| Son of the South | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1 May 1986 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Billy Sherrill | |||
| David Allan Coe chronology | ||||
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Son of the South is an album released by country musician David Allan Coe. It was released in 1986 on Columbia.
| Son of the South | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1 May 1986 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Billy Sherrill | |||
| David Allan Coe chronology | ||||
| ||||
Son of the South is an album released by country musician David Allan Coe. It was released in 1986 on Columbia.
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By 1986, country music entered a new phase as a crop of younger country stars like George Strait, Randy Travis, and Dwight Yoakam emerged to become a dominating presence on country radio. In the coming years, older country stars would find it more difficult to get airplay and see sales dip. Even Johnny Cash, whose name had been synonymous with country music for decades, was dropped by Columbia in 1985. Coe, who originally made a name for himself as a songwriter, composing the 1973 Tanya Tucker hit “Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)”, gained prominence as part of the 1970s outlaw country movement and steadily released albums throughout the 1980s produced by Billy Sherrill, scoring his biggest hit in 1984 when “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile” peaked at #2.
Son of the South is a summit of sorts, being the first time fellow outlaw legends Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Jessie Colter appeared on a Coe release. Coe composed “Willie, Waylon, and Me” for his 1977 album Rides Again , aligning himself with the outlaw movement (although some critics and fellow musicians viewed this as a dubious imposition), and maintained friendships with both men, despite Jennings cool treatment towards him at times. Jennings drummer Richie Albright called Coe “a great, great songwriter. A great singer. But he could not tell the truth if it was better than a lie he’d made up. Waylon didn’t make him comfortable enough to hang around. But Willie did. I was around Willie quite a bit and David Allan was with him eighty percent of the time. Willie allowed him to hang around.” [1] In his autobiography, Jennings mentions Coe once (in a chapter titled “The Outlaw Shit”), calling him “the most sincere of the bunch” [2] of bandwagon jumpers, but contends “When it came to being an Outlaw, the worst thing he ever did was double parking on Music Row.” [2] Jennings also writes:
He wrote a song called “Waylon, Willie, and Me” at the same time he started taking potshots at us in interviews, saying that Willie and Kris [Kristofferson] had sold out, that I was running around wearing white buck shoes, and none of us were really an Outlaw. He was the only Outlaw in Nashville…I saw him in Fort Worth and I put my finger right up to his chest. “You gotta knock that shit off,” I told him. “I ain’t never done anything to you.” “They just set us up,” he protested. “You know I love you, Waylon”…He could drive me crazy, but there was something about David that pulled at my heartstrings. [2]
Jennings and wife Jesse Colter join Coe on Colter's “Storms Never Last,” which incorporates a light Caribbean feel, while Jennings and Nelson contribute vocals to Coe's composition “I Hate Love.” Nelson joins Coe by himself on the mournful ballad “I’ve Already Cheated on You,” a song the pair wrote together. Another duet, “Couldn’t Do Anything Right” features Karen Brooks, one of Coe's favourite songwriters and regular duet partner. Coe only contributed one original song to his last album Unchained , but appears to have found his muse on this LP, having a hand in writing more than half the songs, including “The Country Boy (Who Rolled the Rock Away),” a tribute to Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley that reached #44 on the country singles chart, and the love song “To Help You Love Again,” a co-write with fellow songwriting maverick Shel Silverstein. Of the song "Gemini Girl" Coe later stated, "That song was about one of the weirdest relationships that I was ever in - with the gemini person. I never was able to catch onto the whole 'twin thing.' You have to understand that when they are one, they are not the other." [3] Coe also helped compose the title track, on which is heard Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts.
Coe's album covers had been provocative in the past, like the 1977 release Texas Moon , which displays Coe and his associates mooning the camera, and the 1978 release Family Album , which AllMusic Thom Jurek calls “one of the most bizarre covers in David Allan Coe's - hell, anybody's - catalog. He is dressed in a minister's black, flowing robe with an Amish hat, a little blonde girl in his lap, his two - yes, two (of three at one time) - wives standing behind him, and behind them, a black Lincoln Town Car and Coe's Silver Eagle tour bus. The album is dedicated to his two mothers - he's apparently from a Mormon family - and stipulates how difficult it is for a child to have two mothers. It's so surreal one is almost afraid to play the recording.” [4] The cover of Son of the South – Coe, sitting, holding a baby with a Confederate flag draped over his shoulders – was one more in a series of decisions that occasionally alienated Coe from the country mainstream, although Coe did print a message on the back of the album to diffuse any potential backlash:
I was born in Akron, Ohio, and I moved to the South when I was in my early twenties which made me a “yankee” rebel son. I am not against anything or any place or any nationalities. Regardless of what you’ve heard about me, there are two things I am very proud of. One of them is my son Tyler who is my first born son. And the other is my personal relationship with God. I am proud of that relationship as I am proud that my son was conceived in Nashville, Tennessee and he is truly a son of the south.
