contents
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February 2018
Features
CHRIS YOUNG
I Walk The Line...
THE FORMER HAT-WEARING TRADITIONALIST TELLS
DOUGLAS MCPHERSON HOW HE’S TRIED TO REINVENT
HIS SOUND WITHOUT LOSING HIS OLD FANS.
10 Chris Young
T
he last few years have seen the reinvention of Chris Young.
Having catapulted himself into the limelight on the TV
talent show Nashville Star in 2006, he opened his account
as a Stetson-wearing traditionalist with the pedal-steel-
laden Drinkin’ Me Lonely which was produced by Music
Row veteran Buddy Cannon.
The stoutly traditional sounds continued with his first Top 40 song,
Voices, which was arranged by another pillar of Nashville’s old school,
James Stroud. Even his first chart-topper, the smoochy Gettin’ You Home
(The Black Dress Song) rocked a twangy retro vibe that Midland would
be proud of.
With his 2015 album I’m Comin’ Over, however, Young revealed a bold
new contemporary sound, full of rock ballad stylings and a smooth pop
finish. The musical make-over was successful - the album was his first to
top the country chart - and its follow up, Losing Sleep, has achieved the
same feat.
Both albums - plus the seasonal It Must Be Christmas, which came out
in between them - were co-produced by Young and Corey Crowder. They
also featured a lot of songs written by Young, Crowder and Josh Hoge.
Hoge, formerly a struggling artist, has publicly stated “I owe my life
to Chris Young” thanks to the success of the songs the trio have written
together, including the chart-topping I‘m Comin’ Over and Young’s duet
with Cassadee Pope, Think Of You. Crowder, meanwhile, has had songs
recorded by Jon Pardi and Eric Paslay but was a formerly unknown
quantity as a Nashville producer. So how did Young come to assemble
such a winning team around him?
“Friends first, work second,” declares the likeable baritone from
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. “I’ve been friends with Josh for a long time
and met Corey through him. We kinda did the Nashville handshake:
‘Hey man, nice to meet you, let’s write some time.’ It’s kind of the joke in
Nashville that you always say that to people whether it happens or not,
but we were finally like, ‘We’ve known each other for a long time, we
Douglas McPherson discovers how the former hat-wearing traditionalist has tried to
reinvented his sound without losing his old fans.
16 Donna Ulisse
Kelly Gregory meets the singer and songwriter with her heart torn between country and
bluegrass.
26 Paul Bogart
Real-life ridin’, ropin’, rodeoin’ cowboy who can swing talks to Duncan Warwick.
48 Dennis Locorriere
Spencer Leigh and the voice of Dr Hook.
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Ulisse
Married into Bluegrass
since making her major label debut in the 1990s, donna ulisse has become one of the
major stars and songwriters in bluegrass. The two time ibma songwriter of the year
te lls kelly gregory how she keeps one foot in bluegrass and one foot in country.
W
hen Donna Ulisse says, “I’m married into bluegrass,”
she means it literally. Her husband is a cousin of Ralph
and Carter Stanley and no less than Ralph Stanley
himself played at her wedding reception.
The singer and award-winning songwriter who has
become one of the leading lights of bluegrass 27 years on from her
debut on a major label with Trouble At The Door and whose name is
pronounced “You-Liss-ee” continues, “I had this big Italian wedding
because I’m Italian and my father, I’m his only daughter, so he gave this
big blow out Italian wedding. My husband, when we were planning it,
he said, ‘I’d really like my cousin to sing at the wedding.’ I said, ‘What
cousin?’ I didn’t know,” she laughs.
“He goes, ‘My cousin Ralph.’ I said I didn’t know how I felt about having
this big Italian wedding and opening it up with bluegrass but I called
my dad and said, ‘Dad, Rick wants his cousin to play. He wants Ralph
Stanley to play the wedding reception,’ and my dad said, ‘You didn’t tell
him no, did you?’ I said, ‘No, I haven’t said anything yet.’ He said, ‘Donna,
this would be big!’ And honestly, when we announced Ralph was going
to be singing at our reception we had people trying to buy tickets to my
wedding.
Duncan Warwick finds out how John Oates has gone from one of the most successful acts
of the 80s to the rootsiest of rootsy Americana.
Jack Watkins embraces the boogie and more of this overlooked star.
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32 Album Reviews
Regulars
53
17
Page 16
Paul
Reviews
11
Donna
54 John Oates
58 Tennessee Ernie Ford
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Page 10
A champion on the rodeo circuit, Paul Bogart brings
authenticity to his contemporary yet traditionally-
styled country. The Oklahoman who was encouraged to
chase his dream by Garth Brooks talks to Duncan Warwick
BOGART
ROPIN'
RIDIN'
&
COWBOY
JAZZ
A
uthenticity is nice. More than that, authenticity
is everything, and in a world where the cookie
cutters have been robotised to such an extent
that many of today’s country singers seem
interchangeable with one another it is more
important every day. In a world of talent show refugees it
sure is refreshing to find a real-life rodeo cowboy, and a
championship one at that, to come riding to the rescue like a
latter day Chris LeDoux. Paul Bogart is exactly that, and his
recent album Leather is the epitome of what a country album
can still be in the twenty teens. Indeed, the Oklahoma born and
raised singer and songwriter states reassuringly that, “All my
music just fits under a cowboy hat.”
