If That Ain't Country

In this week's episode we're featuring the debut full-length album for Texan Summer Dean: "Bad Romantic" (2021). Born in Clay County, Texas and country as a dirt clod, there's been a lot of living in the three or more years between Dean's first EP "Unladylike" in 2016 and "Bad Romantic": growing comfortable in herself and her situation served as inspiration for many of the album's tracks (six of w...

In this week's episode we're featuring a 2002 independent album whose name says it all from Missouri's Leland Martin: "Simply Traditional". Born into an impoverished family with eight siblings in the ironically named Success, Missouri, Leland Martin learned how to pick the guitar early on and wound up working some pretty rough venues with his younger brother as teens. Following his marriage at sev...

In this week's episode we've got a magnificent snapshot of the talented United Artists country roster: "A King & Two Queens" (1964). Initially conceived as a soundtrack-centric label in conjunction with it's film wing, United Artists Records later expanded to jazz and rock and roll. Furthermore, when the legendary Pappy Daily moved from Mercury/Starday to United Artists in 1962, he brought Geo...

In this week's episode we're featuring a 1973 album from Porter Wagoner: "I'll Keep On Lovin' You". Porter was churning out three or four LPs a year for RCA at this point, his TV show was still as popular as ever and his duets with Dolly Parton were about near their commercial peak. The Grand Ole Opry star maintained a superb level of consistency in his traditional country output and does again he...

In this week's episode we're featuring the final album in Johnny Russell's six short years at RCA Records: "Here Comes Johnny Russell" (1975). A big man with a big heart and a big voice, Russell turned to songwriting in his mid-teens (mostly out of necessity) and in 1959 scored a B-side on Jim Reeves monster "He'll Have To Go". Russell's "In A Mansion Stands My Love" got the attention of Chet Atki...

In this week's episode we're traveling back to the mid-80s and remembering the two year, two album period where Reba McEntire could have staked her claim as the pre-eminent female voice of country's new traditional movement. Our feature album this week is 1985's "Have I Got A Deal For You", which continued Reba's sensational start for MCA Records (following up "My Kind Of Country" (1984)). Speakin...

In this week's episode we're cherry-picking the best hard country cuts from our twin feature albums on Roy Drusky: "Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2" [1965, 1968]. Blessed with a heckuva radio voice, when Drusky's baseball dream didn't materialise he found work as a DJ at several stations before coming to prominence as a songwriter. Hits with Faron Young and others in the late 50s eventually lead to...

In this week's episode we're jumping in the semi and travelling north to get our twang on with Winnipeg's Sean Burns & Lost Country. One of only a handful of traditional country acts playing that city, Burns and the band stayed busy in 2020. In between lockdowns they managed a Bakersfield EP and our feature album this week: an all big rig affair on "We Gotta Lotta Truckin' To Do" (2020). Ancho...

Red Steagall maintains that he was twenty-five years old before he knew anything other than mesquite trees, buffalo grass, barbed wire and Bob Wills. But after a move from his Texas Panhandle home to Hollywood in 1965, Steagall learnt quickly. During twenty years in the music business he worked with many of the biggest artists, producers, songwriters and musicians in country history. From running...

Gifted with perfect pitch, technique and vocal control, Dawn Sears remains a criminally underappreciated country talent. There were few voices in recent memory quite like Sears': every time she opened her mouth to sing, you could see her soul. This week it's a stack of Dawn Sears at her country best - from two major label albums, one independent a couple with western swingers The Time Jumpers, Sea...

Big, bright, bold, vivid, colourful and appealing - it could only be a Starday album! And that's what we've got this time for another piece of bonus content this week - usually exclusive to our Patreon members - it's called "COVER TO COVER", where we take a great traditional country album and play it right the way through, from front to back, in order and in full. And trust me when I say it's musi...

In this week's episode we're featuring the first of three albums compiled on the sensational Curtis Potter on Heart Of Texas Records: "Them Old Honky Tonks". Plucked from a budding career in Abilene in his late teens, Potter joined Hank Thompson's legendary Brazos Valley Boys as frontman and bass player and released his first solo album on Hank T.'s own label (Dot) in 1971. A working relationship...

