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WARNING: Country music nerdity alert! Well, no more than usual I suppose.. Anyway, this time it's something a little different! An unedited chat with music historian and author Scott B. Bomar ("The Bakersfield Sound", "The Byrds: 1964-1967") ahead of his latest project: "I Can Almost See Houston: The Complete Howdy Glenn" set for release on Omnivore Records on Jan. 20, 2023. Audio episode to follow, but this was a fantastic opportunity to pick the brains of Bomar who does for a living what most of us country nerds dream of. His work on the previously unknown Howdy Glenn is going to be fantastic, take a listen to the behind-the-scenes chat.

In this week's episode we're featuring the music of one of The West Coast's most popular club draws in Missouri's Gene Davis. Davis tripped over to The Golden State in '53 and his go-getter attitude, tasty guitar licks and solid country vocal saw him hired almost immediately. Establishing himself and The Gene Davis Band (later The Star Routers) as one of the most in-demand acts on the booming LA & SoCal club scene, Davis appeared alongside the area's big names on TV shows, radio and of course on stage: in no uncertain terms helping to lay the groundwork for what is now known as The Bakersfield Sound. Somewhat of a trendsetter in more ways than one, Davis' time at the legendary Palomino Club and the dazzling list of names who passed through his employ over years is testament enough to the man's musical talent and his output (though not a national hitmaker) is worthy of this week's airtime.

In this week's episode we're featuring a delightful compilation on Johnny Dollar (yes that was his real name), put out in 1982: "Down Life's Highway". Despite the vague album artwork and even more general liner notes, don't be fooled: this is a quality ten song collection of solid (mostly long forgotten) honky tonk gold. Every single song on this album was originally recorded for Chart Records between 1968-1971 (in this reviewer's opinion, Dollar's strongest career output) and there are no duds to be found. High-energy honky tonk with plenty of truck driving tunes, there's a lot of Del Reeves to Dollar's material but the latter remains a lot more obscure outside of rockabilly and hardcore country fans. Take a trip "Down Life's Highway" with Johnny Dollar and enjoy some cracking traditional country music laced with clever, catchy writing and Lloyd Green's steel guitar work.

In this week's episode we're featuring the one album release for dobro-maestro Randy Kohrs and his short-lived band The Reel Deal: "Now It's Empty" (2003). Produced by the Iowa native in his own Slack Key Studio, "Now It's Empty" was mostly recorded without overdubs using Royer, Vintage RCA and Fostex ribbon microphones to emulate a 1950s feel. With several originals fitting the mould beautifully, well-chosen covers from the George Jones catalogue, James O'Gwynn and a couple from Stonewall Jackson slide into that old school vibe nicely and Kohrs bluegrass-suited tenor lead vocal gives a strong foundation on which to lean. Production remained understated yet twangy and with steel guitar from the sensational John Hughey (still sounding magnificent even in his late 60s), "Now It's Empty" is a solid album that went under the radar at the time and is worth a re-listen.

In this week's episode we're featuring the debut album for Beaumont's George Dearborne: "Old Brown Bottle" (2020). Make no mistake though, this is not Dearborne's first rodeo. Embedded in the area music scene during the 70s and 80s, Dearborne met a teenage Mark Chesnutt when he himself was only a few years older. Years later, Dearborne and his renowned band "Branded" would become the house act at the Beaumont's legendary low-slung honky tonk Cutter's - a position held by Chesnutt only a few years prior. Nashville didn't work out for Dearborne however, and he gave music away for 22 years, picking it up again in 2016 and reforming "Branded" with new and all-star personnel. Fast making a name for himself around the Lone Star State, "Old Brown Bottle" is a welcome debut for traditional country fans who enjoy straight ahead country shuffles with a good sense of fun. The best pickers money can buy appeared on "Old Brown Bottle" and you can hear the quality with every track. Highlights are numerous: the steel guitar intro from Mike Johnson on "One More", Wes Hightower's blending with Dearborne's lead vocals on "A Fire That Just Won't Burn" and two Ray Price shuffles are obvious standouts.

In this week's episode we once again opened up the request lines to the members of our Traditional Country Tragics Facebook group for an all-request show! Requests came in from all over the USA and further afield, including cuts from Porter Wagoner, Faron Young, Slim Dusty, Daryle Singletary and plenty of curve balls. You made the playlist this week and I've got to say that you all have great taste. Cheers!

