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:: Many Happy Hangovers To You ::

As I've written here before, I love Bakersfield style country music. Back in the day, many Bakersfield artists were given showcases with Capitol Records producer Ken Nelson, who churned out country records made far from the meddling influence of Nashville just down the road in Los Angeles. One of Nelson's early artists was western swing pioneer Hank Thompson, who himself could have been an A&R guy for Capitol having discovered the likes of rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson.

While touring, Thompson heard Bakersfield's Melody Ranch Girls featuring bass player Jean Shepard. A pretty lass she was, and she could sing the hell out of a good honky tonk song. So, she was offered a solo deal with Capitol and the Girls... stayed on the Ranch.

Career ups and downs occurred with more downs than ups, yet Capitol stood by her and she recorded a zillion songs on their dime. By the time this record was made, she was experimenting with other producers, and as far as I know, this was one of her first Nashville efforts with staff producer Marvin Hughes.

The liner notes say, "Even a hangover can be happy when Jean Shepard sings about it"., which misses the point, but so what? I wish you, dear reader, many happy hangovers, as I hope for myself.


Mike

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10, 2006 at 5:18 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.