NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (October 17, 2014) – It was the album that Nashville – or the
music industry as a whole – didn’t quite know what to do with. But, the
fans quickly figured it out. On October 17, 1989 – twenty-five years ago
today – Mercury Records released the album Pickin’ On Nashville, the debut disc from The Kentucky Headhunters.
The band originated in 1968 and was comprised of Richard and Fred
Young, along with cousins Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney. They didn’t
look or sound like any other groups in the business, they were more
comfortable in t-shirts and jeans than your typical stage attire – and
their sound was a hybrid of Country, Southern Rock, and Blues.
Growing up in Edmonton, KY on a family farm, the band had played
together for over twenty years prior to their big break. That time
period included a couple of brushes with the spotlight. Under the name
Itchy Brother (Richard Young recalls the name came from a scraggly lion
from the cartoon Bongo Congo), the group were groomed
by Capricorn Records in the 1970s, and almost signed with Led Zeppelin’s
Swan Song Records in the early 1980s. However, the third crack at the
big time proved to be the charm.
With a lineup that now included bass player and vocalist Doug Phelps,
and his brother, Ricky Lee, the die was firmly cast for stardom. Having
created a buzz with their live appearances in the Southern Kentucky
area, as well as “The Chitlin’ Show,” their popular radio show at WLOC
in Munfordville, by 1988, the Headhunters were ready to take their sound
nationwide. Encouraged by their fans and friends like Tom Long, Larry
Shell, and manager (and former Swan Song exec) Mitchell Fox, the boys
agreed to roll the dice and take their music to Nashville.
Richard Young remembers their showcase in Nashville. “As soon as I
hit those first chords of ‘Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine,’ it looked
like someone yelled “’There’s a bomb in here!’ With the exception of
the bartender, waitress and a few friends, we cleared Douglas Corner.
One man was left standing, Harold Shedd, then president of Mercury
Records. He came up, took one of our homemade albums and left. The next
day he called and said, ‘Boys, we may be cooking hamburgers next year,
but I gotta try this.”
Shedd’s gamble proved to be right on the money. “Walk Softly On This
Heart Of Mine,” the Bill Monroe classic was released as the first
single, hitting the Billboard Country Singles chart on September 30,
1989. Radio didn’t know what hit them, as the group watched the single
move up the charts. Though the single only made it to No. 25 on the
charts, Stan Hitchcock at CMT was paying attention, and the video spread
the music of the Kentucky Headhunters around the nation like wildfire.
Pickin’ On Nashville included three more singles, “Dumas
Walker,” “Rock and Roll Angel,” and their top-ten cover of Don Gibson’s
“Oh Lonesome Me.” When the dust settled, the disc sold well over two
million copies, and was named as the 1990 Album of the Year by the
Country Music Association – not bad, when considering the group recorded
the album in three days for only $4500 – an unheard of amount of time
and money then and now. The success of the album also led to
back-to-back wins for Vocal Group of the Year from the CMA in 1990 and
1991. They also won the Academy of Country Music trophy for Vocal Group
of the Year, an American Music Award, and the most coveted award in all
of music – a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group
with Vocal for the album. Their fan base would also include some of the
biggest artists of all time, such as ZZ Top. Young recalls a
conversation he once had with the architects of Rock & Roll, Carl
Perkins. “You know Carl, I was beginning to think we would never get an
album out,” he told the man behind “Blue Suede Shoes.” To which
Perkins replied, “Yeah buddy, but when ya’ll came out, you came out
sideways!” Truer words were never spoken.
All of these years later, the success keeps coming for the Kentucky
Headhunters. Never one to be pigeon-holed in any one specific genre, the
group continues to tour and record to this day. All in all, they have
released thirteen albums, including their self-titled disc this year.
They also continue to play to packed houses both here in the United
States and abroad.