The writer of several timeless country standards, Don Gibson put down his pen often enough to maintain a remarkable, decades-long career as a singer and performer.
His childhood was fraught with adversity. His railroad worker father died when he was just two years old, and his mother remarried a sharecropper. Gibson loathed the farm life, but also school, which he dropped out of after the second grade. Paralyzed with shyness and hindered by a speech impediment, his escapism was the music he heard on the radio.
As a teen, he learned guitar and modeled himself after other performers, paying the bills by hustling pool. His growing instrumental talent blossomed into a band. Formed in 1948, Sons of the Soil garnered enough attention to earn a spot on a popular radio show. It was there that Gibson’s individual talent shone through.
A Mercury Records producer heard them and issued four sides for them, but the band split up in 1949. After another stint in a band called the King Cotton Kinfolks, Gibson pursued a solo career. A deal with Columbia resulted in promising records, but no commercial success. Gibson focused on his songwriting, and honing his craft earned him a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose. He insisted in an accompanying recording contract, which he received from MGM Records.
After a long wait, the hits came fast. Over the course of the next few years, he wrote and recorded songs that are now synonymous with country music. “Sweet Dreams” was his first top ten hit, and later was immortalized by Patsy Cline. “Oh Lonesome Me” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You” were a powerful two-sided hit on both the country and pop charts. While the former became Gibson’s signature song, the latter is now considered a Ray Charles classic. Meanwhile, “Just One Time” was a #2 hit two times. Gibson took it near the top in 1960, and Connie Smith revived it in 1971.
The hits slowed in the sixties and seventies, but still remained constant. He had a series of successful duets with Dottie West, most notably the #2 hit “Ring of Gold.” In 1972, he returned to #1 for the first time in fourteen years with “Woman (Sensuous Woman),” later covered by Mark Chesnutt. He spent much of the seventies collaborating with Sue Thompson, charting eleven songs together from 1971 to 1976.
From the eighties up until his death in 2003, Gibson remained an Opry performer and elder statesman of the genre. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2003, a nice bookend to his Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame induction back in 1971.
A cornerstone of country, southern rock, and gospel music, Charlie Daniels and his fiddle have made an indelible impact on the fabric of American music.
Born and raised in North Carolina, Daniels first achieved notoriety through his astonishing fiddling talent. Since he was also efficient with a guitar, he started off by assembling the instrumental band the Jaguars. They played throughout the late fifties and early sixties, and were signed to Epic Records for a period of time. While the band was slowly fizzling out, Daniels got his first taste of real success as a songwriter and a backing musician. Elvis Presley recorded his composition, “It Hurts Me”, in 1963. By the end of the sixties, Daniels had played on the seminal Bob Dylan album Nashville Skyline, and toured with Leonard Cohen.
His recording career entered full stride in the seventies. After a self-titled solo album in 1970, Daniels expanded his act into the Charlie Daniels Band. In this incarnation, Daniels would enjoy his greatest notoriety as a singer, songwriter, and performer. By deftly tackling societal issues from a fiercely Southern perspective, Daniels added powerful and remarkably effective social commentary to his songs, surrounding his worldview with scorching fiddle.
A series of classic singles like “Uneasy Rider”, “The South’s Gonna Do It”, and “Long Haired Country Boy” firmly established Charlie Daniels and his band as a force to be reckoned with. After a series of critically acclaimed albums that sold well, the band reached its peak of mainstream success in 1979, with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” It became Daniels’ biggest hit on both the country and the pop charts, and powered Million Mile Reflections to sales of over three million in the United States alone.
Daniels and his band coasted on their success throughout the eighties, touring extensively and continuing to score country hits, along with the occasional pop crossover. Some of his most high-profile hits remained political in nature, most notably “Still in Saigon”, his remarkable attempt to shed light on the Vietnam War veterans struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In 1989, he had his last major commercial success with the band’s album, Simple Man. Though the title track just missed the country top ten, the vigilante hit received wide media exposure, and pushed sales of the album to platinum status.
For the past two decades, Daniels has remained a widely popular draw on the road, and a widely respected media star, appearing regularly on political talk shows to share his views on issues of the day. Always a fan of gospel music, he’s released several spiritual sets in recent years. Songs from the Longleaf Pines, a bluegrass gospel collection from 2005, was released to overwhelming praise. In 2007, he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Always a patriot, his latest release is 2010′s Land That I Love, which features a handful of new songs alongside his many America-themed songs from the past.
I’ve had a fondness for Luke Bryan ever since his video for “Country Man.” There’s something both endearingly sincere and not quite serious about him.
Which is why I can’t help but love a romantic song with a chorus that opens, “Girl, you make my speakers go boom boom.” Bonus points for rhyming it with “mmm hmm.”
The template is generic country love song, but there’s a banjo floating in and out of there, making it actually sound both country and romantic. It doesn’t sound like a love scene being forced out into the country for genre purposes, so much as a love scene that just happens to be taking place in the country.
