Every once in a while, I’ll rediscover an artist that I’ve liked enough to listen to extensively, but somehow worked their way out of my rotation. Hearing them again, I’ll wonder why I ever stopped listening to them in the first place!
For today’s top five, we’re asking you to share five tracks you love from one of your “forgotten favorites.”
Here’s my list for Ricky Van Shelton:
- I’ll Leave this World Loving You
- Somebody Lied
- Keep it Between the Lines
- I Meant Every Word He Said
- The Picture
I didn’t particularly care for the songs his label released to radio, but I always felt that way about Darryl Worley’s music.
1. “A Good Day to Run”
2. “Nothin’ to Lose”
3. “I Love Her, She Hates Me”
4. “Better Than I Deserve”
5. “Second Wind”
Probably since I finally acquired the remainder of her back catalog that I didn’t have ( Put Yourself In My Place, Homeward Looking Angel and Sweetheart’s Dance ) I’ve been on a real Pam Tillis kick lately. I’ve also ‘rediscovered’ RhineStoned , which I hadn’t listened to since it first came out.
Here’s the top 5 Tillis tracks that’ve been in heavy rotation as of late:
1. It’s Lonely Out There
2. Shake The Sugar Tree
3. Calico Plains
4. Something’s Burning Out
5. Train Without A Whistle
I recently started to listen to K.T. Oslin again.
1. 80’s Ladies
2. Hold Me
3. Live Close By, Visit Often
4. Cornell Crawford
5. Two Hearts
Known simply as “The Voice”
Rest in peace, Vern Gosdin:
Till the End – 1977
Set ‘Em Up Joe – 1988
Way Down Deep – 1983
Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music) – 1985
Is It Raining At Your House – 1990
(BONUS) Chiseled In Stone – 1988
He should never be forgotten.
I used to really love this indie folk/country artist named Willy Porter. I should really pull up his stuff again. My favorite songs from him were as follows:
1. “Paper Airplane”
2. “Jesus on the Grille” (this one is a must-hear, especially this live version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxRARyK49d0)
3. “Watercolor”
4. “Tilt-A-Whirl”
5. “One More September”
Johnny Rodriguez:
1. We’re Over
2. Love Put A Song in My Heart
3. I Just Can’t Get Her Out of My Mind
4. I Couldn’t Be Me Without You
5. You Always Come Back to Hurting Me
As far as ‘forgotten songs’ go, I played Deana Carter’s “Did I Shave My Legs for This?” yesterday for the first time since it first came out, when I was all of nine-years-old. Back then, I passed the track off as a novelty, but there’s so much subtle nuance in there it’s crazy.
The genus of the lyric is how Carter used humor to convey the protagonist’s struggle to remain visible in her marriage. She manipulates her appearance (buying new heels, painting her nails, getting her hair done, donning a new dress) in an effort to turn him on. He’d rather focus on the TV and beer. When she questions why she shaved her legs on top of everything else, you know the relationship is over. Carter’s biting vocal undercuts the humor to reveal the devastatingly sad song just below the surface.
“Did I Shave My Legs For This?” proves an artist could turn in a novelty song with a memorable off-beat hook and still says something. Even though those days are firmly in the rearview, I could see Miranda Lambert or Kacey Musgraves releasing a variation on it today.
(I’m also a sucker for a good ‘bored housewife” song, so there’s that, too. Give me a housewife dealing with quiet desperation, suppression of spirit, or a dead-end marriage and I’m all over it.)
