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September 2018
Features
JP
HARRIS
HONKY TONK THINKER
12 JP Harris
The Nashville-based honky tonker explores new ground with his latest longplayer.
However, he assures Duncan Warwick that everything is better than fine.
With a beard that’s nearly as impressive as his uncompromising sound, the Nashville-
based hony tonker JP Harris speaks to Duncan Warwick.
JP
Harris has been making honky tonk records since before big beards
got trendy. He might even have been one of the first hipsters, and at the
suggestion that he might elicits a hearty laugh from the Nashville-based
singer-songwriter who has just released his third full-length album. “It
just comes out of my face,” he exclaims. The birth of the hipster or not,
one thing’s for sure, JP has been one of the most reliable honky tonkers
of the past decade. The very first line on his bio states that “J.P. Harris plays Country Music.
Not ‘Americana,’ not ‘Roots,’ ‘Folk,’ or any other number of monikers used to describe a slew
of spin-off genres.” And in case any doubt remains, his website is tellingly ‘ilovehonkytonk.
com’. There, if you weren’t already a fan you are now, right?
His latest album, Sometimes Dogs Bark At Nothing however, he hints, is a slight move
away from the straight ahead honky tonkers of his previous outings, and edges a little
towards Sturgill Simpson-type territory.
“It’s got a pretty wide range of channels on it and I think that actually this one…Sort of
what I’ve told people in the past is that I’ve never really been interested in only writing in
one sort of vein. Some folks, they’re really into the Dixie or Bakersfield sound and that’s all
they do, or they’re really into Western Swing and that’s all they do, or Outlaw. And that’s
great, but I’ve never really written that way and I’ve never really performed that way either.
In my mind there’s probably about a 50-year span of music that was pretty influential on
me and I think it reflects my songwriting. Every album I do I sort of widen that influence
a little bit more. So I think this record…Like I said, I’m very curious to see how people are
going to react to it.”
There’s nothing like an artist, especially one that has become a reliable go-to for a certain
kind of music, saying they are ‘exploring new directions’ to fill a fan with fear, something
Harris acknowledges with a laugh. “I know, people usually do [get worried],” chuckles
Harris.
“With this one, the funny thing was I was doing an interview with a Dutch magazine a
couple of weeks ago and the journalist interviewing me he said, ‘Oh, well I really like the
range of sounds and there’s one track on there that sounds almost more like a soul song’
18 Catherine Britt
From a major-label Nashville deal and a duet with Elton John, Aussie Catherine Britt is
back on home turf and more rootsy than ever.
20 History Of A Hit
With the same song topping the chart all year, we ask if it’s time for a rethink when it comes
to the methodology of the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart..
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Catherine Britt
and the Cold Cold Hearts
Words: Alex Rossi
26 Louisiana Hayride
The massive set from Bear Family is assessed by Jack Watkins.
54 Dottsy
Tony Byworth just happened to be in Texas and look who he ran into.
60 The Rising
The Belfast-based band talk back to their fiercest critic.
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C
atherine Britt didn’t so much sell coals
to Newcastle as take country music from
Newcastle to Nashville. The Newcastle
in question though is in New South
Wales, Australia, and at 17-years-old she
upped sticks to chase her dream. Just a few years later
she found herself with an RCA record deal and charted
three songs in the Top 40 between 2004 and 2007. It
was her debut, The Upside Of Being Down, that did best,
reaching #36 and spending 19 weeks on the chart but
it was arguably 2005’s Where We Both Say Goodbye
which is considered most notable as it was a duet with
Elton John. Written by Britt and well-known Nashville
tunesmith Jerry Salley, it was, like all of Catherine Britt’s
product, rather more country sounding than most of the
charts of just over a decade ago.
Now, after having returned to her home Down
Under in 2009, Catherine Britt is back with a new
stripped-down rootsy sound that frequently borders
on bluegrass and a band named The Cold Cold Hearts
which hints at where the Aussie singer-songwriter’s
heart lies.
“The band name wa s to identify the boys and show
them off a bit. I have always wanted to do a band
record and I have done it with my two best mates and
two musicians that I really respect and love. The Hank
Williams connection is cos I am a huge fan and that’s my
favourite Hank song. But really we just thought it was
a cool band name,” says the 2010 CMA Global Artist Of
The Year.
