Tag: country

Bobby Bare | Detroit City

“In his current book ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song,’ the revered musical artist Bob Dylan critiques 66 popular recordings to explain how music reveals the character of a culture,” (Detroit Free Press). “Wouldn’t you know it, Page 1 of Chapter 1 presents ‘Detroit City,’ Bobby Bare’s 1963 crossover country classic about a disillusioned Southern white man who comes north to the Motor City. Bare recorded and released the song (61 years ago). On the Billboard charts, it reached sixth on the country-western list, 16th on the pop list, and launched his successful career. ‘It wasn’t till Detroit City came along that I realized I was never going to have to get a real job, which was a big relief for a guitar picker,’ Bare told the website All Access Pass.

Bobby Sr.’s big hit came early in a musical decade best remembered in Detroit for Motown’s assembly-line brilliance; for the raucous rock-and-roll concerts at the Grande Ballroom; and for young Canadian artists like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young clubbing their way to fame around the Motor City. In addition, Dylan’s essay cites “Detroit, the home of Motown and Fortune Records, birthplace of Hank Ballard, Mitch Ryder, Jackie Wilson, Jack White, Iggy Pop, and the MC5.”

The song was originally titled ‘I Want to Go Home,’ a phrase that dominates the chorus. The record found little success when first recorded and released by Billy Grammer in 1962, but Bare loved it. ‘I heard Billy Grammer’s record of Detroit City while I was driving down the street one day and I damn near wrecked my car,” Bare said on his website bobbybare.com. ‘I thought it was the greatest song I ever heard in my life.’” The tune makes a distinctive shift from E major down to B major at 1:19. Many thanks to our regular contributoro Rob P. for this tune!

Tom T. Hall | I Love

“’Songwriters aren’t good songwriters,’ Tom T. Hall once said,” (HollerCountry). “‘People are good songwriters. You sit down as a person and write a song. If you’ve written a song by the time you stand back up, you’re a songwriter. But the person comes first.’

One of Hall’s simplest songs, ‘I Love,’ went on to be the most successful solo single of his career. The song is a softly sung, heart-warming list of everything that Hall loves about life, from baby ducks to pick-up trucks, squirrels to puppies, written in five minutes and recorded in two takes. ‘I invested a total of nine minutes into it, and it sold more than a million copies and was used in a Coors Light commercial.'” It was released in October 1973 “as the only single from the album For the People in the Last Hard Town,” (Billboard). “The song would be Hall’s most successful single and was his fourth number one on the US country singles chart, spending two weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on the chart.”

Starting in F major, the tune shifts up a half step at 1:58 to F# major. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for submitting this track!

The Chicks | Long Time Gone

“Long Time Gone” was originally recorded by American singer/songwriter Darrell Scott, and subsequently covered by the Dixie Chicks (now known as The Chicks) and featured as the lead single on their 2002 album Home. The instrumentation includes banjo and fiddle but no percussion; critic Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe said the track “features the same empowered energy of their best hits…but with a sharper edge and a complete refusal to mince words as they slice and dice the contemporary country landscape that they still ruled at the time.” The Chicks’ cover won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

The track begins in D and briefly modulates to E following the second verse and chorus at 1:42. It returns to D at 2:10.

Jimmie Rodgers | Honeycomb

“Jimmie Rodgers, known professionally as the ‘Singing Brakeman’ and ‘America’s Blue Yodeler,’ was in the first class of inductees honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame and is widely known as ‘The Father of Country Music,’ (Country Music Hall of Fame). “From many diverse elements—the traditional folk music of his southern upbringing, early jazz, stage-show yodeling, the work chants of Black railroad section crews and, most importantly, African American blues—he forged a lasting musical style that made him immensely popular during his own lifetime and a major influence on generations of country artists to come. Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, Bill Monroe, Dolly Parton, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, and Tanya Tucker are only some of the dozens of stars who have acknowledged Rodgers’s impact on their music.

… Best known for his solo appearances on stage and record, Rodgers also worked with many other established performers of the time, touring in 1931 with Will Rogers (who jokingly referred to him as ‘my distant son’) and recording with such country music greats as the Bill Boyd, the Carter Family, and Clayton McMichen, and, in at least one instance, with the legendary jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who appears with him on ‘Blue Yodel Number 9 (Standin’ on the Corner).’ One of the first white country stars to work with Black musicians, Rodgers also recorded with the fine St. Louis bluesman Clifford Gibson and the popular Louisville musical group the Dixieland Jug Blowers.”

