After 365 days and nearly that many albums listened to, the Sun Tracks staff (with a little help from their friends) gets serious and decides on the best of 1992. Robert Baird Sun Tracks editor 1. Jimmy Scott, All the Way (Reprise). Album of the millennium. Lured out of retirement…
Not long ago, “Boogie Woogie Country Girl” and stripper-cum-feminist Candye Kane considered selling her soul for a recording deal. She’d already been gathering fans for years in Southern California clubs, ranging from the mighty Palomino in Los Angeles to the Lion’s Club in San Diego. Her tangy, powerful voice wrapped…
Forty years from now, when the rickety old America West Arena–named after a long-defunct, long-forgotten airline–is razed to accommodate a new parking lot, a trivia question will ask: “What was the first-ever act to play at Colangelo’s Folly?” No, it wasn’t “Your Phoenix Suns” (still seeking an NBA championship in…
In country music, the term “legend” once was mighty precious. Legends paid their honky-tonk dues, suffered for their art and strived to earn the everlasting affection of the hundred thousand or so devoted Americans who bought country albums. Merle Haggard’s a legend. Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn are legends. Porter…
When hillbilly ultratraditionalist Marty Brown signed on with king-of-country-labels MCA, the record company’s PR Pooh-Bahs were charged with finding a novel way to get his High and Dry music to the people. Much too country for modern country radio, Brown’s high-mountain wails, yodels and Fifties-style honky-tonk were getting virtually no…
When Beth McKee first heard that her band, Evangeline, had been chosen to open Jimmy Buffett’s summer amphitheatre tour, she was elated. She became even more excited when she remembered the enthusiasm of the Buffett-loving “Parrotheads” nesting across the country. McKee is the band’s Buffett expert, having played with Greg…
Texas-born singer-songwriter and avid angler James McMurtry refused the bait. No, he said in his soft, deep drawl, he wouldn’t have had all this recent success if it wasn’t for his famous father, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Larry McMurtry, author of Lonesome Dove and The Last Picture Show. “Hey, if it…
Home in Music City for a rare, brief respite from the road, Delbert McClinton seemed anything but relaxed. Once our attempt at having a telephone conversation–interrupted a near-dozen times by barking dogs, call-waiting beeps and ghostly, third-party voices–was consummated sans interference by switching to a private phone line, there were…
It was old hat and new house in downtown Phoenix this past Saturday night as neocountry godfather George Strait inaugurated the fresh, flashy digs at the new America West Arena. The young crowd, clad mostly in multigallon brims, achingly tight Wranglers and dead reptile and bird boots, began gathering in…
Scottsdale musician Ray Herndon couldn’t be happier with the success his band, McBride and the Ride, has achieved. Well, actually, he probably could be happier, but Herndon is reluctant to knock a good thing. “Oh, I’m very content,” the tall, longhaired lead guitarist for the harmonic-happy, neo-country trio asserts, leaning…
In lyric and life, on stage and in stereo, Robert Earl Keen Jr. is a very funny fellow. However, the Houston-born-and-bred musician with the cool, slightly quirky Southern tones and clever lyrics found nothing humorous about a poster heralding his appearance at one of his 150 road shows in 1991…
If Rodney Crowell’s father had had his way, his son would have become a baseball player instead of the major-league singer and songwriter he is today. Rodney would be ripping triples to deep center instead of garnering triple Grammy Award nominations and winning one. He’d be lining his mantle with…
Don’t blame Dan Hicks for being a bit cantankerous these days. Just as his career is once again gathering momentum, the Bay Area-bred “folk swing” king has turned 50. “People come around asking me how I’m gonna wrap things up,” complains Hicks during a telephone conversation from his hillside home…
It’s time for a long-overdue look at what kind of “product” is coming out of the local music scene. The number of tapes submitted was so large this time that one week won’t cover them all. Be prepared for a second installment to run soon. The variety of local music…
By 1983, crazed country iconoclast Gary Stewart had finally slipped one toke over the line. The days when he’d peppered the C&W charts with classic cuts like “Drinkin’ Thing” and “She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinking Doubles)” were roughly ten years and 10,000 Quaaludes in the past. His long, rocky relationship…
It wasn’t so long ago, if you were able to snag a pair of tickets to a George Jones concert, only half the battle was won. For certain, you wouldn’t get many betting types to make book that this country music living legend would actually perform. And if he did,…
Although every record label wants to claim it was the first, no one really knows who invented the boxed set. Usually comprising a cardboard box, a handful of CDs and a book full of pictures, boxed sets focus on the music of a single artist, time period or genre. A…
In 1987, Vern Gosdin was ready to chuck the whole music business. He’d spent the last three decades playing his clean, pure, Southern-style country music in ornery taverns and toiling on teensy labels, and dammit, it was high time to start thinking about a pension. “You get a little age…
AZMC ’91: PLAYING FOR KEEPS Ahhh . . . there’s nothing like a music conference. Musicians of every size, taste and hair style steal into town. Music-business people–everyone from writers and deejays to promoters and record-company executives–fly in and schmooze themselves silly. During the day, everyone drifts in and out…
Given her family background, it’s no real surprise that Laurie Lewis developed an interest in music. Her grandmother turned out old Norwegian songs on the piano. Her mother sang Lutheran hymns while her older sister played the flute. And her father worked his way through medical school while playing piccolo…
Save for Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams the Elder, there is no other individual in country music who can lay a more legitimate claim to icon status than Merle Haggard. Factoring in all reasonable elements–writing, singing, musicianship, stage work, political and social commentary–the Hag has earned his stripes…
The way Mark Lucas figures it, if you cast your line often enough, you’re bound to catch something. Big-show success for his namesake country honky-tonk band is, therefore, merely a matter of catching the right Music City ear. Frequent forays into deepest, darkest Nashville are a major part of the…
