Rhonda Vincent & Daryle Singletary's "AMERICAN GRANDSTAND" Debuts at #1 In Bluegrass Charts - Album Review

Country music duets have a deep and long tradition going back to the origins of the genre, celebrating its heydays in the late 60s and 70s when Johnny recorded with June, Merle with Bonnie, Buck with Rose, Tammy with George, George also with Melba and Loretta first with Ernest and then Conway. True to all these recordings, now it's Rhonda and Daryle's time and with "AMERICAN GRANDSTAND," a mixture of re-recordings of old classics and some new material, they deliver in high fashion; no wonder then, that the album debuted in the #1 spot on the Bluegrass Charts. 

Daryle Singletary is one of the most underrated traditional country music singers. Coming from the same well of singers as Lefty Frizzell, George Jones, John Anderson, Keith Whitley and Randy Travis, he simply arrived in Nashville too late. The sounds had changed, the craftsmanship got lost and party-songs started to take over. It was actually Travis, who was able to get the young Georgian twenty-something a record deal with Giant Records, after hearing him sing a demo of a song Travis later recorded. Travis even helped produce the singer's self-named debut album "DARYLE SINGLETARY" in 1995. After two more albums for Giant, he was out. But he keeps recording for independent labels, staying true to the tradition.
Throughout the years, he always used the help of Bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent, either as a background singer on his debut album, while she was his labelmate or as a duet-partner on one of his independent releases.

Rhonda Vincent, according to the "Wall Street Journal," the "New Queen of Bluegrass" always ventured into country music. When signed by Giant Records in the mid-90s, after already establishing herself in an over two-decade-long career in Bluegrass, her second album for Giant "TROUBLE FREE" was a pure delight. Similarly to other artists coming from Bluegrass into the country world, like Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley or Marty Stuart she was able to combine the rawer, more aggressive singing, with the lusher countrified arrangements.

"AMERICAN GRANDSTAND" opens with a salvo, the 57-year-old classic, Harlan Howard penned "Above And Beyond" ages well like a fine wine. For more about that song, see my preview of the album in my blog "Rhonda & Daryle go "Above And Beyond." The interplay between fiddle, steel guitar and "honky tonk" piano is pretty magical.

Rhonda and Daryle's current single "One" is one of two George Jones / Tammy Wynette duets remade, the other one being the classic Bobby Braddock, Rafe VanHoy composition "Golden Ring" a number-one-hit from 1976. "One," written by Ed Bruce, Judith Bruce, and Ron Peterson, not only was a single but also an album title for the 1995 reunion album, George and Tammy recorded. I'm glad I saw that show in Gstaad, Switzerland that year, btw Rhonda will be traveling there later this summer. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above that single also came too late for the changing radio waves and was ignored by radio. I remember Ed Bruce being disappointed, I think it was in an episode of the George Jones show, where he said: "I waited 40 years for a George Jones cut, and now they won't play it."

I'm not sure, why they re-recorded "After The Fire Is Gone" as it already appeared on Daryle's 2002 album THAT'S WHY I SING THIS WAY" in a duet version with Rhonda. Don't get me wrong that 1971 L.E. White written cheating classic with its four famous lines

Love is where you find it
When you find no love at home
And there's nothin' cold as ashes
After the fire is gone



is still a monster song and they do again a great job on it. The other Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty hit, "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" which also went to number one two years later was written by Kapp recording artist Becki Bluefield and Jim Owen, who wrote several hits for Jim Ed Brown. Michael Rajos' accordion giving the song a nice "Cajun" feel.

Daryle's voice and its phrasing are better suited to sing Jones than Twitty, so it's not that much of a surprise, that there are two more George Jones hits on this album. The first one actually goes back to 1963 and George's partner in the recording, Melba Montgomery wrote the song "We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds." It was the first big hit for the then-25-year-old.
George Richey (later to become Tammy Wynette's husband) and Norro Wilson, who just passed away a month ago, penned "A Picture Of Me Without You." It was a Top-Five-hit in 1972 for George, Lorrie Morgan also took her version into the charts.
In the clip below Daryle explains how they decided to come up with a duet version and how hard it was to actually get new material to record for "AMERICAN GRANDSTAND." The Vern Gosdin recording he mentions in the clip was done in 2007 with Kimber Sparks, not Christy Lane.



