If That Ain't Country

In this week's episode we're featuring an excellent introduction to the music of Gary Stewart: "Greatest Hits" (1981). Born the son of a mining man in Kentucky but calling Fort Pierce, Florida home from the age of 12, Gary Stewart was playing music around the area as a teenager. After catching part of his performance locally, Mel Tillis (also from the area) suggested Stewart go to Nashville to wor...

In this week's episode we're featuring the major label debut for Mark Chesnutt: "Too Cold At Home" (1990). Having dropped out of high school to pursue a career playing bars and honky tonks, Chesnutt garnered enough attention to record some independent material in San Antonio and Houston during that period (including at AV Mittelstedt's famous SoundMasters Studios). Some of that material got the at...

In this week's episode we're featuring a slice of Mac Wiseman's country and bluegrass history that spent almost forty years in the vaults of Capitol Records: "The Lost Album" (1964). As one of the last original members of bluegrass' "first generation", Wiseman had played with Bill Monroe, was a founding member of Flatt & Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Boys and enjoyed solo hits before signing with Ca...

PART 2 OF 2: On the occasion of Johnny Bush's passing in October of 2020, we've got a two-part podcast tribute to the man who epitomised Texas dancehall music. Part two has us digging back into the show archives for an episode which originally aired in July 2017.   From the original show notes: In this episode, we're featuring a hard country album from Johnny Bush: "Here Comes The World Again" (19...

PART 1 OF 2: On the occasion of Johnny Bush's passing in October of 2020, we've got a two-part podcast tribute to the man who epitomised Texas dancehall music. Part one has us digging back into the show archives for an episode which originally aired in December 2016.   From the original show notes: In this week's episode we're featuring the most successful commercial album for Texas icon Johnny Bu...

In this week's episode we're featuring yet another sterling album from Mel Tillis: "Love Revival" (1976). After a stint in the US Air Force and moving from his native Florida to Nashville in the mid 50s, Tillis struck paydirt as a songwriter relatively quickly. Hits with good friend Webb Pierce, Carl Smith and Brenda Lee helped him earn a recording contract with Columbia and later Kapp Records, bu...

In this week's episode we're featuring the debut country record for Louisiana's Alecia Nugent: "The Old Side Of Town" (2020). After three top-notch bluegrass albums on Rounder Records, Nugent elected to slow down and came off the road to spend more time raising her three daughters. Life got in the way, however, and after an extended period at home but with the intention of recording another projec...

In this week's episode we're featuring the debut album from Missouri's Leona Williams: "That Williams Girl, Leona" (1970). As a young woman in St. Louis working as a beautician by day and playing music several nights a week on the side, connections that Leona Williams made during that time would serve her young career well. A friendship with Loretta Lynn saw Leona move to Nashville and join Lorett...

In this week's episode we're featuring a 2020 release from The Reeves Brothers: "The Last Honky Tonk". Distilling the best of 70s country down to a twelve-song collection, the most refreshing part of this album lies in it's original material. All but three of the tracks were written by brothers Matt & Cole Reeves who both ooze country music pedigree. The Reeves Brothers come by their throwback...

In this week's episode we're featuring an irresistible live album from Hank Thompson & The Brazos Valley Boys: "At The Golden Nugget" (1961). Recorded over two nights in March of '61 during a six-week, six-night-per-week stint at Vegas' famous Golden Nugget Gambling Hall & Casino, Thompson & band are at the top of their game. Steel Guitar Hall Of Famer Bobby Garrett once said that his...

In this week's episode we're featuring the first album in seven years for JD Crowe & The New South: "Lefty's Old Guitar" (2006). Never one to be rushed into releasing new material, banjo institution JD Crowe worked more than six years of road and bluegrass festival dates with the nucleus of The New South's line up in perfecting this album. Rickey Wasson is superb on lead vocals for the first t...

In this week's episode we're featuring the second album (of three) for Michigan's Larry Ballard: "Honky Tonk Heaven Is A Hell Of A Place To Be" (1976). "Discovered" and produced by the legendary Pete Drake, there is precious little information out there about Larry Ballard's three albums for Capitol in the 70s. The second of those, however, features some of the finest country singer/songwriter mat...

In this week's show we're featuring a duet album that time forgot - Kitty Wells & Red Foley and their "comeback" LP on Decca: "Together Again" (1967). First paired together on a record label hunch in 1953/54 in Springfield, Missouri while Foley was hosting the popular Ozark Jubilee TV show - three singles were released on Wells/Foley and all were hits. A full LP followed but busy schedules mea...

