Country Music

Clint Black Rides Out the Storm

Report and Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, March 1993

IT'S BEEN A ROUGH COUPLE OF YEARS FOR CLINT BLACK. MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS, LAWSUITS, TABLOID HEADLINES AND GARTH-MANIA FORCED HIM TO REGROUP. BACK ON THE ROAD ...

Clint Black: Nothin' But the Taillights (RCA 67515)

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, November 1997

WHEN CLINT Black neared the end of his 1995 tour, he realized he had been on the album-tour-album-tour tread mill for seven years without a ...

Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins: Chips Moman's Memphis Revival

Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Country Music, January 1984

Legendary stars, legendary producers, legendary backup singers and a pretty hefty studio band all got together for Chips Moman's new Memphis album. The veteran producer ...

Beth Nielsen Chapman: Deeper Still

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, August 2002

BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN has enjoyed a successful career as a Nashville songwriter, penning No. 1 hits for Faith Hill, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker and Lorrie ...

The Cox Family, Alison Krauss: Alison Krauss: Music That's Timeless

Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, April 1994

It's the timelessness of bluegrass that appeals to Krauss, but hers is a bluegrass that's different, one that combines elements of the past, the present ...

Steve Earle: I Feel Alright (E-Squared/Warner Bros. 46201)

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, April 1996

STEVE EARLE started a revolution in Nashville, but he left it unfinished. ...

Joe Ely: Joe Ely (MCA 2242 $6 98; MCA T-2242, tape $7.98)

Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Country Music, May 1977

IT MUST be a bit disheartening for an earnest band knocking around Austin for the past two years hoping for a ride on one of ...

Robbie Fulks: Couples In Trouble, 13 Hillbilly Giants

Review by Holly George-Warren, Country Music, February 2002

FOR MORE than five years, Robbie Fulks has plied his trade as the merry prankster of alt-county. ...

Mickey Gilley: Mickey Gilley (Crazy Cajun CCLP-1006 $5.98 — no tape available)

Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Country Music, February 1976

TOO OFTEN, reissues are nothing but inferior products hitching a ride on the current success of a performer. Only on rare occasions do reissues reveal ...

Jimmie Dale Gilmore: And The Beat Goes On

Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, November 1992

Jimmie Dale's been singing country music tied together with blues, pop and folk for decades. His melodies and lyrics have always appealed to a wide-ranging, ...

Merle Haggard: For The Record: The Hag Tells It Like It Is

Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, November 1999

LAST APRIL Merle Haggard turned 62, well past the age when most men slow down and mellow out. The Hag, however, is busier and ornerier ...

Merle Haggard And A Strange Decade

Essay by John Morthland, Country Music, September 1981

IT IS LATE 1970 or early 1971 — I'm not sure anymore about the date. I also don't recall for sure whether Merle Haggard has ...

Tom T. Hall: The Magnificent Music Machine (Mercury)

Review by Nick Tosches, Country Music, January 1977

WHAT TOM T. Hall has done in The Magnificent Music Machine is very good and very smart. His music lately has been pretentious and drab. ...

Faith Hill: It Matters to Me (Warner Bros. 9 A5872)

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, November 1995

TO MENTION the similarities between Linda Ronstadt and the new crop of female country singers — Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill, Pam Tillis, Martina McBride and ...

Kelly Hogan: Because It Feel Good

Review by j. poet, Country Music, February 2002

LET YOUR MIND wander back about years ago, to a recording studio noted for churning out reverb-drenched country, pop and rhythm and blues. ...

George Jones: The Grand Tour (Epic KE-33083 5.98 KE EA -33083 6.98)

Review by Nick Tosches, Country Music, February 1974

FOR SOME unknown reason, George Jones' last album, Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You), went in one ear and came out ...

Toby Keith: Home Is Where His Heart Is

Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, April 1998

Success has found Toby Keith in terms of hit records, a new business venture and, award nominations. And though he's enjoying it all, Toby still ...

Jim Lauderdale: Jim Changes Everything

Interview by David Burke, Country Music, February 2017

JIM LAUDERDALE knows his country music history – and he's very aware of his and his contemporaries' modest place in it compared to the iconic ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: The Gospel According to Jerry Lee

Interview by Nick Tosches, Country Music, October 1979

DRESSED LIKE A side-street gambler from the days when chrome was chrome, Jerry Lee Lewis sits in the dressing-room of the Palomino Club, holding loosely ...

Patty Loveless: Patty Loveless (MCA-5915)

Review by John Morthland, Country Music, May 1987

THERE'S NO doubt that this is one super-fine country voice. Patty Loveless, a coal miner's daughter from Kentucky, no less, is heiress to a number ...

Martina McBride: The Time Has Come (RCA 66002-2)

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, July 1992

WHEN MARTINA McBride stares out from the eight — count 'em, eight — photos on her debut CD, with her blue eyes and high cheekbones, ...

