>
> However, I must say that in Atkins' defense (as if he needed it- he's a
> giant) that in the instances where the addition of pop elements would
> have been jarring, he didn't do it (like for Charley Pride and Johhny
> Bush.) (I still maintain that those Bare records were not jarring when
> we heard them for the first time- they fit perfectly with the era.
> Objecting to the Anita Kerr singers just would have seemed silly in the
> 60s.) He didn't just run from studio to studio cramming strings and
> singers onto country records, he used good sense to try to slick up what
> could be slicked up and left the rest alone.
>
That was Joe. Yeah, notwithstanding my grumping about Chet the Producer, I
have tremendous respect for the man. I still have my "Superpickers" LP, too!
And are those suburban singers really the anita kerr singers? Sheesh. One
more thing, people today hear things differently, have different attitudes
about production, so, I'm curious, was Atkins slick production really the
"normal" way folks expected to hear country tunes produced in the 60s? I
just have to think that it still bothered a lot of folks back then. Of
course, I'm just guessing. -- Terry Smith
ps I just got a press release from a publicist for Atlantic Records' "Old
Dogs" session, a record with Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed, Shel
Silverstein and Mel Tillis that was originally sold via telemarketing. It
really stresses their outlaw status. Check this out:
"Unlike the glossy 'flatbellies' or more homogenized icons of today, these
country music trailblazers were the discontented and brilliantly
expressive Marlon Brandos and James Deans of country music. If they
couldn't have done it their way, they wouldn't have done it at all....
Included in their touring legends is the template for many of the 'bad
boy' bands that came after them..."
PR BS
