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Big City (Merle Haggard Album)
''Big City'' is the thirty-third studio album by American country music artist Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1981. It was his debut on the Epic label after ending his association with MCA. ''Big City'' peaked at number three on the Billboard Country Album charts and number 161 on the Pop Album charts. It was an RIAA-certified Gold album. Background After five years at MCA Records, Haggard jumped to Epic in 1982, and the move appeared to spark his creativity; he wrote or co-wrote eight of the LP's twelve tracks, including its two #1 singles, " Big City" and "My Favorite Memory." Haggard entered the studio with his band the Strangers and his mentor Lewis Talley and, in a two-day marathon recording session, produced enough songs for this release, plus Haggard’s 1982 LP, ''Going Where the Lonely Go''. Many of the songs on ''Big City'' explore the struggle of the working man amid the complexities and challenges of urban life and aging. The other single release, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Studio Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual Phonograph record#78 rpm disc developments, 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP record, long-playing (LP) records played at revolutions per minute, rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983 and was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape during the 1970s and early 1980s; the populari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Of Country Music
The Academy of Country Music (ACM) was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris Christensen. They wanted to promote country music in the western 13 states with the support of artists based on the West Coast. Artists such as Johnny Bond, Glen Campbell, Merle Haggard, Roger Miller and others influenced them. A board of directors was formed to govern the academy in 1965. History and mission The Country Music Academy (Academy of Country Music) was founded in 1964 on the west coast of USA. The Academy sought to promote country/ western music in the western states; this was in contrast to the Country Music Association, based in Nashville, Tennessee (then the center of the pop-oriented Nashville sound). During the early 1970s, the organization changed its name to the Academy of Country and Western Music and finally to the Academy of Country Music to avoid confusion about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norm Hamlet
Norm Hamlet is an American steel guitarist and a member of Merle Haggard's The Strangers band for the past 49 years.Terry Downs: ''The Strangers'', http://www.terrydownsmusic.com/Archive/strangers_article.pdf, n.d., downloaded May 6, 2012.The Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame, Inc.: ''Steel Guitar Hall of Fame'', http://www.scottysmusic.com/hofplq.htm, 2012. Hamlet was born on February 27, 1935, in Woodville, California. He began playing guitar in his teens and played throughout North Central California for a number of years with several groups, before going to Bakersfield, California, in 1965 where he became an influential part of the Bakersfield sound. He has won many awards, including induction into the Western Swing Society hall of fame in Sacramento, California, and the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. In 2005 Hamlet had quadruple heart bypass surgery and recovered well at his home in Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Nichols
Roy Ernest Nichols (October 21, 1932 – July 3, 2001) was an American country music guitarist best known as the lead guitarist for Merle Haggard's band The Strangers for more than two decades. He was known for his guitar technique, a mix of fingerpicking and pedal steel-like bends, usually played on a Fender Telecaster electric guitar. Nichols is considered one of the founders of the country music subgenre the “Bakersfield Sound”, which includes such notable country artists as Haggard, Buck Owens, and Don Rich. Biography Roy Ernest Nichols was born in Chandler, Arizona, to Bruce and Lucille Nichols, as the first born of seven children. The Nichols family moved to Fresno, California, when he was two, where they owned a camp for migrant farm workers. Sometimes a traveling gypsy band would stay at the camp and the young Nichols would hide and watch them play. His father Bruce was also a musician, playing upright bass at local dances on the weekends in the San Joaquin Vall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Simpson
Joe Cecil "Red" Simpson (March 6, 1934 – January 8, 2016) was an American country music singer and songwriter best known for his trucker -themed country songs. Biography Joe Cecil Simpson was born in 1934 in Higley, Arizona, and was raised in Bakersfield, California, the youngest of 12 children. At age 14, he wrote his first song. However, his father helped him listen to Ludwig van Beethoven. Simpson was working at the Wagon Wheel in Lamont when Fuzzy Owen saw him and arranged for Simpson to work at his Clover Club as a piano player. He then got a job replacing Buck Owens at the Blackboard Club on weekends. Simpson was influenced by Owens, Merle Haggard and Bill Woods, who asked Red if he would write a song about driving trucks. (By the time Simpson handed him four truck songs, however, Woods had stopped recording.) Simpson began writing songs with Owens in 1962, including the Top Ten hit "Gonna Have Love." In 1965, Capitol Records producer Ken Nelson was looking for someo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leona Williams