I heard the song “Queen of My Double Wide Trailer” on a local station the other night so I have to go with Sammy Kershaw
1 She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful
2 Third Rate Romance
3 Vidalia
4 Tennessee Girl
5 And as much as I love the Tim McGraw version I’ve got to give it to Sammy Kershaw with his version of Better Than I Used to Be
I remember this Texan from the early 80s, and some of his Mexican-inflected hits–Johnny Duncan:
1. HELLO MEXICO (AND ADIOS BABY TO YOU)
2. ACAPULCO
3. THE LADY IN THE BLUE MERCEDES
4. STRANGER (with Janie Fricke)
5. THINKIN’ OF A RENDEZVIOUS (with Janie Fricke)
Johnny Rodriguez:
1. That’s The Way Love Goes
2. Pass Me By
3. Riding My Thumb To Mexico
4. You Always Come Back to Hurting Me
5. Eres Tu
John Conlee
1. Rose Colored Glasses
2 Doghouse
3 I Don’t Remember Loving You
4. Miss Emily’s Picture
5. Friday Night Blues
Ricky V. Shelton
1. From A Jack To A King
2, Statue of A Fool
3. Backroads
4, Crime of Passion
5. Somebody Lied
Vern Gosdin
1. Chiseled In Stone
2. Set ‘Em Up Joe
3. I Can Tell By The Way You Dance
4. Hangin’ On
5. Today My World Slipped Away
Earl Thomas Conley
1. Your Love’s On The Line
2. Holding Her And Loving You
3. Chance of Loving You
4. Angel In Disguise
5. Love Don’t Care
I’ve been on a Forester Sister kick lately! Forgot how awesome those family harmonies were. Here are my favorites!
1) Lonely Alone
2) I Fell In Love Again Last Night
3) Letter Home
4) That’s What You Do (When You’re In Love)
5) Lying In His Arms
Clint Black:
1. State of Mind
2. Burn One Down
3. Nothing But the Taillights
4. Nobody’s Home
5. Killin’ Time
Sammy Kershaw:
1. She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful
2. Haunted Heart
3. Love of My Life
4. National Working Women’s Holiday
5. He Drinks Tequila with Lorrie Morgan
Alison Krauss:
1. When You Say Nothing At All with Keith Whitley (not a true duet)
2. Whiskey Lullaby with Brad Paisley
3. Endless Highway
4. Paper Airplane
5. The Lucky One
Jason Boland & The Stragglers
1. Fences
2. Dark and Dirty Mile
3. Farmer’s Luck
4. See You When I See You
5. Telephone Romeo
Poco:
1. HEART OF THE NIGHT
2. CRAZY LOVE
3. ROSE OF CIMARRON
4. YOU BETTER THINK TWICE
5. BARBADOS
Flying Burrito Brothers (led by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman):
1. SIN CITY
2. WHEELS
3. DO YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO BE LONESOME?
4. MY UNCLE
5. JUANITA
Nicolette Larson (sadly, she passed away at age 45 in 1997):
1. LOTTA LOVE
2. RHUMBA GIRL
3. YOU’RE RUNNIN’ WILD (duet with fellow “road warrior” Linda Ronstadt)
4. WHEN YOU GET A LITTLE LONELY
5. I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU (yes, the song that was first a hit for Dusty Springfield in 1964)
Gordon Lightfoot:
1. SUNDOWN
2. THE WRECK OF THE “EDMUND FITZGERALD”
3. CAREFREE HIGHWAY
4. IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND
5. EARLY MORNING RAIN
Glad someone else remembers Johnny Duncan
1.Let Me Go (Set Me Free)
2, Fools
3, Stranger
4, Thinkin’ of A Rendezvous
5, Come A Little Bit Closer
3-5 above featured Janie Fricke
Charlie Walker
1. Please Don’t Squeeze My Sharmon
2. Pick Me Up On Your Way Down
3.Wild As A Wildcat
4. San Diego
5. Close All The Honky Tonks
Sonny James
1. Don’t Keep Me Hanging On
2. A World of Our Own
3. Here Comes Honey Again
4. Young Love
5. True Love’s A Blessing
David Houston
1. Almost Persuaded
2. Where Love Used To Live
3, Wonders of The Wine
4. Already It’s Heaven
5. I Do My Swinging At Home
Sylvia
1. Fallin’ In Love
2. Tumbleweed
3. Nobody
4. Like Nothing Ever Happened
5. Drifter
Restless Heart
1. I’ll Still Be Loving You
2. The Bluest Eyes In Texas
3. A Tender Lie
4. Dancy’s Dream
5. Long Lost Friend
Lacy J. Dalton:
1.) Crazy Blue Eyes
This has one of the best opening lines ever for a country song: “Mama, I will always love losers”
2.) 16th Avenue
A classic song about Nashville songwriters, and about pursuing your dreams
3.) Black Coffee
Succinct lyrics, a haunting melody
4.) Losing Kind of Love
5.) I’m a Survivor