Among other accolades the Aussie star has garnered
are five consecutive nominations for Album of the Year
at the CMAAs (Country Music Awards of Australia) and
over the years Catherine Britt has recorded with many
a notable name from Guy Clark to her homeland’s super
superstar Lee Kernaghan as well as the Candle In The
Wind singer.
“They are all honours but you can’t disregard the
impact that Elton John had on my career, especially
doing a duet together,” she says with a laugh.
Of the new release Britt adds, “I feel like it is a little
like going back to my early stuff. Very country, stripped
back and honest. I feel it sits perfectly in the Folk /
Americana world.
“It [the stripped-back sound] has always been a part
of my sound and at the end of the day, it’s the type
of music that I love best. Honest songwriting, great
harmonies and fantastic picking.”
One song on the new album was especially tough
to write, and once you know that it’s called I’m Not
Ready, and it addressed the singer’s fear and defiance
surrounding a breast cancer diagnosis it’s obvious why.
The last verse in particular, which Britt wrote for her
husband, is incredibly touching and Britt admits that “It
was a tough song [to write].”
She also concedes that, “it was also very therapeutic
and a song I needed to write,” and on a lighter note, “I
love that about songwriting, it’s cheap therapy.”
Looking back on her time in Music City Britt says,
“Nashville was an interesting experience for me. I was
so young and I was scooped up by RCA and taken into
this fantasy world that really wasn’t right for my music.
I loved being there and have a lot of fond memories but
it’s also where I made a lot of mistakes and being young
I was easily coerced. If I was to do it again, I would have
waited till I was a little older and probably signed with
a smaller label who nurtured singer/songwriters.
As for Nashville now Britt shares, “Honestly I just
don’t think I would fit in. My music is nothing like what
is on the radio and I don’t want to be... I don’t get it. I
would do the Nashville thing but I would do it under the
Americana flag which is where I belong.”
As for the suggestion that even in 2004 Catherine
Britt might have been too country for country, the
singer who has also hosted Antipodean radio and TV
shows agrees. “I wasn’t making music like the rest of the
stuff on radio and i was never going to if I was going to
stay true to myself. I am proud of that.”
Not unlike what is happening on this side of the world
Britt says that the Australian country scene is, “a very
small market and the fans are dedicated. The younger
artists are all copying the Nashville sound.”
“The older ones are doing the Bush Australiana thing.
There is a nice growing market here for Americana
though which is exciting to watch.”
Sometimes Britain and Australia might seem like two
countries separated by a common language, and gum
trees and utes [utility vehicles] might not be as familiar
as tailgates and cut-off jeans to a country audience,
but even twelve thousand miles can’t dilute the quality
of Catherine Britt and the Cold Cold Hearts’ self-titled
release.
Catherine Britt and the Cold Cold Hearts is available now.
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Page 18
Reviews
30 Album Reviews
49 Live Review
Regulars
4 News
8 Tour Guide
17 The David Allan Page
25 Corner Of Music Row
50 Nice to meet y’all... - James Ellis & The Jealous Guys
53 Americana Roundup
58 Nice to meet y’all.. - Cheley Tackett
63 Write To Reply
There have long been many a different country
chart out there. Not so long ago there was the
‘Gavin’ chart, and further back there were ‘Music
Vendor’ and ‘Record World’ as well as many
others. Ultimately though, there is just one chart
that has ever really mattered… and still does. That
is the Hot Country Singles Chart as published by
Billboard every week.
With Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line top-
ping the chart for the whole of this year Duncan
Warwick suggests that it might be time to look
again at how Billboard’s Hot Country Singles
Chart is compiled.
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Courtesy of Billboard Inc.
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DOTTSY
Catching up with a Texas favourite
TONY BYWORTH REMINISCENCES WITH DOTTSY
A
lthough she hasn’t made
and Billboard’s British country correspondent, when she crossed paths with music entrepreneur
any chart appearances
in almost 40 years, that
doesn’t mean that one of
Texas’ fairest, Dottsy, has
been forgotten. On home
ground Heart of Texas brought her back to the
recording scene while, in Britain, her complete
RCA catalogue has just been given a new lease
of life.
The passing of the years hadn’t diminished
the memories of past meetings and our
reunion in her home town allowed a few hours
of catch-up while giving me a tourist guide to
Seguin, population 30,000 and situated 33 miles
north-west of San Antonio. One of the Lone Star
State’s oldest towns, it was named after freedom
fighter Juan Seguin and founded just 16 months
after the Texas Revolution.
