip from way back in 1954, just for fun. Chet, playing "Mr. Sandman" (those red houndstooth jackets were BIG in 1954!):



VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR was the Judds! Yes, I know that the Judds tended to waver between vocal duo and vocal group. But this time, it was vocal DUO!

Here they are, doing, "I Know Where I'm Goin'":



The SONG OF THE YEAR in 1988 was "Eighties Ladies", written (and recorded) by K.T. Oslin.



K.T. had that one big hit, in 1988, and I guess some smaller follow-up singles, but "Eighties Ladies" was her moment in the sun. As I watched this video, my thought was, "What exactly is the point?" But I'm sure there was one. Maybe I didn't get it because I was only 33 years old in 1988. But the thing is, I still don't get it. Nice song, though.

K.T. Oslin also garnered the FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR award.

Never to be heard from again. Okay, I guess that's a little harsh. Harsh, but basically true.

1988 ushered in a new award from the CMA's, VOCAL EVENT OF THE YEAR. I guess vocal event means that some people get together, who don't normally get together, and they record a song.

These gals recorded more than a SONG. They did a couple of albums, I think. And henceforth, they will be known as the TRIO.....Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt. Three superior singers. A match made in heaven, as they say.



The MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR in 1988 was my friend, and everybody's, Randy Travis.

Here's a nice video from 1988, "I Told You So":



For some strange, unknown reason, the Country Music Association apparently decided NOT to name a MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR in 1988.

Surely, it couldn't have been because there were no good videos! For example, what about this one?



Rodney Crowell got robbed in 1988 anyway (see ALBUM OF THE YEAR), so I'm happy to include him here. And I'm giving him my own personal MAA (Michelle Anderson Award) for 1988 Video of the Year.

Moving on to categories that were actually awarded by the CMA, the SINGLE OF THE YEAR was a good one!

Here's one of country's best voices, Kathy Mattea, with "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses":


And, hey CMA's! If you didn't like my Rodney Crowell video choice, how about Kathy Mattea's? See, I think there were a LOT of great videos in 1988. Morons.

The VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR happens to be one of my personal favorites, Highway 101.

I can't emphasize enough how influential Highway 101 was in the country music world of the eighties. The original members (the real band) were Cactus Moser, Curtis Stone, Jack Daniels, and, of course, Paulette Carlson. Paulette, the Stevie Nicks of country music (only better!)

There seems to be a dearth of Highway 101 videos available on the web, and this is really the only one I could find (of the original band). Chronologically, this is incorrect, since this recording is from 1989, but here's one of many good ones from Highway 101:



Paulette is originally from Minnesota, and she is just a very lovely person. I was sad when the original group disbanded.

1988's HORIZON AWARD winner was Ricky Van Shelton. Ricky is a fine singer, and he had a lot of hit songs. My one wish for Ricky, however, would have been for him to record more originals, rather than remaking so many older songs. I guess it was a managerial decision. I just don't know why. There's a lot of great songs floating around. I'm sure Ricky would have had many to choose from.

Here's "Somebody Lied" (originally recorded by Conway Twitty):



This leads us to our last two awards of the evening ~ ALBUM OF THE YEAR and, of course, the biggie, ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR.

Both awards were won this year by none other than Hank Williams, Jr.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR - Born To Boogie

Ol' (young?) Hank was on a roll!

Here's a video of one of the tracks from the album of the year, featuring a few people you'll recognize, such as Foster & Lloyd, Ricky Van Shelton, Highway 101, The George Satellites, Vince Gill, Restless Heart, Waylon, and many, many more. Here's "Young Country":

Hank Williams Jr. - New Music - More Music Videos

Hall of Fame Roy Rogers

Sure, we know that Roy Rogers was a singing cowboy, and that he had a wife who was named for a guy, and he had a horse named Trigger. And he did western serials and he had poor Trigger stuffed (after Trigger died, of course).

But Roy did much more. Roy formed the Sons of the Pioneers. Take a listen here:



And I always heard that Roy Rogers was a heck of a nice guy.