This week we're celebrating 400 episodes (!) of the show by playing a stack of that twangy, steel-rich brand of country music known as The Bakersfield Sound. We'll pack in as much West Coast country as we can this week til we run out of time - a tonne of the big Bakersfield names right through to the less-than-household figures. From Buck Owens and Merle Haggard to Roy Nichols and Tommy Collins -...

In this week's episode we're featuring a mid-80s album on for the always-country Moe Bandy: "Motel Matches" (1984). Bandy made traditional country music and rarely deviated from it. Respected country historian Bill Malone called Moe Bandy's music "a breath of fresh air through the fetid morass of country pop" - and even though it was 1984, "Motel Matches" was more of the same. Throughout his caree...

In this week's episode we're featuring a sterling album from the son of a western legend in Rex Allen, Jr.: "Ridin' High" (1976). His Daddy was Rex Allen Sr - "The Arizona Cowboy" or "The Golden Voice" - and he remained an overarching figure throughout his son's career. Blessed with the same set of incredibly rich vocals as his father, Rex Allen. Jr became a truly country AND western performer, ea...

In this week's episode we're featuring the third and final album on Giant Records for Daryle Singletary: "Ain't It The Truth" (1998). One of the 90s finest and loudest voices for traditional country music, Singletary was only with Giant a short time and was dropped from it's roster following this album's three singles lacklustre chart performance. The year before it's release, Giant Records had be...

In this week's episode we're focusing on "The Man Behind The Music": the prolific songwriting talent and success of Oklahoma's Roger Springer. A diehard Merle Haggard fan since his teens, Springer was born and raised around Caddo, OK and at age 28 in the late 80s, he quit his job at JC Potter Sausage Company and moved to Nashville. After a record deal fell through there was two choices ahead of Sp...

In this week's episode we're featuring Vern Gosdin's final charting album on Columbia: "Out Of My Heart" (1991). Already into his 50s by the time commercial success finally came his way in the 1980s and having suffered his share of setbacks, Gosdin's voice had aged to perfection by 1991. Described as "a walking heartache" by one reviewer, Gosdin's music during his commercial peak relied heavily on...

In this week's episode it's all Little Darlin' Records. Every single song you'll hear was recorded for Aubrey Mayhew's independent Little Darlin' label, mostly between 1966-1970. At a time when smaller labels were prolific in Nashville, Little Darlin' stood out - and it still does. The lynchpin of the Little Darlin' sound was Lloyd Green's innovative and inventive steel guitar, and Green's picking...

In this week's episode we're featuring another ultra-consistent album from George Strait: "Beyond The Blue Neon" (1989). Over Strait's career (especially in his 80s and 90s heyday) his output was dizzyingly reliable. Just enough modernity in it's production to appeal to country radio but music stubbornly rooted in Strait's Texas country heritage. That's what you got. And fans loved it, helping Str...

In this week's episode we're featuring an excellent compilation on Johnny Bond: "The Very Best Of Johnny Bond" (1998). Strangely, of the seventeen tracks only one was a chart hit for Bond - as such, this week's show turned into an excellent opportunity for a deep dive into Bond's catalogue. A truly versatile artist, after Johnny Bond relocated from his native Oklahoma to Hollywood on an invite fro...

In this week's episode we're featuring a typical David Houston album from his Epic heyday: "Where Love Used To Live/My Woman's Good To Me" (1969). Aside from his monster million-selling, Grammy-winning 1966 hit "Almost Persuaded", Houston hardly rates a mention in most conversations about 60s and 70s country music. A man gifted with an extraordinary vocal range, David Houston could effortlessly gl...

In this week's episode we're featuring a hardcore country album from Vernon Oxford: "If I Had My Wife To Love Over" (1979). If you didn't know you were in for a traditional country release from the title alone, it won't take long to figure it out: epitomising hard country music, Vernon Oxford's story is one of genuine hillbilly talent. Despite that talent, Oxford faced stiff resistance, demoralisi...

In this week's episode we're featuring a 1978 album for Texas icon Red Steagall: "Hang On Feelin'". Recorded and released during a period of continued commercial decline, "Hang On Feelin'" was Steagall's last outing for ABC/Dot Records. That commercial decline does not translate to a decline in quality however, and fans of traditional country and western swing will find plenty to like. Based in Na...