In reality, what that means is Bogart can croon a country
waltz, nail a slice of down-home Western philosophy as only
a country song can in the shape of the title track of his album,
Leather, produce a sure-fire dancehall floor-filling slice of
swing with All That Cowboy Jazz, or even a song that wouldn’t
be out of place on today’s country radio like Way Past Beautiful,
in other words, and Bogart is delighted at the suggestion he
has made a proper modern country record and he is even more
delighted that the word ‘authentic’ might be used as a Paul
Bogart adjective.
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“Well, it is an honour for that to be the word that describes
me. I hope that comes across in the music that I write and that I
play and really, for that matter, I hope that it is used to describe
me in my everyday life. I don’t want to be a fake. I’m thrilled
that my music comes across as authentic.
“We didn’t want it [the album] to be dated but we definitely…
My thing was…Trent Willmon, he was the producer, and he’s a
great friend of mine and he’s a great artist, a great songwriter,
and a heck of a producer, and I just told him I don’t want to be
the most contemporary, commercial country sounding artist
out there. I just want to record great music that I love and it
may not ever get played on the radio. This is what Trent told
me, he was like, ‘Man, let’s not try to get it on the radio, let’s try
to go win a Grammy just for that great music.’ So anyway, I’m
super proud of how the record turned out and I’m thrilled that
you like it.”
Paul Bogart has also had a hand in writing nearly all the
tracks on Leather and his homespun wisdom and old fashioned
work ethic can put a shine on his dusty boots. “Leather is a
song I wrote with Cassidy Lynn and Dan Wilson. They are two
of my favourite people in Nashville and the three of us write
together all of the time. We first met each other about two
years ago and since then we’ve written at least twenty songs.
We try to get together pretty regularly and write. As a matter
of fact that was the first song that we wrote together and I
just love it because it is just a simple country song. It’s not
earth shattering or anything like that but it’s just a song with
something to say. We wrote the song shortly after my parents’
37th wedding anniversary so it is a special song to me and
probably the reason I named the album Leather.”
Hailing from the wonderfully named Oologah, Oklahoma,
Bogart was playing locally by the time he was in college and a
flyer for a hometown show at Rogers State University came to
the attention of none other than Garth Brooks. Bogart explains,
“Long story short, one of his guys got in touch with me because
they saw a flyer for a hometown concert that I was doing
and they got in touch with me and wanted to meet me. Garth
wanted to meet me because I guess he had seen this flyer in a
restaurant and someone had given him an old college CD that
I had done in Muskogee, OK, USA. And Garth was like, ‘Huh,
that’s the same kid’. Someone had given him that CD and then
he saw the flyer. So he was like, ‘Get ahold of the kid’. We met
and that was obviously surreal. I went over to his place and
we talked for about an hour and a half the first time and then
I went back over a few weeks later and we kind of developed
a bit of a friendship while I was going to college. He was just
an encouragement to me. I mean , goodness, whenever you
get a phone call on your dorm room phone from Garth Brooks
encouraging you to pursue music but go ahead and finish your
Bachelors degree first before you move to Nashville, that’s
quite an encouragement.
“He told me that, ‘Man, you are a champion roper because of
where you live. You can go to a team roping jackpot every night
of the week right here in Oaklahoma.’ He said, ‘If you want to
take music seriously you can’t do it here in Oaklahoma, you’ve
got to be in Nashville. If you want to pursue music you’ve got to
move to Tennessee. If you need help while you’re out there you
can call me, you’ve got my number, I’ll throw you a bone along
the way. If you need a place to stay I’ve got a house just North of
town, if you need this, that, or the other then call me.’ What an
incredible guy! And then that very first Summer that I moved to
town he was doing Good Ride Cowboy and he called and asked
if I would sing on that song with him in the studio. So I got to
go in and sing with him on = and since then I’ve actually gotten
to write some with Garth. He has been a real encouragement to
me along the way. He’s a neat guy.”
Another highlight on Bogart’s album is All That Cowboy Jazz.
A zingy slice of Western Swing of the kind George Strait used
to favour and was to be found somewhere on just about every
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OFF THE HOOK
4 News
8 Tour Guide
15 The David Allan Page
22 Nice to meet y’all - Kenny Foster
53 Americana Roundup
63 Obituary - Curly Seckler
Spencer Leigh talks Dr. Hook with the voice of the band who brought us when you’re
in love with a beautiful woman, sylivia’s mother, sexy eyes and a whole lot more.
