In ‘81, George Strait got a record deal and needed a hit song. Songwriter Dean Dillon had just written "Unwound" but was holding it for Johnny Paycheck. Strait’s producer, Blake Mevis, had been good to Dillon and he wanted to do him a favor, so he gave "Unwound" to Mevis for George Strait to record.

Strait did the song. It went all the way to #6, blasting his career into orbit. Only Elvis has more certified platinum sales than Strait.

Ronnie Milsap Rocks

Rockabilly Hall of Famer Robert Morris reminds me that Milsap started out as a rocker. Morris backed him in a Memphis club early in Milsap’s career.

Those who see clear lines between country, blues and rock are seeing something that does not exist in the minds of many great performers. Milsap is equally at home with songs in all those genres. So was Elvis. So is Jerry Lee Lewis.

The great performers fuse genres of music like cooks make great dishes. It s a blending process that’s hard to describe but easy to hear.

Virgin Records is releasing Milsap’s 40 #1 hits in a new compilation, underscoring his considerable contributions to country and crossover music.

Boots Roots in Nashville

I recently mentioned a well-traveled old blues man named Boots Roots, who prefers to do his performing on the street. After a few years in Chattanooga and East Ridge, Tennessee, he was last seen playing on lower Broadway in Nashville, not far from the Ernest Tubb Record Store.

If you are in Music City, it will be worth your while to find him and watch him choke a whole mess of blues out of his traveling guitar.

Good Going, Trisha

My quote of the week comes from Trisha Yearwood: "So much of the music is created out of fear about record sales. If I want to call myself an artist, I have to do what I want and let the chips fall where they may."

The most consistent criticism we hear of today’s country music is its sameness, which is to say its blandness. Music created for a narrowly defined market (like teens) is constricted by the definer’s view of teenagers. It overlooks the spirit of youth which has wings and can reach out to appreciate many kinds of themes.

Artists who are successful pay attention to their primary market but they also know what they can best energize through their own talents, vocal skills and emotions. For the music’s sake, turn them loose and let them create a more soulful stream of music. If seasoned singers like Yearwood don’t know what they should be singing, no one in Nashville does.

Buck Turner

A reader writes, "Is Buck Turner still performing and writing songs? I met him once in the office of the late producer Murray Nash and thought he had one of the smoothest voices I had ever heard.. He was cutting demos of some of his songs. Did he ever have any hit songs?"

I am sorry to report that Buck passed away but some of his vocals can be found on rockabilly compilations of the small Nashville labels like Bullet.

He penned "The Best Dressed Beggar in Town," a #16 hit for Carl Smith in 1962. It hung in the charts for 7 weeks.

Jim Reeves Rolls On

Last month marked the 36th anniversary of the death of Jim Reeves. We can think his widow, for persisting in the promotion of his songs after his death. .

She flew to New York and convinced RCA to continue releasing his songs. They agreed and the practice of keeping a great singer’s music alive after their death is now a profitable part of the business.

Most of the songs released after Reeves departure were incomplete studio masters and demos of songs in his publishing company.