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Jean Shepard - Biography
| 20-08-2006 15:29 | 0 reaction(s) | add reply |
Few country singers — let alone female country singers — working
since the 1950s have produced a large body of work as enduring
as Jean Shepard's. Her voice is pure country — accent on both
words. Born in Oklahoma, she grew up in Southern California,
where Hank Thompson discovered her. She had her first Top Ten
hit in 1953, and her last almost exactly 20 years later. In between,
she cut one great record after another, mostly on Capitol Records.
Nearly all of them crackle, no matter the topic, with honky tonk
angel spunk.
Born in Oklahoma, Shepard grew up in the area surrounding
Bakersfield, CA. As a teenager, she began her musical career
by playing bass in the Melody Ranch Girls, an all-female band
formed in 1948. Hank Thompson discovered Shepard a few
years after the group formed. Impressed by her talents, he
helped her set up a record deal at Capitol Records, where she
worked with Thompson's producer, Ken Nelson.
Shepard's first chart appearance was in 1953 as a duet partner
with Ferlin Husky, with "A Dear John Letter" and its sequel,
"Forgive Me John." Shepard and Husky toured the country
following their hit singles. In 1955, she had her first solo Top
Ten single, "A Satisfied Mind," which was backed by the
number 13 hit "Take Possession." Later in the year, she had
another Top Ten hit with "Beautiful Lies"/"I Thought of You." Her
streak of hit singles led to an invitation to join the Grand Ole
Opry in 1956. That same year, she joined Red Foley's Ozark
Jubilee and recorded Songs of a Love Affair, arguably the first
concept album in country music history. Its 12 songs — which
were all written by Shepard — depict a marriage torn apart by a
love affair; one side of the album is written from the dissolution
of a romance.
For nearly ten years after the release of "Beautiful Lies," Shepard
wasn't able to get a song into the Top Ten. In fact, she had only
two Top 40 hits during that period — "I Want to Go Where No One
Knows Me" (number 18, 1958) and "Have Heart, Will Love"
(number 30, 1959). She continued to record and tour — she was
even named the Top Female Singer of 1959 by Cash Box — but
nothing was breaking through to the public. This was primarily
because she was a hardcore honky tonk singer in a time that
country-pop was ruling the charts. In 1963, her husband
Hawkshaw Hawkins died in the same plane crash that killed Patsy
Cline. The following year, she returned to the Top Ten with
"Second Fiddle (To an Old Guitar)." The song began a string of
hits for Shepard. Although many of them failed to chart in the
Top 20, she racked up 15 Top 40 hits between 1965 and 1970,
including the Top Ten hits "I'll Take the Dog" (a duet with Ray
Pillow, 1966), "If Teardrops Were Silver" (1966), and "Then He
Touched Me" (1970).
Shepard's hits continued throughout the '70s, though as the decade
wore on she hit the Top 40 with less and less frequency. Her last
hit single was 1978's "The Real Thing," which peaked at number 85.
During the '80s and '90s, Shepard didn't record, but she continued to
perform at the Grand Ole Opry and tour, particularly in the U.K.,
where she had a strong fan base. |
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