So yeah, Luke Bryan is pretty good. He might not be enough to save country music, but at least he’s helping it age with dignity and a sense of humor.
Written by Rodney Clawson, Josh Kear, and Chris Tompkins
One of the great crooners of the post-war era, Red Foley helped build a crucial bridge between the country music of the mountains and the Nashville Sound of the sixties.
Born Clyde Foley in 1910, his hair color earned him the nickname Red. His professional career was launched by a talent show win at age 17. As a freshman in college, he was discovered by a talent scout and invited to join the house band of the National Barn Dance. He released his first recordings in the mid-thirties, and by the end of that decade, he was the first country artist to host a nationally broadcast radio show, which he co-hosted with Red Skelton. During this period, Foley wrote “Ol’ Shep”, which would be recorded by many major artists, including Elvis Presley and Hank Snow.
Following World War II, he entered a period of stunning success in many media formats, earning himself the title Mr. Country Music. Throughout the forties and fifties, his recording career was incredibly successful, highlighted by collaborations with his band, the Cumberland Valley Boys, and fellow artists like Lawrence Welk, Ernest Tubb, and Kitty Wells. Several of his songs are now country classics, most notably “Smoke on the Water,” “Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy,” and “(There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me).”
Beginning in 1946, he emceed the Prince Albert Show, which broadcast a portion of the Grand Ole Opry’s show every week. His profile was raised even more significantly by the Ozark Jubilee, the fifties network television show that Foley hosted for many years. His television fame helped bring his smooth style of country music to a very broad audience, though Foley never actively pursued the pop music scene.
Indeed, his country records decreased in popularity as the Nashville Sound took root, though his gospel recordings remained quite popular. The sixties found him guesting on sitcoms and talk shows, while he continued to tour the world as part of the Grand Ole Opry cast. In 1967, Foley was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, an achievement that was sadly overshadowed one year later by his untimely death at age 58.
Today, Foley’s name is not as recognizable as many of his contemporaries, but it takes only one listen to his signature songs to immediately grasp the impact he had on the development of contemporary country music.
Garth Brooks, Connie Smith, and keyboardist Hargus “Pig” Robbins will join the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
Brooks is the top-selling country music artist in history. At fifty, he is one of the youngest living inductees ever.
Smith is the fifth female artist to be inducted since 2008, when Emmylou Harris ended a nine year drought for female inductees.
Since playing on the George Jones classic “White Lightning” in 1957, Robbins has recorded with countless legends of country and rock music, including Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Alan Jackson, and Bob Dylan.
What’s your take on the 2012 inductees? More importantly, who deserves to join them in 2013?
We’ll run a list of our picks for the next round. Share your suggestions in the comments!
The Class of 1989 permanently changed the face of country music. Clint Black was its valedictorian.
Born in New Jersey and raised in Texas, Black’s vocal talent was evident at an early age. He played in a band with his older brothers, and taking a gamble, he dropped out of high school and pursued a solo career.
The new traditionalist movement of the early eighties inspired him to commit himself to the country music genre. As he honed his craft throughout the eighties, he met songwriter and guitarist Hayden Nicholas, who would become an instrumental component of Black’s success.
Signing with RCA, he recorded his debut album with his road band. Black wrote or co-wrote every track on Killin’ Time, and the 1989 release had a seismic impact on country music. Black became the first country artist in history to have his first four singles reach #1, and the album quickly reached multi-platinum status. Beyond its sales and radio impact, Killin’ Time was widely hailed by critics and genre enthusiasts as a masterpiece.
The impact of Black opened the doors for fellow artists like Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt, and Alan Jackson to find similar massive success with their debut albums. Together, they rejuvenated the country music market, putting it on the even playing field with pop, rock, and R&B that it still enjoys today. Black won several major industry awards, and then had another multi-platinum album with his sophomore set, Put Yourself in My Shoes.
Throughout the nineties, Black continued to write and record radio hits. Even as his album sales cooled to platinum and then gold, he still maintained a streak of top ten hits. It wasn’t until his 29th solo single, “Loosen Up My Strings” in 1998, that he missed the top ten. To a certain extent, Black’s profile was reduced because of the very door that he opened. The flood of talent that followed in his wake included major talents who soon overshadowed him.
The tail end of his run with RCA found him recording with wife Lisa Hartman Black, and they enjoyed a big hit with their duet, “When I Said I Do.” Collaborations with Wynonna, Steve Wariner, Roy Rogers and Martina McBride also gained positive attention. In the new century, Black took the bold step of launching his own label, Equity Records, resulting in two studio albums that achieved moderate success. One of them, 2004′s Drinkin’ Songs and Other Logic, was his most critically acclaimed set in years.
His most recent release is 2007′s Love Songs, which featured re-recordings of some of his hit ballads from the nineties. He’s kept his profile alive with various film and television appearances, and he does some light touring, preferring at this stage to spend as much time as possible with his family.
A first class singer, songwriter, and musician, Jerry Reed’s talents ran far deeper than his tongue-in-cheek persona might have indicated.