1966, a year after Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens got hitched, Capitol Records released an album consisting of duet-singles, the couple had recorded previously for their own Tally label, co-owned by Haggard and songwriter Fuzzy Owen,. Fuzzy was also the writer on "Slowly But Surely," definitely a favorite of mine on the new Vincent/Singletary album.
Coming out of the Bluegrass corner is "Can't Live Life" written by Edgar Loudermilk, a former member of Rhonda's band, The Rage and of IIIrd Tyme Out and now fronting his own outfit, Edgar Loudermilk Band. He and Rhonda recorded "Can't Live Life" for his album "ROADS TRAVELLED." On "Up This Hill And Down" the steel guitar makes way for a resophonic guitar, marvelously played by "The Rage" member Brent Burke. Originally an Osborne Brothers hit in 1965, the Richard Staedtler composition, recently saw some new light, as Claire Lynch in 2007 and the Grascals in 2011 recorded it.

Billy Yates, the composer of the slow ballad "As We Kiss Our World Goodbye" is having a banner year, besides being featured here, he also produced and contributed two songs to Charley Pride's new record "MUSIC IN MY HEART." As strong as his song, is the title track "American Grandstand," Rhonda brought to the table, lamenting a relationship break-up and how far it has become a simple show, for others to enjoy and/or judge. These two songs alone are worth buying this silver disc, simply country music at its finest. In my honest opinion it's great that the album debuts at number 1 in the Bluegrass charts, even though it is a traditional country music album. It really shows how stupid and meaningless country charts are these days.

Besides Rhonda & Daryle hitting all the vocal highs and lows in superior form, they were helped by a who's who in the studio. There is current Hot Rize member Bryan Sutton on acoustic guitar, Stuart Duncan on fiddle comes courtesy of the Nashville Bluegrass Band. The electric guitar is shared by former Merle Haggard guitarist and now Austinite Redd Volkaert and Nashville session pro, James Mitchell. I haven't seen Hargus "Pig" Robbins' name in awhile, glad to hear him on some of the tracks, Michael Rojas tackles the keys on the others, he is also adding accordion and organ on one track each. And then there is steel guitar wiz Mike Johnson, who as you see in the clip below can play everything. Mike started out with the late Mel Street, occasionally tours with Reba these days and does a lot of TV work, like "Larry's Country Diner", a TV show on RFD-TV catering to their guests with home-cooked meals and to the viewers with traditional country music.

The clip features three songs from the album - "After The Fire Is Gone," their current single "One" and the title track "American Grandstand."

★★★★(★)/★★★★★ (4½ out of 5)


The album is available through regular retailers, as a digital download from all the major sites, as well as directly from Rhonda Vincent and her label, Upper Managment Music.

Sources: Webster PR, YouTube, rhondavincent.com, darylesingletary.net

Rarities From The Past - Clay Blaker Releases Live Album - Through The Years 1979 - 2002

THTB circa 1980 - Donnis Hammond, Jimmy Day, Clay & Allene Blaker, Jack Shelby  

The music business simply wasn't the same anymore. While in his heydays Clay Blaker and The Texas Honky-Tonk Band would be playing over 250 gigs a year, many of the old clubs and dancehalls disappeared, people got older and the young folks wanted to see their stars in gigantic arenas swinging over their heads and using pyrotechnics.

Looking back on a 30-year-old career Clay and his wife Allene decided to call it quits. On one of their earlier vacations, they bought a little piece of heaven on an island off Panama's mainland and that was to be their retirement. Clay or "Slick" to his buddies, used to compete in surfing, actually, Blaker surfboards built by his dad until 1970 are still in high demand, so the surf off the island is an extra bonus.

As a songwriter Blaker is known to have written songs for anybody from George Strait, Tim McGraw, Clay Walker, LeAnn Rimes, Bill Kirchen and Kevin Fowler to Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis. For many upcoming musicians, he was also known as a mentor and sometimes a partner in songwriting. His private picking parties, sometimes till the cows came home, were legendary. For many young artists, it was the place to premiere their new songs among a small circle of fellow musicians, friends, and occasional music-industry people. What especially younger people may not know, is that Blaker and his Texas Honky-Tonk Band, first and foremost built a reputation as a touring outfit, not only crisscrossing the Lonestar state but also exporting Texas country music into Europe, where a sizeable country music fandom started in the late 70s and peaked in the mid-90s.

That's where "CLAY BLAKER AND THE TEXAS HONKY-TONK BAND - LIVE - THROUGH THE YEARS (1979 - 2002)" comes in. It's a collection of songs that every band in Texas during that era "had" to play to get the dancers onto the floor to scoot through the legendary dust. And to no surprise, as the band is revving up their engines for the night to come, the album starts with an old R&B instrumental "Hold It", written by saxophonist Clifford "Honky Tonk" Scott, first released in 1958 by Bill Doggett. But instead of a reed instrument, it's legendary steel guitarist Jimmy Day, that takes it away into the country sphere. That opener speaks volumes about the wide open range what Texas music is. Frontman Clay joins the band on the tender and rather rare subject of a single father raising his kids. "Holding Things Together," written by Merle Haggard and Bob Totten and originally recorded by The Hag on his 30th album in 1974. Tip to the hat for playing that live, as it is probably 180 degrees away from the machismo scene that normally dominated the dancehalls.


