Country Music – Page 8 – Classic Country Music Hits

Country Music

MARTY STUART HAD ALREADY PLAYED WITH LESTER FLATT AND JOHNNY CASH — AND HIS OWN RECORD CAREER STILL FAILED. HE WALKED AWAY, WENT BACK TO SINGING IN LITTLE PENTECOSTAL CHURCHES, THEN RETURNED TO NASHVILLE AND FINALLY BECAME A STAR. By the mid-1980s, Stuart already had an extraordinary résumé. He had joined Lester Flatt’s band at thirteen, later played with Johnny Cash, and seemed perfectly positioned for a solo career. Then Columbia Records gave him that chance. His 1986 major-label album did not break through. The singles stalled, his marriage to Cindy Cash ended, and Stuart found himself with years of experience behind famous names but little momentum under his own. He stepped away from the chase. Instead of immediately looking for another label, Stuart returned to Jerry and Tammy Sullivan, gospel musicians he had known before Lester Flatt. On weekends he traveled through the South, singing in small Pentecostal churches and reconnecting with what he later called the “real stuff.” After some time away, Stuart looked again at Nashville. Traditional country was resurging through artists such as Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam, and he believed there might finally be room for his own mix of bluegrass, honky-tonk and rockabilly. He signed with MCA. Hillbilly Rock arrived in 1989, and the title track became his first major Top 10 country hit. Tempted followed with “Little Things,” “Burn Me Down” and the title song. Then Travis Tritt helped push the comeback further. Their duet “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin’” reached No. 2 and won a Grammy. Stuart’s 1992 album This One’s Gonna Hurt You eventually became his first gold record. Stuart later remembered having to sit down when he heard the album had gone gold. He had spent years proving he could stand beside legends. The gold record was proof that an audience would finally show up when the name on the front was his own.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” MARTY STUART HAD ALREADY PLAYED WITH LESTER FLATT…

Country Music

RCA RECORDED DAVID BALL — THEN LET HIM GO WITHOUT GIVING THE ALBUM A REAL SHOT. YEARS LATER, WARNER BROS. HEARD HIM SINGING BETWEEN THE POOL TABLES IN A LITTLE NASHVILLE BAR. THE RECORD HE MADE NEXT TURNED HIM INTO A PLATINUM COUNTRY STAR. David Ball had spent years figuring out what kind of country singer he wanted to be. After Uncle Walt’s Band and years playing around Texas, he moved toward Nashville in the late 1980s, carrying a love for the harder country of Webb Pierce and early George Jones. RCA became interested around 1988. Ball recorded enough material for an album and released several singles, but nothing broke through. He later felt he had listened to too many outside opinions and let the music drift away from what he actually sounded like. RCA eventually let him go. Ball came away with one clear lesson: if another chance came, he wanted to make the record his way. He returned to writing and club work. One of the songs he kept was “Thinkin’ Problem,” begun with Allen Shamblin and later developed with Stuart Ziff. Then came an evening at Nashville’s Idle Hour. Ball often went there after work to drink beer, shoot pool and sing with friends. Producer Blake Chancey eventually brought Warner Bros. executive Dave Grau into the little bar. Surrounded by pool tables and pinball machines, Ball sang the songs he wanted to make. Warner listened. This time, Ball kept the sound intact. With Chancey producing, he made what he called a “dance hall record” — fiddle, steel guitar, honky-tonk rhythm and traditional country. The first single was “Thinkin’ Problem.” Released in 1994, it reached No. 2 on Billboard’s country chart and No. 1 in Canada, while earning Ball a Grammy nomination. “When the Thought of You Catches Up with Me” followed into the Top 10, and the Thinkin’ Problem album became a multi-platinum success. Then came the strange final turn. After Ball broke through with Warner, RCA released recordings from his earlier failed chapter — material that had gone nowhere before he became successful somewhere else. By then, Ball had already learned the more important lesson. The breakthrough did not come when he finally learned how to fit Nashville. It came when Warner heard what David Ball sounded like when nobody was asking him to change.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” RCA RECORDED DAVID BALL — THEN LET HIM…

