PAM LINTON 40
Love’s Ring of Fire
Love’s Ring of Fire – I’ll Meet You In Church
Sunday Morning – Clinging To A Saving Hand – Silver & Gold – The
French Song – Candy Kisses – Henry Sprick’s General Store – Hot Rod
Lincoln – Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor – Dixie Darlin’ – The Rosary My
Mother Gave To Me – Ivory Tower – River Of No Return – No Charge – Daisy
A Day – Loce Me Forever Today – Mama’s Blue Valley – As Long As I Live –
Christmas Shoes – Rockin’ Little Christmas
There are several really remarkable things
happening with this most welcome CD of some terrific classic and
traditional country music. One for sure is, that fans of Pam Linton
(wife of Sherwin Linton) are most grateful for a super CD done by Pam.
She has a remarkable voice, in complete control, and she’s very
independent and very creative in how she performs a song. The first
song is an incredible presentation of this kind of creativity. It’s
Johnny & June Carter Cash’s “Ring of Fire” of course, but it’s Pam’s
very distinctive creative voice, and style, that makes it a viable song
done differently, and just as good. Twenty songs on one CD is also
remarkable. Each and every one of these are incredibly well done, and
the amazing number of musicians joining her and Sherwin is also pretty
incredible. I’ll name a few, there are a whole big bunch of really good
musicians on this project, but a few include, Sonny Garrish who adds
some super steel leads, as does two other players. Tim Crouch, one of my
favorite fiddlers, provides that very Missouri-Arkansas sound to this
session, and boy does it sound great to hear the ‘fiddle’ done so
predominately well. Wow, listen to “Silver & Gold” and tell me how
Pam’s beautiful voice is absolutely enhanced with this wonderful fiddle
sound. This might very well be my favorite song on this album,
extremely well done, in that old-time traditional heart-felt way.
Following that particular song is another terrific traditional song “The
French Song” with beginning introduction by Pete Sands on accordion.
We get to hear Randy Kohrs on Dobro and banjo several times. His banjo
is just right on “Henry Sprick’s General Store.” I know Randy quite
well, I used him several times on my PBS Television Show “Old Time
Country Music that emanated from Iowa Public TV and aired in 22 states.
Lasted seven years, it is super great for me to hear Pam doing her
music the way we did it back then. Wow, am I impressed or what? THIS
music is what made country music famous, and it is THIS music that
Nashville is so sorely missing in it’s constant fading into a ‘pop’
sound which inevitably means a total departure from what we know as
‘real’ country music. Huge congratulations to Pam Linton for ‘taking a
stand’ about what country music is really all about. Her personality
shines through in a very positive manner. She doesn’t need to argue,
she just puts her music on a beautiful golden platter and lets us
listen. This very ‘classic’ country music CD needs to be in everybody’s
library, especially if you like country music the way it used to be,
the way country music was best known, the way the simple words that
expressed a lifetime of feelings was originally presented to an adoring
public. A ‘hillbilly’ Pam Linton is not. She’s a shining light of
‘class’ in a nearly barren world of ‘music for money’ that now emanates
from Nashville. The back cover sort of covers this particular project.
An autographed photo of Johnny Cash who also knew what he was doing
when he wrote “To Pam… Sing it Pretty, Johnny Cash.” Indeed she ‘sings
it pretty’ on this album. This is the best I’ve heard in my many years
of listening to ‘real’ country music. The Lintons and the Everharts
both had a super good friend in one of America’s finest traditional
music composers and performers, Jimmy Driftwood. Pam had the
opportunity to be with Jimmy a number of times, sharing stories and
music, and his song “The Rosary My Mother Gave To Me” is excellently
recorded here. This is without a doubt one of the best ‘new’ CD’s
devoted to traditional and classic country music I’ve heard in the last
five years or so. It is with extreme pleasure that I forward this
particular CD to the Rural Roots Music Commission for their appraisal
concerning their CD of the Year awards.
CD Review by Bob Everhart, President, National Traditional Country Music Association. www.music-savers.com, for Country Music News International Magazine & Radio Show