Larry Gatlin (& the Gatlin Brothers).: Tribute Post

First posted on Open Salon, JULY 1, 2010 3:35PM

---

Larry Gatlin has been one of my favorites for almost 40 years. He was one of the so-called “countrypolitian” singers of the 70s and 80s who helped bridge the gap between country and pop. He has 33 Top 40 hit singles on the Billboard Country Charts.

What many people ignore is that he was one of the great song writers of that generation, in any genre. He wrote songs for himself and for many other country stars, particularly for his mentor and friend, Dotty West.

His pure tenor has a bell-like quality and his inflections carry a deep sincerity that few can duplicate. Most popular male country music are baritones. There are a few tenors who are exceptions, particularly Marty Robbins in the 50s, David Houston in the 60s, and Gatlin in the 70s and 80s.

While he no longer tours much, spending most of his time with family and with his shows at his Myrtle Beach theater, he can sometimes be seen on the Gaither gospel show, singing the old Southern gospel songs that he loved as a child when he and his brothers sung in the Texas church the family attended.

He also does another type of "touring": visiting schools and churches, being interviewed on TV and radio, and using other venues to tell his story about his alcohol and drug addiction, something which he personally went through with devastating effects on his own career.

---

As with my other tribute posts, this one shares a few representative You Tube videos. As usual, I urge you to use good earphones, earbuds, or quality external speakers to have any real idea about the talent of the artists in this Tribute Series.

Links to my other music tributes and music posts are gathered together in the left column of this blog.

---

So, sit back, put the headphones on, and enjoy one of the great swing, ballad and pop oriented country singers on the last 50 years.

Monte

---

Ten Videos:

First, a recent interview on a Christian talk show which gives you an idea of his backgound and his thoughts on writing songs, ending with a live renditon of his hit, “All the Gold in California.”

Early recording of “Broken Lady”

An upbeat swinging “crossover” hit: “Somebody’s Baby.”

A favorite of mine that never made it big, but just listen to the truth of the words. “Midnight Choir”

A Crossover hit that features great harmony. “Sure Feels Like Love”

“Sweet Becky Walker” was an early hit. This is a later re-recording. Their voices have matured and deepened on this track.

A big hit in ’80 or ’81 right before Larry’s downward spiral with alcohol and drugs. "What Are We Doin' Lonesome?”

Upbeat Texas Swing hit: “Houston.”

Larry is a lifelong Pentacostal Christian and loves to sing gospel. Here he is singing a modern gospel tune. He is often invited to sing with the with the Gaither Gospel Choir by his old friends, Bill and Gloria Gaither. "Healing Stream”

Final Video: A huge hit that features Larry at his best. “Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall”

---

Research Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Gatlin

http://gatlinbrothers.musiccitynetworks.com/

http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/gatlin_larry/bio.jhtml

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0309705/bio

http://delafont.com/music_acts/larry-gatlin.htm

Don Williams Tribute: Happy 71st Birthday!

First published, Open Salon, MAY 27, 2010 12:15AM

Click "Submit Abuse" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

Cancel

Don Williams has a birthday today, May 27, 2010. For 7 months he and I will be the same age, 71. For not quite a half century now he has been singing professionally and I have been listening. It has been an easy relationship that never grows old - although I can't say the same thing for us.

Don is sometimes called "Mr. Mellow" or "The Gentle Giant" by country fans. Yet many modern country fans have never heard of him, don't know that he still performs and that he routinely sells out venues in the UK, Europe and S. Africa. Now. Today. In fact, he has always been more popular overseas than here. His US heyday was from about 1970 through 1989. But during that time he built a following that has been loyal and appreciative of his art.

Don is a Texas country boy, and was one of the founders of the Pozo-Seco Singers, a favorite but short lived folk group that I enjoyed in the 60s.

Altogether 17 of his songs have been #1 Singles on the Billboard Country charts.

Wikipedia notes "His first hit, in 1973, was "The Shelter of Your Eyes." His 1974 hit, "I Wouldn't Want to Live if You Didn't Love Me," was the first of 17 No. 1 hits on Billboard's country chart. His best two known No. 1 hits were "I Believe in You" (1980) and "Lord I Hope This Day is Good" (1982).

