Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson photo courtesy of amazon.com.
Check in with Lew Jones for the latest on your favorite country legends!
Q: I have heard in the past that Willie Nelson was a good friend of Waylon Jennings. Were they?
(Joe, Mount Pleasant, MI)
A: Not only did they perform together and record together, with such songs as "Good Hearted Woman" and "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys," both of which were No. 1 songs for the pair, but also award winners as well, but they were indeed good friends. Willie says, "We both liked each other, respected each other's music and ideas, .. [but] it was the fact we both were pretty independent and insisted on doing it the way we wanted to do it that made us closer friends." Naturally, it doesn't hurt anything that Willie Nelson is one of the friendliest people in the music business! And Joe, that even extends to people like me. He's always been open to an interview when our paths have crossed.
Q: Who sings the song, "All For The Love Of Sunshine"?
(Brenda, Jacksonville, TX)
A: It was Hank Williams, Jr., Brenda. The song went No. 1 back in 1970. Of course, being in the soundtrack of a Clint Eastwood movie helped a bit. The movie was "Kelly's Heroes." Hank Jr. had been recording for around six years, and the song's success took it to the top of the Billboard charts and helped establish Hank as a performer in his own right, rather than being just the son of country icon Hank Williams.
Q: I'm looking for a song called "Home." It is not that old.
(Nicole, North East, MD)
A: There are two songs that fit that description, Nicole. "Home" by Joe Diffie came out in 1990, and was his first-rattle-out-of-the-box No. 1 hit! Then there was Alan Jackson's song of the exact same name, which went to No. 3 in 1996. Since only you can hear the song inside your head, I can't tell you which one it is. However, now you know where to look to be able to find a copy.
Q: Who do you feel has changed country music the most, and I mean for the good? It doesn't have to be a performer. It could be a writer, producer, anyone.
(Wade, Springfield, OR)
A: Wade, I should know better. I should stay away from your question like the plague! No matter what I say, it's sure to anger someone. Smarter people than me would have a hard time answering it. But, foolishly, I'll take a stab at it by posing my own questions to my online audience. Was it Hank Williams, whose song-writing gave voice to deep-from-the-heart blues, as in his lyric, "Did you hear that lonesome whippoorwill, who sounds too blue to cry"? Was it producer Owen Bradley, who recorded Patsy Cline and many others, and convinced a generation of listeners (including me) that country music had something to offer? How about the new traditional artists of the 1980s -- George Strait, Randy Travis, Garth Brooks- who refocused the sound of country? Or, do we go all the way back to the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, who first brought it out of the hills by showing up for the legendary 1927 Bristol, Tennessee recording sessions? Those are the ones I would start with, and cases can certainly be made for a number of others.
Q: We saw a video and absolutely fell in love with it, and now we can't remember the name or artist. It had the lines, "I'm seeing my father in me, that's the way it's meant to be." Can you help?
(Matthew, Canton, OH)
A: I'm pretty sure you're talking about Paul Overstreet's "Seeing My Father In Me", Matthew. The song got to No. 2 in 1990. Paul's biggest hit as a singer was "Daddy's Come Around" later that same year. However, his biggest success is as a songwriter, having written such huge hits as "Forever And Ever, Amen" and "On The Other Hand" for Randy Travis, "My Arms Stay Open All Night" for Tanya Tucker, and "When You Say Nothing At All" for Keith Whitley and later, Alison Krauss. More recently, Kenny Chesney recorded Paul's "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy."
RSS Feeds