Alabama's All-American Soundtrack

Alabama's All-American Soundtrack

By Deborah Evans Price

Few artists have created a more consistent soundtrack for the lives of America's Country Music fans than Alabama. From working class anthems including "Forty Hour Week (For A Livin')" to smoldering love songs such as "Feels So Right" to the celebration of Southern life in "Dixieland Delight," Alabama's catalog of hits has reflected Country life and values.

Alabama's musical legacy is celebrated on Livin' Lovin' Rockin' Rollin,' a three-CD box set that includes 51 songs, including eight previously unreleased tracks. Among those tracks are live performances, alternate versions of classic hits and an acoustic demo that lead singer Randy Owen recorded in 1973. The set also features a 52-page booklet, which includes a chronological timeline, rare photos, and liner notes written by Nashville journalist/historian Robert K. Oermann.

One of Owen's favorite tracks on the album is a medley that features "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine," "Suppertime," "Teach Your Children" and "Don't it Make You Want to Go Home," recorded at a Georgia music park in 1982.

"That was the only time in my memory that we sat down with acoustic guitars and played those songs that way, and it was actually on tape," Owen said. "I didn't want to mess with it. It was just pretty raw and to the point. Rather than making a big production out of it, we did the best we could with it so we didn't lose the authenticity of the moment. It was a unique find."

The box set also includes live performances of "My Home's in Alabama," "If You're Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)," "Tennessee River," "Vacation" and "Gonna Have a Party," among others. Owen is particularly pleased with the live tracks and the glimpse into Alabama's history they provide.

"I wanted kids to hear what Alabama sounded like in concert," he said of young fans that weren't around to hear the band in its heyday. "Some of those tracks were taken straight out of the board."

Another rare track is a demo recorded by Owen in 1973. "Ripperly O'Tucke" is based on a man in Owen's hometown.

"They told me they wanted to hear something that nobody had heard before," Owen said of the label's request for rare cuts. "So I went back and found something I recorded a long time ago, just me and my guitar. It was about an old guy I knew. He was a character. The word was - when I was a little kid - that his wife left him. I remember people talking."

Livin' Lovin' Rockin' Rollin' spotlights the music that has made Alabama more than the name of a Southern state. Owen, Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry and Mark Herndon have come a long way, traveling many roads from their Fort Payne, Ala., home to their days as a Myrtle Beach, S.C., bar band to their arena-filling years touring the country for more than two decades. Life on the road came to an end for the band when they performed the last show of their American Farewell Tour in Bismarck, N.D., on Oct. 16, 2004.

"We wanted to go out and do good shows, and we did that," Owen said. When asked was it hard to walk off the stage that final time? "No, I was so ready to," he admitted. "I didn't sleep until the next morning because I was so excited to not have that load on my shoulders. I told myself, when I get through this, I'm taking a year off. I don't care what kind of money is offered, I'm not going to do anything."

Owen spent the year relaxing, enjoying his family and pursuing things he never had time for during all those years on the road. Now, however, he's ready to re-enter the music business at his own pace. "We never said we were retired," he said.

In fact, he's been pretty busy writing and recording demos of new songs. He recently recorded a tune with RCA newcomer Jake Owen and contributed a song to the recently released She Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool: A Tribute to Barbara Mandrell on BNA Records. Owen was pleased to record Mandrell's hit "Years," because the song has always reminded him of his mother.

"My father passed away in 1980, and she never remarried," Owen said. "She said she never saw anyone as good looking as he was. She had the best and she didn't want to settle for the rest of her life with second best. It was such an emotional song for me to do. I know it isn't really about that, but that's the way it hung on my heart."

Owen begins gently singing the lyric. "'Years of hanging onto dreams already one, years of wishing you were here. After all this time you think I wouldn't cry, but I still love you after all these years.'

"It's such a simple song, but those are the best kind. I played the rough for my wife Kelly and she said, 'Wow, let's get out and dance here on the dirt road.' We were riding around on one of these old dirt roads and she said, 'You know if there was ever a man who made love to a microphone, you do.' That's a compliment coming from her because she's heard every demo, every song, everything I've done for a long time."

Next on Owen's agenda is Songs of Inspiration, a gospel album with his Alabama pals that was released on Oct. 24. Relating compelling stories through music is something Alabama has always done, and it's a talent that provided a vehicle for Cook, Gentry, Herndon and Owen to enter the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Owen recalls manager Dale Morris calling him to give him the news. He said he immediately teared up. Once home in Alabama, he got the rest of the guys together for breakfast and surprised them by saying he'd always wanted to have breakfast with the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

"Nobody said anything at first and then there were some words I can't print," he recalled with a laugh. "Everyone was genuinely surprised. I'll always be so grateful. It's a big deal for me that we get to share that while we are alive and not walking around on canes."

The music on Livin' Lovin' Rockin' Rollin' showcases the musical ride that landed Alabama in the Hall of Fame. Owen is hoping the fans will enjoy the collection.

"Hopefully it will mean a lot to the people who are like family to us, people who have been fans for all these years," he said. "I feel they are a part of the history of this wonderful success story."

On The Web: www.thealabamaband.com

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Alabama (Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry, Mark Herndon and Randy Owen) is formally

inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on the 2005 CMA Awards.

Photo: John Russell / CMA

October 31, 2006