Our latest guest on Toy Heart is bluegrasser, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Tim O’Brien. His conversation with host Tom Power begins by remembering the music of his childhood, growing up in Wheeling, West Virginia listening to Chubby Checker on his crystal radio set and attending the nationally renowned country variety show and radio broadcast, the Wheeling Jamboree. Encountering the music of Merle Haggard and Doc Watson via local radio and television, he fell in love with music as a kid before a few friends introduced him to Bill Monroe’s mandolin playing while smoking a post-gig joint as a teen.
After dropping out of college, O’Brien hitchhiked west to Wyoming, before landing in Colorado and eventually founding Hot Rize in the mid to late ‘70s with newly married and relocated Dr. Banjo himself, Pete Wernick. Over the course of their winding and dense conversation, Power and O’Brien chat about Gibson mandolins, the burgeoning Colorado string band scene, working with Bill Monroe, and the strange, circuitous story of his fiddle’s provenance.
O’Brien’s career, as multifaceted as it has been, is a wellspring of stories, anecdotes, and yarns about the bluegrass scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Irish music, writing hit country songs, working with and alongside so many first generation bluegrass legends, and the inception of Hot Rize’s alter ego band, Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers. Having recorded and performed with the Chieftains, Darrell Scott, the Transatlantic Sessions, and so many others, Tim O’Brien’s career is a melting pot of styles and sounds with one primary throughline: the true originality of his own musical vocabulary. As Power puts it, “I couldn’t tell you what Tim O’Brien sounds like, but I know Tim O’Brien when I hear it.”
Our Toy Heart episode examines O’Brien’s expansive and impressive career at a fascinating juncture in its span, as he shifts from being a bluegrass and Americana workhorse to a forebear, mentor, and roots music elder to entire generations of young musicians.
Double-, triple-, quadruple-threats are not uncommon in country music, not in the least. It’s a frequent occurrence, tripping over or into a country artist that’s a songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, writer, thinker, and so much more. In fact, until more recent decades, wearing many hats was seen as a sort of prerequisite to making hillbilly music. After all, this is “just” country music, it’s got a wide and deep DIY tradition, and the folks who make it often have to also load in the gear, sell the merch, post on social media, and produce the albums, play the demos and scratch tracks, write the lyrics, and otherwise steer the creative ship.
Some of the most successful artists and most original voices in country music are perfect examples of how multifaceted skill sets translate directly to star power. You may not need to be a Telecaster shredder to make it onto the radio or you may not need to be able to pick like Mother Maybelle to make a living, but if you can back up your songs with mighty playing, it certainly translates with audiences.
From Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, and Wanda Jackson to Charlie Daniels, Willie Nelson, and Bonnie Raitt, here are just a few legendary examples of hugely successful country artists who are or were excellent musicians and instrumentalists, too.
Chet Atkins
A record company executive, producer, and pioneer of the “Nashville Sound,” Chet Atkins was also a one-of-a-kind guitar picker, renowned across the globe for his unique style – which was inspired by Merle Travis. Atkins certainly made “Travis picking” his own, arguably eclipsing all of his predecessors and continuing to influence guitarists today. An inductee of the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Musicians’ Halls of Fame, Atkins’ impact is hard to understate and his resume includes work with Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Hank Snow, Waylon Jennings, and countless others.
DeFord Bailey
One of the first superstars of the Grand Ole Opry, DeFord Bailey was a world-class harmonica player who was also the first Black performer on WSM’s fabled stage. Some sources also credit Bailey as being the first musician to record music in Nashville. However you approach his career and music, Bailey was a seismic presence in the earliest days of country. Born in 1899, Bailey faced constant racism, bigotry, and marginalization on the Opry, in Nashville, and as he traveled and performed. He passed away in 1982 and was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
Glen Campbell
Even at the highest heights of Glen Campbell’s superstardom, he refused to let his superlative instrumental skill take a backseat to his roles as frontman, songwriter, Hollywood actor, TV star, and tabloid veteran. Campbell’s approach to country music as a true multi-hyphenate celebrity bridged generations, connecting the hardscrabble, DIY generations where multiple skills were necessary to make a living to the modern era, where he helped pave a way for famously multi-talented picker/singer/writers like Vince Gill and Brad Paisley to not be pigeonholed as one thing or the other.
Ray Charles
Any conversation around or collection of superlative country pickers and musicians would be glaringly incomplete without the inclusion of Ray Charles. His incursions and experimentations in country music are many and infamous. His 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is routinely listed as one of the best country albums of all time. He’s worked with and performed with Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs, Travis Tritt, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, and many, many more. Plus, his country forays demonstrate a deep, holistic understanding of the genre. Charles is a quintessential country multi-hyphenate and country-soul in the modern era would feel especially lacking without his seminal contributions to that tradition.
Charlie Daniels
It’s hard not to wonder what young, hippie, “long-haired,” Vietnam War-opposing fiddler Charlie Daniels would have thought of his older self, and his more harebrained and often hateful beliefs later in life. But the controversial and outspoken musician, at all points of his career, was a picker’s picker. Over the course of his life he performed and recorded with Earl Scruggs, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and many more. But his chief contribution to American roots music may just be his fiery, unhinged fiddling on “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Just wander down Lower Broadway in Nashville on any given Saturday night to feel the impact of that particular show-stopper. In this clip, he chats and performs “Uncle Pen” with Scruggs and Del McCoury.
Vince Gill
That buttery voice, that stank-face inducing chicken pickin’, that high, lonesome sound – Vince Gill is all at once country and bluegrass, Nashville and Oklahoma, western swing and old-time fiddle. Whether with The Eagles, preeminent pedal steel guitarist Paul Franklin, the Time Jumpers, or so many other outfits, bands, and iterations, Gill is simply right at home. Because, at his core, he’s just a picker. He may play arenas, but he knows he belongs at 3rd & Lindsley or the Station Inn. Or Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman. A quintessential picker-singer-frontman, Gill continues to define the myriad ways country stars can maintain their selfhood and personality – instrumentally and otherwise – even in their wild successes.
Merle Haggard
Speaking of chicken pickin’, country’s most famous Okie was a shredder, too. A sad song, a glass of (misery and) gin, a Telecaster, and the Hag – that’s all we need, right there. Merle’s playing style, even at its most technical and impressive, was simple and down to earth. You could tell he cut his teeth playing bars, fairs, and honky tonks. You could almost hear him pulling himself up by his bootstraps as he played.
Wanda Jackson
The Queen of Rockabilly has been slaying rock and roll, hillbilly music, and the guitar for more than seventy years. In 2021 she released her final album, Encore, when she was 84 years old. It features her signature passion and fire – and performances by Elle King, Joan Jett, Angaleena Presley, and more. Jackson has been representing the vital contributions of women to rockabilly and rock and roll for her entire career, just as often commanding the stage with her growly, entrancing voice and her powerful right hand.
Willie Nelson
Who would Willie Nelson be without Trigger? Without a tasty, less-is-more, nylon-string guitar solo? For decades, Nashville, Music Row, and guitar players around the world have been emulating his particular sound as a guitarist – whether they know it or not. Sure, he’s a hit songwriter, a star and front-person, a collaborator of Snoop Dogg and Frank Sinatra, and a connoisseur of fine bud, but perhaps more than all of these accomplishments, Willie is an impeccable picker. He can hold his own with the best of the best, because he is the best of the best.
Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley’s fame crested at perhaps the perfect time for him in country music, combining a rip-roarin’ guitar playing style with a sound that was entirely trad while carrying touches of the bro country wave that was about to inundate the genre. As such, he was able to build a career on the diversity of his skill set, before Music Row and the power behind it began prioritizing music that didn’t need to be musical and voices that didn’t need to be singular. Luckily, Paisley is both those things and more, and despite the many eyebrow raising moments across his career, our faces more often show shock at his mind-bending skill as a guitarist than anything else.
Dolly Parton
How is it that Dolly Parton can play so many instruments so impeccably with those iconic acrylic nails!? Nowadays, you are just as likely to hear Dolly performing to a track – yes, she does lip sync and pantomime playing along with recordings – but don’t get it twisted, she absolutely can play a passel of instruments from her beloved “mountain music” traditions. She plays guitar, banjo, auto-harp, dulcimer, and has even been known to pick up a bedazzled saxophone from time to time – though we can’t guarantee she actually knows how to play that one, we’re still blown away.
And what about thatone viral video with Patti LaBellewhere they play their acrylics like washboards? Dolly can make music with just about any instrument.
Bonnie Raitt
How many people do you think enjoy Bonnie Raitt’s soulful blues and Southern rock sounds without knowing she’s also often the one playing the guitar solos and making that bottleneck slide weep? Raitt is a Grammy winning songwriter, a fantastic vocalist and song interpreter/collector, and – above all, in this writer’s opinion – a superb guitar picker, especially playing slide. She can hold her own with just about anyone, and she has. Her phrasing and use of melodic space demonstrates that she’s been honing her craft for her entire life. That taste can’t be taught, it has to be found. Boy, has she found it.
Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart’s long, fabulous, superlative career began with him filling the role of sideman for such luminaries as Lester Flatt, Johnny Cash, Vassar Clements, and Doc Watson. He plays guitar and mandolin, working up his chops as a youngster with pickers like Roland White as his mentors. When his solo career took off after his Columbia debut in the mid-eighties, his ear for fine picking remained present throughout his music – however far afield from those early bluegrass and country days he may have traveled, stylistically. Whether bringing in psychedelic surf sounds or Indigenous flavors of the American West, Stuart’s catalog of music centers virtuosity that’s never gratuitous. And his band, the Fabulous Superlatives, featuring crack guitarist Kenny Vaughan and multi-instrumentalist Chris Scruggs, represent a high level of picking prowess, too.
Tedeschi Trucks Band
By many measures, Derek Trucks is the world’s foremost living slide guitarist, but don’t overlook powerhouse vocalist and co-band leader, Susan Tedeschi in order to venerate Trucks! Both started playing as youngsters – Trucks when he was a kid and Tedeschi when she attended Berklee College of Music. These two are guitar and blues royalty, helming one of the most impactful modern blues and Southern rock orchestras on the planet. They’re consummate musicians, knowing just how to surround themselves by players who support and challenge, both. Even with their laundry list of personal accomplishments, together, Tedeschi & Trucks – who are also married – are so much greater than the sum of their parts.
Keith Urban
Keith Urban brings a scruffy, down to earth guitar playing style to his polished and glam mainstream country sound. Yes, even as far away as Australia, having instrumental chops means having country currency. When he moved to Nashville in the early ‘90s, with a few Australian radio hits and awards under his belt, he immediately found work as a side musician and co-writer in Music City. It wasn’t long until his star ascended stateside, too – and then, as quickly, around the world – bolstered by arena-ready guitar. Now readying his first album since 2020, Urban shows no signs of slowing down, with the music or the picking!
March is Women’s History Month, and BGS, Good Country, and Real Roots Radio have partnered to highlight a variety of our favorite women in country, bluegrass, and roots music with our Women’s History Spotlight.
Each weekday in March at 11AM Eastern (8AM Pacific) on Real Roots Radio, host Daniel Mullins will be celebrating a powerful woman in roots music during the Women’s History Spotlight segment of The Daniel Mullins Midday Music Spectacular. You can listen to Real Roots Radio online 24/7 or via their FREE app for smartphones or tablets.
Then, we will have a Friday recap here on BGS featuring the artists highlighted throughout the previous week. No list is comprehensive, but we hope to feature some familiar favorites as well as some trailblazers whose music and impact might not be as familiar to you.
This week’s edition of our Women’s History Spotlight features musicians and artists like Jean Shepard, Rissi Palmer, Tammy Wynette, Rhonda Vincent, and Leona Williams. Tune in next week for more accomplished and impactful women of roots music!
Jean Shepard
Jean Shepard was a boss. She was the first female country artist to have a million-selling single after World War II with the smash hit, “Dear John Letter” (featuring Ferlin Husky), which was also a Top 5 hit on the Billboard Pop charts. Her debut album, Songs of A Love Affair, may very well be country music’s first concept album – and certainly the first by a female country artist. Her feisty spirit came across in her honky-tonk sound.
Tall tales abound about Jean’s moxy, including her being the only artist on a big package tour who was brave enough to call out George Jones for his drunkenness embarrassing the entire troupe (supposedly, he sobered up quick rather than face her wrath again). Her straight ahead country sound can be heard on such hits as “Slippin’ Away,” “Second Fiddle (To An Old Guitar),” “A Satisfied Mind,” and more.
In a career spanning seven different decades, she was the first female Grand Ole Opry member to remain active for 60 consecutive years, and she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011 (decades late according to some, myself included). Jean married fellow country star Hawkshaw Hawkins in 1960, and was widowed after only three years of marriage as Hawkshaw passed away in the same plane crash that took the lives of Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. She would remarry to Benny Birchfield (who appeared on countless classic recordings by The Osborne Brothers), and they would be a quintessential country couple until her passing in 2016.
Rissi Palmer
In 2007, Rissi Palmer ended a 20 year drought, during which a woman African-American country artist had not appeared on the country charts. Her debut single, the catchy as heck “Country Girl,” marked the occasion and since then she has continued to be an advocate for Black women in country music spaces. The Pittsburgh native was largely influenced by Patsy Cline (whose “Leavin’ On Your Mind” was beautifully covered by Palmer on her debut album). For over a decade and a half, she has been a leader for Black voices in country, illuminating the stories of Black country artists — past and present — with her Apple Music Radio show, Color Me Country, named after the debut album of country trailblazer Linda Martell, who Beyoncé recently just overtook as the highest charting African-American woman on the Billboard country charts. Palmer’s most personal song, “You Were Here” has encouraged women worldwide, as it deals openly and honestly with miscarriage.
“This song was written for and to the child I lost at 3 months pregnant in the Summer of 2018, who would have been named Sage. I dedicate this song to anyone who has suffered a miscarriage or loss of any kind. You aren’t alone…” — Rissi Palmer
Tammy Wynette
Known was “The First Lady of Country Music,” Tammy Wynette’s life was filled with tragic twists and turns. Born Virginia Wynette Pugh in Itawamba County, Mississippi, she became a massive country music star shortly following the release of her debut single, “Apartment No. 9.” Her working relationship with producer Billy Sherrill (who came up with the stage name “Tammy” and paired it with her middle name, Wynette) was one of the most fruitful artist-producer pairings in the country music history, resulting in such massive hits as “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad,” “I Don’t Wanna Play House,” “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” and dozens more.
