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Friday, 27 January 2012 06:23

Written by Rich Kienzle

If you read my Worst Country Albums of 2011 entry a couple weeks ago, of have come across some of my reviews of contemporary country releases in Weekend Magazine, you may have noticed that I don't flinch from discussing producers as well as artists and I've done it that way for over 35 years. The detailed story of how Nashville producers came to rule the roost is a long, complex tale that would take a lot of time to explain.  So I'll lay it out it in broad strokes and maybe return to certain aspects later.

From the earliest commercial music recordings, a record company Artists & Repertoire representative oversaw the recording process.  Artists arrived at sessions with musicians to accompany them and the songs they intended to record.  In case you're wondering there were virtually no women A&R reps, just as there are shamefully few female producers in today's Nashville.  The A&R title later became interchangeable with "producer."

These folks were facilitators who helped the artist record the music they wanted to record, overseeing the sound with an engineer and making suggestions here and there, but ceding the power to the performer.  Some would later suggest to the record company what songs to release—and not release.

In country, that was true into the 50's, despite a few underhanded shenanigans. Certain song publishers offered producers "consideration" (payola or kickbacks) if they could convince singers—especially stars--to record their songs. Still, singers remained in the driver's seat.

That's how it was—until Elvis and rock and roll blew the bejesus out of everything in 1956. Rock's rise caused country record sales, country concert attendance and radio airplay to plummet. The still-blossoming country industry in Nashville, which had only started to grow after World War II, nowhere near the size it is today, was collectively petrified.  The question: what to do?

There was no summit meeting among Nashville producers to hash out ideas, but the idea of gearing some country acts to reach to a broader swath of record buyers, including adult pop music fans not into rock, while retaining the core country audience, quickly fell into place.  To that end, producers began taking direct control of the recording process.

The formula—and that's exactly what it was—was simple: choose singers with voices that could appeal beyond country to pop fans and record them without the twang. In other words, no fiddles and steel guitars. Vocal ensembles (and a few years later, strings) would add texture and the depth the steel had provided.

The groundbreaking hits in this style were Sonny James' "Young Love" in December, 1956 and Ferlin Husky's "Gone" in early 1957, both produced by Ken Nelson at Capitol Records. The vocal group behind both singers was the Jordanaires, who'd recorded on their own and sang background even before they recorded with Elvis.

"Young Love."  It was previously recorded by its composer, Ric Cartey, and Sonny's version was covered by 50's movie star and teen heartthrob Tab Hunter.

"Gone." The female soprano was Nashville singer Millie Kirkham.

The Jordanaires were also present in 1957 when Chet Atkins recorded the Jim Reeves hit "Four Walls." 

Chet did it in 1958 with Don Gibson on his original composition "Oh Lonesome Me" with the Jordanaires. He picked the guitar solo himself, using his custom-built amp with built-in echo.  The flipside of the single was another Gibson classic that became a standard:  "I Can't Stop Loving You."

Other records were aimed at an even wider audience, including the rock crowd, like Owen Bradley's 1957 production of Brenda Lee's country and pop hit "One Step at a Time." The vocal group is the Anita Kerr Singers.  This was Brenda's first country hit. Her later Nashville recordings were pop. She didn't have another charted country single until 1969, and she had a run of big country hits into the 1980's.

Bradley did it again and that year with Bobby Helms' "My Special Angel."

Atkins achieved similar stellar results with Skeeter Davis, Don Gibson and the Browns, Bradley with Patsy Cline and others.  Her Nashville Sound breakthrough came in 1961. Note there is a steel guitar included, but it's in the background. The Jordanaires are present.

Those successes continued to mushroom as country fans kept on buying and pop fans joined in. Today, that concept is known historically as "The Nashville Sound" and Atkins and Bradley and Nelson should all share credit.  Some don't include Nelson, but mainly because he was based in LA and traveled to Nashville to produce.  All three made it happen.

Within the industry, the concept came to be known as "crossover," alluding to country records "crossing over" to pop success. Later, the term "Countrypolitan" was coined to describe the new paradigm.  The notion wasn't compatible with every singer. Hank Thompson, Little Jimmy Dickens, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash and Ray Price ignored it and thrived with harder country. Many fans decried the slicker sound as "taking the country out of country."

Even so, from that moment on, country, like the pop music that pre-dated the Beatles, became producer-driven. Producers chose songs and controlled every aspect of a recording. Atkins, Bradley and others hired an elite group of musicians known as the "A-Team," able to create fresh, often brilliant arrangements at a recording session with or without a producer's direction.

West Coast country stars like Buck Owens, who recorded in Hollywood and never liked Nashville and its music biz politics, scorned the whole notion. Didn't matter.  By the mid 60's the notion drastically expanded country's audience nationwide and worldwide.  Record sales, radio airplay and concert attendance were booming.

A few traditional singers jumped on board. String quartets began appearing on Ray Price records. Eddy Arnold, who'd long craved pop success began recording with full symphonic backing in 1964. Ray Price did the same two years later. The change alienated many of their older fans but both found broad new acceptance, performing around the country with symphony orchestras.

The problem was the whole thing eventually overreached. Nashville producers assumed the notion was one-size-fits all and could succeed with everyone.  There were exceptions. In the late 60's, as rock bands began taking control of their records, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson felt they could do better producing themselves. 

They fought and won the right and their triumphs broadened country's audience even more. Creative freedom, not drugs, long hair or blue jeans, was what the Outlaw movement was really about.  Waylon and Willie didn't always produce themselves. They had the latitude to hire a producer if they wanted to.

So...did most other country stars follow Waylon and Willie and start insisting on producing themselves? Not at all.  Most remained happy with their producers as long as the hits came though some would move from one producer to another for various reasons.  Some Nashville producers are looser and open to artists' ideas or encourage them. Others are control freaks who oversee every note sung or played, a practice started by Billy Sherrill at Epic Records in the 60's. Sherrill's production role model was another studio control freak: Phil Spector.

The "Nashville Sound" is not today's country music, but great producers remain, among them Tony Brown, Frank Rogers, Keith Stegall and Frank Liddell.  Others, like Don Cook, Buddy Cannon, Dann Huff and James Stroud, choose to hack it out factory style, focusing solely on giving radio what it wants, not showing what a singer can do (it's possible to do both). Only the Paisleys, Keiths, McBrides and Chesneys can produce or co-produce themselves.

Whether I praise or pan an album I review, the artist rarely warrants all the plaudits or the brickbats.  There's a producer in there somewhere who's earned their share.

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