Some of his other big No. 1 country hits included "You're My Best Friend" and "Turn Out the Light and Love Me Tonight" (1975); "Til the Rivers all Run Dry" and "Say it Again" (1976); "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend" and "I'm Just a Country Boy" (1977); "Tulsa Time" and "It Must Be Love" (1979); "Love Me Over Again" (1980); "If Hollywood Don't Need You" (1983); "Stay Young" and "That's the Thing About Love" (1984); and "Heartbeat in the Darkness" (1986). Some big No. 2 hits of his were "She Never Knew Me" (1976); "Good Ole Boys Like Me" (1980); "Walking a Broken Heart" (1985) and "Back in My Younger Days" (1990). His No. 3 hits were "Rake and Ramblin' Man" (1978); "Lay Down Beside Me" (1979); "If I Needed You" (1981, duet with Emmylou Harris); "Listen to the Radio" and "Mistakes" (1982); and "We've Got a Good Fire Goin'" (1986)."

Married to the same woman for 50 years, the laid back country balladeer made no ripples in the "bad boy" pond that so many young male country singers who came to fame in the 60s and 70s seemed compelled to jump into. His music is as mellow as the man, and the beauty of his baritone voice has always been a joy to listen to.

Here are some of his biggest hits, and a few others that I have thrown in just because I like them. In addition to the YouTube videos I have included a Playlist that has a few songs on it that are not available on YouTube. While he has never sought to sing duets with other country artists he did have one hit with Emmylou Harris that I have included on the Playlist.

Don Williams was finally recognized for what he has always been, a giant of country music, when he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year.

Happy Birthday, Don. Thanks for all of your wonderful music that I have been listening to since the late 60s.


You're My Best Friend

Good Ole Boys Like Me

Some Broken Hearts Never Mend

Amanda

Lord, I Hope This Day is Good

I Believe in You

Lay Down Beside Me

Gypsy Woman

Love Me Tonight

The Rose

'Til The Rivers All Run Dry

Shelter of Your Eyes

We Should Be Together

Love Me Over Against

Playlist

Relax, enjoy the smoothest male vocalist to ever hit the country scene.

Monte

Conway Twitty: Too Sexy for Country?

MARCH 15, 2010

Click "Submit Abuse" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

Cancel

---

---

Note: The quality of the music reproduction on the Playlist is much better than the quality of the YouTube videos. And if you don't listen to the Playlist with earphones or earbuds I doubt you will be able to tell what is so very unique about his voice and music.

YouTube videos follow this introduction

---

Harold Jenkins didn't sound to him like much of a name for a singer who intended to distinguish himself from the crowd so he became Conway Twitty, which was nothing if not unique. No one really knows if he, as rumor has it, conjured the name by glancing at a map and noticing Conway, Ark. and Twitty, Tx. but the name is certainly hard to forget.

Before Sue and I got married we decided to take a drive from St. Louis down to Branson and I was introducing her to country music. I asked her to fumble around in the glove box for a Conway Twitty tape.

She looked at me and said, "What's that?"

I said, "That's the name of the top country singer."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope."

Well, she found it, got a good laugh out of his name, played the tape -- and became another Conway Twitty fan.

---

Conway Twitty was a singer/song writer who had early success in rock and roll, R&B and pop. But it was in the singing of country ballads, many of which were sensuous, with thinly veiled sexual innuendos, that pushed him to the very top of the country charts for over 30 years. Much of his music was indeed suggestive and sensuous, but it never crossed the line into anything remotely vulgar.

On the contrary, it would be considered tame by today's much looser standards. Nevertheless he encountered substantial opposition to it throughout his career from the traditionalists in the genre.

Yet, until 2007 he held the record of 55 number one country singles. And, in addition to his solo career, in the early '70s he and Loretta Lynn won award after award as their duets topped the country charts time and again. His cross over covers of such songs as "The Rose" won appreciation far beyond the country genre.

His initial success was in rock and roll. Writing and singing "Its Only Make Believe" he finally had his first #1 hit, on the pop charts, not only on Billboard but in 21 other countries. That was the beginning of a strong international fan base that was to remain with him even after he crossed from rock to country and which bolstered his record sales and made him an international singing star.

After modest success in rock, some R&B and pop, by the mid-60s Conway Twitty had his heart set on moving into country music. However, many country DJs did not want to play his music because he was a "rock and roll" singer.

But by 1968 with his first country #1 song he was firmly entrenched on the country scene, without much help from either the DJs or the country establishment. Nobody liked his music except the people. They loved it.

Nevertheless, he continued to have trouble getting some of his songs played by prudish disk jockeys. Today we would find it hard the believe that the sexual innuendo of the lyrics of his songs, coupled with the way he sang them, could possibly bother a disk jockey. But Conway Twitty was not one to change what made his music stand apart from the then current country scene.