Her signature song, “Stand By Your Man,” was viewed as an anti-feminist anthem when it was released. Topping the country charts and reaching the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, the popularity of “Stand By Your Man” catapulted Wynette’s career to another level, including Grand Ole Opry membership and a slew of awards. Ironically, the “Stand By Your Man” singer’s personal life was tabloid fodder for decades, as she was married five times (including famously to George Jones, with whom she released some of the most iconic country duet hits of all time).
Tragically, the public stigma of having been divorced four times was a contributing factor to her not leaving her last husband, George Richey. Wynette’s toxic relationship with Richey resulted in her (presumably) faking her own kidnapping to cover up signs of abuse, expedited her decline into drug abuse, and ended with her mysterious passing at only 55 years of age. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1998, the same year as her passing.
Rhonda Vincent
The undisputed “Queen of Bluegrass,” Rhonda Vincent grew up performing with her family band, The Sally Mountain Show. This Missouri family band performed frequently at Silver Dollar City and was a popular bluegrass festival act, also including Rhonda’s younger brother, Darrin Vincent of Dailey & Vincent. In the 1980s, she would be hired by country music legend Jim Ed Brown. (When she went on the road with Jim Ed Brown, The Sally Mountain Show hired a young Illinois girl named Alison Krauss to fill Rhonda’s shows for their summer festival schedule.)
Rhonda would release some solo bluegrass projects for Rebel Records in the early 1990s before signing a country deal with Giant Records. Her country records in the mid-’90s are phenomenal, but unfortunately for Rhonda, the fickle winds of music industry trends shifted to a more pop sound at the same time she was releasing these great traditional country records, resulting in a lack of commercial success. As the new millennium dawned, Rhonda Vincent triumphantly returned to bluegrass in 2000 with the release of Back Home Again on Rounder Records, and hasn’t looked back.
The All-American Bluegrass Girl has certainly been one of the genre’s biggest stars for the last few decades, with no signs of slowing down, winning her first Grammy and joining the Grand Ole Opry in recent years. She is also a popular collaboration partner both inside and outside of bluegrass, including recordings with Gene Watson, Daryle Singletary, Cody Johnson, Dolly Parton, Bobby Osborne, and many more. Her influence is felt all over bluegrass — heck, one of the most popular bluegrass Instagram accounts, Bluegrass Barbie, is practically a Rhonda Vincent stan account, and we’re here for it.
Bluegrass fans are blessed to live in a time where this future member of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame is still in her prime – enjoy it because your future great-grandchildren will want to hear about it someday.
See if you can recognize the future superstar that makes a brief appearance in this 2003 Rhonda Vincent music video.
Leona Williams
Another Missouri gal, Leona Williams is one of the best traditional country singers with whom you may not be as familiar. She has been making country music for over 65 years! Early in her career, she played bass and sang backup on the road with Loretta Lynn, before releasing her own solo records. She had modest success with “Country Girl With Hot Pants On” and “Once More,” but her signature song, the now classic, “Yes Ma’am, He Found Me In A Honky Tonk,” never charted.
Leona also became the first female country artist to release a live prison album with 1976’s San Quentin’s First Lady. Many may remember Leona for her duet recordings with Merle Haggard (like “The Bull and The Beaver”); they were married for five years. Leona penned some major hits for her ex-husband, like “Some Day When Things Are Good” and “You Take Me For Granted,” the latter of which she supposedly wrote about her rocky relationship with The Hag and sang to him to express how she was feeling. She also wrote hits for Connie Smith and Loretta Lynn. Leona continues to record and tour. Having seen her in concert just a few years ago, be sure to catch her live show if you are in need of pure country music from a living legend!
Last week we included a bonus video of Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl. No beloved Pixar characters are included this week, but hopefully Tammy Wynette’s guest appearance with The KLF in the hit music video, “Justified & Ancient,” will suffice:
I bet in the next few years, an expert taxonomist will come by and tell us exactly what country music is – and that this definition will create endless arguments. In the last few months, this argument about what exactly country music is has been growing louder. Jason Isbell has been fucking around with Nashville for decades, playing the field between rock, country, southern rock, country rock, and classic country. (He has recently said that he considers himself a rock singer). Adeem the Artist, the infamous cast iron pansexual, says that they are a folk singer. Willi Carlisle, a folk up-and-comer, has released Critterland, a certainly country album. On the other hand, Maren Morris released two singles last fall which were about burning Nashville to the ground, yet they’re perhaps the most country songs of her career – in terms of how she tells stories, how the bridges work, her vocal tones, and even some of the instrumentation. It seems lately, country is both everything and nothing.
Amanda Fields’ 2023 project deepens this ongoing problem. The album, What, When and Without, is a complex artifact of her own wrestling with genre, history, and biography. It slides into that complex sorting of genre and feeling that is key to Nashville right now. Fields calls this a country album – lushly produced, thick with strings, and dense with vocals, reminding one of an updated countrypolitan record – but sorting out what that means comes with a history of playing and listening.
Fields has a reputation on the bluegrass circuit, often an insular genre with an insistence on a certain kind of purity. She recognized how those questions of purity often don’t pay the bills, and her first major recordings were on a series of bluegrass cover records, called Pickin’ On – recorded by prominent bluegrass studio musicians, there are dozens of them, the artists covered include the expected (Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash), the unusual (Blink 182), to the fully flummoxing (Modest Mouse). Though Fields did not play on all of these records, she talks about them as an integral understanding of herself as part of a musical team: “When I look back on my experience within the ‘genres’ I’ve taken part in, I think about the groups of people I worked with… When I worked on Pickin’ On, I got that gig because of who I was hanging out with and playing music with at the time. I sang ‘gospel’ when I was growing up, because that was the community within my proximity.”
Proximity is a complex question for Fields. She has close ties to the bluegrass community, and there is something intriguing about the idea that genre is a social category – one about who one is near, or what the audience and the performer agrees to participate in. Yet there is a kind of roving that occurs here too; for Fields, roving is both a history of moving around geographically and, as she says here, moving from music that she considers bluegrass or gospel or country.
Fields moved around a lot as a child. Though she was born in Appalachia and currently lives in suburban Nashville (right next to Loretta Lynn’s old house), the line between these two legendary destinations was not direct.
Asking Fields about these roots – expecting a standard line in response – she honestly describes the complexity of her raising: “I’m originally from the mountains and it was my anchor growing up, but my dad moved us around a lot. He was one of those people who felt there was more to life than what was available to us living in that area, so he took job opportunities that carried us away from the mountains. I didn’t like that, because I was always longing to be ‘home’ with the rest of our family. I lived for summers and holidays when I got to be in Virginia and East Tennessee. Playing and listening to country and bluegrass music was my way to experience home when I couldn’t be there physically.”
This moving and returning is a common note for country musicians. Listening to her talk about the juxtaposition of moving, returning, being forced to leave, and finally finding home in an idea more than a place, I am reminded of Tanya Tucker or Merle Haggard. Tucker’s early childhood had a father who moved her from Arizona to Las Vegas to finally Nashville, chasing an acting and singing career. She broke out as a singer who fused a desire for rock and for country. It is similar to Haggard’s talk of moving – to California with his family as a consequence of economic disenfranchisement – and spending the rest of his career chasing economic stability. That idea was perhaps best written about in his tragic ballad “Kern River,” with its opening line, “I grew up in an oil town, but my gusher never came in.” (A Fields original from well before What, When and Without, “Brandywine,” strikes a similar note.)
