A & M Country

[briancraig]

Did A & M ever have a country music division or a Nashville office? Almost every label even Motown and Stax dabbled in country at one time.

I know Hoyt Axton had two top ten country singles in 1974 on A & M, but I could not come up with any others.

 

[Harry]

Though I don't know anything about a "Nashville division" of A&M, some of the label's earliest albums had quite a country flair. The second album that A&M released was George McCurn's I'M JUST A COUNTRY BOY. The sixth and seventh albums were CANADIAN SWEETHEARTS and Lucille Starr's THE FRENCH SONG, both with quite a country feel, though Lucille's solo effort is a bit more cosmopolitan.

Waylon Jennings also did an album for A&M.

I'm pretty sure that all of these were done out of Hollywood.

Harry
...watching the snow fall in what could be the biggest of this winter's storms, online...

 

[jimac51]

And near the end,Polygram actually renamed its Polydor Nashville division to A&M Nashville in the mid-'90s. This is a blur to me,as it was eventually absorbed by the real Polygram presence in Nashville, Mercury,but Mercury was focused pushing Billy Ray Cyrus,Shania Twain,Kathy Mattea and Toby Keith so I think it became a big bowl of soup by then. An argument could also be made that the West Coast fusion of country/rock started by the Byrds had card carrying members in the Flying Burrrito Brothers,Doug Dillard & Gene Clark. Others will chime in. Mac- I gotta go-like Harry alluded to-I gotta get the shovel started for work. That @#$% Groundhog and six more weeks...!

 

[Mr Bill]

For what it's worth, ALMOSounds had a Nashville Office as well during its first two or three years of existence, handling Bekka & Billy, Gillian Welch and Billy Yates among others...

As far as A&M goes, I can only think of very early on Waylon Jennings, then Hoyt Axton and, much later, The Wagoneers as true country artists. I suppose it COULD be argued that folk acts like Flying Burrito Brothers and souther rock acts like .38 Special could be considered country, but only in the loosest of definitions.

--Mr Bill

 

[Tim Neely]

One other one I recall was the concept album The Legend of Jesse James, which came out on A&M in 1980. A single called "Wish We Were Back in Missouri" by Emmylou Harris, backed with "Riding with Jesse James" by Charlie Daniels, was issued (A&M 2290). Also, Johnny Cash's "The Death of Me" was issued from the album, with "One More Shot" on the B-side (A&M 2291)

Searching my database, these are the only artists I can find on A&M who could remotely be considered "country." Some of them were more famous in other genres, but most of them had at least one charted hit on the Billboard country charts:

Hoyt Axton
Billy Burnette
The Canadian Sweethearts
Captain and Tennille ("I'm On My Way" was a #97 country hit)
Carpenters ("Sweet Sweet Smile" was a #8 country hit)
Buzz Clifford
Rita Coolidge
Sonny Curtis
Davis Daniel (1996)
England Dan and John Ford Coley
The Flying Burrito Brothers
4 Runner (1996)
Lesley Gore
Tish Hinojosa
Waylon Jennings
Toby Keith (1996)
Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
Bill Medley
Michael Murphey
Sam Neely [no relation that I know of, by the way]
Aaron Neville
Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Jimmie Rodgers the Second
Leon Russell
Terry Stafford
Billy Swan
Russ Taff
Wagoneers
Paul Williams
Steve Young

 

[DAN BOLTON]

As an interesting aside, Herb Alpert played on at least a couple of those albums...he was featured on Kris Kristoffersen and Rita Coolidge's A SONG I'D LIKE TO SING, and did some work on Lucille Starr's THE FRENCH SONG, COLINDA and JOLIE JAQUELINE. Country may not be his "bag", but he proved that a trumpet can fit into it, and good music is good music, no matter how it might be categoried.


Dan

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Also Eggs Over Easy, a real obscure country-rock band, with the great album "Good and Cheap" from the early '70s!

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Maybe Amy Grant as well

 

[Rudy]

I suppose it COULD be argued that folk acts like Flying Burrito Brothers and souther rock acts like .38 Special could be considered country, but only in the loosest of definitions.

And those are, like you say, considered "southern rock" anyway, which by most definitions seems to be rock with a country edge to it.

 

[Tom Wallace]

Also Eggs Over Easy, a real obscure country-rock band, with the great album "Good and Cheap" from the early '70s!

Love that album! Nice to have it on CD, from Japan, of course. They certainly do twang it up a bit, but they rock out nicely too.

They've been written about as one of the founding "pub rock" bands in London in 1971 or so, which Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds, and plenty of other more obscure performers (at least in the US) came to be connected with. I believe Nick and Eggs Over Easy member Austin DeLone are buddies--Nick gives him a "love and thanks" on his latest album.

Their song "The Factory" appears on some pub rock compilation album, which was reviewed a while back on the NPR show "Fresh Air." My jaw about hit the floor when they actually played a clip of that tune in the review and talked about their claim to fame as American imports kicking off pub rock in London.

Too bad they only did the one album. I would've like to have heard more from them.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Tom,
They did make another album, but not on A&M. I may even have it- I will report if I do!

 

[Mr Bill]

As an interesting aside, Herb Alpert played on at least a couple of those albums...

And let's not forget "Angelina" from Rise -- clearly an instrumental tune with a country flare!

--Mr Bill
...add a steel guitar to ANY tune and it becomes a country tune! Shania Twain is proof of that!

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I have a CD called COME TOGETHER featuring country artists covering Beatles tunes, and one of the most interesting is a version of "HERE COMES THE SUN", featuring a steel guitar. It doesn't seem out-of-place at all, and I wonder if the Fab 4 ever thought of using one...


Dan