Born and raised in Georgia, Reed played guitar from an early age. Music brought him comfort and structure during a childhood of instability. By the time he was out of high school, he was already signed to Capitol Records. Though he released several singles over the next few years, it was his songwriting and guitar playing that first earned him notice.
Throughout the late fifties and the sixties, his songs were recorded by Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee, and others. He also became an in-demand session guitarist, with a career highlight being the sessions he played with Presley, who feel in love with Reed when he heard his 1967 single, “Guitar Man.”
A strong working relationship with Chet Atkins led to a contract with RCA and further raised Reed’s profile. By the late sixties, Reed was getting critical notice for his own records. He had his big breakthrough in 1970, when “Amos Moses” became a gold-selling pop and country hit. In 1971, ‘When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” became his first #1 country single and another big pop hit.
Throughout the seventies, Reed matched popular singles and albums with high profile media exposure. He was a regular on Glen Campbell’s television show, and he appeared in several films. His greatest notoriety came as Cledus Snow in the wildly popular Smokey and the Bandit film series. “East Bound and Down” was recorded for the soundtrack of the first film, and became one of his biggest hits.
Reed’s recording career had a second wind when he released the 1982 album The Man with the Golden Thumb. Often rated as his strongest studio album, it featured the classic hit “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft).” Reed quickly followed with the hit album, The Bird. The title track had him mimicking both George Jones and Willie Nelson, and the album also featured a hit cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, “Down on the Corner.”
The nineties brought a fun collaboration with Mel Tillis, Bobby Bare, and Waylon Jennings, a live album dubbed Old Dogs. Reed also starred as the coach in the box office smash, The Waterboy. Illness sidelined him as he aged, and he passed away in 2008 due to complications caused by emphyzema.
Essential Singles:
Guitar Man, 1967
Amos Moses, 1970
When You’re Hot, You’re Hot, 1971
Lord, Mr. Ford, 1973
East Bound and Down, 1977
She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft), 1982
Essential Albums:
The Unbelievable Guitar and Voice of Jerry Reed, 1967
It’s an old saying that Ray Benson most certainly would agree with: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”
Asleep at the Wheel has undergone many lineup changes since it was formed in 1970 by Benson, Lucky Oceans, and Leroy Preston. They were joined shortly thereafter by Chris O’Connell, a female singer. They started out as a country band, but their sound was forever changed by Merle Haggard’s tribute album to Bob Wills. Since hearing that seminal album, they’ve been devoted to both the preservation and development of Western Swing.
Their debut album was released in 1973 by United Artists, but the band laid down roots in 1974 when they moved to Austin, Texas. They recorded for a variety of major labels in the seventies and eighties, and had significant commercial success with four albums for Capitol. The band became widely known for their outstanding live performances, and scored a few hits at country radio, too.
Early on in the band’s run, the lineup began to change, which has become a trademark of the band that has aided its incredible longevity. The one constant has always been frontman Ray Benson, who has kept the band relevant through bringing in new talent regularly and through creative collaborations with other artists. They’ve won a remarkable eight Grammy awards, including six for Best Country Instrumental Performance.
Their commitment to preserving the legacy of Bob Wills resulted in two widely hailed and warmly embraced tribute albums: 1993′s A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, and 1999′s Ride with Bob. The former earned a CMA nomination for Album of the Year, and the latter brought the band back to the country singles chart, thanks to unsolicited airplay for “Roly Poly”, a duet with the Dixie Chicks.
To celebrate Wills’ centennial, Benson starred in a touring musical called A Ride with Bob, where he played himself touring the life of Wills as his band plays along. The show received rave reviews, and one show was even attended by President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
In 2009, almost three decades after the band first formed, they had the highest-charting album of their career with Willie and the Wheel, a collaboration with fellow Austin icon Willie Nelson.
Essential Singles:
Choo Choo Ch’Boogie, 1973
The Letter that Johnny Walker Read, 1975
Route 66, 1976
House of Blue Lights, 1987
Red Wing, 1993
Essential Albums:
Comin’ Right at Ya, 1973
Texas Gold, 1975
Asleep at the Wheel, 1985
Ten, 1987
A Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, 1993
It’s a given that a large amount of new music is derivative of the dominant artists of the day.
This has always been true in popular music, and especially true in country music. So no harm, no foul on Thomas Rhett, a new artist who is understandably going to need time to find is own voice.
The problem is in the chosen derivatives. “Something to Do With My Hands” is a Billy Currington-style song presented with a Jason Aldean delivery.
So what could’ve been cute and goofy in a sellin’ turnips on a flatbed truck way, ends up just sounding dumb and ridiculous.
A throwaway track that ended up being a pretty big hit.
The song had been recorded several times over the years, by everyone from Steve Miller Band to Meat Loaf. But Jackson had the biggest hit with it, with its driving beat capitalizing on the success of “Chattahoochee.”
In retrospect, it might be the least essential Jackson hit of its era. Fun to listen to, but not worth making extra effort to seek out.
100 Greatest Men: The Complete List
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