1957’s upbeat “Honeycomb,” written by Bob Merrill, is a blend of country and rockabilly. The track modulates up a half-step at 0:44 and again at 1:25. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for sending in this tune!

Tanya Tucker | Delta Dawn

Written by Larry Collins and Alex Harvey, “Delta Dawn” was first recorded by Bette Midler in 1971 and featured on her first studio album, The Divine Miss M. Country singer Tanya Tucker released her own cover the following year.

Tucker’s version differs from others by starting with a the chorus, sung a cappella, before continuing onto the first verse. The tune starts in Bb and modulates up to C at 1:16. Thanks to contributor Leah Pye for this submission!

Tanya Tucker | The Jamestown Ferry

“Long before teenagers like LeAnn Rimes and Taylor Swift were taking over the country charts, a 13-year-old Tanya Tucker was mixing it up with all the heavyweights,” (Holler Country). “Included on her debut album in 1972, “The Jamestown Ferry,” (a) funky little slice of countrypolitan, was everything the 13-year-old Tanya Tucker was becoming synonymous with in the early 70s.

With a lyric presumably way beyond her experience and a deep soulful vocal that belied her age, ‘The Jamestown Ferry’ tells the story of a woman wandering the honky tonks and bars and sadly reminiscing about how her lover used to treat her before he left her to catch a ferry.”

Tucker’s solo vocal verses alternate with a multi-part vocal arrangement for the choruses. 1:38 brings a half-step key change. Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Charlie Rich | Behind Closed Doors

“There are many iconic songs in the history of country music,” (SavingCountryMusic.com). “But there are only a small handful that have gone on to define what it means when someone says ‘country music’ to millions of people. The song ‘Behind Closed Doors,’ written by Kenny O’Dell and performed by Charlie Rich, is definitely one of those songs … For years Charlie Rich struggled as a performer since he wasn’t dirty enough for rockabilly or country, and not distinctive enough to make it in the world of pop. But when the Countrypolitan sound became all the rage in country music, it gave Charlie Rich an opening. Where some more hard country artists struggled to perfect the more genteel Countrypolitan approach, Charlie Rich’s balladeer style and smoothness fit the era perfectly.

‘Behind Closed Doors’ wasn’t just Charlie Rich’s breakout single … Songwriter Kenny O’Dell wrote the song specifically for Rich, with Sherrill tinkering with a few lines to get it dialed in perfectly. Released in April of 1973, the lyric was a little racy for the time, and some radio stations refused to play it initially, or outright banned it from playlists … But ‘Behind Closed Doors’ didn’t just hit #1 in country and #15 in pop, the song eventually won both Single of the Year and Song of the Year from both the CMA and ACM Awards. It won the Grammy for Best Country Song and Best Country Vocal Performance for a Male. Rich also won Best Male Vocalist from the CMAs in 1973, and the album Behind Closed Doors won for Album of the Year.”

After the first verse and chorus pass, the groove stops entirely for a split second. An unprepared modulation, led by what amounts to a reprise of the intro from the piano, hits at 1:22 before verse 2 starts at 1:32.

Billy Grammer | Gotta Travel On

“Billy Grammer, whose 1958 hit ‘Gotta Travel On’ hit the top of the charts and led to a long career on the Grand Ole Opry. A singer and guitarist who also was a Nashville recording session musician, Grammer performed regularly on the Grand Ole Opry beginning in 1959.

‘Gotta Travel On,’ adapted from a British folk tune, was a million-seller and the first hit for Nashville’s Monument Records and its famed founder, Fred Foster.” (Billboard).

“Billy Grammer formed his own guitar company after years of playing country music in and around Nashville,” (NAMM.org). ” … Along the way, Billy was seeking to create a guitar that would combine the sounds of his two favorite instruments, Martin and Gibson. By 1964 he teamed with his fishing buddy, Clyde Reid, who operated a music store, and with J. W. Gower to create the Grammer Guitar Company. This country music favorite was produced for several years with the original founders of the company before it was sold to Ampeg in the late 1960s. Ampeg stopped production of the Grammer Guitar in 1971.”

The uptempo track, which was a hit on the pop, country and rhythm & blues charts, moves up a half step at 0:58 and again at 1:38.