Canciones newspaper article 1987

[Partridge]

[fabtastique]

Wow, Trio selling 50,000 copies a day!

[MokyWI]

Albums selling 50,000 a week these days is a big seller almost. Times have changed and so have artist. You have to dig deep to find anything worth listening to and at this age I am loosing interest before I find anything.

[Dianna]

In terms with being bilingual/spanish/english, Linda sounds like she grew up a lot like I did, where one parent was fluent in spanish and english and the other parent just spoke english. It's a lot easier to grow up fluent in both languages when both parents speak spanish at home and even then it's kind of "spang-lish.. you learn to pick up on key words to make sense of it.. .. but I wonder if she had a difficult time especially since her other family members (cousins) were fluent, if they expected Linda to be fluent too.. I found that to be the case with a lot of people I have met.

[sliderocker]

Jun 14, 2012 9:35:17 GMT -5 MokyWI said:

Albums selling 50,000 a week these days is a big seller almost. Times have changed and so have artist. You have to dig deep to find anything worth listening to and at this age I am loosing interest before I find anything.

Albums selling 50,000 a week is a fairly big deal anytime but what you've got to remember is that the Billboard charts which rely on the Soundscan system don't cover every store that sells albums. There could still be a lot of sales they are missing. Before Soundscan, Billboard used to rely on something like 15,000 stores reporting album and single sales. Billboard also treated singles receiving radio airplay as sales when figuring the singles chart, which was something of a cheat as a song that potentially was a number one could've been kept from the position by a record that got more radio airplay. Cashbox magazine also relied on something like 15,000 stores reporting their sales but there was sometimes a lot of differences between the two magazine's various charts on how well a single or album was doing. But, even then, there were a lot of stores that were not reporting to either magazine, so there could've been quite a few sales that were missed. Soundscan is accurate, I think, in its reporting but again, it doesn't cover every store in the country. So, when I hear about an album that makes the Top 10 that only needed to sell 16,000 copies to make the Top 10, Soundscan sales should be considered a sampling count and not an accurate reflection of sales or who's ahead of who.

[erik]

Quote by sliderocker:

Albums selling 50,000 a week is a fairly big deal anytime but what you've got to remember is that the Billboard charts which rely on the Soundscan system don't cover every store that sells albums.

If I remember right, Billboard didn't start using Soundscan until 1991. Take from that what you will; but I do agree that Trio (or any other album) selling 50,000 copies a week is a pretty big deal.

[the Scribe]

Isn't today's music business pretty much in the toilet?

[sliderocker]

Jun 14, 2012 13:42:43 GMT -5 erik said:

If I remember right, Billboard didn't start using Soundscan until 1991. Take from that what you will; but I do agree that Trio (or any other album) selling 50,000 copies a week is a pretty big deal.

50,000 albums a week for the "Trio" album was definitely a pretty big deal but it quite easily could've been 100,000 or 200,000 or any number in between or even higher. But, when you were only using 15,000 stores reporting (in the days before Soundscam), it wasn't a question of what was missed but how much was missed? And because Soundscam isn't in every store, it's the same question: not what was missed but how much is missed?

[erik]

What made Trio such a big deal, of course, wasn't so much the fact that it was selling tens of thousands of copies a week (if not 100,000+), but the fact that we're talking about an album that was basically the most overtly traditionalist country album of its time made by anyone, let alone three of the most influential female singers of their generation, and it sold like crazy. Unless you count the Dixie Chicks' 2002 album Home or the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack from 2000, no album of that sort has really sold anywhere in that ballpark since.

[Richard W]

Ah, back in the day when people were still interested...

Although I have to grouse about the use of the word "dabble."

[sliderocker]

What made Trio such a big deal, of course, wasn't so much the fact that it was selling tens of thousands of copies a week (if not 100,000+), but the fact that we're talking about an album that was basically the most overtly traditionalist country album of its time made by anyone, let alone three of the most influential female singers of their generation, and it sold like crazy. Unless you count the Dixie Chicks' 2002 album Home or the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack from 2000, no album of that sort has really sold anywhere in that ballpark since.

Which is somewhat odd because any kind of success in the music business generally results in any number of imitators hoping to catch the same lightning. When Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Jristofferson and Waylon Jennings teamed up for "The Highwayman" and had a huge success with that song and then with a follow up album, someone decided there should be a female version and presto, you had Loretta Lynn, her sister Crystal Gayle, Skeeter Davis and Kitty Wells becoming the Highwaywomen. Only thing was the lightning didn't strike twice and the likely reason was their recording was no "Highwayman." Things might have been different if maybe if they had recorded a more modern country-oriented tune instead of what sounded to me like a way too old country recording.

[erik]

Quote by sliderocker:

When Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Jristofferson and Waylon Jennings teamed up for "The Highwayman" and had a huge success with that song and then with a follow up album, someone decided there should be a female version and presto, you had Loretta Lynn, her sister Crystal Gayle, Skeeter Davis and Kitty Wells becoming the Highwaywomen. Only thing was the lightning didn't strike twice and the likely reason was their recording was no "Highwayman." Things might have been different if maybe if they had recorded a more modern country-oriented tune instead of what sounded to me like a way too old country recording.

I think it is all about how such things are put together. If you are talking about the Highwaymen, and especially The Trio, you're talking about major-league artists who get together of their own volition to do something. It feels much more honest if it comes together organically. If, however, such an all-star teaming is a figment of someone's imagination, then there's something artificial about it from the start, and it feels like a money deal. David Geffen himself tried this in putting J.D. Souther, Chris Hillman, and Richie Furay together in 1974; and though they were able to cop a hit out of it ("Falling In Love"), the whole concept just imploded in the end because you had three different personalities forced together to try and make another Crosby, Stills, and Nash. It didn't work, and Geffen knew it didn't work; he knew that one was his fault.