Leona Belle Helton (born January 7, 1943, in Vienna, Missouri, United States) is an American country music singer known professionally as Leona Williams. Active since 1958, Williams has been a backing musician for Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard and The Strangers. (She and Haggard were married between 1978 and 1983.) She also charted eight times on Hot Country Songs, with her only Top 40 hit being a duet with Haggard titled "The Bull and the Beaver." Biography Leona Belle Helton was born January 7, 1943, in Vienna, Missouri. Active in her family's band since childhood, she had a radio program on KWOS in Jefferson City, Missouri, when she was fifteen. Later on, she worked as a bass guitarist and backing vocalist in Loretta Lynn's road band. By 1968, Williams signed to the Hickory record label and released two singles: "Once More" and "Country Girl with Hot Pants On." In 1976, she recorded the album ''San Quentin's First Lady'' for MCA Records with The Strangers, which was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Always Get Lucky With You
"I Always Get Lucky With You" is a song written by Merle Haggard, Freddy Powers, Gary Church, and Tex Whitson. It was first recorded by Haggard on his 1981 album '' Big City'' and then covered by American country music artist George Jones in April 1983 as the second single from the album '' Shine On''. The song was Jones' ninth and final number one on the country chart as a solo artist . The single stayed at number one for one week and spent thirteen weeks on the country chart. Background Co-writer Merle Haggard recorded the song first on his 1981 hit LP '' Big City'' but did not release it as a single. According to the Stephen L. Betts ''Rolling Stone'' article "George Jones Gets 'Lucky' with Merle Haggard Song" published online on February 13, 2015, Haggard's manager, Tex Whitson, first pitched it to Jones' producer Billy Sherrill because Jones and Haggard were on the outs at the time. "I'd get mad at him over the years because of his self-damage, but everything I said t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Are The Good Times Really Over (I Wish A Buck Was Still Silver)
"Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers. It was released in May 1982 as the third single from his album '' Big City''. The song reached #2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles chart and #1 on the ''RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...'' Country Tracks chart in Canada. Content The theme of the song is the concern over irreversible moral decay. Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts References 1982 singles 1981 songs Merle Haggard songs Songs written by Merle Haggard Epic Records singles {{1981-country-song-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Favorite Memory
"My Favorite Memory" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled af ..., his twenty-fifth number-one single. It was released in September 1981 as the first single from the album '' Big City''. The single stayed at number one for one week and spent a total of ten weeks on the country chart. Charts References 1981 singles 1981 songs Merle Haggard songs Songs written by Merle Haggard Epic Records singles {{1981-country-song-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West. Christgau spent 37 years as the chief music critic and senior editor for ''The Village Voice'', during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for ''Esquire'', ''Creem'', ''Newsday'', ''Playboy'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Billboard'', NPR, ''Blender'', and ''MSN Music'', and was a visiting arts teacher at New York University. CNN senior writer Jamie Allen has called Christgau "the E. F. Hutton of the music world – when he talks, people listen." Christgau is best known for his terse, letter-graded capsule album reviews, composed in a concentrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Miller
Roger Dean Miller Sr. (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs and his chart-topping Country music, country and pop hits "King of the Road (song), King of the Road", "Dang Me", and "England Swings", all from the mid-1960s Nashville sound era. After growing up in Oklahoma and serving in the United States Army, Miller began his musical career as a songwriter in the late 1950s, writing such hits as "Billy Bayou" and "Home" for Jim Reeves and "Invitation to the Blues" for Ray Price (musician), Ray Price. He later began a recording career and reached the peak of his fame in the mid-1960s, continuing to record and tour into the 1990s, charting his final top 20 country hit "Old Friends (Willie Nelson album), Old Friends" with Price and Willie Nelson in 1982. He also wrote and performed several of the songs for the 1973 Disney animated film ''Robin Hood (1973 film), Robin Hood''. Later in his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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