This connection to Tucker, Haggard, and other classic country singers suggests that Fields landed not necessarily in a place, but as she says, in a music which has tight connections to place. What, When and Without, a classic country album, is infused with this kind of nostalgic listening.
Asked about her relationship to figures like Loretta Lynn or Haggard, she answers carefully: “Most of the music that really stirs my soul is older. I listen to all my friends’ new music and I’m always hunting something fresh to connect with, but on a day-to-day basis, I’m usually listening to the same stuff I’ve always loved. I’m talking Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty just about everyday. Classic country is what excites me (especially when I discover something I haven’t heard) and those familiar sounds and voices help me regulate my body’s nervous system.”
The album, rooted in those sounds, contains a deep knowledge of genre. Its ability to move between old school country, bluegrass chops, and deep, modern desire is one of its strengths. Figuring out how to sound both modern and historical is something Fields achieves with some skill. If her commitment to genre has a loose, rootless quality – or at least one which floats and lands depending on aesthetic or social need – then how she considers time has a similar quality.
Maybe her early commitment to bluegrass, a genre who remembers more than it forgets, and faces backwards as much as it faces forwards, and which was complicated by how hungry those covers were, suggests one way of bridging eras. But, her recent work, crafting contemporary studio craft with the careful polish of Studio A aesthetics is another. Asking her about memory and nostalgia, she again answers carefully: “One thing that was very intentional with the album was the pace. I think that going slowly is nostalgic in a way, because society and industry move so fast nowadays. I usually walk slowly and I talk slowly compared to most of my peers. My body responds to tempo and dynamics and I wanted to invite the album’s listeners to slow down with me.”
The slowness of the album can be heard in how she starts many of the tracks. There is often an instrumental intro where one waits a significant time for the vocals to be introduced and on occasion there are gaps, where her vocals recede and the band takes over – though the band itself is also quiet. There is a quality, listening to the work, of a kind of courtly two-step, the band asking Fields to dance, and vice versa.
The very first song, “What A Fool,” begins with brushed drums, and has a quite lovely open-ended moment where the pedal steel becomes central. On “I Love You Today,” the old-fashioned cheating song, heartbreak is introduced via an elegant, western swing sound, not outside of Lovett at his best. The last song, “Without You,” plays drums as solid and regular as a heartbeat. It’s another heartbreak song.
The pedal steel is crafted by Russ Pahl, who has been playing for decades. He has been nominated by the Academy of Country Music for his work on the steel guitar three times and for specialty instrument once, between 2004 and 2021. Before that, aside from being an in-demand studio musician, he was part of legendary Great Plains, another band who was excellent at moving between genres, across time, and throughout modes.
Talking to Fields about Pahl, she noted how good he was at not only playing, but matching vibes in the studio: “He came across very quiet and contemplative in the studio and I think he ‘got’ the vibe right away. After a song or two, he said, ‘…this ain’t Zip A dee Doo Dah.’ And it wasn’t. It was an album created in the midst of global pandemic [and] a time of great suffering for society and for myself personally.”
What, When and Without sounds like Fields has had some rough times, even outside of the lockdowns (regardless of how dense the record sounds, there is a yearning in the vocals that have a certain lockdown edge); but there is also an irony in this loneliness. Megan McCormick, who co-wrote on and produced the record and plays in Fields’ band, shows great intimacy throughout the project – there is a reason for this, McCormick and Fields are personal as well as professional partners. They sound good together, and the track where McCormick sings backing vocals, “Moving Mountains,” is the highest energy, most open of the entire record. It’s a great love song – but it’s a love song which calls to Mother Maybelle Carter as an avatar of country music, as a figure outside of space and time, which can tell the narrator how to love after years of heartbreak.
When asked about McCormick, Fields is still a little coy, but her commitment to their lives and sounds is made clear: “She really has a special gift and believing in her as a producer, as well as trusting her intuitions and abilities, has allowed me to grow as an artist. She’s my toughest critic, because that’s what I’ve asked of her. She’s also my constant cheerleader. We thrive when we get to travel together and both enjoy that feeling of being untethered that you get when you’re on the road.”
One can hear some of the untethered quality in Fields’ work, the road as untethering as much as time or genre, but the closeness that she has with McCormick is another kind of tethering, be it a consensual one.
Throughout the album, there is a quality of choosing which traditions are valuable, which are worth keeping, and which ones might have outlived their usefulness. When she talks about her childhood as a Pentecostal, she says: “I am very spiritual, still, and that energy I saw in church growing up is no different than the energy I feel when I’m composing music or playing music with other people with whom I am ‘tuned in.’”
She is definitely tuned with McCormick, their close contribution seen in how they work together – the harmonies without necessarily the negative consequences of some of that church life. She continues: “Those are universal aspects of the human experience that transcend dogma, class, and denomination and that’s what I carry on and value from my experience in church.”
One can see the universal quality in Fields’ work, and it contains interesting juxtapositions. A rootlessness across genre or time, which lands on something contemporary sounding; or a heartbreak record which rests on multiple commitments to one person; or even a religious tradition which widens and deepens.
Maybe we don’t need that taxonomy. An audience knows what a country record is.
I was born into a music-centered family in small town Arkansas near “where the Delta meets the Ozarks.” My grandparents started a music store on the court square in the 1960s and they sold instruments and equipment, et al. – and also carried the top records of the day. So, music and musicians were infused into my life from birth and my family was at the center of a vibrant musical community.
At every holiday or birthday or community event, we played music together and sang with a cast of characters ranging from the local church organist to Sun Records session players. I thought every family was like that, but as I’ve grown older and a lot of those characters have passed on, I’ve realized how rare my upbringing was and I cherish it with all my heart.
I remember the voices and the sounds of the jams like it was yesterday, and I’m honored to make a playlist of some of the favorites we played and sang together. I didn’t discover a lot of the recordings of these songs until much later in my life because we played them by rote – or sheet music – at those beautiful, heavenly hoe-downs. These songs are the soundtrack of my early life. I’m honored to share them. – Bonnie Montgomery
(Editor’s Note: Scroll to find the full Mixtape playlist below, to enjoy while you read.)
“Precious Memories” – Merle Haggard & The Strangers featuring the Carter Family
I chose Merle Haggard and the Carter Family’s version of this hymn, because it’s the closest version to what I remember our hoe-down version sounding like. My grandfather Ivan would always request this song and all the old-timers would sing with such passion, and even tears. I remember the far away look in their tear-filled eyes when they sang it, and although I never felt it like they did back then, I loved the song. We always thought it was a funny selection too, because they would always sing it “pray – shush mam -ries” over and over, which made us laugh. But now that those faces are all passed and gone across the great divide, I feel it like my grandfather used to. Now, just like them, all I have is the memories. Sacred, precious, treasured memories gathered around the piano in my grandparent’s music room – in what feels like a lifetime ago.
“Your Cheatin’ Heart” – Hank Williams Sr.
