Leona Williams - Yes, M’am, He Found Me In A Honky Tonk
Bear Family BCD 17246 CP
Leona Williams is one of those artists whose material never quite matched her talent or potential. From her recording debut in 1968 for Hickory Records, she has been signed to RCA, MCA, Elektra, Mercury and has also self-released recordings, but her sole top ten hit in a five-decade career came with a duet with then-husband Merle Haggard of The Bull And The Beaver in 1978. In reality, that was a hit because it was promoted as a Merle Haggard record, rather than Leona’s.
One of 12 children, she was born Leona Belle Helton in Vienna, Missouri in 1943. Having picked up the mandolin and guitar whilst quite young, she landed her own regular radio show when she was 15, but an ill-fated marriage in 1959 and the birth of her daughter, meant that Leona dropped out of her singing career. Linking up with budding amateur country singer Ron Williams—and eventual marriage in 1961—led to her resuming her musical ambitions. In the mid-1960s Leona and Ron were invited to join Loretta Lynn’s band. A move to Nashville followed and soon Leona found success as a songwriter. In January 1968 she made her recording debut, cutting four songs at the Nugget Studio. This led to Wesley Rose signing Leona to Hickory Records, which is where this 3-CD retrospective set opens.
Those four songs open the first CD in a compilation that collects Leona’s recordings made for Hickory, RCA and MCA, including several previously unissued tracks. These include a complete album produced by Tompall Glaser in 1986 that MCA rejected. In the press release and in the excellent 48pp booklet that comes with this package, much is made of Leona’s standing within country music circles. She is obviously highly-regarded by fellow artists George Jones, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker and Rhonda Vincent as one the greatest female country singers of her time. Having a couple of Leona’s 1970s vinyl albums in my collection and having lived with this set for a couple of weeks I’m not quite as enthusiastic. She is a good, second-division ‘traditional-sounding’ country singer, but she is not quite in the same league as say Connie Smith, Melba Montgomery or Jean Shepard. There are glimpses of what might have been, notably with Glenn Barber’s Yes, Ma’m (He Found Me In A Honky Tonk), a superb 1970 single that sunk without trace and a great version of Conways Twitty’s Since I’m Not With The One I Love (I’ll Love The One I’m With), the kind of hard country song she excelled at. Then there’s It’s Tearing This Ole Heart Right Out Of Me, a song she co-wrote with hubby Ron, and Everybody Loves Me But You, an early Eddy Raven song. Both were recorded for Hickory in 1973, but for some inexplicable reason remained unreleased until now. Her voice is right on the money and the musical arrangement featuring such heavyweights as Buddy Spicher (fiddle), Grady Martin (guitar), Hal Rugg (steel guitar) and ‘Pig’ Robbins (piano). This was her last session for Hickory and the following year she moved across for a brief period with RCA that saw the release of a couple of over-produced singles.
This was the period of countrypolitan, when pop-country female singers like Lynn Anderson, Marie Osmond and Olivia Newton-John were dominating the country charts. Sadly, a singer like Leona Williams was out of step with what country radio was playing. Her most successful singles were 1969’s Once More which reached a high of number 66, the rather twee Country Girl With Hot Pants On which fared slightly better in 1971 and Your Shoeshine Girl which reached number 93 in 1973. Even the move to MCA in 1975 and working in the studio with then-third husband Merle Haggard failed to improve her commercial standing, despite fine renditions of several Haggard songs and her own self-penned Mama, I’ve Got To Go To Memphis and the Cajun-flavoured Catching Crawfish. Unfortunately there’s material like The Baby Song, recorded in Nashville with full strings, that was totally unsuitable for Leona’s country voice.