With Trio, however, Dolly, Linda, and Emmy knew and agreed on what they wanted, and how they were going to do it. They had known one another for years by 1986 when they did it, and they just went full bore, even though there were certainly people who thought they were certifiable. They got away with it because they did it for themselves first, and the honesty with which they did it, combined with each of their own reputations, sealed the deal.

[sliderocker]

I think it is all about how such things are put together. If you are talking about the Highwaymen, and especially The Trio, you're talking about major-league artists who get together of their own volition to do something. It feels much more honest if it comes together organically. If, however, such an all-star teaming is a figment of someone's imagination, then there's something artificial about it from the start, and it feels like a money deal. David Geffen himself tried this in putting J.D. Souther, Chris Hillman, and Richie Furay together in 1974; and though they were able to cop a hit out of it ("Falling In Love"), the whole concept just imploded in the end because you had three different personalities forced together to try and make another Crosby, Stills, and Nash. It didn't work, and Geffen knew it didn't work; he knew that one was his fault.

Any musical entity put together artificially isn't necessarily bad just because someone else put them together rather than the individual members of the group coming together on their own. But, everyone has to be on the same page and more often than not, they're not. You have the same scenarios in the put-together-by-another group as you do in the groups that come together organically: someone becomes the breakout hitmaker, writes all the hit songs, developes a big ego or they're insecure and feel they're being overlooked by the rest of the band, the management and the record company.

When a put together musical act doesn't work, it's probably because of the personalities, the egos. With the "Highwaywomen," I'm not sure why it didn't work as I don't think the ladies were known for having especially huge egos. Perhaps what doomed their record was in the record company blatantly marketing them as the Highwaywomen instead of finding some other group name to market them as. But, when it comes to a group put together by artificial means or coming together together organically, I don't think that matters to the majority of the public which way a group came together.


With Trio, however, Dolly, Linda, and Emmy knew and agreed on what they wanted, and how they were going to do it. They had known one another for years by 1986 when they did it, and they just went full bore, even though there were certainly people who thought they were certifiable. They got away with it because they did it for themselves first, and the honesty with which they did it, combined with each of their own reputations, sealed the deal.

And it couldn't have been done by anyone else in quite the same fashion and probably not with the same kind of success. What's surprising was that the record company didn't try to steer them towards a more modern sounding recording once they realized there was no stopping them. Or put the pressure on them to record a certain number of hits. Record companies were pretty notorious in the 70s and 80s for demanding three or four of the songs on an album have the potential to be hits. And to that end, there was always pressure to use certain hit songwriters as a guarantee if there were no hit songwriters in a group or a solo performer wasn't a hit songwriter.

[erik]

Quote by sliderocker re. Trio:

What's surprising was that the record company didn't try to steer them towards a more modern sounding recording once they realized there was no stopping them. Or put the pressure on them to record a certain number of hits. Record companies were pretty notorious in the 70s and 80s for demanding three or four of the songs on an album have the potential to be hits. And to that end, there was always pressure to use certain hit songwriters as a guarantee if there were no hit songwriters in a group or a solo performer wasn't a hit songwriter.

In what I thought was a very wise move on their part, I think Warners, which was the label that put out Trio, probably figured that their names would sell the album, so they didn't put pressure to change. And the album still spawned four Top 10 C&W hit singles, including "Telling Me Lies", where Linda sang lead.

[Partridge]

I'm quite a big fan of both Loretta Lynn and Skeeter Davis- but I never even heard of the Highwaywomen so they must not have been too serious about this project.

[sliderocker]

Jun 16, 2012 14:22:00 GMT -5 Partridge said:

I'm quite a big fan of both Loretta Lynn and Skeeter Davis- but I never even heard of the Highwaywomen so they must not have been too serious about this project.

It was not too long after Willie, Kris, Waylon and Johnny had a hit with the "Highwayman" song - maybe a year or so that Loretta, Skeeter, Crystal and Kitty teamed up in an effort to be the so called female equivalent. There was a music video which I remember seeing one night on TV, and seeing them billed as the Highwaywomen. I've always been a fan of Skeeter's - who was as much pop as she was country. And more a fan of Crystal's back in the day than her older sister Loretta. The song they had was not especially memorable - certainly not one that would've attracted any pop music interest. Not sure why the country market passed them by unless the powers that be in charge of radio programming deemed them to be too old. Kitty Wells was in her 60s, maybe 70s while Loretta and Skeeter were in their early 50s and Crystal, the baby of the bunch, was in her 30s or 40s. Then again, it might have been that lousy song.

[the Scribe]

This remains my favorite Loretta Lynn song:

[Richard W]

I am seeing Loretta Lynn live this Sunday.

If I get a chance, I'll ask her about "Highwaywomen"!

And didn't Lynn trio-up with Parton and Wynette for an album?

[sliderocker]

Jun 18, 2012 8:10:36 GMT -5 Richard W said:

I am seeing Loretta Lynn live this Sunday.

If I get a chance, I'll ask her about "Highwaywomen"!

And didn't Lynn trio-up with Parton and Wynette for an album?

She teamed with Parton and Wynette in '93, along with Kitty Wells on a remake of Wells's hit, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." I tried to find the video of the 'Highwaywomen' song on youtube, figuring like everything else, someone would have it up on there but it wasn't there. Curiously, I can't find a mention of the song on any of the online discography entries I've seen for Lynn and Davis, so it makes me wonder if the video I saw came from a tv appearance with never an official record release? Also, somewhat interesting is the fact that on Loretta's official web page, on her discography section, it directs you to wikipedia, which while a good source of information, isn't all that good with accuracy sometimes.