Country Music

BEING MEL TILLIS’ DAUGHTER COULD HAVE BEEN PAM TILLIS’ SHORTEST ROAD INTO COUNTRY MUSIC. INSTEAD, SHE SPENT YEARS RUNNING THE OTHER WAY — UNTIL FAILURE HELPED HER FIND A COUNTRY SOUND THAT DIDN’T BELONG TO HER FATHER. Pam Tillis grew up surrounded by country music. Her father, Mel Tillis, was already building a major Nashville career, and Pam was only eight when she joined him onstage at the Ryman Auditorium and sang “Tom Dooley” during her first Grand Ole Opry appearance. But the famous last name created its own problem. Pam wanted to know what she sounded like without simply becoming Mel Tillis’ daughter who sang country. She experimented with other styles, moved to California, worked in jazz-rock and eventually returned to Nashville as a songwriter. Her own recording career struggled. An early Elektra single and the pop-oriented Warner Bros. album Above and Beyond the Doll of Cutey in 1983 failed to establish her. Several later singles also missed the country Top 50. But while Nashville was not buying Pam Tillis as a star, it was buying her songs. Her material was recorded by artists including Chaka Khan, Gloria Gaynor, Conway Twitty, Juice Newton and Highway 101, whose version of “Someone Else’s Trouble Now” reached the country Top 10. Meanwhile, Tillis kept performing and testing material at places such as Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe. One song she carried with her was “Maybe It Was Memphis.” She had already recorded an earlier version during her Warner years, but it remained unreleased. Then Tim DuBois entered the picture. While building Arista Nashville, DuBois signed Tillis in 1989. After years of false starts, she made a simple decision: this time she would make an “honest country record.” The result was Put Yourself in My Place. “Don’t Tell Me What to Do” reached No. 5 in early 1991, finally giving Tillis the breakthrough her earlier experiments had not. “One of Those Things” followed into the Top 10. Then she returned to “Maybe It Was Memphis.” Arista released the new version in late 1991. Despite early hesitation over its pop-leaning sound, the song reached No. 3 and became one of Tillis’ defining recordings, earning a Grammy nomination. Put Yourself in My Place went gold. This time, she stayed with country. Homeward Looking Angel followed, then the platinum Sweetheart’s Dance. In 1994, Tillis won CMA Female Vocalist of the Year. In 2000, she became a Grand Ole Opry member—the same institution where she had first appeared beside her father as an eight-year-old. By then, the name Tillis no longer needed to be borrowed. Mel had built his catalog. Pam had built her own.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” BEING MEL TILLIS’ DAUGHTER COULD HAVE BEEN PAM…

Country Music

HIS SON WAS SIX DAYS OLD. MARTY RAYBON HAD JUST COME HOME FROM A FOUR-DAY DRINKING BINGE. HE STAGGERED DOWNSTAIRS TOWARD A CASE OF BEER HE’D HIDDEN FROM HIS WIFE — AND REALIZED HE MIGHT NOT MAKE IT BACK UP. In 1991, Shenandoah was at a career peak. “The Church on Cumberland Road,” “Sunday in the South,” “Two Dozen Roses” and “Next to You, Next to Me” had all reached No. 1, and the band was named ACM Vocal Group of the Year. But Marty Raybon’s life offstage was unraveling. His drinking had become severe. He later admitted missing a concert because of alcohol, and at home his children sometimes avoided bringing friends over because they never knew if he would be passed out on the couch. Then came the breaking point. Raybon’s wife had just returned home with their newborn son. The baby was six days old. Raybon had come back from a four-day binge and could barely remember how he got home. Withdrawal hit hard. His heart pounded, black spots filled his vision, and he had to steady himself against the wall as he made his way downstairs. He knew something was wrong. But he also knew there was beer in the basement. Raybon had hidden a case of beer from his wife and convinced himself one or two might calm his body down. He reached the basement, sat on a small milking stool and tore open the case. Then he started thinking about what would happen if he died — his wife upstairs, his children, and the six-day-old baby who might grow up without a father. Raybon did not drink the beer. He prayed. And according to Raybon, he never drank alcohol again. Sobriety did not make Shenandoah’s problems disappear. The band was simultaneously being crushed by lawsuits over its name, eventually spending more than $2 million and entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Raybon now had to face that chaos without alcohol. Shenandoah survived. “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too)” returned the band to No. 1 in 1994, and “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart” with Alison Krauss later brought them a Grammy. Raybon eventually left the group, spent years away, and returned in 2014. But sobriety also changed what he did beyond music. He began speaking directly with people struggling with addiction. Raybon later recalled helping one man whose crisis had become so severe that he was holding a loaded gun and considering suicide. By then, the meaning of that unopened case of beer had traveled far beyond one basement. The baby upstairs grew up with his father. And years later, other families began calling that father when they feared someone they loved might not make it through the night.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” HIS SON WAS SIX DAYS OLD. MARTY RAYBON…