In this week's episode we're showcasing the country roots of revered Memphis-born rocker Eddie Bond: digging into Bond's back catalogue for some forgotten hard country magic and featuring a self-released LP from the 70s in tandem - "Caution: Eddie Bond Music Is Contagious". Bond's early influences were undoubtedly country and his time with The Snearly Ranch Boys before forming his own band The Stompers cemented those influences. Initially The Stompers themselves were essentially a country and western band with rockabilly overtones, taking in some legendary talent by the mid 50s including iconic steel guitarist John Hughey. But when rock 'n' roll hit Eddie Bond jumped on board, recording a slew of rockers (mostly for Mercury) between 1955-1957. Rediscovered twenty years later in the midst of the European rockabilly revival, Bond remains mostly remembered today for those rockabilly cuts but this week we're showcasing the hard country side this week of one of the few rockabillies actually born and bred in The Home Of The Blues.

In this week's episode we're featuring a Conway Twitty album taken from smack dab in the middle of his hard country years (approx. 1965-1975): "Darling, You Know I Wouldn't Lie" (1969). Turning again to his go-to hardcore country lyricist Wayne Kemp (an old running mate from his days in Oklahoma City), Twitty scored his third consecutive Top 5 hit with the cheating-themed title track. A further exploration in song of Harlan Howard's "Life Turned Her That Way" theme presents itself on "Bad Girl", promptly followed by the corresponding "Bad Man". Interesting to note both tracks written by Twitty himself, who also added a dynamite hard country shuffle to round out Side A of the album in "Table In The Corner". Even the filler from this period in Conway's career is top-notch: a cover of Tom T. Hall's "Ballad Of Forty Dollars" rips as much as the original and even though it's hard to top a George Jones vocal, the Owen Bradley/Decca arrangement and production on "When The Grass Grows Over Me" and "Window Up Above" makes for superb listening. Quality stuff!

In this week's episode we're featuring Melba Montgomery's complete Nugget Records sessions from the year 1962. Shortly after having spent almost four years touring with Roy Acuff's roadshow and marginally before being snapped up by United Artists, Melba was offered a chance to record for Lonzo & Oscar's newly-relocated Nugget Records in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. The result was ten sides which have largely been forgotten by country fans who focus instead on her duets with George Jones and UA solo material. Ten hard country nuggets (pun intended) all of which feature Shot Jackson on dobro and Buddy Emmons on steel. The two co-founders of the legendary Sho-Bud steel guitar company help push these Nugget recordings on a young, fresh and distinctive Melba Montgomery to the heights of honky tonk gold. Superb listening.

In this week's episode we're featuring a dynamite outlier from the late 60s career of Jim Ed Brown: "Bottle, Bottle" (1968). A lot of Brown's full-length albums of this era were on the slicker side and hard country gems were a little elusive. However, "Bottle, Bottle" is a full-on dive into the hard country side of the spectrum, dripping with the steel guitar of Pete Drake. Looking and sounding typically dapper, Jim Ed Brown's silky smooth vocal sounds right at home on a country shuffle (of which there are several), songs of loving and leaving and the necessary barroom laments (with a name like "Bottle, Bottle", it's expected). The likeable Arkansan cut just enough of this kind of material on this album to have this reviewer wanting to take a second look at Brown's catalogue to see what else has been missed. A-class.

In this week's episode we're focusing on Allstar Records, a part song-poem part legitimate commercial label operating between 1953-1966 in Houston, Texas. Aside from his song-sharking tendencies, Allstar's founder Daniel James Mechura no doubt had his eyes set on recording hit country music, frequently hiring above-par backing musicians to back up Allstar's roster of artists. And that roster is all the evidence you need to see that Allstar was a legitimate commercial music operation - the talent and track records from the likes of Wiley Barkdull, Jerry Jericho and Eddie Noack (all of whom recorded for Allstar) speaks to that. In fact, we've got the microscope on the sensational hard country output of Eddie Noack on Allstar this week (1962-1966): releasing ten songs with the label during that period (many self-penned), Noack continued his Texas honky tonk ways, including a stylistic nod to the super successful Buck Owens formula on several. Noack had a long and diverse career but he was sounding honky tonk ready at Allstar!