Twitty knew exactly what he was doing and became a country heart throb and sensation in the 70s and 80s, selling out every venue he played, complete with a following of swooning women, not unlike what happened to Sinatra and Elvis. County music had never seen anything like it, and hasn't again since.

While performing in Branson, Mo, in 1993 he became ill and died from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was only 59 years old.

Ironically, in country music circles Conway Twitty is not talked about much these days and his songs are seldom played, even on the Country Golden Oldies stations. If I had to guess why I would say that he is a victim of his own success.

His voice was unique, gravelly, ranging from a deep baritone to tenor, and he sometimes whispered the words as much as sang them. He sounded, well, the only word is "sexy." And when that voice was combined with suggestive lyrics he created an image that was just a bit too "bad boy" for some of the country music crowd.

I also think that artists that start out in rock and roll and end up in country music never are quite considered to be "really" country by the powers that be in country music. This is in spite of the fact that he was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, posthumously, in 1999.

I liked Conway Twitty from the first time I heard him singing early rock and R&B and I still like his music today. All of it. And that is why I have posted this tribute.

More on Conway Twitty can be found here:

http://conwaytwitty.com/
http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/twitty_conway/artist.jhtml
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:diftxql5ldfe

Lay You Down

Don't Take It Away

Hello, Darlin'

Slow Hand

Easy Lovin' w/ Loretta Lynn

I'm Not Through Loving You Yet

Almost Persuaded

Don't Call Him a Cowboy

A Bridge That Just Won't Burn

When I Was Young: Pop Hits of the 60s

Aren't you just a bit tired of being wound tight as a drum and frazzled by the all the insane political infighting, screams of "You lie!", two wars, the swine flu, and the apparent total disconnect from reality of a large portion of our population right now? I know that I am.

So.......I spent Sunday evening putting together a bit of a lull in all the craziness. I did this for me as well as for you. And like my Sinatra Playlist, there is no socially responsible agenda here. There is nothing to think about in this post unless you know this music. If you are it might bring back some great memories of a time that will likely seem like both long ago and only yesterday.

I was 22 when I entered the 1960s. This is the music of that formative decade of my life. This music is called Popular Music, or "Pop." It is the music of the people; the music you got over the radio when you were riding in the car; it is Top Ten and Top 100 Billboard Magazine music; it is the music of American Bandstand and music sung on TV prime time variety shows. It is the music you found yourself memorizing and singing in the shower, humming on the way to work, or when you were working in the garden. It is simply the music most listened to by much of middle America in the 1960s. Little of it is "cutting edge," but some of it is; and all of it was influential and set the tone for the next generation of popular music.

I have not put into the Playlist one song by each artist or group so I could have 20 different artists. Rather I have included a representative group of songs by a few of the artists who rose above most others on the popular music airwaves.

We start with the only seminal work of the Beach Boys: "Good Vibrations." From there it is only some of the very best of The Mamas and the Papas, The Association, The Lovin' Spoonful, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, and Bobby Darin. And while all those individuals and groups were "Pop" they each represent a very distinctive style within the genre. No one could confuse one with the other.

Are they the only singers and groups that were important in the 60s? Of course not. There were dozens of others in the Pop music genre alone. Not represented here are very important musical genres of the 60s: Rock, R&B, Soul, Jazz, Rockabilly, Standards and Country to name a few. But this Playlist does represent the Popular music that most of America listened to in the 60s.

So sit back, and allow yourself to be propelled into the magic of the songs of my young adulthood. Just slip on some headphones, or turn on some nice speakers, and listen. Open OS or any other site in another tab and go about reading, writing or whatever else you want to do. The list will keep playing until you want to stop it.

25 By Old Blue Eyes: Sinatra's Great Standards

AUGUST 11, 2009 10:04PM

Click "Submit Abuse" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

Cancel

There is no socially redeeming agenda here. Nothing to read. Nothing to think about. Nothing to get all worked up over. Just great music. By The Man himself.

Just slip on some headphones, or turn on some nice speakers, and listen. Open OS or any other sites in another tab and go about reading, writing or whatever else you want to do. The list will keep playing until you want to stop it.

This is too good to miss. The Chairman of the Board at his finest. I took a lot of time organizing only the best here, and have arranged them to move smoothly from swing to ballads and back, including some sentimental songs that are identified solely with Old Blue Eyes at the very end.

This is my tribute to Frank as a follow up on the popular "Who's Going to Fill Their Shoes" post, now pushing 2500 "listens." Nobody will ever fill Sinatra's shoes.

Enjoy!