Country Music

AT THE END OF 1997, JO DEE MESSINA HAD NO SONG ON THE RADIO, ALMOST NO INCOME AND A PILE OF BILLS. PEOPLE AROUND HER WERE SAYING IT WAS TIME TO QUIT. MONTHS LATER, SHE STARTED A RUN OF THREE STRAIGHT No. 1s. Jo Dee Messina’s career had started well enough that few expected her to be fighting for survival so quickly. After moving from Massachusetts to Nashville, she spent years chasing a deal before landing at Curb Records. Tim McGraw and Byron Gallimore co-produced her 1996 debut. The first two singles worked. “Heads Carolina, Tails California” reached No. 2, while “You’re Not in Kansas Anymore” made the Top 10. Messina played more than 200 shows that year, and the album eventually went gold. Then the momentum vanished. The next two singles missed the Top 40. Messina went roughly a year without a song on country radio, touring slowed, and management and financial problems piled up. She later recalled having almost no income and “tons of bills,” with her car and home at risk. People told her it might be time to quit. She refused. Messina returned to the studio with Gallimore and McGraw for her second album. The first single, “Bye Bye,” went to No. 1. Then Phil Vassar’s “I’m Alright” did the same. Then “Stand Beside Me” reached No. 1 and stayed there for three weeks. The run made Messina the first female country artist to score three consecutive multi-week No. 1 singles from the same album. I’m Alright eventually sold more than two million copies in the United States. The album kept producing hits. Her version of Dottie West’s “Lesson in Leavin’” reached No. 2, while “Because You Love Me” made the Top 10. The comeback carried into her next album, Burn, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s country albums chart. Its lead single, “That’s the Way,” spent four weeks at No. 1 and crossed into the pop Top 40. What I’m Alright changed was not simply Messina’s chart position. It established the run that would define her peak years and proved that the promising debut had not been the ceiling of her career. The second album became the record that turned Jo Dee Messina from a new artist with an uncertain future into one of country music’s most reliable hitmakers of the late 1990s.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” AT THE END OF 1997, JO DEE MESSINA…

Country Music

REBA McENTIRE SAID THERE WOULD “NEVER EVER BE ANOTHER” DOLLY PARTON—THEN CLOSED HER FAREWELL WITH THE FIVE WORDS DOLLY HAD ALREADY MADE IMMORTAL: “I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU.” Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton belonged to different generations of country music, but their careers overlapped long enough for admiration to become friendship. Dolly had already become a major star before Reba’s rise in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Over the years, the two women shared stages, television appearances and mutual respect, while Dolly remained one of the figures Reba openly credited as an example of how far a country woman could take her career. After Dolly’s death at 80, Reba responded personally. She thanked her for “all the wonderful things” she had done on earth and for the love, music and generosity she had given with what Reba called her “huge huge heart.” Then she wrote something simpler. “There will never ever be another you.” It was less a statement about chart records than about scale. Dolly had spent more than six decades writing songs, making films, building businesses, supporting children’s literacy and carrying country music far outside the boundaries it had when she first entered Nashville. Reba also promised that the memories and every note Dolly had played and sung would be cherished. Her final words were deliberate. “I will always love you.” For anyone else, the sentence might have been only a farewell. For Dolly Parton, it carried the title of the song she wrote in 1974 to leave Porter Wagoner with gratitude instead of anger—a song that later became one of the most famous farewells in popular music. Reba did not need to explain that history. By the time she wrote those five words, Dolly had already given them a meaning country music understood.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” REBA McENTIRE SAID THERE WOULD “NEVER EVER BE…

