Skeeter Davis vs. the Pretenders

[Partridge]

Here is a review of the Skeeter Davis LP "The Hillbilly Singer" from Creem Magazine, July 1973

[Deleted]

I like the "singing commercial for Jesus".

[Dianna]

May 25, 2022 14:45:39 GMT -5 Partridge said:

Here is a review of the Skeeter Davis LP "The Hillbilly Singer" from Creem Magazine, July 1973

Opinions are like A##hole$.

[RobGNYC]

It wasn't necessary for Creem to slam Linda in the review but Skeeter was the real thing. Her biography IS a country song.

[erik]

This sounds like the kind of LR-bashing that Dave Marsh would engage in, so....

And in any case, I believe Skeeter was one of the first (and, initially, one of the few) artists in Nashville to be a supporter of Linda when she first showed up there in 1969.

[Deleted]

Skeeter was an outspoken lady. I was a big fan of RCA artists in her era. Skeeter's duets with Bobby Bare and George Hamilton IV were very fine, like Linda a great close harmony singer.

[Partridge]

I thought Skeeter's duet version of Let's Get Together with George Hamilton IV was weak, but Linda's version was just as bad. And of the many songs she cut with Bobby Bare, I only like one.

I am probably the only person on this forum who has every Skeeter Davis album and every Linda Ronstadt album. And listening to them side by side it seems to me that Skeeter Davis, the old-timer, was more influenced by Linda Ronstadt than vice versa. Skeeter even recorded her version of "We Need a Lot More of Jesus" about a year after Linda released it. I prefer Linda's version but Skeeter's was no doubt more sincere.

So at the time The Hillbilly Singer came out, I was a fan of both Linda and Skeeter Davis, probably slightly more a Skeeter Davis fan. The album is a solid 8 out of 10. I did not like the singing commercial Try Jesus very much either. But if you look at the overall career, Skeeter Davis had several albums that were clunkers, and I will blame a lot of that on her producers. Her voice was certainly not in the same league as Linda's-- she had limited range and a little-girl voice-- but she managed to record several excellent albums that made good use of her gifts. Her version of Dolly Parton's Down From Dover surpasses the songwriter's own recording.

But at the time Skeeter's career was winding down, and Linda's was just ramping up.

Did y'all know I had a subset of my Linda Ronstadt page about Skeeter Davis? Skeeter Davis website

[Deleted]

Skeeter's "reply" album is one of my favourites, the album where she sings the girl's side to a male's lyrics, but using the same song otherwise.

"I Can't Help You (I'm Falling Too)" as reply to Hank Locklin's "Please Help Me I'm Falling" as a good example.

Skeeter's "Crazy Arms" is a little better than Linda's to me. Both girls crossed over into pop and folk. Skeeter sang James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot and others as did Linda. Did Linda ever sing a song by Ray Stevens?

[Partridge]

May 26, 2022 5:34:41 GMT -5 @heartbreaker said:

Did Linda ever sing a song by Ray Stevens?

Thankfully, she did not.

[sliderocker]

May 25, 2022 17:57:53 GMT -5 erik said:

This sounds like the kind of LR-bashing that Dave Marsh would engage in, so....

And in any case, I believe Skeeter was one of the first (and, initially, one of the few) artists in Nashville to be a supporter of Linda when she first showed up there in 1969.

I recall a Rolling Stone review of an album by Jessi Colter, Waylon's wife, now widow, and a slam against Linda and Emmylou Harris. I can't recall the quote verbatim, but it was something that began Those who think Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris are hot sh*t..., and that was as far as I got before my blood pressure exploded. I don't believe it was Dave Marsh, might have been. Might have been David Fricke too, which would be hard to fathom as he tended to be more sympathetic to the artists Rolling Stone/Dave Marsh dissed.

[Deleted]

To my mind there is as much bitchiness and back stabbing in Nashville as in Hollywood, or anywhere else pretencious. AFA the former, the Rock & Smith incident did not surprise me at all.