We’re back with another rolling and shuffling episode of our site favorite, Truck Driver Songs. Here we look back at some of the best musical tales of the North American trucker and their trials on the road.
This week it’s a catchy country tune from the 60s by the first Queen of Country Music, Kitty Wells. Kitty unfortunately passed away earlier this year at the ripe old age of 92 due to complications from a stroke. She will sorely be missed.
Wells ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of Billboard’s country charts, according to historian Joel Whitburn’s book The Top 40 Country Hits, behind Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, and Tanya Tucker.
In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1991, she became the third country music artist, after Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, and the eighth woman to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Wells’ accomplishments earned her the nickname Queen of Country Music.
She was most well known for her insistence on writing from a strong female point of view. She often sang about love and the heartache of being away from a lover, but she never played a submissive part in her musical narratives. She continued to put much of herself into her songs throughout her career, inspiring other female country singers to record risky material as well. Loretta Lynn was one of her followers in this sense, when she recorded “Don’t Come A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” in 1967. Dolly Parton’s 1968 recording “Just Because I’m a Woman”, like “Honky Tonk Angels”, questioned the male-female double-standard.
So have a listen at this old time country standard that really takes you back to the glory days of Nashville. If you can’t get it to play here, just visit the original YouTube page here.
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