Country Music

MARK CHESNUTT FINISHED THE SHOW EVEN THOUGH SOMETHING WAS WRONG. HE COULD BARELY MAKE IT BACK TO THE BUS. HIS WIFE CALLED AN AMBULANCE TO INTERCEPT THEM ON THE ROAD — AND BY THE END OF THE NIGHT, HE WAS IN EMERGENCY QUADRUPLE BYPASS SURGERY.. By 2024, Mark Chesnutt had already spent several difficult years trying to regain control of his health and career. Back surgery in 2021 had limited him physically, while drinking had become increasingly destructive. In November 2023, severe internal bleeding and organ problems put him in a Knoxville hospital. Doctors warned that continuing to drink could kill him. Chesnutt took his last drink on November 1. Getting sober created another challenge. He had spent decades performing with alcohol in his system and wasn’t sure he could even walk onstage sober. But when rehearsals began in early 2024, he discovered he still knew every word—and felt his voice was stronger than expected. Then came another warning. In June, Chesnutt developed pain in his arm. It did not feel like the heart symptoms he expected, so he kept working. Before a Saturday show near Houston, his wife Tracie urged him to cancel. He refused. Chesnutt barely finished the performance and struggled to reach the tour bus afterward. As the bus headed home, Tracie called an ambulance. Emergency crews intercepted them on the road. Doctors found something far more serious than arm pain. On June 16, Chesnutt underwent emergency quadruple bypass surgery. He later said he had not yet suffered a heart attack, but was dangerously close. The shows stopped immediately. For the singer behind “Brother Jukebox,” “Too Cold at Home,” “Almost Goodbye” and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” the priority was no longer another tour date. It was recovery. A little more than a week later, Chesnutt posted from home, joking that his doctor had given him a “new heart.” He was already talking about singing again. He did not stay away long. In September 2024, less than three months after surgery, Chesnutt returned to the stage in Kentucky. By 2025, he was preparing a Redemption Tour, openly discussing both sobriety and the health crises that had nearly ended everything. Chesnutt later said he felt better than he had in his thirties. The man who once wondered whether he could perform sober was heading back on the road healthier, clear-headed and eager to sing again. After decades of honky-tonk songs about second chances, Mark Chesnutt had finally reached one of his own.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” HE BARELY MADE IT THROUGH THE SHOW. HIS…

Country Music

TRAVIS TRITT COULDN’T AFFORD A DEMO, SO AN ELECTRICIAN FRIEND SNUCK HIM INTO A STUDIO FOR A FEW FREE MINUTES. THE OWNER HEARD HIM—AND THAT ACCIDENTAL SESSION EVENTUALLY LED TO WARNER BROS., A NO. 1 HIT, AND A PLATINUM DEBUT. He married young, worked ordinary jobs around Georgia and played music whenever he could. By his early twenties, two marriages had already ended, and his parents still doubted country music could provide a living. Tritt kept playing clubs anyway. Money was so tight he later remembered surviving on Vienna sausage sandwiches. Then, in 1982, he wanted to enter a music contest but could not afford the studio time needed for a demo. A friend found a way around it. The friend was an electrician wiring a studio owned by Danny Davenport, a Warner Bros. promotion man. Because he was working there, he slipped Tritt inside for a few free minutes. The deal was simple: record quickly and leave. Tritt cut three original songs. But Davenport heard him. Instead of throwing him out, he invited him back. One rushed session became several. Over the next few years, they built recordings while Tritt continued working honky-tonks and sharpening the mix of country, Southern rock and blues that would become his identity. Eventually Davenport took the material to Warner Bros. in California. It reached the Nashville division, leading to a development arrangement and then a recording deal. Even then, nothing was guaranteed. Tritt’s early deal called for six recordings, with three intended as singles. A full album depended on one proving itself. The first test was “Country Club.” Released in 1989, it reached the country Top 10. That was enough. The album Country Club followed in 1990. “Help Me Hold On” became Tritt’s first No. 1, “I’m Gonna Be Somebody” reached No. 2, and the album eventually went platinum. A year later, It’s All About to Change pushed him further. “Anymore” went No. 1, the album eventually reached triple platinum, and Tritt became one of the major new male stars of early-’90s country. Success did not erase what had made him different. Tritt kept the Southern-rock edge, recorded with Marty Stuart and resisted becoming another interchangeable new-country act. In 1992, the Grand Ole Opry made him a member. By then, the contest that required that cheap little demo no longer mattered. Danny Davenport had heard something more valuable in that unfinished studio: a singer whose rough edges were exactly the part Nashville eventually learned not to remove.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” TRAVIS TRITT COULD NOT AFFORD A DEMO, SO…

