Vern Gosdin

All Music Guide:

As country music swung back toward traditional styles in the 1980s, an inheritor of the soulful honky tonk style of Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard rose to the top of the business and notched hit after barroom hit. Sometimes he was known simply as "the Voice." Born in Woodland, AL, Vern Gosdin idolized the Louvin Brothers and the Blue Sky Boys as a young man and sang in a gospel quartet called the Gosdin Brothers. When he was in his late teens, his family moved to Birmingham and began hosting The Gosdin Family Gospel Show on a local radio station. Gosdin and his brother, Rex, moved to Long Beach, CA, in 1961. They began performing bluegrass music in the milieu that gave birth to country-rock, joining a group called the Golden State Boys that evolved into the Hillmen, featuring future Byrds member Chris Hillman. Vern and Rex teamed up to sing country music as the Gosdin Brothers once again, had a Top 40 country hit in 1967 with "Hangin' On," and opened for the Byrds on occasion.

Gosdin moved to Atlanta in 1972, raising a family and running a retail shop. But he never gave up on music completely. He performed at local clubs and began to gravitate toward Nashville, where Emmylou Harris, a friend of Gosdin's from his California days, was laying the foundation for a neo-traditionalist style of country music. Around 1976 Gosdin and Harris cut a demo single consisting of "Hangin' On" backed with a newly written song, "Yesterday's Gone." The demo got Gosdin signed to the Elektra label, and both songs cracked the country Top 20. In the late '70s he notched several major hits, including "Till the End" (with Janie Fricke), "Mother Country Music," and a remake of the Association's "Never My Love."

In 1980, after the demise of Elektra's country division, Gosdin quickly moved through several contracts and landed with the independent Nashville label Compleat. He made the Top Ten consistently in the early '80s, really hitting his stride when he teamed with Max D. Barnes as a songwriting collaborator. The pair specialized in songs of cheating and barroom romance, often delivering an over-the-top emotionalism that got Gosdin compared to the ultimate legend of honky tonk vocals, George Jones. In 1983, Gosdin had two Top Five hits -- "If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)" and "Way Down Deep." The following year he had his first number one single with "I Can Tell by the Way You Dance (You're Gonna Love Me Tonight)" and had two additional Top Ten hits. His career hit a lull in the mid-'80s, but in 1987, with the new traditionalist movement in full swing and Warner Bros. artist Randy Travis roosting at the top of the charts, he was tapped by the Columbia label. He bounced back into the Top Ten that year with the tortured "Do You Believe Me Now," and in 1988 he hit number one once again with the perennially popular Ernest Tubb tribute "Set 'Em Up Joe." Gosdin's "Chiseled in Stone," co-written with Barnes, won the Country Music Association's Song of the Year award in 1989. His 1989 album Alone was a rarity: a concept album in a traditional country style. It chronicled the dissolution of Gosdin's marriage. Gosdin's popularity declined as rock-influenced country styles surged forward in the 1990s, but he continued to record on small labels and never abandoned the pure country vocalism he had cultivated for so long.

Wikipedia:

Vern Gosdin (August 5, 1934 – April 28, 2009) was an American country music singer. He idolized The Louvin Brothers and The Blue Sky Boys as a young man and sang in a gospel quartet called The Gosdin Brothers. An inheritor of the soulful honky tonk style of Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard, Gosdin was nicknamed "The Voice" by his peers. He had 19 top-ten solo hits on the Country music charts from the late 1970s through the early 1990s. Three of these hits went to number one: "I Can Tell By the Way You Dance (You're Gonna Love Me Tonight)", "Set 'Em Up Joe" and "I'm Still Crazy".

Career

Early years

As the sixth child in a family of nine, Vern Gosdin began singing in a church in Woodland, Ala., where his mother played piano. Vern and two brothers sang gospel on radio station WVOK. Vern later moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he ran the D&G Tap.

1960s - West Coast Country music movement

In 1961, he moved to California, where he joined the West Coast Country music movement, first as a member of the Golden State Boys, which became The Hillmen, and included Chris Hillman. Vern then formed The Gosdin Brothers with brother Rex. The duo hit the charts in the late '60s with "Hangin' On" on the Bakersfield International label, then with "Till The End" on Capitol Records. During the same time period the Gosdin Brothers were featured on Hillman's former Byrds mate Gene Clark's first solo album, the 1967 well-regarded "Echoes: Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers" singing backing vocals on all of the tracks behind the lead vocals of Clark and Lead Guitars of Clarence White, Glen Campbell, and Bill Rinehart (later of the Merry-Go-Round).

1970s - Retirement and comeback

He retired from performing during the 1970s and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he operated a glass company. In 1976, he signed with Elektra Records and his first hit was a remake of "Hangin' On", which featured Emmylou Harris on harmony vocals and peaked at #16. His next single, "Yesterday's Gone", which also featured Harris, became his first Top 10 hit in 1977. Several more hits followed between 1977 and 1979 with the biggest of these hits being a remake of "Till the End" and a cover of The Association's "Never My Love" which also featured harmony vocals from Janie Frickie.

1981-1983: Today My World Slipped Away

In 1981, Vern signed with Ovation Records and scored a Top 10 hit with "Dream of Me". After Ovation Records closed their doors later in 1981, Vern signed with AMI Records where he scored a Top 10 hit in 1982 with "Today My World Slipped Away". (This song later became a number-three hit for George Strait).

He signed with Compleat Records in the early '80s, and in 1984 released "There Is A Season," picked by the Los Angeles Times as best country album of the year.

1983-1985: If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right) and There Is a Season

He made the top 10 consistently in the early '80s, really hitting his stride when he teamed with Max D. Barnes as a songwriting collaborator. The pair specialized in songs of cheating and barroom romance, often delivering an over-the-top emotionalism that got Gosdin compared to the ultimate legend of honky tonk vocals -- George Jones. In 1983, Gosdin had two top 5 hits — "If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)" and "Way Down Deep." The following year, he had his first No. 1 single with "I Can Tell by the Way You Dance (You're Gonna Love Me Tonight)", which had previously been recorded by Gary Morris.

1987-1989: Chiseled in Stone

After Compleat Records went bankrupt, Gosdin signed with Columbia in 1987. He had success right off the bat with "Do You Believe Me Now." He hit No. 1 once again with a tribute to Ernest Tubb called "Set 'Em Up Joe." Gosdin's "Chiseled in Stone," co-written with Barnes, won the Country Music Association's Song of the Year award in 1989.

1989-1990: Alone

His 1989 album Alone was a concept album in a traditional country style. It chronicled the dissolution of Gosdin's marriage and included his final number-one hit: "I'm Still Crazy". From 1989-1991, he released a number of songs and three more made the Billboard top 10: "Right in the Wrong Direction," "That Just About Does It" and "Is It Raining at Your House." "Raining" has been covered by Brad Paisley.

Later years

Vern continued writing and singing up until April 28, 2009 despite his battle and recovery from his first stroke in 1998. In December 2008, Vern Gosdin announced that www.theVoiceofCountryMusic.com would be releasing "40 Years of the Voice" with the help of a marketing team Tangent Alliance, LLC. This would become his final music project showcasing 40 years of his remarkable career. It released a total of 101 pure country songs hand selected by Vern himself, 11 new songs recorded in 2008, 14 songs from his 1968 album "Sounds of Goodbye" with brother Rex Gosdin, and 77 of his favorite country and gospel classics.

Death

Gosdin, who suffered a stroke in early April 2009, died at a Nashville hospital the evening of April 28, 2009 at the age of 74.