I didn’t hear the recorded Hank Williams version of this until my late teen years, but we sang it as the grand finale of the Christmas Eve hoe-down every year. After hours of singing the entire catalogue of Christmas carols and standards, my grandfather would sing this one with the most volume and gusto of them all. My mother, or our dear family friend Teddy Reidel, would play a romping walking bass line on the piano with it. So when I went Christmas caroling with friends at age 11, I was ready for the big grand finale and started in on “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” but none of my friends knew it! It was then that I realized “Your Cheatin’ Heart” in fact wasn’t a Christmas carol!
“Born to Lose” – Ted Daffin
My grandfather always requested this song when I was playing piano, whether at the jam sessions or after school, when I would be practicing piano at their house. I never understood it, because the lyrics were so depressing and I wondered why anyone in their right mind would want to profess to being such a huge loser, ha! I remember practicing my classical pieces (I rebelled in the ultimate way by falling in love with classical music at a young age) and Papaw would holler “quit playing that long hair music and play ‘Born to Lose.'” By “long hair,” he meant classical, as in Handel or Beethoven’s long hair. I still laugh about that – instead of long haired hippies, he was talking about the wild artists from centuries ago.
“Sentimental Journey” – Doris Day, Les Brown & His Orchestra
This was my grandparents’ song. They would request this one and dance together every time we played it. During the Great Depression, my grandfather left Arkansas and went to California to look for work. Once he was there, he sent for my grandmother Frances and when she was out there, they got married. They both missed home terribly, so around 1943, when they finally arranged to go back, they had to go separately because of money. My grandmother was expecting their first child by then and had to ride all the way home from California to Arkansas in the back of pickup truck. She always called it her sentimental journey and you could just see the love between them every time we played this one.
“Tennessee Waltz” – Connie Francis
This was another favorite at the hoe-downs. I must have played it a million times while everybody danced and sang. And other times, when we were just hanging out at home, my grandmother would sit in a chair near the piano and ask me to play this one. She would have such a huge smile on her face and she just seemed to melt into the song. I’m so grateful for her encouragement with my musical endeavors.
“Sweet Dreams” – Patsy Cline
This was another of my grandmother Frances’ favorites. She was a fashion-forward, tall, beautiful red-head, full of life and fire. For small town Arkansas she was way ahead of her time. She started her own businesses (the music store was her main project) and ran for mayor in the ’60s too. She adored Patsy Cline and always thought she was so classy compared to the other female country singers of her time. We didn’t jam on this song, but we listened to the recording at full volume. The string arrangements from those Patsy songs have a huge influence on my string arrangements (arranged and played by maestro Geoffrey Robson) in the studio.
“Goin Down the Road Feelin’ Bad” – Woody Guthrie
My grandfather used to take us to his farm in Garner, Arkansas almost every morning in the summer. It was pure heaven for us as children – we could run wild and do whatever we wanted, ride horses, swing on the barn swing, go fishing, drive old cars and tractors around the farm, eat turnips straight out of the ground when we got hungry, crawl around with the pigs in the pig pen, and much more. We would sing in the truck with him all the way to the farm and he loved to sing this song and make up new verses such as, “I’m goin’ where the boys don’t blow their nose…”
That farm lives in my memory every single day – and incidentally, the highway it’s on (old highway 367), got named the “Rock and Roll Highway,” because it’s the road all the Sun Records artists would drive from Memphis to Helena back in the day. I didn’t know that when I was young, but it makes sense that Johnny Cash, June Carter, Elvis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, etc. knew that road well.
“The Strawberry Roan” – Sons of the Pioneers
My grandfather on my father’s side, a wild cattle auctioneer named Leon Montgomery, used to drink his whiskey and burst in the door with his cowboy hat and a grin and croon out “Oh, That Strawberry Roan” as a greeting.
“Gonna Burn Some Bridges” – Ray Price
Ray Price was another familiar voice in the musical landscape of my childhood and is pretty much the ultimate crooner in my opinion. I’m including this tune because it’s direct inspiration for a song on our new album.
“I Was Fine” – Bonnie Montgomery
I’m including one of the songs off my new album, because it was inspired by the music of my childhood and, in particular, the music of Ray Price. My bandmate and engineer, Kevin, came up with a steel guitar riff that’s a direct nod to the steel guitar riff on Price’s “Gonna Burn Some Bridges.” We recorded this one with vibraphone and full string orchestra and I sang my heart out for Ray.
It is a tale as old as time itself. As above so below. Yin and Yang. The explored and the unexplored. The hero’s journey, any and all of them, are exposed to the eternally enduring dance of chaos and order. We must leave the garden, enter into the forest to find the gold, kill the dragon, and return back to where we began, returning back more harmonized, realized, and higher frequency than we began.
Musically, Cosmic Country takes this pattern and uses it as its sole fuel for the soul and all of its musical fruits. Cosmic Country is an approach that uses simplicity, complexity, and truth to tell stories of life that bring beauty and goodness into reality. This 9-track mixtape I have assembled for your enjoyment and exploration today covers some ground of the far-flung lands of music that is Cosmic Country, where the high frequencies fall like rain and blossom like lilies in the fields that never end nor never began. Let’s get Cosmic. – Daniel Donato
“Honky Tonk Night Time Man” – Merle Haggard
This is a country song. But just like any country, there is more nuance to be discovered and brought to light than meets the eye. This is an archetypal honky-tonk song. A few of these will be on here. Honky-tonk songs cover truthful states of life that apply to all of our brothers and sisters sojourning in space and time together down on this chaotic planet. This song talks about relief from the grind and finally getting around to what is right for the soul when quittin’ time comes around.
“Doggone Cowboy” – Marty Robbins
This is also a country song, but it is also more nuanced than that. This is a cowboy song. The cowboy is one of the great American archetypes. The cowboy embraces a life of service, hard work, endurance, adventure, and most enduringly, faith. It takes faith to stay patient and persistent in pursuing your work through realms of chaos that you must travel through and come out on the other side stronger than you did prior. Marty had a way of personifying sorrow, acceptance, reflection, and hope in his delivery of these transcendant, simple lyrics.
“Mystery Train” – Jerry Reed
It can’t be fully Cosmic Country unless it moves you. Internally, songs move us, but sometimes the pocket and groove move us externally, which is a brilliant expression of personality. What I love about this song is that Jerry Reed always had a vision in his mind that could create a groove for people to dance to and for players to have fun-expression in. Everyone knows “Mystery Train,” but this version can make any club, honky tonk, theatre, or arena dance and move all together. Bonus points for a train song. Everyone loves a train song.
“Everybody’s Talkin’” – Harry Nilsson
The bottomline is that we are on our own trip. It is an individual experience of life, personality, and dynamics that only you experience. No one will ever live your life for you or as you. Songs that find promise and truthful reflection on the truly individualized nature of existence are my favorite. The movie Midnight Cowboy turned me onto this song when I was 16. I’ve never wished I had written another song as much as this American classic.
“I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)” – Hank Williams
The Shakespeare of country music. The man who was able to take the power of the word – through a Western lens of faith, hardship, and hard living – and deliver to us some of the most truthful and beautiful songs composed of themes ranging from love, loss, religious experience, jail time, honky tonkin’, and the universe. This song specifically has a brilliant form to it, just one verse and two B sections, coupled with that classic lap steel signature sound from Don Helms.
“Waiting for a Train” – Jimmie Rodgers
Any storyteller of American songs, country songs, any songs based in truth and experience, must tip their “Slouch Hat” to Jimmie Rodgers in one way or another. A lot of everything country begins with the songbook of Jimmie Rodgers. This song is just a fantastic story through and through. The lyrical furniture, the sophisticated use of actual terms of water tanks, brakemen, boxcar doors, all bring the listener into the simulated reality that this song conjures.
