Jon Weisberger wrote:
> Oh, boy, a chance to talk about one of my favorite girl singers.
>
> > I love Rhonda's voice and how she sings with Ron is killer!! History
> > please?!? I have two of her CD's, Yesterday and Today and The Sally
> > Mountain Show, but I would like more of her progressive stuff.
>
> The notes to Yesterday and Today give a history of sorts, at least of the
> Sally Mountain Show. I'm assuming the CD reference is to Bound For
> Gloryland, their last album for Rebel. She did 3 solo albums for Rebel
> before that: New Dreams And Sunshine, A Dream Come True and Timeless And
> True Love. They're all outstanding, with a mix of pretty straightforward
> bluegrass (though nothing quite as hard-driving as what the Rage is doing
> these days) and country stuff, with pedal steel, piano, drums, etc.; if I
> had to rank them, I'd say New Dreams and Timeless And True are just a hair
> ahead of A Dream Come True, but just by a hair. All of them are well worth
> having.
I've got A DREAM COME TRUE, like it real well, and now I'll think harder about
looking for these others.
> Rhonda also made two contemporary country albums for BNA in 1994 and 1996.
> Written In The Stars has some great material and some good pickers, but the
> production isn't especially sympathetic, and it drags down the whole thing
> (that's not just my opinion, but hers as well). Trouble Free, the second
> one, is a dandy album unless you have a real kneejerk reaction to
> "Nashvegas." The songs are very strong, the picking is great, and the
> singing is just awesome, mostly Rhonda and her brother Darrin, who's in
> Ricky Skaggs' band. There's also a real solid duet with Randy Travis, and
> Alison Krauss and Dolly Parton both make appearances. For what it's worth,
> Trouble Free barely snuck onto the P2 Best Of 1996 list, coming in at #39
> (out of 47). It may be hard to find, but it's well worth looking for.
And I'd wondered about the more recent stuff. Dunno...<g>
> Rhonda's got a web page at http://www.nemr.net/~rhondav/ , which she's
> pretty good about keeping updated, and Julie Yocum has a page on Rhonda at
> http://www.vicon.net/~juliay/Rhonda.html .
And that page talks about her working on a new bluegrass project on Rounder.
I'll keep the site and the release in mind. Thanks Jon.
b.s.
