The 9513 - Country Music Blog

This article will focus on some artists who either had a very short period of great success or had an extended run of near-success. In other words, I cannot justify an entire article on any of them.
Deborah Allen was born in 1953 in Memphis, and probably has had greater success as a songwriter, having written [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Ten from the ’80s, Pt. 1"

Very few artists have been as successful at reinventing themselves as Donald Eugene Lytle (May 31, 1938–February 19, 2003). Possessed of enormous talent as a vocalist, Lytle was not as talented at keeping himself in check. As a result, he continually found himself in hot water.
Lytle was born in the small rural town of Greenfield, [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Donald Lytle, aka Donny Young"

I am departing from the artists of the 1980s in this installment to tell you a little about the World’s Greatest Yodeler. One doesn’t normally associate Massachusetts with country music, but that’s where Kenny Roberts was raised and has lived much of his life.
Kenny Roberts is a country music singer born in Lenoir City, Tennessee, [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Kenny Roberts"

During the late winter & early spring of 1979, listeners of country radio were treated to the unusual strains of “Someone Is Looking For Someone Like You.” Amidst the clutter of the last vestiges of the Outlaw Movement, the dying gasps of the Nashville Sound and the nascent Urban Cowboy movement, this lilting and beautiful [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Gail Davies"

One of the more interesting singers of the 1980s was a female singer who went by the name Gus Hardin. While never a big star, she had one of the more distinctive female voices and enjoyed at least a modicum of recording success. Her voice was hard to describe, although some listeners said it reminded [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Gus Hardin (1945-1996)"

Edward Thomas (Eddie) Rabbitt had a seventeen year run as a recording artist on the Billboard country charts with some success on the pop charts. He also enjoyed success as a songwriter, writing many of his own hits and supplying songs to other artists. Ultimately, 20 of his recordings reached #1 on either Billboard or [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Eddie Rabbitt (1941-1998)"

Earl Thomas Conley was the oldest and most successful of the triumvirate of somewhat similarly named country artist of the 1980s. Born on October 17, 1941, in Portsmouth, Ohio, ETC (as he was often called) had an extended run of success, both as a recording artist and as a songwriter. Between 1980 and 2003, [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Earl Thomas Conley"

During the 1980s there was considerable confusion among casual listeners due to the presence of three male singers with somewhat similar names: Earl Thomas Conley, Con Hunley and John Conlee. All three had distinctive voices, all three emerged during the late 1970s, and all three had chart runs that basically died out by the end [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: John Conlee"

With one of the more recognizable voices in the genre, Lacy J. Dalton blazed across the skies of country music during the 1980s, producing a number of memorable songs along the way. While not an overwhelming commercial success (only nine of her songs made the Billboard country Top 10) as an artist she impressed with [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists: Lacy J. Dalton"

Thus far, the thrust of the Forgotten Artists series has been artists whose salad days occurred before 1980. While Brady tells me that many of the articles have received a lot of hits, relatively few comments have been left. I suspect that this is because few of the readers actually recall the artists of whom [...]

Continue reading "Forgotten Artists – The 1980s"