>That way of singing has been his thing since he figured it our shortly after >he began singing. He said that he knew he had a different sound when he did >that. >This is interesting. Could you point me to where he has said this? --david >cantwell There is a book called George Jones The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend by Bob Allen. It is not the best written book, Bob says so himself in the opening. (He uses many of thew same words and phrases over and over and over and......) But it has a lot of good information, and tells the whole story about George. Bob got some good stuff from George. In reference to his singing it talks about after he saw Hank Williams and Hank had so much emotion that it moved him. It says in the book (I can't believe I found this part, I feel like suck a fucking geek): "Now approaching his late teens, he (George) found that his singing voice had dropped and it was increasingly more difficult for him to sing comfortably in the high tenor range that was so often affected by his idols, Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe. He discovered that these new songs of Hank Williams's fit almost perfect into his new vocal range, almost like a hand in glove. He had also come to realize by this time that he could save consideralble wear and tear on his voice during a long night of singing in a smoke-filled bar if he occasionally backed off from his usual all-out 'full-throat' delivery and changed things up by singing, instead, with his mouth partially closed or even with his teeth slightly clinched. He discovered this allowed him to dramatically bend, twist and otherwise embellish individual notes, with all the power and precision of a woodwind player. Even more important, he found that this also enabled him to hold back the full power of a melody and let it resonate eerily in his throat, giving the impression of barely controllable emotions swirling wildly around inside him, held in fragile, temporary abeyance. When he did this, he also noticed that it not only timgled his own spine, but seemed to send cold chills though all those who listened." Amen. I guess you can tell I dig George Jones. I'm a geek. Nancy