The line “Regardless of what you’ve heard about me” likely refers to Coe's reputation as a misogynist and a racist, stemming from two independently released albums of explicit material, 1978's Nothing Sacred and 1982's Underground Album , which Neil Strauss called "among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter." [5] It is not surprising, then, that the cover of Son of the South would be reinforce negative opinions about Coe. Interestingly, the first born son mentioned in Coe's message, Tyler Mahan Coe, currently is the creator of the popular podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones , which deep dives into the history of country music in the twentieth century. Tyler once toured in Coe's band before being allegedly fired.[ citation needed ]
Son of the South reached #31 on the country albums chart.
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in country music.
David Allan Coe is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville. He initially played mostly in the blues style, before transitioning to country music, becoming a major part of the 1970s outlaw country scene. His biggest hits include "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", "Longhaired Redneck", "The Ride", "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile", and "She Used to Love Me a Lot".
Johnny Paycheck was an American country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member notable for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It". He achieved his greatest success in the 1970s as a force in country music's "outlaw movement" popularized by artists Hank Williams Jr., Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, and Merle Haggard. In 1980, Paycheck appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits, though in the ensuing decade, his music career slowed due to drug, alcohol, and legal problems. He served a prison sentence in the early 1990s, and his declining health effectively ended his career in early 2000. In autographs, Paycheck signed his name "PayCheck".
Outlaw country is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of iconoclastic artists active in the 1970s and early 1980s, known collectively as the outlaw movement, who fought for and won their creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment that dictated the sound of most country music of the era. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and David Allan Coe were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
Billy Joe Shaver was an American country singer and songwriter. He was a prominent figure in progressive and outlaw country.
Good Hearted Woman is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released in 1972 on RCA Nashville.
Ladies Love Outlaws is an album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Nashville in 1972. Together with Jennings' previous album Good Hearted Woman, it marks his transition toward his Outlaw Country image and style. "Ladies Love Outlaws" coined the use of the term "Outlaw" to refer to the country music subgenre, which was developing at the time of its release.
Lonesome, On'ry and Mean is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1973. It was, after Good Hearted Woman and Ladies Love Outlaws, the third in a series of albums which were to establish Jennings as one of the most prominent representatives of the outlaw country movement. Photographer Mick Rock shot the album's cover.
This Time is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1974, at the peak of the outlaw country movement. It was produced by Jennings and Willie Nelson.
Wanted! The Outlaws is a compilation album by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser, released by RCA Records in 1976. The album consists of previously released material with four new songs. Released to capitalize on the new outlaw country movement, Wanted! The Outlaws earned its place in music history by becoming the first country album to be platinum-certified, reaching sales of one million.
Leather and Lace is a duet album by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, released on RCA Records in 1981.
Take It to the Limit is an album by Willie Nelson with Waylon Jennings, released in 1983 on Columbia Records.
Never Could Toe the Mark is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1984.
Ol' Waylon is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1977. It eventually became one of Jennings' highest-selling albums, due in no small part to the phenomenal success of the chart-topping "Luckenbach, Texas ." It was also the singer's fourth solo album in a row to reach the top of the country charts, remaining there for thirteen weeks and becoming country music's first platinum album by any single solo artist.
Black on Black is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1982.
It's Only Rock & Roll is an album by Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1983.
Paul Kennerley is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer working in the American contemporary country music industry.
Once Upon a Rhyme is the fourth studio album by American country singer David Allan Coe. It was released in 1975 on Columbia.
Rides Again is an album released by country musician David Allan Coe. It was released in 1977 on Columbia.
Human Emotions is an album released by country musician David Allan Coe. It was released in 1978 on Columbia.