Dennis
re
Locorrie
S
tarting with Duane Eddy
and Bobby Darin at the
Empire in 1960 I have
been fortunate to see
hundreds of great gigs
in Liverpool including Jerry Lee Lewis
and Gene Vincent in 1963, Bob Dylan
with the Band in 1966, and Johnny Cash
with the Carter Family, Carl Perkins
and the Statler Brothers in 1968. Even
more controversial than that famous
Dylan tour was Chubby Checker at the
Empire in 1962: the manager came
on stage and admonished him: “Mr
Checker, I have told you that you cannot
twist on Sundays. Anymore of this and
the curtain comes down.” I must have
seen Chubby Checker’s only non-
twisting performance. I also saw a very
dispirited Everly Brothers in 1963 who
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sang their songs as though they had to
dash to Lime Street Station. They were
like Elvis in his later years: totally fed up
with the old hits but obliged to do them.
All these memories and so many more,
but the one gig that I fondly recall in
every way is Dr Hook and the Medicine
Show at the Liverpool Empire in 1977.
I had loved their first hit single, Sylvia’s
Mother, and I was delighted that they
were doing so many new songs from
Shel Silverstein. Silverstein at the time
was also writing albums for Bobby
Bare including Lullabys, Legends And
Lies (1973). His lyrics were packed
with insight (Ballad Of Lucy Jordan, I
Can’t Touch The Sun, Queen Of The Silver
Dollar), humour (Cover Of Rolling Stone,
Freakin’ At The Freakers’ Ball) and
whimsy (The Wonderful Soup Stone).
Robert Shelton reviewing Dr Hook
for The Times said, “They look like
approved school graduates, talk in
graffiti and move like a demo mob
choreographed by St Vitus.” That’s
a compliment. Their show included
the long, lanky Billy Francis gyrating
like Tina Turner and Ray Sawyer
performing the dangerous triple-yodel:
“It’s dangerous because some guy tried
the quadruple yodel and died.” They
collided with each other as they ran
across the stage. Dennis Locorriere says,
“You can’t learn to do the same mistakes
over and over again. It’s a good thing
that we were naturally clumsy.”
But the songs had to be done
perfectly. “There’s a logic to The Ballad
Of Lucy Jordan. It’s not My Baby Loves
The Hanky-Panky. You can’t sing the
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Philadelphia Flyer
JOHN
Charts
OATES
As half of Hall & Oates he was a large part of the soundtrack of
the 80s. These days John Oates embraces his roots, and for his latest
- Arkansas - he explores real roots music in fine Americana style.
64 Americana & UK Country Charts
65 Billboard Country Charts
Courtesy of Billboard Inc.
I
f you were around in the 1980s
you knew who Hall & Oates are.
Whether you paid any attention
to the charts or not there was
no escaping Daryl Hall and John
Oates. With hits like Rich Girl,
Private Eyes and Kiss On My List, radio
loved their commercial soul stylings and
it seemed as if they practically owned
MTV. They went on to become pop
music’s most successful duo, the Brooks
& Dunn of pop if you will, but there was
always a lot more depth to Hall & Oates
than your average pop star.
Having been in numerous bands, Daryl
and John met whilst legging it from a
knife fight that had broken out at in a
nightclub in 1967, started writing and
singing together, and first signed to
Atlantic Records in 1972.
80 million albums later they still
perform together occasionally, and now
John Oates, he of the rather impressive
moustache back in the day, brings his
considerable talent and knowledge to
one of the rootsiest recordings you are
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likely to hear this year in the shape of
his latest solo project Arkansas. I know
what you might be thinking but banish
any of those ‘Gone Country’ thoughts
right now. If true Americana could be
summed up in one record this might just
be it, but really it shouldn’t be too much
of a surprise as the New York-born
and Philadelphia-raised Oates has a
long-held affinity for both R&B and folk
music. Growing up playing rock’n’roll,
R&B, and blues, he was even once in a
doo-wop group, one of Oats’ musical
heroes has long been Mississippi John
Hurt, an obscure blues singer whose
1920’s recordings were discovered
in the early sixties by the likes of Bob
Dylan and Jerry Garcia and continue to
be appreciated by artists such as Gillian
Welch.
A Piedmont/Delta/country/blues
player with a syncopated style aimed at
dancers, Mississi ppi John only enjoyed
a few years of fame before passing
away in 1966 and Arkansas started life
intended to be a tribute to the self-
taught blues man.
Oates explains excitedly, “If you look
back at my history, prior to getting
together with Daryl as a kid, folk music,
American traditional music and blues
were exactly what I did for many years
because I started playing guitar at six
years old and by the time I met Daryl I
was 18, so I had a few years under my
belt.
“Of course, we went along the way
doing this pop thing and I’m still doing
it with Daryl. In my heart of heart it’s
the music that… really it forms my youth
and forms, without using the well-worn
cliché, it’s also who I am.
“So if you look at some of my solo
albums, starting with my recordings in
Nashville that I started in 2007, I began
to be accepted and integrated into
Americana music, playing with people
like Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas and
Bela Fleck and people like that. If you
look back to an album in 2010 called
Mississippi Mile which I recorded and
produced with Mike Henderson from
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