Dottsy is well entrenched as one of the town’s
prominent citizens, not only because she’s had the pleasure of covering the visit. RCA
Records UK office regarded the Texas lady
as star potential and willing to invest time and
marketing finance to back their intentions –
that is, until plans were curtailed a year or so
later following changes in the label’s Nashville
operation.
Nevertheless Dottsy returned to Britain, first
touring in the company of Moe Bandy, Roy
Drusky and Scotland’s Gerry Ford in March
1981, then, towards the end of the decade, in a
package that also included Philomena Begley,
Don Gibson, Patrice and Shot J ackson. Both
tours were organised by Scotland’s Drew Taylor.
Born Dottsy Brodt, she’s a third generation
Seguinite and a lifelong country music fan, her
own music ambitions first fuelled by the music of
Patsy Cline, Connie Smith, Ray Price and Willie
Nelson and encouraged by her parents. She
began to climb the showbiz ladder when, aged Happy Shahan. He owned the Alamo Village,
in Brackettville, which had been originally built
for John Wayne’s 1960 movie The Alamo and
subsequently developed as a prime location
for westerns filmed in Texas. He also managed
Johnny Rodriguez, whom he paired with Dottsy
on tour, then started setting their sights on a
recording deal in Nashville. They first visited
songwriter Clarence Selman for material, who
arranged demo sessions with Roy Dea, producer
at RCA Records. After listening to playback of
five tracks, he said “let’s do a deal” and quickly
secured her a contract.
Dottsy hit the charts in 1975 with her first
single, Storms Never Last, a song penned by
Jessi Colter, and during her five year sojourn
with RCA, scored another ten appearances,
including one by Jessi’s husband, Tryin’ To
Satisfy You, in which Waylon also played guitar,
while her highest chart placing came via the
married to Robin Dwyer, currently serving as
the town’s elected judge, but also because she
keeps involved with community projects, not
least of all contributing to its heritage. One such
project was helping the Seguin Conservation
Society raise funds for restoration of the town’s
Texas Theatre, an 80 year old movie house now
operating as a top quality centre for performing
arts. And, of course, her status as an entertainer
hasn’t been forgotten, though she was greeted
as any other Seguin resident as we trekked 10 years, she sang at a local fire department
benefit, a gig obtained thanks to her father, a
fireman. Soon afterwards she teamed up with
another aspiring musician, Clark Grein, the son
of one her father’s co-workers and, together, won
a contest organised by San Antonio radio station
KBER, that resulted in an appearance at the city
auditorium as part of an all-star package that
featured Conway Twitty, Ray Price, Bobby Bare,
Sonny James and Hank Williams Jr.
Next came the The Eezy Riders, a band Kent Robbins penned (After Sweet Memories)
Play Born To Lose Again. With songs provided
by several of Music City’s top writers, and
production throughout by Dea, her recordings
are well representative of that period’s Nashville
Sound where country was edged with slight pop
sensibilities.
Then, in 1980, corporate policies saw a spring
cleaning of the roster and Dottsy suddenly found
herself without a label. (It was a particular harsh
sweeping as Dave Rowland & Sugar, Danny
around the town.