Loretta Lynn

Lorett-y (sorry, I just recently watched "Coal Miner's Daughter" again) was one of the female pioneers of country music. She followed in the tradition of Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline, but her songs had a perspective all their own, because she wrote 'em. Loretta would never had had a career in country music, had it not been for the hard work and perseverance of her husband, Mooney (or Doolittle - you choose). And I'm sure that Loretta would be the first to agree.

Here's Loretta performing one of her biggest hits:



So, we bid a fond adieu to 1988. A year that saw the rise of some of our (at least my) most cherished country stars. And Hank Williams, Jr., too.

Highway 101

It's difficult to convey the impact that Highway 101 had on my musical life.

In the mid-to-late-eighties, as a music lover who'd basically given up on country music, I decided to give it just one more chance. One more try.

I can't pinpoint exactly when I'd given up on country music. I think it was somewhere during the early eighties. I'd just had enough of Charley Pride doing remakes of pop hits. Finally admitted that Crystal Gayle was doing songs that, only in the most generous of minds, would be considered "country".

I switched over to the Top 40 radio, and didn't look back.

On the plus side, I found a lot of good-to-great rock songs, and I have fond memories to this day of the rock music of the eighties (as some of my previous posts make clear.)

Ironically, it turned out that I was somewhat behind the curve, when I finally decided to give country one more chance.

I've written this before, but here's who I missed: GEORGE STRAIT, Randy Travis, Clint Black, DWIGHT YOAKAM, ALAN JACKSON.

I remember turning my radio to the country station, and hearing some stuff that sounded pretty decent.

The first cassette tape (yes, CASSETTE TAPE) that I bought was by the Sweethearts Of The Rodeo. I would change the bedsheets and dust the furniture on Saturday mornings, with my boom box loaded with Sweethearts Of The Rodeo tunes. And it made me happy.

And, so it happened, my kids were at an age when they didn't need babysitters anymore, so my then-husband and I decided to take in some nightlife.

THE place to go, then, was the Dakota Lounge. Happily, it was only about 3 blocks from our house, so it was not only eye-opening, but convenient.

The Dakota Lounge had live acts. I remember it well. I had some definite favorites. Live 'n Kickin' was the best. The Back Behind The Barn Boys really packed 'em in. Firehouse was one of my personal favorites.

The acts started at 9:00. Before that, the sound system played the latest hits. If you showed up early, you'd get a table right in front of the bandstand.

And you'd order your Miller Lite and people-watch, and listen to some amazing tunes played over the sound system.

If you only listen to NEW! HOT! COUNTRY!, you have no idea what country music really is. Or should be.

You'd hear, "Guitars, Cadillacs", by Dwight Yoakam. You'd hear, "Fishin' In The Dark", by the Dirt Band. You'd hear, "Can't Win For Losing You', by Earl Thomas Conley. You'd hear, "Killin' Time", by Clint Black.

Classics!

And you'd hear tunes, such as, "Somewhere Tonight", "Cry Cry Cry", and "(Do You Love Me) Just Say Yes", by a group called Highway 101.

Even if you didn't know how to two-step, these songs would pull you onto the dance floor.

Turns out that Paulette Carlson was from Minnesota. Paulette was country music's answer to Stevie Nicks. Not only did she have that distinctive voice, but she could write 'em, too! She wrote, "The Bed You Made For Me", among others.

Jack Daniels, Cactus Moser, Curtis Stone and Paulette Carlson. This was Highway 101. I don't care what line-up they came up with later. This was the nucleus of the band.

And they had great taste! They recorded Rodney Crowell's, "Somewhere Tonight". They recorded Roger Miller's, "Walkin' Talkin' Cryin' Barely Beatin' Broken Heart".

I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Highway 101 at the North Dakota State Fair, and I have the picture to prove it:
Paulette Carlson gave me the courage to think that maybe even I could be a singer/songwriter.

Yes, it's taken me a lot of years to realize that. But I will always, always point to Paulette and to Highway 101 as a group, and most importantly, as a female singer/songwriter who had a major impact on my musical life, and on my personal journey to try to express whatever the heck it is that I need to express, musically.

Here's what I could find on YouTube:

WHO'S LONELY NOW



Enjoy. And you're welcome!