Reba McEntire: Greatest Hits Vol. III – I'm A Survivor

Review by James Hunter, Country Music, February 2002

SOMEONE I KNOW once worked long-distance, from laid-back Denver offices, with an old guy popularly known as Boston's crankiest attorney. ...

Reba McEntire: Reba (MCA 43134)

Review by John Morthland, Country Music, July 1988

I KNOW THIS is largely an extension of what she's always done, and that a lot of her fans will welcome and cherish it as ...

Willie Nelson, Ray Price, Hank Williams: Ray Price: Back On The Road

Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, April 1980

IT IS A motel room like any other chain motel room: the double beds with nightstand between them, the long dresser facing them, the static-filled ...

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 3

Review by Holly George-Warren, Country Music, December 2003

THERE'S PERHAPS NO more perfect album title than Will The Circle Be Unbroken, named for a song by country music's first family, the Carter Family. ...

K.T. Oslin: Making Smart Moves

Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, March 1992

The independent singer/songwriter has to wear many hats in her career. While she finds life on the road difficult, she's aware of its pitfalls and ...

Marie Osmond: A Tale Of Modern Country

Profile and Interview by Toby Mamis, Country Music, June 1974

With a little help from a Southern Gentleman, a sophisticated 14-year-old makes her country music debut in a manner befitting her name. ...

Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner: The Last Of The Hillbillies Speaks His Mind

Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, July 1978

THE SONG is called 'The Arizona Whiz', and it appears on Porter, which, when he released it last fall, was Porter Wagoner's first album in ...

Elvis Presley: The Rise Of Rockabilly

Retrospective by Nick Tosches, Country Music, December 1977

MONDAY, JULY 5th, 1954. The most popular albums in America are Jackie Gleason's Tawny on Capitol, Frank Sinatra's Songs for Young Lovers, also on Capitol, ...

Ralph Stanley: Back to Clinch Mountain: Ralph Stanley

Report and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, September 1998

"THREE GROUPS shaped bluegrass music," Ricky Skaggs told me recently, "Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, the Stanley Brothers, and Flatt & Scruggs. Everyone ...

The Statler Brothers: Showtime

Review by Geoffrey Himes, Country Music, August 2001

WHEN ERIC HEATHERLY enjoyed a hit last year with 'Flowers On The Wall', his remake proved that The Statler Brothers' distinctive formula hadn't lost its ...

George Strait: Keeping the Honky Tonk Faith

Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, January 1984

OF ALL the rituals a country music star must perform, one of the trickiest is the "in-store promotion," in which the artist goes to a ...

Marty Stuart, Travis Tritt: Travis Tritt Keeps It On The Fringe

Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, April 1992

Not one to be pigeonholed, Travis Tritt doesn't worry if he's a little bit country and a little bit rock'n'roll. In fact, that's just the ...

Hank Thompson: The Hank Thompson Saga

Retrospective and Interview by Nick Tosches, Country Music, July 1975

Reflections of the King of Swing ...

Pam Tillis Counts Down to Success

Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, January 1993

At a point in her career where she's more focused and more successful than ever, Pam Tillis knows what works for her. She's hoping to ...

Shania Twain: O Sister, Where Art Thou?

Comment by James Hunter, Country Music, February 2002

We're sorry, Shania. Come back, we need you. ...

Jerry Jeff Walker: Jerry Jeff Rides Again... Again

Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, March 1978

THEY SAY AROUND Austin that Jerry Jeff Walker can do no wrong, but whoo boy, does he ever give it his best shot. ...

Don Williams: Cafe Carolina (MCA-5493)

Review by John Morthland, Country Music, September 1984

ACCORDING TO the sticker on my copy of this album, Cafe Carolina contains (so far) four hits: 'That's the Thing About Love', 'Maggie's Dream', 'Beautiful ...

Tammy Wynette: My Man (Epic KE-31717)

Review by Nick Tosches, Country Music, March 1973

THERE HAS always been something about Tammy Wynette that has set her slightly apart from the rest of country music's singing queens. Her songs deal ...

Dwight Yoakam: Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc. (Warner/Reprise 1-25372)

Review by John Morthland, Country Music, March 1986

DWIGHT YOAKAM'S debut album has Attitude, the way Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers had Attitude in the 1920's when they taunted revenooers in 'A ...

Dwight Yoakam: Rambling Man

Interview by John Morthland, Country Music, April 1993

On his new album, This Time, Dwight takes his listeners on a musical journey. In this interview he takes John Morthland on a meandering journey ...

Faron Young: Some Kind of Woman (Mercury SRM 1 698 record, MC8 1 698 8-track tape)

Review by Ian Dove, Country Music, June 1974

AH, FARON Young — he just keeps rolling along. Some Kind of Woman is a comfortable album, little experimentation, a cheerful, unassuming reworking of familiar ...