I have written a lot as of late about how quickly time is passing by. Well, that fits neatly into my blog this week...Twenty years is a long time......or so I once thought. As a pop culture fan growing up, one of my earliest rememberances was Saturday nights, and sitting up with my late grandmother watching "Gunsmoke." The run of that series was incredible. 1955-1975. My parents were 13 and 10 when the show debuted, and were parents when it went off in first-run. Of course, reruns kept the show alive forever. I, like a lot of people my generation and older, feel a touch of nostalgia for the show upon hearing that James Arness, the 6'7 actor that Matt Dillon seem larger than life, passed away at the age of 88. TV keeps doing the remake thing, Hawaii Five-0, Charlie's Angels, and so forth. There's even an updated Dallas pilot coming soon to TNT, but Hollywood needs to think twice if they ever consider remaking that one. You can't find anybody to fill those shoes....
The other marking of time consists of something that will be released on Tuesday, June 7. Warner Brothers is celebrating 25 years since the release of Randy Travis's first album with a CD that features many collaborations with artists such as Carrie Underwood, Don Henley, Tim McGraw, and George Jones. Twenty-Five years? Really......Well, let me set the scene. I was twelve years old at the time, and had won tickets to see Hank Williams, Jr taping a TNN special at the Opry House. (TNN? Man, I am dating myself!) My father took my brother and I to the show. As excited as we were about seeing Hank, it was one of his opening acts that I had just became a fan of----Randy Travis. His "1982" single had just started flying up the charts, and I remember going to Sound Shop in the Dickson Plaza Shopping Center and buying the single for $1.79. It was a record that you couldn't get away from.....and why would you want to. That steel intro, the cold opening 'Operator Please Connect Me...." It was a classic then, as much as it was now. I still remember the flip side...(Man, I'm old!)...."Can't Stop Now," which was later covered by New Grass Revival.
There was nowhere to run. Randy Travis mania had swept the nation. Then, for his follow-up to the # 1 "1982," he does the unthinkable. WB re-released "On The Other Hand," and it went a long way past its' initial peak of # 67.....all the way to the top. Then, it was time for the release of the album----STORMS OF LIFE. I make out like it was monumental, because....it was. Ricky Skaggs, Reba, and George Strait had all kept traditional sounds alive, but the album was so "Retro" even before that was a term. The cover? Shot in front of an old country store, and the music? Even twenty-five years later, I still sing the album tracks as much as I do the singles. It was, and still is....that good. I remember spending a few weeks in the summer of 1986 trying to win a copy through Charlie Douglas and Kyle Cantrell at the old Music Country Radio Network......the phone lines jammed from Oregon to Florida! So, a few weeks later, while we were at Wal-Mart, I took my allowance, and used $5.96 of it to buy that album....which I still have....but also on CD and Cassette......But you know what, I still think it sounds better when you hear those pops and cracks, when Randy begins his plea "Operator, Please Connect Me."....Those were the days!.....Congratulations, Randy Travis on a quarter-century of hits, and making one of the best albums of my childhood!
