Hoarder 45's From Independence

CD 

Elvis Presley Loving You 

America-Alibis 

LP 

The Genius Of Esquivel 

45s

Every Now And Then Brenda Lee (MCA 51047) 1980 #26 Country 

I Guess It Never Hurts To Hurt Sometimes-Oak Ridge Boys (MCA 52342) 1984 #1 Country 

What I'd Say-Earl Thomas Conley (RCA 8717-R) 1988 #1 country 

She Deserves You-Baillie And The Boys (RCA 8796-R) 1988 #8 Country 

Oh Heart-Baillie And The Boys (RCA 5130-R)  1987  #9 Country 

Addicted-Dan Seals (Capitol B-44130) 1988 #1 country 

(it's always gonna be) Someday-Holly Dunn (MTM B-72116) 1988 #11 country 

I Didn't (every chance i had)-Johnny Rodriguez (Capitol B-44071) 1987 #12 country 

The Return Of The Red Baron-The Royal Guardsmen (Laurie R-3379) #15 1967

The Carpetbaggers Theme-Jack McDuff (Prestige 45-309)  1964

Before playing the Cabin Jam, I made a quick stop in Independence and cherry picked some 45's that I passed over the last time I was there.  The well worn grooves of Jack McDuff's Carpetbaggers showed greatly, but the record isn't totally trashed, despite five decades of no jacket and another two months of pickers going through the 45s at the goodwill.   Carpetbaggers wouldn't sound out of place of a thriller.  However there's a major scratch on the b side Pink Panther Theme, which might be the less interesting version from what I heard despite the cool McDuff organ solo.   The return of the red baron is silly fun, however the record isn't that great in shape.  The Brenda Lee single suffers from the same fate, too scratchy but this came from a jukebox. The Oak Ridge Boys single unplayable. As well as  Holly Dunn.

Baillie And The Boys was another period piece band from the country 80s.  Oh Heart was their first top ten hit. The band did write their own music Kathie Baillie and hubby Mike Bonagura with Al LeBoeuf.  Another of those songs that are not exactly my cup of tea.  But then again RCA/BMG was using crappy recycled vinyl that didn't last very long, I suspect that folks didn't play this song very much on the juke box.   She Deserves You is more memorable and benefits from better material making the vinyl.  Don Schlitz co wrote this which really helped the song.  Schlitz knows a good hook or lyric.  The Only Lonely One, the other song is pleasant. Baillie's voice I need to really listen to more than once to have it make an impression.  I may forego future releases from them.

Another country ballad from Earl Thomas Conley that made number 1. B side Carol could have been another number 1 as well. But I tend to look at the country ballads, just like pop ballads of the 1970s.  They served a purpose and could past for soft rock, such as Earl Thomas Conley's songs. Johnny Rodriguez would have his last top twenty single with I Didn't. B side I'm Not That Good At Goodbye captures the music he did for Mercury and Jerry Kennedy, This song and the rest of Gracias, the album he did for Capitol would be his last hoorah.  Dan Seals continued his number 1 chart dominance with Addicted, which is not exactly that impressive of song, nor is Maybe I'm Missing You Now, which makes me of John Ford Coley's vocals missing.

Most of these country songs came from the late 80s, to which might have signaled the beginning of the hat acts coming to change the mood or tone of Country.  Country Music of the 2020's is terrible as rap and plastic beats and third grade mentality has taken over.  Thank God for the women who are doing their damnest to get back to the country and perhaps someday they will.

The dangers of finding 80s singles anywhere is that most have the grooves wore off at the local pub or the usual juke box hickeys that turn out to be scratches.  If they play well, they might entice me to either seek out the CDs or bands I have not paid attention to just to donate them back to the thrift stores. For a batch of forty fives that looked good from these eyes, four of them were unplayable. That might be a first in the batch of things found.  Even the sorry shapes of the Vinyl Emporium findings  I had better luck playing. 

Country Music use of dated drums and keyboards have made some of the songs unlistenable.  It may explain why Baillie And The Boys didn't impress me much.  I suspect if I find their best of, I may subject myself to revisit to hear them in state of the art CD sound that was so cutting edge back then but not now as people flock to overpriced vinyl.  CDs remain the best value and accessibility. I enjoyed hearing the craziness that is Esquivel  and will take a chance on any CD of his that I come across.  Somehow hearing him in Mono just doesn't do him justice. 

In the case of wrong cd cover, GI Blues was actually Loving You from Elvis, which is probably better than GI Blues.  Some fun stuff, but the bonus tracks don't offer much.  Alibis, is a 1980 America album which is decent soft rock.  The beginning of the Capitol years this benefits from harmonies from Tim Schmidt and J D Souther and Mike Baird's harder rocking drums.  Dewey Brunnell's Hangover shows he can't do hard rock, but still for a album lost in the archives of history Alibis is worth a few more listens.