In this week's episode we're featuring an album from the commercial peak of singing cowboy Chris LeDoux: "Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy" (1992). LeDoux's talent with a cowboy song earnt him a loyal fanbase and impressive sales as an independent artist over 22 albums in the 18 years to 1990. However, legitimate national stardom eluded him until a young Garth Brooks namechecked his idol in "Much To...

In this week's episode we're featuring a killer all-original album from classic country torchbearer Dale Watson: "Whiskey Or God" (2006). After stints in Houston, Los Angeles and Nashville, Watson ended up in Austin, Texas around the time a record deal with Hightone came to fruition in the mid 90s. Over the next decade or so, Watson established himself in that city as a very popular draw and aroun...

In this week's episode we're featuring the third album from one of the neo-traditional movement's shining lights: Holly Dunn's "Across The Rio Grande" (1988). In this reviewer's estimation, the late 80s saw only a handful of female country voices making honest-to-goodness roots-inspired country music, of which Dunn was one (another being Patty Loveless); and on this, her third album and final for...

Howdy hard country fans! I thought it was time to release another piece of bonus content this week - usually exclusive to our Patreon members - it's called "COVER TO COVER", where we take a great traditional country album and play it right the way through, from front to back, in order and in full. And trust me when I say it's music you won't hear anywhere else - we specifically check to make sure...

In this week's episode we're taking a long overdue dive into the sophomore album from California young gun Jesse Daniel: "Rollin' On" (2020). Co-produced by A-class steel man Tommy Detamore, this album rips right out of the gate. An all-original project, this collection is packed with punchy, catchy and relatable writing and rarely lets up on the high-energy twang - the reaction to "Rollin' On" re...

In this week's episode we're featuring the debut of Tennessean David Wills: "Barrooms To Bedrooms" (1975). Wills, only 23 years old at the time, was taken under the wing of Epic labelmate Charlie Rich who produced this project (as well as his second album, rushed out in the second half of '75 to capitalise on "Barrooms To Bedrooms"). Apparently driven by a desire to give back and help Wills get a...

In this week's episode we're featuring the studio version of an event which became an Austin, Texas institution: "Happy Birthday Buck: A Texas Salute To Buck Owens" (2002). When a couple of accomplished Austin-area musicians in Casper Rawls and Tom Lewis started kicking around the idea to hold a Buck Owens birthday party, they didn't think anyone would show up. It was mostly just an excuse to pick...

Welcome back to 2021! To get us going this year, we're releasing a recent piece of bonus content, usually exclusive to our Patreon members - it's called "COVER TO COVER", where we take a great traditional country album and play it right the way through, from front to back, in order and in full. And trust me when I say it's music you won't hear anywhere else - we specifically check to make sure our...

I'll admit that in the past I've generally not counted myself much of a fan of Christmas music. But in the last few years, I guess I've become less Grinch-y and so when the opportunity to take part in an all-vinyl episode of a popular local radio show, I jumped at the chance! Actually, I borrowed my wife's classic country Christmas vinyl collection (with thanks!), ditched my hardline traditionalis...

PART TWO OF TWO: 2020 has been an awful year for everybody. But for country music, this year seems to have been especially devastating. I can't remember a year where so many country icons have been taken - it seems like we've barely had the time to mourn the passing of one country star when another one has passed. It's been utterly exhausting for me to wrap my head around, personally. But the loss...

PART ONE OF TWO: 2020 has been an awful year for everybody, no doubt about it. But for country music, this year seems to have been especially devastating. I can't remember a year where so many country icons have been taken - it seems like we've barely had the time to mourn the passing of one country star when another one has passed. It's been utterly exhausting for me to wrap my head around, perso...

In this week's episode we're featuring music exclusively from the fiercely independent and staunchly traditional Heart Of Texas Records. Based in the small town of Brady, Texas (the city nearest to the geographical center of the state, hence "Heart Of Texas"), Heart Of Texas Records is the only label (this reviewer knows of) which focuses exclusively on fiddle and steel guitar-driven traditional c...

In this week's episode we're featuring a 1969 album from prolific songwriting and singing talent Liz Anderson: "Country Style". After relocating from North Dakota, The Andersons moved to Southern California and by the end of the decade, demand was growing for Liz Anderson's songwriting. She'd routinely host many of The West Coast's greats in her living room for picking parties and song pitching op...