William Dale Fries Jr. was an American commercial artist who won several Clio Awards for his advertising campaigns. He was also a musician and is best known for his character C. W. McCall, a truck-driving country singer that he originally created for a series of bread commercials. Fries performed as McCall in a series of outlaw albums and songs in the 1970s, in collaboration with co-worker Chip Davis who also founded Mannheim Steamroller.
Louis F. "Chip" Davis Jr. is the founder and leader of the music group Mannheim Steamroller. Davis composed the music for several C. W. McCall albums, including the hit 1975 song "Convoy". He has also written and made other albums, such as Day Parts, and has written several books.
Kim Carnes is an American singer and songwriter born and raised in Los Angeles. She began her career as a songwriter in the 1960s, writing for other artists while performing in local clubs and working as a session background singer with the famed Water Sisters. After she signed her first publishing deal with Jimmy Bowen, she released her debut album Rest on Me in 1971. Carnes' self-titled second album primarily contained self-penned songs, including her first charting single "You're a Part of Me", which reached No. 35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1975. In the following year, Carnes released Sailin', which featured "Love Comes from Unexpected Places". The song won the American Song Festival and the award for Best Composition at the Tokyo Song Festival in 1976.
Brooks & Dunn are an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, both of whom are vocalists and songwriters. The duo was founded in 1990 through the suggestion of songwriter and record producer Tim DuBois. Before their formation, both members were solo recording artists, having charted two solo singles apiece in the 1980s. Brooks also released an album for Capitol Records in 1989 and wrote hit singles for other artists.
The Great White North is a Canadian comedy album by the fictional television characters Bob and Doug McKenzie, released in 1981 by Anthem Records (ANR-1-1036) and distributed in the United States by Mercury Records (SRM-1-4034). The title is a nickname for Canada, also used as the title of a Second City Television (SCTV) sketch featuring Bob and Doug. This album's release tied in with SCTV at the height of the characters' popularity, and a still from the show is on its cover. In its sleeve is a newspaper parody called The Daily Hoser.
Danny Wayland Seals was an American musician. The younger brother of Seals and Crofts member Jim Seals, he first gained fame as one half of the soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, who charted nine singles between 1976 and 1980, including the No. 2 Billboard Hot 100 hit "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight".
"Convoy" is a 1975 novelty song performed by C. W. McCall that became a number-one song on both the country and pop charts in the US and is listed 98th among Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time. Written by McCall and Chip Davis, the song spent six weeks at number one on the country charts and one week at number one on the pop charts. The song went to number one in Canada as well, hitting the top of the RPM Top Singles Chart on January 24, 1976. "Convoy" also peaked at number two in the UK. The song capitalized on the fad for citizens band (CB) radio. The song was the inspiration for the 1978 Sam Peckinpah film Convoy, for which McCall rerecorded the song to fit the film's storyline.
Frederick Dierks Bentley is an American country music singer and songwriter. In 2003, he signed to Capitol Nashville and released his eponymous debut album. Both it and its follow-up, 2005's Modern Day Drifter, are certified Platinum in the United States, and his third album, 2006's Long Trip Alone, is certified Gold. It was followed in mid-2008 by a greatest hits package. His fourth album, Feel That Fire, was released in February 2009, and a bluegrass album, Up on the Ridge, was released on June 8, 2010. His sixth album, Home, followed in February 2012, as did a seventh one, Riser, in 2014. Bentley's eighth album, titled Black, was released in May 2016, and his ninth, The Mountain, was released in June 2018. His tenth studio album, Gravel & Gold, was released in February 2023.
The Byrds' Greatest Hits is the first greatest hits album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in August 1967 on Columbia Records. It is the top-selling album in the Byrds' catalogue and reached number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, but failed to chart in the UK.
Black Bear Road is an album by country musician C. W. McCall, released on MGM Records in 1975. It is largely considered the album which gave him the most significant boost of his career, almost entirely due to the hit novelty song, "Convoy", that hit the number one spot on both Billboard's Country charts and its Pop charts. The song itself was largely responsible for starting a nationwide citizens' band radio craze. The song "Black Bear Road" in turn popularized the now-infamous road itself, along with its "You don't HAVE to be crazy to drive this road - but it helps" sign.
