#34
Jean Shepard
The Grand Lady of the Grand Ole Opry.
Jean Shepard has been entertaining fans of classic country music for fifty years with her honky-tonk stylings and brass delivery. At her peak, she was the one of the strongest female forces in country music, a salty counterpoint to the timid balladeers and lush pop divas she shared the charts with.
She was originally from Oklahoma, but her family moved out west when she was a child, settling in California. She got her musical start in Bakersfield, forming The Melody Ranch Girls. The band developed a strong local following. One night, Hank Thompson caught one of their performances and was blown away. Through him, Shepard secured a record deal with Capitol. She was still a teenager when she signed with the label.
On record, Shepard turned in a honky-tonk sound that rivaled the grit of all of her male contemporaries. She had her breakthrough in 1953 with “A Dear John Letter”, a duet with Ferlin Husky that topped the charts. She followed it up with two big solo hits in 1955, “Beautiful Lies” and “A Satisfied Mind”, the latter of which was also a big hit for Porter Wagoner.
She was a part of Red Foley’s Ozark Jubilee from 1955 to 1957, and she joined Minnie Pearl and Kitty Wells as one of the few female Grand Ole Opry members when she was inducted in 1956. The Opry became the foundation of her career, a place where she was a superstar even when radio’s fickle pendulum swung too far in the pop direction. As the sweet sounds of Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves came into favor, Shepard’s recording career faltered, and she dealt with personal heartache in 1963, when a plane crash claimed the life of her husband of three years, Hawkshaw Hawkins, along with Cline and Cowboy Copas.
As she dealt with the tragedy, Shepard turned her attention back to the music that was always her source of strength. She had a big comeback in 1964 with “Second Fiddle (To an Old Guitar)”, and she became a regular on the radio again throughout the sixties and early seventies. She found great success with Ray Pillow as her duet partner, including the big hit “I’ll Take the Dog” in 1966. She played up the honky-tonk image flawlessly, with songs like “Many Happy Hangovers For You”, and showed herself to be quite the balladeer with “Another Lonely Night.”
After two decades on Capitol, Shepard switched to United Artists in 1973. Her first single for the label, the Bill Anderson-penned “Slippin’ Away”, was her biggest solo hit since the fifties. She had five productive years with UA, keeping her a presence on the charts until the late seventies. During that period, she created a bit of controversy when she served as president of the Association of Country Entertainers, formed in response to Olivia Newton-John’s CMA Female Vocalist win in 1974. Of course, she was the perfect fit for an organization dedicated to keeping country music pure, as she was a more staunch traditionalist than any of her female contemporaries.
The nature of the music business being what it is, that purity made Shepard more difficult to market, and she ceased recording for a very long time. Her presence remained, however, and she came to be known as the Grand Lady of the Grand Ole Opry. Now a member for 53 years, she is currently the longest-running female cast member, and historically speaking, trails only Minnie Pearl’s 56-year run among all female cast members in history. Her work has also been reissued thoroughly by Bear Family Records, preserving her honky-tonk classics for future generations.
Jean Shepard
Essential Singles
- “A Dear John Letter” (with Ferlin Husky), 1953
- “Beautiful Lies”, 1955
- “A Satisfied Mind”, 1955
- “Second Fiddle (To an Old Guitar), 1964
- “Slippin’ Away”, 1973
Essential Albums
- Songs of a Love Affair, 1956
- Many Happy Hangovers, 1966
- Slippin’ Away, 1973
Kevin – you have Ms Shepard rated much too low – I would put her in the top ten among female performers. While Kitty Wells was the first really sustained big star among the women, Kitty quickly got away from the feisty into the more conventional “girl” songs. Jean Shepard was the Ur-Loretta Lynn, tackling topics and displaying attitude that none of other women of the 1950s dared try.
Her 1956 album SONGS OF A LOVE AFFAIR is arguably the first “themed” album in country music history. As a vocalist she had a powerful voice that few others could match. She was a terrific yodeler and a great stage entertainer. Time (55+ years since her start in the business) has cost her some of her vocal power but I saw her two years ago and she still is an effective singer and stage presence.
There are many among the 70+ set who consider her the greatest female country vocalist ever and the British music critics such as Pat Campbell, Bob Powell and David Allen held her in similar high record. While I don’t regard her quite that highly, she was a force of nature during her day.
Paul W Dennis,
I couldn’t agree more.
I don’t understand why Jean Shepard doesn’t get more respect, and airplay. I’ve been a Sirius subscriber for 18 months, and I have not heard even one song by Jean Shepard on their Roadhouse (classic country) channel. Of course, they don’t give a lot of attention to female artists. They will play songs that never charted by Willie Nelson, bottom of the chart hits by most male artists, and you don’t even hear Top Ten songs by Jean Shepard and Skeeter Davis.
Just say Jean at the Grand Ole Opera last week. She was great if her voice has lost anything I can’t imagine what she was like at her peak. What a performer and lovely lady.
If you have time go to you tube and type in jean shepard’s slippin away performance on hee haw. she really blew me away with that one. Great artist. and i might add she has stood up for classic country over the years and makes us proud
Jean Shepard will rise in the polls over the next years, just like former presidents. Depending on the direction of Country Music,(Which to me is not Country at all anymore)I think if pop-country was not so popular now, you would see Barbra Mandrell much lower-despite her industry awards- and see Mrs. Shepard much higher.