Artists
Album Info
Release Date: 1989Label: Polygram Music Publishing
FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLYNOT FOR SALE
THE NASHVILLE EXPLOSION
Country Music's Greatest Hits In 1986, Dwight Yoakam burst onto the country music scene with his top-ten hit, "Honky Tonk Man." A good number of the people who heard it and kept it on the charts for an impressive twenty-four weeks probably didn't know that the same song put Johnny Horton on the charts for his first time, too - exactly thirty years before. They just knew "Honky Tonk Man'" was good. Same tune. Different audience. And what a difference! From a handful of dedicated radio stations in the fifties, country music now boasts thousands of radio stations, satellite TV networks, nationally broadcast awards shows, and an international following. The catalyst for this explosion? The young, well-educated and affluent urban and suburban newcomers discovering what the rural faithfuls have known all along. Classic country tunes don't go in the museum. They go on the road, again and again. Like the selections presented here. Jim Denny could not have foreseen the impact of his famous Cedarwood Publishing when he started it in 1953. By the time Mel Tillis bought the company in 1983, the impact was legendary. Its library has produced such enduring classics as "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town," "Tobacco Road," "Long Black Veil" and "Are You Sincere" many of which have proven their cross-over appeal. They are songs that work and work hard. Take "Detroit City." Bobby Bare rode the Mel Tillis/Danny Dill song to number six in sixty-three. Since then more than seventy other artists have recorded the song, from Jerry Lee Lewis to Dolly Parton. Or "I Don't Care. " Number One for Webb Pierce in 1955. Number One for Ricky Skaggs in 1982. And you can bet the new chart-toppers like Randy Travis' "Diggin' Up Bones, and Alabama's "Fire In The Night". - will live many more lives and reach even wider audiences in the years to come. So when PolyGram International Publishing saw the chance to collect one of the largest and most impressive country catalogues around, it couldn't resist. Not just because the songs of Cedarwood Publishing (along with Mel Tillis' Sabal, Sawgrass, and Guava music companies) are such an important part of country music's past, but because they are fuel for its explosive future. The Nashville Explosion. Its fuse was lit decades ago. Its sound will spread for decades to come.
Chris Canfield
Mastered for Compact Disc by Dennis M. Drake/PolyGram Studios • Art direction by Desmond Strobel
Cover Concept by Dean Kay • Illustration by Jaime Arias • Conceived and compiled by Teresa "Tuttie" Jackson
and Buddy Cannon • Produced by Sharon Higgins - © ©1989 PolyGram International Publishing Companies