In this week's episode we're featuring an off-the-beaten-path slice of the neo-traditional era from Larry Boone: "One Way To Go" (1991). Boone's songwriting prowess was his main claim to fame, but with a solid country vocal, movie star good looks and three albums for Mercury and two for Columbia (including this one), Boone had his chances at solo stardom. It's mostly the era that's on the table this week: a time when country was country and the world wasn't so complicated (full disclosure: your host was a kid in the early 90s). Let the fiddle punctuation of Rob Hajacos, the dobro touches of Jerry Douglas and the ethereal steel guitar of Paul Franklin ease you into an enjoyable and nostalgic three hour trip back to 1991 this week with Larry Boone and "One Way To Go".

In this week's show we're featuring a later career album for longtime Opry staple and country music fixture Little Jimmy Dickens: "Country Music Hall Of Fame" (1984). The front cover indeed depicts the moment Dickens was inducted to the Hall Of Fame after four years of nominations; a plaque tucked under his arm while being greeted on stage by Barbara Mandrell and trying not to shed a tear. For a man so long in country music, Dickens was best known for his Opry appearances, razor sharp wit and for being simply a "part" of the industry. Most fans could recognise his name but Dickens' own catalogue remains overlooked. We change that this week with "Country Music Hall Of Fame": the album Porter Wagoner called Dickens' best-to-date and an appropriate slice of the 4'11" "Tater" - his versatility and sterling treatment of a good country song is on full display. From the showstopping tearjerker "Raggedy Ann" and the peppy "She'll Party At The Drop Of A Hat" to the lovelorn "Holding On To Life", Dickens' place as "part of the Opry furniture" hides a very long and fascinating career and a voice that didn't seem to age.

In this week's episode we're featuring the debut full-length album for Texan Summer Dean: "Bad Romantic" (2021). Born in Clay County, Texas and country as a dirt clod, there's been a lot of living in the three or more years between Dean's first EP "Unladylike" in 2016 and "Bad Romantic": growing comfortable in herself and her situation served as inspiration for many of the album's tracks (six of which Dean wrote or co-wrote). Seems to this reviewer that the first half of the LP could have been done in consultation with Waylon and Haggard, and Dean's Texas dancehall roots are showing on the second; Jess Meador's rising fiddle intro from "Hey Mister" recalls in no uncertain terms the very best of Johnny's Bush's material. Well chosen covers from modern day songsmiths Simon Flory and Brennen Leigh match beautifully with contributions from Leona Williams and Linda Hargrove, all tied together with Dean's vocal, wonderfully worn around the edges: honest and working class. A sterling shuffle in "Three Timin' Game" follows on from "Distracted" (dripping in co-producer Kevin Skrla's steel) and Hargrove's "Blue Jean Country Queen" seems to fit Dean like a glove. Summer Dean fills a gap in the greater roots music scene nationwide with "Bad Romantic": a lack of good ol' hardcore Texas country music, heavy on the attitude, fiddle and steel. And I'm sure glad about it.

In this week's episode we're featuring a 2002 independent album whose name says it all from Missouri's Leland Martin: "Simply Traditional". Born into an impoverished family with eight siblings in the ironically named Success, Missouri, Leland Martin learned how to pick the guitar early on and wound up working some pretty rough venues with his younger brother as teens. Following his marriage at seventeen, Martin took a job at a sawmill and later as a truck driver, picking music on the weekends and building a loyal following around the area. A brief stint as lead guitarist with Freddie Hart in the early 80s revealed that a musician's life on the road wasn't for Martin, but it took another fifteen years before his first album materialised. IGO Records took a chance on the 45-year-old in 2002 and "Simply Traditional" received enough of a response for a series of follow-up albums. "If I Had Long Legs (Like Alan Jackson)" was a fun, who's-who of 90s country (and also a minor chart hit); Wanda Vick's melancholic dobro punctuates the big-rig themed "Stone Cold Fingers" (a topic Martin knows something about); the steel-dreched wordplay of "Freddie's Hart" was enough to have Martin's one-time boss join in on duet vocals. An excellent independent album from Leland Martin warrants the spotlight this week on "Simply Traditional".