Country Music

CLINT BLACK’S FIRST No. 1 CAME FROM THE WOMAN WHO LEFT HIM. HE CALLED THE SONG “A BETTER MAN” — AND THANKED THE FAILED RELATIONSHIP FOR MAKING HIM ONE. Before Killin’ Time made Clint Black one of the faces of country’s Class of ’89, he was still working Texas clubs and trying to turn songs into a career. One of those songs came from a relationship that had already ended. Black later explained that “A Better Man,” written with longtime collaborator Hayden Nicholas, grew from a real breakup. But instead of writing the woman as a villain, they built the song around a more complicated admission: losing the relationship hurt, yet he could leave it knowing he had become a better man because of her. RCA released “A Better Man” as Black’s debut single in February 1989. Then the record began climbing. By June, it had reached No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart, making Black the first male country artist in roughly fourteen years to take his debut chart single all the way to the top. And he already had another song waiting. Black and Nicholas had written “Killin’ Time” during the long period when Black was still playing clubs and waiting for his career to move. Black later recalled complaining that all the waiting—“this killing time”—was killing him. They heard the title inside the complaint. “Killin’ Time” became his second single. It also went to No. 1. By the end of 1989, what had begun as two songs written during an uncertain period had produced an extraordinary result: Billboard ranked “A Better Man” as the year’s No. 1 country single and “Killin’ Time” at No. 2. Black was no longer waiting for Nashville. The debut album kept moving. “Nobody’s Home” and “Walkin’ Away” followed to No. 1, giving Black four consecutive Billboard chart-toppers to begin his career. Killin’ Time eventually went triple platinum, while Black collected the CMA Horizon Award and, the following year, CMA Male Vocalist of the Year. But another number shows that the opening run was more than one spectacular debut year. After “A Better Man” topped Billboard’s year-end country ranking for 1989, “Nobody’s Home” finished as Billboard’s top country song for 1990. For two consecutive years, the biggest country single on Billboard’s year-end chart carried the name of the same songwriter and singer who, shortly before all of it began, was still working Texas clubs with Hayden Nicholas and wondering when the waiting would end.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” CLINT BLACK’S FIRST No. 1 CAME FROM THE…

Country Music

MARK CHESNUTT SPENT NEARLY A DECADE SINGING IN TEXAS HONKY-TONKS WHILE NASHVILLE PASSED HIM BY. THEN MUSIC ROW EXECUTIVES CAME TO BEAUMONT TO HEAR HIM THEMSELVES. INSIDE HIS BAND WAS ANOTHER FUTURE COUNTRY STAR: TRACY BYRD. Mark Chesnutt grew up only a few miles, culturally and geographically, from the world that had produced George Jones. His father, Bob Chesnutt, was a local singer and serious country-record collector who never achieved national success. Mark absorbed his father’s records, began playing clubs with him as a teenager and even left high school for a period because music had become more important. At seventeen, Bob began taking his son to Nashville to record. Nothing exploded. Instead, Mark returned to southeast Texas and spent much of the 1980s doing it the old way: small regional labels, long nights and honky-tonks. Eventually he became the house headliner at Cutter’s in Beaumont. And there was another young Beaumont singer nearby. Tracy Byrd sometimes performed in Chesnutt’s band before either man became nationally famous. By the end of the decade, Chesnutt had built enough of a following that the normal audition process effectively reversed itself. Instead of Mark repeatedly going to Nashville, Music Row executives came to Texas to watch him work in his own room. In 1989, MCA Nashville signed him. His major-label debut arrived the following year. “Too Cold at Home” reached No.3. Then came “Brother Jukebox.” That song had already traveled through some remarkable hands. Don Everly recorded it years earlier, and Keith Whitley included his version on I Wonder Do You Think of Me. Neither turned it into the hit Chesnutt did. His recording reached No.1 in 1991. Too Cold at Home ultimately produced five Top 10 singles and went platinum. Chesnutt went on to become one of the decade’s most dependable traditional-country singers. But success arrived with one absence that mattered more than the chart numbers. Bob Chesnutt—the father who supplied the records, put Mark onstage as a teenager and drove him to Nashville before anyone there cared—died in 1990, just as his son’s national career was beginning. Mark later said he had expected his father to be part of what was finally happening. The Beaumont circuit kept producing another story anyway. Tracy Byrd subsequently signed his own MCA deal and broke through in the early 1990s. The two singers who had once shared the same local honky-tonk world were suddenly occupying country radio at the same time. Cutter’s had not been a waiting room for Nashville. For Chesnutt and Byrd, it had been the training ground.

0 Comments

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” MARK CHESNUTT SPENT NEARLY A DECADE SINGING IN…

You Missed