Again nominated for an Ameripolitan Outlaw Female Award 2019, Rebecca Jed is a busy lady and we finally talk while she's on the road from a gig at Jimmy's in Lebanon, Tennessee, where she was invited to open for Rockabilly quartet Hillbilly Casino to New Orleans for her next gig. Balancing life, living on a ranch, being a full-time mom and pursuing a full-fledged calling in music evoke the early days of Loretta Lynn. That little tour will bring Rebecca Jed also back into Texas this Saturday (11/24) when she will be playing Giddy Ups in South Austin.
Growing up on two ranches in East Plano, Texas and in Mountain View, Arkansas, latter again her new home, she felt an urge to roam: "I grew up pretty sheltered, so when I turned 18 I wanted to see the world," she reminisces and adds that Los Angeles was not her calling: "After some years I got a U-Haul hinged it to the back of my Suburban and drove halfway across the country to Nashville, where I lived for 12 years."
Engrained with a love of traditional country music thanks to her late dad, who would always play the favorite songs on the jukebox, she got really stung with the virus after seeing Willie Nelson in Houston. "It wasn't one of his best shows, actually some people walked out during the show, but from then on, I knew what I wanted to do." Playing in Music City, USA on the now-famous Broadway and in bars on the East Side, Rebecca didn't do it the industry way. Writing her own songs without co-writers, releasing her own three albums not even trying to get a record deal, she tried to keep her independence. Doing it on her own all this time may have contributed to her second nomination as an Outlaw Female for the Ameripolitan Awards. "I was also nominated last year, and I think I am where I want to be with my music career."
Preferring to play her guitar with her own nails instead of a guitar pick, an earlier scheduled interview got postponed because she had to have her nails strengthened, which brought us to a completely different topic after her visit to the nail salon. "Can you imagine, I'm having my nails done, and somebody on the radio is singing a cover, a cover of a Garth Brooks song." Both agreeing how odd that is, I told her that I quit being a member of the Country Music Association (CMA), when they started to "promote" Garth Brooks.
From there on, our conversation starts to meander to what's real in country music and who has influenced her. And to my surprise, she asks me what my favorite Loretta Lynn tune, a staple of Rebecca's live shows, is? Having recently watched some old Hee Haw shows, due to the death of Roy Clark, I burst out "Your Squaw Is On The Warpath Tonight," a rendition Loretta did in one of the first shows I just saw. We both agree, that a song like this would be unthinkable in today's political correctness. From there we "visit" Texans Billy Joe Shaver, Kinky Friedman, and Ray Wylie Hubbard, who is actually nominated in the Outlaw Male category for the 2019 Ameripolitan Awards and the founder of the Awards, Dale Watson.
Comparing her vocals to a "raspier," blues-tinged version of Tanya Tucker who had a hit with the Bobby Borchers and husband & wife, Ed & Patsy Bruce penned song "When I Die (Let Me Go To Texas)" which is also part of Rebecca's live show, leads us to other female influences, and Kitty Wells is mentioned. With one of the first (if not the first) female-empowering song in country music ever, the over 66-year old tune and hit, written by J.D. Miller "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" hasn't lost anything in meaning over the years.
That acceptance of a strong female also shines through in her own compositions, like in "Cowboy Up," where she asks her man to be strong, or in "Alpha Wolf" where she insists that she won't "be chained or tamed" but shows some vulnerability in her wish that she's derailed through love in "Wreck My Train." Asked if she normally writes the music or the lyrics first, or combines the two of them, she admits that all three ways have happened to her when sitting down to write her songs.
To sum it all up, that lady knows what she wants and she's doing it her way.
Gigs Coming Up: Mon 11/19 - Circle Bar, New Orleans
Tue 11/20 - The All Star Covered Dish Country Jamboree, New Orleans Fri 11/23 - Goodnight Charlie's, Houston Sat 11/24 8:30 pm - Giddy Ups, 12010 Manchaca Road, Austin Thu 11/29 - KABF Radio, Little Rock - Ken Murphy Show
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.