Wilderness is an album by country musician C. W. McCall, a pseudonym of singer and advertising executive Bill Fries, released on Polydor Records in 1976. As its title suggests, it focuses on subjects connected with nature, the environment and humans' impact on them. "There Won't Be No Country Music ", for example, is a statement on the environment's bleak-looking future and the effects of over-commercialization bordering on propaganda. "Crispy Critters", on the other hand, is the humorous telling of a true tale involving a group of hippies riding into a town and being forced away and threatened by the mayor.
Rubber Duck is an album by country musician C. W. McCall, released on Polydor Records in 1976. It is his fourth album, released the same year as Wilderness, but concentrating on the themes the McCall character was popular for – trucking, as opposed to the various depictions of nature that could be found in Wilderness. Among others, the album contains the song "'Round the World with the Rubber Duck", a sequel to McCall's earlier wildly popular hit "Convoy", with many humorous and absurd elements added. "Audubon" is a quasi-autobiographical song, while "Ratchetjaw" is a take on trucker slang, with a multitude of CB-related terminology included in the lyrics.
Roses for Mama is the fifth album by country musician C. W. McCall, released on Polydor Records in 1977. The album saw McCall singing several songs that were written by others, as opposed to his previous albums, which were written entirely by himself and Chip Davis. In fact, only three songs were written by the McCall and Davis; these are "I Don't Know ", "The Gallopin' Goose" and "Old Glory". "The Battle of New Orleans" is a cover version of Johnny Horton's popular 1959 song.
The Real McCall: An American Storyteller is an album by country musician C. W. McCall, released on American Gramaphone in 1990 and rereleased in 1999. It features revamped digital versions of some of McCall's better known songs, including "Convoy", "Wolf Creek Pass" and "Black Bear Road", rerecorded by the artist for the album. It contains more songs than any other release by the artist, with sixteen tracks in total. It features songs from most of McCall's albums, the exceptions being his later works, C. W. McCall & Co. and Roses for Mama. One new track, "Comin' Back for More", telling the story of the infamous American cannibal Alferd Packer, was recorded for the album and serves as its opener. Songwriting on the album is credited to lyricist Bill Fries and composer Chip Davis, who together have created nearly all original songs by McCall throughout the history of the character.
American Spirit is an album released on American Gramaphone in 2003 as a collaboration between Mannheim Steamroller and country musician C. W. McCall. The album focuses on American patriotic songs, hence the title. McCall contributed to a number of spoken word songs on the album and rerecorded his 1976 hit song "Convoy" for it; this was also the case with another song of his, "Wolf Creek Pass," which can be found on the album. McCall is a persona created by Bill Fries and Manheim Steamroller leader Chip Davis; Fries provides the vocals as McCall. This was the last album to feature C. W. McCall.
The Best of C. W. McCall is a greatest hits album released by country musician C. W. McCall on the PSM label in 1997. As with all "best of" releases from McCall, the album contains the wildly popular song "Convoy", as well as eleven others. The cover is almost identical to that of McCall's second album, Black Bear Road.
Four Wheel Cowboy is a greatest hits album by country musician C. W. McCall, released in 1989 on Polydor Records. All of the songs found on it, as well as three more, can be found on a later "best of" album, The Best of C. W. McCall. The release itself takes its name from a McCall song by the same name, which is featured on the album.
C. W. McCall & Co. is country musician C. W. McCall's sixth and last album of original songs, released on Polydor Records in 1979, before McCall announced his retirement from the music industry. Out of the ten tracks, only one was written as a collaboration between McCall and Chip Davis, Fries's songwriting partner, while one other, "Silver Cloud Breakdown", was composed by Davis several years earlier and was featured in the movie Convoy, though it was not present on its soundtrack.
Music in Omaha, Nebraska, has been a diverse and important influence in the culture of the city. Long a home to jazz, blues, funk and rock, today Omaha has dozens of subgenres represented, including Latin, alternative rock and hip hop. Omaha's historical music contributions include being the home of a thriving African American music scene from the 1920s. More recently, it is home to indie rock's "Omaha Sound" and the birthplace of one of pop music's most successful producers, Terry Lewis.
"Six Days on the Road" is an American song written by Earl Green and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio songwriter Carl Montgomery, made famous by country music singer Dave Dudley. The song was initially recorded by Paul Davis and released in 1961 on the Bulletin label. In 1963, the song became a major hit when released by Dudley, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and cracking the Top 40 (#32) on the Hot 100, leading to it being hailed as the definitive celebration of the American truck driver.