In this week's episode we've got a magnificent snapshot of the talented United Artists country roster: "A King & Two Queens" (1964). Initially conceived as a soundtrack-centric label in conjunction with it's film wing, United Artists Records later expanded to jazz and rock and roll. Furthermore, when the legendary Pappy Daily moved from Mercury/Starday to United Artists in 1962, he brought George Jones with him. Also along for the ride was the newly-signed Melba Montgomery and Judy Lynn, both fresh to UA in 1963 and 1962 respectively. Even though "A King & Two Queens" is a compilation of previously released material, pretty typical for the era, it feels slightly more cohesive in that each artist has four cuts and they rotate evenly throughout the LP. But more importantly is the quality of the material: straight ahead fiddle-and-steel honky tonk with no messing around. A snapshot of the small but mighty country roster at United Artists in 1964.

In this week's episode we're featuring a 1973 album from Porter Wagoner: "I'll Keep On Lovin' You". Porter was churning out three or four LPs a year for RCA at this point, his TV show was still as popular as ever and his duets with Dolly Parton were about near their commercial peak. The Grand Ole Opry star maintained a superb level of consistency in his traditional country output and does again here on our feature album. Buck Trent's electric banjo is front and centre on "Can You Tell Me" as is Porter's easy style of recitation (this reviewer is a sucker for those) on "Through The Eyes Of A Blind Man". And despite any working or personal differences that came after 1973, Wagoner was not too proud to use Dolly Parton's prodiguous skill as a writer on this album, cutting four from Dolly's pen including a couple of gems in "Jasper County Law" and "Talkin' To Myself". Like many Opry stars of the past, Wagoner doesn't get a whole lot of love in conversations about country music these days but as we'll discover, his back catalogue is absolutely worth exploring.

In this week's episode we're featuring the final album in Johnny Russell's six short years at RCA Records: "Here Comes Johnny Russell" (1975). A big man with a big heart and a big voice, Russell turned to songwriting in his mid-teens (mostly out of necessity) and in 1959 scored a B-side on Jim Reeves monster "He'll Have To Go". Russell's "In A Mansion Stands My Love" got the attention of Chet Atkins and it was that relationship which bore fruit many times over for the talented Mississippi entertainer. "Act Naturally" from Russell's pen proved highly lucrative when Buck Owens and a slew of others cut it in 1963 onwards, and he was soon hired to The Wilburn Brothers' Surefire Music where he worked for a number of years. Like many performers however, Russell wanted to sing - growing frustrated at his lack of opportunities he even moved back to California for a time before Atkins finally put him on RCA in 1971. Recognition in the form of several hits songs came Russell's way and his output over six years remained consistently strong. "Here Comes Johnny Russell" is an enjoyable listen and worthy of a feature this week.

In this week's episode we're traveling back to the mid-80s and remembering the two year, two album period where Reba McEntire could have staked her claim as the pre-eminent female voice of country's new traditional movement. Our feature album this week is 1985's "Have I Got A Deal For You", which continued Reba's sensational start for MCA Records (following up "My Kind Of Country" (1984)). Speaking of that period in her career in a later interview, Reba said: "I wanted steel guitar. I wanted fiddle. I didn’t want the orchestra coming in and playing on my songs. I wanted more country songs." And a move from Mercury to MCA saw that desire come to fruition - albums with well-selected songs dripping with steel guitar from Weldon Myrick and playful fiddle licks from fiddle maestro Johnny Gimble were hallmarks of Reba's material at this stage. As the new traditional movement really kicked into gear, however, McEntire's sound drifted further towards the pop charts and by the end of the decade 1985's "Have I Got A Deal For You" was ancient history. But what a history - let's explore!

In this week's episode we're cherry-picking the best hard country cuts from our twin feature albums on Roy Drusky: "Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2" [1965, 1968]. Blessed with a heckuva radio voice, when Drusky's baseball dream didn't materialise he found work as a DJ at several stations before coming to prominence as a songwriter. Hits with Faron Young and others in the late 50s eventually lead to a contract with Shelby Singleton's Mercury outfit in 1963. Seen largely as Mercury's answer to Eddy Arnold, Roy Drusky's smooth baritone fell firmly into the country crooner category; a subgenre out of favour with country fans today (a fact which might explain Drusky's relatively obscurity despite his success). However, with a keen ear for a good country song, Roy Drusky cut a number of great traditional country songs during his 60s heyday and we'll pull 'em out for ya this week!