SHERWIN & PAM LINTON
Highway Headin’ South
Highway Headin’ South – Spanish Two Step – Livin’ With The Mexicans – Mexican Joe – Do You Remember These – Hot Rod Race – Hot Rod Lincoln – Allis Chalmers – Love Me Forever Today – The French Song – Clinging To A Saving Hand – Heaven
Wow it’s great to hear some up-tempo old-timey simply ‘real’ country music again. Actually ‘Highway Headin’ South’ is an old Porter Wagoner song with some pretty liberal lyric adaptations by Sherwin, but it makes more sense now than it did when Porter did it. Joe Savage opens this remarkable CD with some pretty impressive jew-harp playing. This sort of sets the stage for what follows, and it’s all great old-timey ‘real’ country music. ‘The Spanish Two-Step’ was always a favorite Bob Wills song for me, and Sherwin revives it in a truly great rendition of what ‘real’ country music is all about. It was one of his favorites when he was young too, he still has his old 78rpm record of it. The Mexico that Sherwin sings about is the Mexico of old, very unlike the drug infested country it is today. Way back when, it was truly a magnificent adventure, believe me I know. Jack Gilespie is the trumpets on “Livin’ With The Mexicans” and “Mexican Joe.” For starters, the really neat sound of mariachi comes through loud and strong…..and excitingly good. The fiddle is also a very strong mariachi instrument, and Alex Nyhus puts that instrument at the top of the session. Sherwin makes it very plain in the first song that he’s no longer going to be an Eskimo in South Dakota, so he’s taking the highway headed south to the Rio Grande Valley, where he, and his wife Pam, are very popular performers and pledge to be winter Texans forever. As a matter of fact, at the recent F.A.M.E. (Famile’s Advocating Moral Entertainment) Awards in the Rio Grande Valley, Sherwin was awarded the “Legend” honor this year, and Pam was awarded “Female Vocalist of the Year.” What I like so much about Sherwin and Pam’s recording experiences is how incredibly good the final mixes are. It’s so important to make the effort in the studio (sometimes I get CD’s that completely forget this), and the Linton effort is near perfection, especially in the final mix. This was recorded at the Track Record Studios in St. Paul, Minnesota, with production chores handled more than adequately by Sherwin and Norton Lawellin. Good job well done, if country music was as it was way back when Sherwin sings about in his hot rod songs, this CD would without a doubt get tremendous radio airplay. That’s not how it works today. Today it is sort of summed up in one statement….”Money Music Hall of Fame.” Without the dollars and/or the prostitution of your talent, only a handful of artists get to share there talent with America. This CD is dedicated to Dick Moebakken who can be heard vocalizing on four of the songs. The Lintons also go to a great deal of effort to make the graphics on their CD’s stand out, and this one has interesting ‘picture-stories’ on both sides. Also lest I forget, the musicians are Sherwin and Pam’s great band, “The Cotton Kings.” A super CD, with a closing song written by Sherwin, “Heaven” with the lead line being “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his own soul?” Right on Sherwin.
Black Gold Records, P O Box 48100, Minneapolis, Minn. 55448
Bob Everhart