“Long Black Veil” – Lefty Frizzell
Murder songs are a necessity. The reaper takes his toll, and with that, law and order speak their truth. One of the brilliant elements of this song is that the perspective is from the deceased character. That is innately Cosmic, especially given the window of time this song was released. Lefty was one of Merle’s favorite vocalists, and was the band leader with which Roy Nichols and Merle Haggard first played together when Merle was 16.
“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” – The Byrds
Even though Bob Dylan penned this one on the side of the road, in the rain, waiting for a motorcycle fix, The Byrds – with Gram Parsons and Clarence White – deliver to us one of the most archetypal Cosmic Country recordings there will ever be. The instrumentation, the vocal melody, and harmonies on this song alone explain this sentiment, but the lyrical detail is another universe worth noting with great reverence. The olden language of the great folk songs of America inform the meter and colloquialisms in this song, giving it an ability to exist in the past through its roots, the present through its great orchestration and arrangement, and the future through its seeds of truth, beauty, and goodness – the only values in any creation that endow it to persist through the fleeting episodes of space and time.
“Truck Drivin’ Man” – Buck Owens
If I left out truck driving songs, then everybody from my time at Robert’s Western World would be ashamed of me. The truck driver is a minister of the highways, the great vehicle of true exploration and discovery. The eternal, long white line drags on and on, and the road songs of her fruits just keep coming, but some of the great ones came from Capitol Records in L.A. in the early ’60s.
An element of Cosmic Country that this song relates to is the overall “sound.” What is “the sound?” It is ultimately unqualifiable – it cannot be fully explained or qualified by words – especially when The Sound is doing what it can be doing in potential, which is rendering feelings that hit deeper than words can describe. With the Transcendant Twang of Don Rich’s Telecaster, the immensely clean and powerfully compressed sound of Mickey Cantu’s snare drum, along with that Tic-Tac Fender Bass playing, Buck Owen’s vocal and story rests upon a divinely simple and reverberated landscape of country gold. If there ever was a record that “sounds” like a country song, this one certainly qualifies.
My sophomore album,A Cowgirl Rides On, set to be released October 20, 2023, is a true reflection of my heart and what keeps me going – bluegrass, gospel, western, Jesus, horses, love, and even a little bit of heartache. The songs written for the record were hugely inspired by the songs I included on this playlist. All of these artists and songs are ones I hold near and dear and have moved me in some big way.
I became strong in my faith as a Christian in my early 20s, which is around the same time I began performing and writing a ton. Being introduced to gospel and bluegrass had a big impact on me, and it continues to deeply connect me to my faith.
It’s been a long–time dream to release a record that feels a little bit bluegrass, a little bit gospel, and everything inbetween. Here are the songs that guided me there. I hope you find so much joy in them and that they become the soundtrack to your long drives, or to enjoy over your Sunday pancakes, or during the times you just need a little light. – Victoria Bailey
“Waiting At the Gate” – Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
This song is one of my all–time favorites. This whole album, Soldier of the Cross, is pure gospel gold. I actually cover this song on my upcoming record, and it was one of the most fun songs for us to record in the studio. Ricky Skaggs is just simply the best.
“Wayfaring Stranger” – Emmylou Harris
This Emmylou Harris album is really the pinpoint of when I fell in love with country music. Many have covered this classic song, but Emmylou’s version of “Wayfaring Stranger“ is my favorite by far. Her voice and the tone of this song are so haunting and beautiful… nothing compares.
“The Seeker”– Dolly Parton
Oh, Dolly… what would a playlist be without her? Dolly is undeniably the best and has inspired me in so many ways, but especially her love for Jesus and how she ties in a little bit of the gospel to most of her records. This song really gets me moving and grooving around my house.
“I Just Want to Thank You Lord” – Marshall Family
These harmonies are so good, and they really inspired how I wanted the harmonies to sound on my own record. I also wanted it to feel just as timeless and simple as this song by the Marshall Family. This song ends up being on most of my roadtrip playlists.
“The Fields Have Turned Brown” – Ralph Stanley
Ralph Stanley is a huge inspiration to me and such an important figure in bluegrass music and in the banjo world. The banjo is one of my all–time favorite sounds, and I included a lot of it on my new record. It just takes you to a good place.
“Wild and Blue” – Alan Jackson
I turn to this album quite often. What a combo! Alan Jackson and bluegrass/gospel. It’s just so good.
“Snake Trails” – Victoria Bailey
This is by far my favorite song on the record. It is a gospel song I wrote while riding my horse, Weasley, through the canyon one day. It brings me back to that place every time I sing it. It was one of the first written for the project and really sets a tone for the rest of the record. It was inspired by my horse and finding peace and connection to my faith being out on the trails.
“I Must See Jesus” – Snooks Eaglin
This song always gives me the same feeling as when you just finished a really good movie. My whole heart swells, and it brings me to a really special, peaceful place. His voice is incredible, and you can hear all the passion and honesty and faith in his delivery.
“End of the Line” – Moonsville Collective
These guys are like family to me and have inspired me endlessly over the years, watching them play and the way they are beautifully representing bluegrass/Americana music. This song, written by Corey Adams, is one that has always hit home hard for me at many times in my life. It is truly one of my favorite songs ever written, and it was an honor that I actually got to cover this song on my upcoming record.
“I’ll Fly Away” – Gillian Welch, Allison Krauss
When my producer, Brian Whelan, and I sat down to talk about making this record, we referenced the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack often. Not only is this movie legendary, so are all of the musical performers on the soundtrack. We loved the style of the recordings. Live, all in one room together, where you can hear all the cracks and the love, and it‘s exactly what we tried to emulate for my own record. Recording live was such a special part of making A Cowgirl Rides On.
“Where the Soul of Man Never Dies” – Ricky Skaggs & Tony Rice
Doesn’t get much better than this duet. This is often a Sunday soundtrack for me.
“Long Journey Home” – Billy Strings & Terry Barber
Billy Strings is such an amazing representation of modern bluegrass. His sound is timeless, and his guitar playing and songwriting match up to some of my bluegrass heroes. I’ve always loved this song, and he covers it so well.
“Angel Band” – The Stanley Brothers
This song just always pops in my head any time I hear the word bluegrass. It is so classic and pure, and the harmonies pull on all the heartstrings.
“Just Like Leaving” – Bella White
I have been a longtime Bella White fan, and she is such an important female artist in keeping the bluegrass sound alive. The rest of the record is incredible as well.
“Green Green Grass of Home” – Merle Haggard
You can’t have a playlist without Merle. This song always brings me to tears and really is a beautiful representation of Merle’s songwriting and voice.
Told that a song on his new album brings to mind The Doors, Marty Stuart is bemused, but open to the idea.
“Did it?” he responds during an interview. “That’s fine. If so, why not?”
“Nightriding,” from new album Altitude by Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, kicks off with droning guitars, then evolves to a riff somewhat like that of Jim Morrison’s “Roadhouse Blues”
“Cadillac, sundown,” Stuart intones. “Think I’ll investigate this town.”
To be clear, most of the cuts on the Altitude are more evocative of The Byrds than The Doors. So, is Marty Stuart really a country music traditionalist, as many people perceive him? Yes. And also no.