At her home she’s also surrounded by history
as the Dwyer’s solidly built stone house is
166 years old and, as she informs me, “Greek
Revival” design. We recall memories of her first
visit to Britain, back in 1979, when she appeared
at that year’s International Festival of Country
Music. She had also travelled north to Glasgow
to guest on Scottish superstar Sydney Devine’s formed by Grein with Dottsy as its lead singer
and, by the time she was 14, was a regular
on San Antonio’s KSAT-TV’s weekly country
show. In 1970, after winning the Seguin Junior
Miss contest, Dottsy took the talent prize in the
State pageant, then moved to Austin in 1972 to
enroll at the University of Texas to study Special
Education while also spending time performing in
a local band, Meadow Muffin. Davis, Jim Ed Brown and George Hamilton
IV were among the other artists who exited,
alongside longterm veterans Hank Snow and
Porter Wagoner.) It was particularly strange in
Dottsy’s case as the label has only just released
her second album, Tryin’ To Satisy You, which
– in fact – came out in Britain first, tying in with
the Wembley visit. Could another reason for
her departure be that RCA had recently signed
TV show, Simply Devine, and I, as CMP editor
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But music was to win out in future ambitions
another one name, hit-making female, Sylvia,
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T HE RISING
Rising up and talking back
The Belfast-based band’s guitar player Chris Logan talks to
Duncan Warwick
Charts
64 Americana & UK Country Charts
65 Billboard Country Charts
I
n case you haven’t heard, the Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia
Line single Meant To Be is now the most successful country
single of all time. Let’s let that sink in. Meant To Be has spent
longer (much longer) in the top spot than Keith Whitley’s When
You Say Nothing At All or Lee Ann Womack’s I Hope You Dance
and Rexha bettered Leroy Van Dyke’s 19-week run with Walk On By
months ago. If that doesn’t strike the fear of God into you then maybe
you weren’t a country fan to begin with. Billboard Magazine described
Rexha as “a singer-songwriter without a clearly established solo sound
or genre base,” and that Bebe Rexha had never had a country chart
entry previously and came from a pop/Electronic Dance Music (EDM)
background might make it worse. She had written hits for Selena Gomez,
Iggy Azalea, and David Guetta, and even the Best Rap/Sung Grammy-
winning single The Monster by Eminem and Rihanna. In a March 2018
tweet Bebe Rexha stated, “I’m not claiming to be country. FGL and I
wrote a song that people are connecting to. Music is about pushing
boundaries. I’m proud of it.”
But, with 37 weeks (as of August 18, 2018) at the top of the Hot
Country Singles Chart it raises other questions as well. Apart from the
obvious implications to the country genre and that surely anyone who
liked it is sick of it by now, is it time for Billboard to reassess the way it
compiles the chart?
Previously it had been Florida Georgia Line’s Cruise that was setting
chart records with a 24-week run at the top in 2013. That was overtaken
by Sam Hunt’s Body Like A Back Road which bettered Cruise by ten
weeks. We’ve always known that records on the Billboard Charts move
at a glacial pace and are often astounded that a single can be on the
charts for s ix whole months let alone at the top of it. On this side of the
pond we were even sick of Everything I Do (Bryan Adams) and Love
Is All Around (Wet Wet Wet) after about four months atop the UK pop
THE HISTORY OF A HIT
W
hen it comes to Belfast’s
The Rising there’s a
clue in the name. Taking
their monicker from a 2002 Bruce
Springsteen song that was written
as a reaction to the 9-11 attacks,
The Boss is just one of a myriad
of influences that makes up the
band’s sound. Priding themselves on
‘refusing to be defined by one genre’
they have just released their latest
album, Moving On, which further
cements their diverse styles into
a country/rock hybrid. The album
might not have been well-received by
yours truly but to prove that there’s
nothing like building bridges, The
Rising’s guitar, banjo and mandolin
player Chris Logan was happy to
chat about the band’s ethos, the new
record, and the seemingly ever more
fractured UK country scene.
“It’s a shame it is the way it is,”
reflects Logan on the widening gap
between fans. “There’s an awful lot
of good music out there in terms
of the new, contemporary side of
things — the modern side of things
— and then also what I would class
as the traditional side of things. It’s
still modern, though. There’s a lot of
traditional sounding artists out there
doing their thing, the likes of Cody
Jinks…What they’re doing is great,
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you know, but me personally, I can’t
see why the two, because it’s in two
separate camps at the minute, I can’t
see why the two separate camps
can’t run together and support each
other.”
Logan even shows an
understanding of why some of those
with both feet firmly in the more
traditional camp are sometimes
angered at, not only the direction
that country music has taken in
recent years, but also how anything
capable of wearing a ‘classic country’
badge can seem as if it’s cast aside.
“I think it is a history and
education type of thing,” reckons
Logan, who along with Chantelle
McAteer (vocals) and Brian Mellors
on bass guitar make up the band.
“Your Country2Country-type
fan base, there’s probably a large
chunk of that type of people…
They’re probably only really getting
into what they hear on the radio
— your Keith Urbans, your Carrie
Underwoods, your big label, big
influencing artists — and they’re
getting into country music and
saying, ‘Oh, that’s country music. I
like that.’ But they’re not necessarily
knowing about the history of it.
“I’m not speaking for them or
anything, but you’ll probably find,
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