It continues sentimental and again lets Day shine on his instrumental interpretation of the traditional Irish song "Danny Boy." Jimmy played with everybody, being a Cherokee Cowboy for Ray Price, to Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Faron Young as well as a non-pedal steel player for Elvis and Hank Williams. And that leads us to

Honky Tonkin'

What started with Bob Wills and other Western Swing Bands in the 30s and 40s, was the desire of the people to dance to the music and in Texas with its dancehalls and Honky Tonks, people started two-steppin' and waltzin' way before the end of World War II, when women started to join the work force and became more liberated. No wonder then, it was Bob Wills who was the first to bring a drum kit to the Grand Ole Opry and caused quite a stir. That tradition also asked for a special breed of music; an amalgam of Swing and Country with side influences from German and Bohemian immigrants who brought Polkas and Schottisches and then Ray Price who came up with the 4/4 shuffle. And all these influences could be summed up in two words: Honky Tonk. And that's how Clay named his band, The Texas Honky-Tonk Band, And the next seven songs all belong into that category, from Hank Williams' "Take These Chains From My Heart" to another Fred Rose composition, "Roly Poly" made famous by Wills and his Texas Playboys.

In between are gems like two songs about Hank Williams, the first one written by his other former steel guitar player, Don Helms, the second song also mentioning another Texas Honky Tonk great, Corsicana born Lefty Frizzell. One of the early Honky Tonk hits bringing the subject of being left by a lover to the forefront was the Hawkshaw Hawkins hit "Lonesome 7-7203" written by Justin Tubb. With the change of society, cheatin' songs became part of the Honky Tonk staple as well, great examples featured here are Mel Street's "Borrowed Angel" and Ray Price's hit "Another Bridge To Burn" penned by master songwriter Harlan Howard.


A good title instead of "Through The Years" could also have been the Bootleg tapes, as these songs were recorded in Texas as well as in Germany and some of the "masters" weren't recorded off the soundboard. So yes you may hear the public, here and there - but all these recordings transcend a piece of oral Texas Honky Tonk music history. Also with time passing, some of these recordings are almost 40 years old, it's quite hard to remember venues and exact lineups of the Texas Honky-Tonk Band.

I reached out to Clay and Allene Blaker and received the following info:

"Unfortunately, most of the tapes that these cuts were taken from are unmarked so I'm mostly relying on my memory in regards to dates, venues, and musicians. The first cut is definitely Gruene Hall, the second is definitely Dorpen, Germany, and the third is another venue in Germany. The musicians on these three songs are the same as in the promo photo we sent. However, Dan McCoy replaced Donnis Hammond on lead guitar during this period and that sounds like Dan on Track 1. The time period for these songs is 1979-1981, Tracks 3 thru 8 are from 1983 at a venue in Longview, Texas. I don't recall the name of it. Musicians on these tracks are Dan McCoy, Mark Kuykendall on drums, David Farenthold on steel, Allene on bass and Bryan Duckworth on fiddle. Tracks 9 and 10 are from the Cabaret in Bandera in 1985. Dan McCoy, Ken Kelly on drums, Bob Kelly on steel, Ricky Turpin on fiddle and Allene on bass. Bob Kelly had played steel at one point for Bob WIlls' Texas Playboys and Ricky won the Texas State Fiddling Championship several times."

The album, as well as single songs, are available for download through every digital retailer as Amazon, iTunes (currently presale, downloads from 7/28), Google Play. A second volume is scheduled to be released in October of this year.

Clay Blaker & The Texas Honky-Tonk Band - Live - Through The Years (1979 - 2002) Vol 1 Song list:

1. Hold It (Billy Butler, Clifford Scott)
2. Holding Things Together (Merle Haggard, Bob Totten)
3. Danny Boy (Traditional)
4. Take These Chains From My Heart (Hy Heath, Fred Rose)
5. Hank (Don Helms)
6. Hank & Lefty Raised My Country Soul (Dallas Frazier, A.L. Owens)
7. Lonesome 7-7203 (Justin Tubb)
8. Borrowed Angel (Mel Street)
9. Another Bridge To Burn (Harlan Howard)
10. Roly Poly (Fred Rose)

Edited version: on 7/20 Clay released the video to "Holding Things Togehter" which is now embedded as well, it may not be of the best quality, but it's definitely a part of history.