The Tompall Glaser recordings, though, are excellent with an uncluttered production that allowed that voice to breathe with sympathetic accompaniment provided by Doyle Grisham’s pedal steel, Dave Kirby’s tasteful lead guitar, Dave Pomeroy’s subtle bass, Richie Simpson’s drums and the always-reliable Hargus ‘Pig’ Robbins with his inventive piano playing. Nothing more was needed, and the songs, many of which she co-wrote, she totally inhabited putting across the real Leona Williams. What a pity we’ve had to wait more than 25 years for these well-recorded tracks to finally see the light of day.
www.bear-family.de
Leona Williams is one of those artists whose material never quite matched her talent or potential. From her recording debut in 1968 for Hickory Records, she has been signed to RCA, MCA, Elektra, Mercury and has also self-released recordings, but her sole top ten hit in a five-decade career came with a duet with then-husband Merle Haggard of The Bull And The Beaver in 1978. In reality, that was a hit because it was promoted as a Merle Haggard record, rather than Leona’s.One of 12 children, she was born Leona Belle Helton in Vienna, Missouri in 1943. Having picked up the mandolin and guitar whilst quite young, she landed her own regular radio show when she was 15, but an ill-fated marriage in 1959 and the birth of her daughter, meant that Leona dropped out of her singing career. Linking up with budding amateur country singer Ron Williams—and eventual marriage in 1961—led to her resuming her musical ambitions. In the mid-1960s Leona and Ron were invited to join Loretta Lynn’s band. A move to Nashville followed and soon Leona found success as a songwriter. In January 1968 she made her recording debut, cutting four songs at the Nugget Studio. This led to Wesley Rose signing Leona to Hickory Records, which is where this 3-CD retrospective set opens.
Those four songs open the first CD in a compilation that collects Leona’s recordings made for Hickory, RCA and MCA, including several previously unissued tracks. These include a complete album produced by Tompall Glaser in 1986 that MCA rejected. In the press release and in the excellent 48pp booklet that comes with this package, much is made of Leona’s standing within country music circles. She is obviously highly-regarded by fellow artists George Jones, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker and Rhonda Vincent as one the greatest female country singers of her time. Having a couple of Leona’s 1970s vinyl albums in my collection and having lived with this set for a couple of weeks I’m not quite as enthusiastic. She is a good, second-division ‘traditional-sounding’ country singer, but she is not quite in the same league as say Connie Smith, Melba Montgomery or Jean Shepard. There are glimpses of what might have been, notably with Glenn Barber’s Yes, Ma’m (He Found Me In A Honky Tonk), a superb 1970 single that sunk without trace and a great version of Conways Twitty’s Since I’m Not With The One I Love (I’ll Love The One I’m With), the kind of hard country song she excelled at. Then there’s It’s Tearing This Ole Heart Right Out Of Me, a song she co-wrote with hubby Ron, and Everybody Loves Me But You, an early Eddy Raven song. Both were recorded for Hickory in 1973, but for some inexplicable reason remained unreleased until now. Her voice is right on the money and the musical arrangement featuring such heavyweights as Buddy Spicher (fiddle), Grady Martin (guitar), Hal Rugg (steel guitar) and ‘Pig’ Robbins (piano). This was her last session for Hickory and the following year she moved across for a brief period with RCA that saw the release of a couple of over-produced singles.
This was the period of countrypolitan, when pop-country female singers like Lynn Anderson, Marie Osmond and Olivia Newton-John were dominating the country charts. Sadly, a singer like Leona Williams was out of step with what country radio was playing. Her most successful singles were 1969’s Once More which reached a high of number 66, the rather twee Country Girl With Hot Pants On which fared slightly better in 1971 and Your Shoeshine Girl which reached number 93 in 1973. Even the move to MCA in 1975 and working in the studio with then-third husband Merle Haggard failed to improve her commercial standing, despite fine renditions of several Haggard songs and her own self-penned Mama, I’ve Got To Go To Memphis and the Cajun-flavoured Catching Crawfish. Unfortunately there’s material like The Baby Song, recorded in Nashville with full strings, that was totally unsuitable for Leona’s country voice.
The Tompall Glaser recordings, though, are excellent with an uncluttered production that allowed that voice to breathe with sympathetic accompaniment provided by Doyle Grisham’s pedal steel, Dave Kirby’s tasteful lead guitar, Dave Pomeroy’s subtle bass, Richie Simpson’s drums and the always-reliable Hargus ‘Pig’ Robbins with his inventive piano playing. Nothing more was needed, and the songs, many of which she co-wrote, she totally inhabited putting across the real Leona Williams. What a pity we’ve had to wait more than 25 years for these well-recorded tracks to finally see the light of day.
www.bear-family.de