Listen "Mel Tillis - Love Revival"
Episode Synopsis
In this week's episode we're featuring yet another sterling album from Mel Tillis: "Love Revival" (1976). After a stint in the US Air Force and moving from his native Florida to Nashville in the mid 50s, Tillis struck paydirt as a songwriter relatively quickly. Hits with good friend Webb Pierce, Carl Smith and Brenda Lee helped him earn a recording contract with Columbia and later Kapp Records, but solo success didn't really happen until the 70s. Seemingly one of the many overlooked figures on classic country radio today, Tillis' catalogue is absolutely chock-full of solid country gold. "Love Revival" is one such album - packed with fiddle and steel and a good dose of country shuffles. "Good Woman Blues" was the big hit, but dig past it and there is a lot to like. The intertwining fiddle and steel intro on "I Order One For Me" is simply addictive; included is an excellent cover of Hank Thompson's "The New Green Light"; the excellent shuffler "My Only Strange Love" deals with a husband and wife grown apart and "Gator Bar" is a typically self-deprecating slice of Tillis humour. An easily overlooked sterling album release from front to back.
More episodes of the podcast If That Ain't Country
Box o' 45s: Rem Wall & The Green Valley Boys
16/08/2024
Ep. 602 - Hugh X. Lewis - Country Fever
02/06/2024
Ray Pillow - Even When It's Bad It's Good!
05/04/2024
Sean Burns - Lost Country
23/02/2024
Red's Country Ladies
19/01/2024
Pat Patterson - Most Requested Country Songs
21/10/2023
Stoney Edwards - Land Of The Giants
08/09/2023
Sonny Burns: 1959-1968
21/07/2023
The Derailers - Full Western Dress
09/06/2023
The Whites - Whole New World
27/04/2023
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.