“I’m totally fine with it,” Stuart says when asked if the country music purist reputation is OK with him. “It’s a self-appointed mission. But my comment would be that country music has broad shoulders.”
Dante Bonutto, who heads up Snakefarm Records, which is releasing Altitude, says that Stuart has earned the right to experiment.
“Since he’s definitely someone who pretty much invented the wheel, he’s allowed to put different spokes on it when he wants to, I think,” Bonutto said.
Stuart, who’s been a bluegrass prodigy, a mainstream country music star, and remains a prodigious collector of country music artifacts, was born in 1958, making him a child of the 1960s, with all that comes with it.
“I still think of when The Byrds and Bob Dylan and all those guys came to Nashville to make their records in the late ‘60s,” he says. “That is like contemporary stuff to me. …That was the stuff that touched me when I was growing up, so it was just a part of country music to me.”
At a recent benefit concert for Northwest Mississippi Community College, Stuart’s base was definitely country — he and the group appropriated the whole history of the genre as their back catalogue, doing songs by Merle Haggard (“Brain Cloudy Blues”), Marty Robbins (“El Paso”), Waylon Jennings (“Just to Satisfy You”) and Stuart’s own hits from the early 1990s such as “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin.’”
The casually virtuosic Fabulous Superlatives band (Kenny Vaughan on guitar, Chris Scruggs on bass and Harry Stinson on drums; all of them sing) wore matching glitter-flecked black suits, and Stuart’s performing style still owes a debt to his former boss and mentor Johnny Cash.
But that wasn’t all. During the hour-long set before a well-heeled audience dressed in tuxedoes and evening gowns, there was also a Woody Guthrie indictment of the rich, a mandatory gospel number, and a big helping of surf rock, obviously a favorite of Vaughan in particular.
“We hereby declare Senatobia, Mississippi, as the surf capital of the world,” Stuart announced before Vaughan launched into a Telecaster version of “House of the Rising Sun.” Also, “Wipeout” was played by Scruggs solo on the upright bass, with Stinson slapping out the drum solo on the cheeks of his face.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter how people categorize us,” Stinson said. “If anybody’s interested in what you’re doing, then they listen a little bit deeper and find a much wider spectrum, in terms of the music. I think Marty is much more than just a traditional country artist. He came from that world and uses that as a place to plant himself, and then branches out in different directions.”
Possibly because the Altitude album hadn’t been released yet during the March 25 concert in Mississippi, that audience didn’t get a taste of its cosmic, sometimes psychedelic country music.
The album’s beginnings go back to 2018, when Stuart, Vaughan, Stinson, and Scruggs toured with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the pioneering country rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo by The Byrds. McGuinn and Hillman were original members, along with the late Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke.
“That was Roger McGuinn’s idea,” Hillman recalled. “Roger had done some dates with Marty; he knew him really well. …He knew the Superlatives would be right on the money because he had done a couple of Byrds songs with them onstage.”
Hillman rates the Superlatives as “the best band probably in this country right now, if not the Western Hemisphere.”
“We had so much fun doing the Sweetheart of the Rodeo Tour,” said Hillman, who was also a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers and Desert Rose Band. “The arrangements were the same as we did on the album in 1968,” he said. “We played the songs better, but we didn’t change anything. It was a joy to go back out and do those songs, especially with the Superlatives.”
Stinson says the tour with The Byrds was “a joyous experience.”
“I got to play with some of my heroes,” he said. “I grew up on those records and so to get to play that music, especially the Sweetheart record, which was kind of groundbreaking. I got to go back through it and really dissect it, and then put it on stage. It was surreal for me.”
The Sweetheart of the Rodeo Tour, coming around the same time Stuart and the Superlatives were opening for Chris Stapleton and the Steve Miller Band, had a profound effect on Stuart’s songwriting.
“It got me in the mood to write songs with all the sounds that were left hanging around in my head,” Stuart said. “We were hot on those ideas, and I just carried the inspiration in with me.”
Like a lot of albums released in the past year, Altitude was recorded while COVID-19 was at its height.
“We rehearsed,” Stuart said. “Most of the producing of this record was done in dressing rooms and at soundcheck and trying songs out there in shows before we ever went to the studio.” The original plan to record was ruined by the coronavirus.
“We were hot, we were ready to go to Capitol Studios in Hollywood (California), and make a record,” Stuart said. “Well the pandemic crashed and Capitol Studios shut down, so we found East Iris Studios (in Nashville). We put on our masks and stood 6 feet apart and soldiered on.”
“I’m glad everybody agreed to do that, because I think this record would not have sounded like it does if we would have had to wait several months and relearn it.”
The album’s Byrd-like sound, complete with the jangling guitars that are McGuinn’s trademark, has Hillman’s endorsement.
“What they’ve done is not a tribute to The Byrds,” Hillman said. “It just has a few little nice, ever-so-tasty hints of what we did.”
Hillman thinks the driving “Country Star,” which also owes a debt to Chuck Berry, has the feel of Byrd’s songs such as “So You Want to be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.”
“There’s a lot of influence there — not overtly, but it just is there. Marty doesn’t stray far from the well, meaning the bluegrass well. I never did either.”
Stuart’s ability on mandolin shouldn’t be overlooked, Hillman said. “Marty is an unbelievably gifted musician,” he said. “I love Ricky Skaggs’ playing and Ronnie McCoury,” he added. “But I told Marty when we were on the road, ‘You got that machine gun hand.’ He says, ‘Yeah, that’s Everett Lilly.’”
Lilly (1924-2012), played mandolin and sang tenor with the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover. He also spent a couple years with Flatt and Scruggs.
“(Lilly) had that cool right hand and when he took a break on ‘Earl’s Breakdown,’ when he played with Flatt and Scruggs, it was great,” Hillman said. Factor in Vaughan on guitar in the Superlatives, and “you can’t get any better,” Hillman says. “But it’s two different approaches to music.
“Marty really grasped ahold of the pulled string stylings of Clarence White (who played with The Byrds and Kentucky Colonels before his 1973 death)”, and then Kenny “is so good, all over the place.”
“He doesn’t overblow; he plays just what is needed,” Hillman said of Vaughan.
While Stuart released his last album, Way Out West, on his own Superlatone Records, he’s partnered with Snakefarm, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, for Altitude.
Bonutto, a journalist and record company executive, heads up the roots-rock focused Snakefarm and its sister label Spinefarm Records, which specializes in heavy metal. In addition to Stuart, Snakefarm has acclaimed Southern rocker Marcus King on its roster.
“(Stuart is) obviously an artist I’ve always been aware of, because I love country music and I’m aware of its legacy,” Bonutto said. “The first time I saw him was when he played the Country to Country (music festival) in London, which is a big annual country music event. I thought his personality was fantastic and his playing is obviously unbelievably good.”
Bonutto wrangled a quick meeting with Stuart at the festival, but had to wait a while before Stuart and his management were ready to sign a new record contract.
“I’m trying to build the Snakefarm label into a global entity [in Americana music],” he said. “The best way you can build anything is to attach yourself to people who are legendary and iconic. Hopefully you do an amazing job for them and they speak well of you and they become part of the fabric of what you do.”
Bonutto noted that Stuart, who is also a photographer and working on a facility to display his country music artifacts, is not “a one-dimensional character.”
