Mds_28_07.indd

Southern Sampler
28 www.MidSouthFarmer.com ◆ July 2009
Charlie Louvin keeps on singing Country now
By CECIL YANCY JR.
Lovin’ and Losin’: Songs of the he says.
Key Points
NEARING 82, Charlie
stars such as Merle Haggard, Charlie had been absent from Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, the studio for a decade, but Marty Stuart and Del McCoury, performed as a regular on the with a mix of both secular and Grand Ole Opry. album on Universal South won career is gratifying, Charlie the Grammy for Country Album says, but “I was taught not to of the Year and the Song of the ever start believing your pub- is often cited as infl uencing the erations of musicians. Their Year for the Allison Krauss, licist.” likes of Emmylou Harris, Gram career was interrupted when James Taylor collaboration Parsons, the Everly Brothers, Charlie served in the Korean on “How’s the World Treating are musically, and I stay within Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello and War. They were at the height You.” others. The close harmony of of popularity in the mid-to-late the Louvin Brothers back when 1950s. At one time, Elvis Presley the 1960s and 1970s was as suc- he sang duets with his brother was their opening act.
cessful, if not more so, than his he’s standing at the rostrum of The mounting tensions from time singing with his brother, an old Sand Mountain church his brother’s drinking problem his infl uence is often linked with hardwood fl oors and walls, and a changing music scene with the name of his brother.
It may be, however, that broke them up in 1963. Ira died “they don’t have a pasture in a car crash in 1965.
Still hears him singing
In the late 1960s, Gram To this day, Charlie hears his nied by a trio of black singers, after losing his wife in child- After a 60-plus-year career, his Parsons was credited with re- brother when it comes time the McCrary Sisters, and the birth, if he had thought about discovering Louvin albums in for the harmony part in a song. stark piano playing of another suicide when he penned the used record stores and later He’s said that he steps to one black musician, Derrick Lee. Charlie has released three teaching the harmonies to side of the microphone. “I hear It’s as if he were singing the ask that?’ I told him, in the third albums in the past three years. Emmylou Harris. Charlie says: him singing on songs that we Sacred Harp music of his youth verse you write, ‘At the river I In his latest CD, he performs “Emmylou asked him, ‘Who’s didn’t even record,” he says of amid the blues-tinged backing, stand, guide my feet, hold my traditional gospel with the com- that woman singing?’ He said, Ira’s high tenor.
despite the difference in race hand.’ He told me he did walk fort of looking at death without ‘That’s not a woman, that’s a fear. It’s just another fascinating man, Ira Louvin.’” Harris gar- In the publicity photos, he’s tention, but didn’t do it. To me, chapter in a long career that’s nered her fi rst No. 1 hit with rial. He recently sang “Koxville holding his mother’s Sacred that makes a song a thousand seen his music resurface like a the Louvin tune “If I Could Only Girl” with actor-musician Billy Harp book. “That’s a very dear times more special than if I treasure trove.
Win Your Love.” Early last year, Bob Thornton and his band book,” he says. “When we’d go hadn’t heard the story.” Charlie grew up on Sand Charlie hung the medallion Slingblade. The song “Christian to the reunion, they’d always Mountain, Ala., in the early part around Harris’ neck when she Life” has been recorded by rock say, ‘Georgianne, sing us a song’ No more jaming
of the last century.
was inducted into the Country groups.
and us kids had to sing in front Today, Charlie stands on stage As the Louvin Brothers, Music Hall of Fame.
Charlie signed a record deal of the church and help her sing without a guitar. He lost a half Their music again emerged with Tompkins Square in 2006 her favorite songs. She was a inch on his left ring fi nger and brother-duet act to a natural to acclaim when Carl Jackson and has issued three albums in fi ne woman. She did it all.” zenith beginning in the late produced a tribute album to the past three years; the third, Without prompting, Charlie to an accident four years ago. the Louvins entitled “Livin’, “Charlie Louvin Sings Murder breaks into “Wells,” a song he “I lost my ability to jam,” he says was his mother’s favorite. says. “My son, Charlie Jr., who out last December. The 2007 “Now is the time to serve the we call Sonny, travels with me SINGING STRONG:
self-titled album garnered a Lord; the time to ensure the and plays a good fl at top guitar. Grammy nomination in the folk great reward,” he sings.
“I’m the kind of the person, if electric guitar.” folk and rock stalwarts such as you write a song and it’s deep, harmony. Here, Charlie Louvin performs at the George Jones, Bobby Bare Sr., I’ll ask you, ‘What gave you shows are fi lled with older folks Tom T. Hall and Elvis Costello. that idea? Where did it come and “the great-great-grandchil-He cites “distribtion” as the dif- Such was the case with that Ira and I sang to,” Charlie tion these days. “Now you can “Take My Hand Precious Lord,” says. “A lot of the times, there buy my album at Wally World.” Louvin’s favorite on his most are 15-year-olds in the crowd.” He’s not altogether sure he recent CD. He asked gospel com- fi ts the label of Americana. “I poser and preacher Thomas don’t change with time, only don’t know what that means,” Dorsey, who wrote the song the way he travels to the next Ira and Elvis didn’t fi ght thing people take for granted is the interstate,” he says. “In the old days, we had 41 to BACK before Elvis was Elvis, he was the opening act for the Legend has Ira Louvin coming to blows with the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. “While Ira didn’t get along with Elvis, it never came to formal blows,” the younger Charlie Louvin says.
Charlie remembers working a series of school houses in the Carolinas with the young Presley. “After a show, Elvis sat down at a piano there and started playing some of the old songs we grew up on. He could play piano enough to stay on key. He told us, ‘Here’s what I like to sing. When I’m out there, this is what I’d like to do,’ referring to old-time country tunes.
“Ira said, ‘If that’s what you like, why do that rubbish — al- though he used rougher words — that you do on stage,” Charlie “It probably should have never been said, but everybody’s en- titled to their opinion and to say what they feel,” Charlie says.

Source: http://magissues.farmprogress.com/MDS/MS07Jul09/mds028.pdf