“He’s a man with a fantastic vision,” Bonutto said. “I think that comes across in the other things.”
Stuart is a leading collector of country music memorabilia, and he’s working on a $30 million museum to display it in his hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi. A 500-seat theater is already open, and 50,000-square-feet of exhibit space for 20,000 artifacts will be the second phase. An education center is planned after that.
“I was a fan, going back to those country or gospel groups or bluegrass groups who come through my hometown when I was a kid,” Stuart said. “I’d always buy a record and ask for an autograph or ask one of the pickers if I could grab a pick.”
In the 1980s, he observed that “old timers, the pioneers, the people who had raised me, were being disregarded.”
“Their treasures, their personal effects, their guitars and costumes, were winding up in junk stores around Nashville,” he said. “I found Patsy Cline’s makeup kit for 75 bucks in a junk store on Eighth Avenue in Nashville. I couldn’t believe it.”
Stuart met Isaac Tigrett of Hard Rock Café in London, and he showed Stuart how that restaurant chain was investing in and exhibiting rock music memorabilia.
“Even though it was a hamburger joint, I understood the importance of them collecting and curating stuff from The Beatles and the Stones and The Who. … Beyond the Country Music Hall of Fame, I didn’t see anybody doing it, so it just became a self-appointed mission to start rescuing a lot of those things that were winding up in junk stores.”
Stuart’s collection includes treasures such as the handwritten lyrics of “I Saw the Light” and “Cold, Cold Heart” by Hank Williams Sr., the boots Patsy Cline was wearing during her 1963 fatal plane crash and Cash’s first all-black performance outfit.
Speaking of country music history, Stuart began his career in bluegrass backing up Lester Flatt before joining Cash’s band. He’d like to return to those roots and record a bluegrass album.
“I need to, I need to,” he said. “But it needs to be authentic. It needs to be the real deal, blood-curdling bluegrass.”
Just in time for Pride Month, singer-songwriter Tanya Tucker released her new album, Sweet Western Sound, with Fantasy Records, marking the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee’s 26th solo studio record. Tucker is an American country icon, having landed her first hit single in 1972 at the age of 13 with “Delta Dawn.”
Tucker has long supported the LGBTQ+ community and queer equality, and Sweet Western Sound hits many of the same notes. The record was produced by Shooter Jennings and Brandi Carlile, the openly lesbian, roots music singer-songwriter and producer who is the only woman to receive two Grammy nominations for Song of the Year in a single year. Tucker has also collab’ed with drag queen and TV legend RuPaul and performed for GLAAD and Nashville Pride.
To celebrate her inclusivity and the new record, we’re counting down some of her most memorable – and most fabulous – stage performances and duets.
Tanya at Nashville Pride 2022
Is there anything better than rainbows, bedazzled tassels, and feathers? Absolutely not! And Tucker brought all three in her spectacular outfit at Nashville, Tennessee’s Pride celebration in 2022. Tucker sang “If It Don’t Come Easy” on stage during the celebration and was joined by multiple drag queens wearing rainbow tees emblazoned with “Tanya Mother Tucker.” Guests during her set included her dog and her daughter; the two sang Merle Haggard’s apropos “The Way I Am.”
Tanya Shows Some “Kindness”
Tucker’s latest album features a track called “Kindness,” a country-western crooner that encourages us to be a little nicer to those around us. “I found glory in the ruin of the best laid plans,” Tucker sings. “There were times tomorrow felt so far away. It seemed as though the bitterness was here to stay. I’ve pushed down on my anger through my tears.”
The tune is a good reminder we never know what someone else is going through, and that we could all be a little softer because of it.
Tanya and RuPaul Declare “This Is Our Country”
In a totally unexpected, but absolutely harmonious collab, Tucker and RuPaul teamed up in 2021 to release a duet called “This Is Our Country,” a genre-bending blend of country and pop that celebrates inclusion and equality.
“I can be a queen or I can be a cowboy,” RuPual sings.
“Love is the answer, love always wins,” Tanya adds.
The lyrics state firmly that our country is big enough for all its diverse communities and features more than a few of RuPaul’s rap bars. The video performance features some of Drag Race’s most popular queen and contestants, as well as a couple cute, shirtless cowboys.
Tanya In the Moment With “Bring My Flowers Now”
Co-written by Tucker and Carlile — as well as twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth — “Bring My Flowers Now” is a call to show our love and appreciation for friends and family before they’ve passed away. The tune is from her 2019 album While I’m Livin’, also produced by Carlile and Jennings. In the song, Tucker reminds us there are “rainbows, sunshine, and babies” to celebrate in this life, and that we shouldn’t wait until it’s too late. The simple, slow track features a piano instrumental and Tucker’s iconic vocals — perfect for a gentle moment with the ones we cherish most.
Tanya and Brandi Have “Breakfast In Birmingham”
If it’s a classic country duet you’re craving, Tucker and Carlile’s duet on the new album is just the ticket. “Breakfast In Birmingham” features both singers’ warm, soulful vocals and paints a picture of the city’s past with descriptions of hippies, cheap gas, and crispy-fried bacon. There’s also mention of “shutting down the rebel history,” a reminder that there’s a lot to celebrate and remember this Pride.
Tanya’s First Hit, “Delta Dawn”
This would be no list of Tanya Tucker’s best moments without reaching back to her roots. “Delta Dawn” was Tucker’s first hit, and this 2019 performance at The Troubadour features her famous key change as well as beautiful dobro and electric guitar licks.
Around the 2:40 mark, Tucker pauses her singing to let the audience fill in the words and they don’t miss a beat. This tune is always worth a listen and is one of Tucker’s best-known singles.
Whether you’re a fan old or new, Tucker’s got something for everyone — including a message of equality for all. There’s almost no better country singer ally to revisit during Pride Month.
Artist:Brandy Clark Hometown: Morton, Washington; Nashville, Tennessee Song: “She Smoked in the House” Album:Buried (produced by Brandi Carlile) Release Date: May 19, 2023 Label: Warner Records
In Their Words: “I was driving around listening to a lot of Merle Haggard. I got stuck on ‘Are the Good Times Really Over for Good’ for weeks. That song really makes me think of my grandparents and that generation. I just couldn’t get away from it. So I started on a song called ‘They Smoked in the House,’ but I just couldn’t connect with it in the way that I needed to. I remembered someone once telling me that to be general, you must be specific and so I pivoted and started working on ‘SHE Smoked in the House.’ The ‘SHE’ is my grandma Ruth. To this day, my grandma Ruth is my favorite character to ever walk the planet. Looking back, I wrote this song because I was missing her and the things that she valued in life. I never thought that it would ever be on a record. It was for me….but now it’s for you, too.
“This album is a return home to me in many ways. Musically it’s the rawest I’ve been since 12 Stories and maybe even rawer. When Brandi and I sat down and talked about working together, one thing that really intrigued me was her saying ‘I see it as your return to the Northwest.’ (Since the two of us are both from Washington state). That comment inspired so much for me. It took me back to where and how I grew up. ‘Northwest’ and ‘She Smoked in the House’ were both a result of that early conversation. Working with another recording artist on this project was such a gift that I didn’t even know I needed and changed the way I want to write songs and make records moving forward. My hope is that anyone who hears this album will feel the heart that I put into every note of it.” — Brandy Clark
Photo Credit: Victoria Stevens
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
