Mark Collie’s recent appearance at The Ritz in New York with one of his primary idols, Johnny Cash, left him wondering if country music’s present era boasts a charismatic star like Cash.
“I’m supposed to be a professional communicator, and I was thrilled to the point I was stammering,” says Collie, who looks astonishingly like the electrifying Cash of 30 years ago but had never met the superstar before their joint New York performance.
“I don’t think there’s anybody of country music’s new generation who has the power of a Johnny Cash,” he adds. “Maybe there is, but I think it’ll take 30 years to find out.
“Think about it: Here we are 30 or 35 years down the road from the beginning of his career, and you still don’t have to explain who Johnny Cash is to anybody. Garth Brooks and some of the others are doing big things, but we’re in a time when big things are easier to achieve.
“We have the ability to sell a million records in three or four days, but when Johnny Cash was selling a million records there weren’t that many record stores or country radio stations or even just people to buy the records.
“Today the numbers are impressive, but if a guy with Johnny Cash’s persona had come along today, who knows what he might have been capable of?”
On the record: Kathy Mattea-who has a knack for picking world-class material-has at least two contenders in her latest album, “Lonesome Standard Time.” One of the two, “Standing Knee Deep in a River (And Dying of Thirst),” Mattea heard while singing backup on a Don Williams album. She says she was unable to get it out of her head, and when it wasn’t released as a Williams single, she decided to play it for her producer, Brent Maher-but before she could, Maher ended up proposing it himself. . . . Billy Burnette’s debut Capricorn Records album, “Coming Home,” is scheduled for release Feb. 9 and is full of songs Burnette co-wrote. The package’s first single is the just-issued “Tangled Up in Texas,” the video of which has been receiving play on TNN and CMT. . . . Song Title of the Week: “What’s Going Without Saying” by Paul Overstreet and Jeff Borders.
Lorrie Morgan, who virtually grew up on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, agrees that it seems a little strange that, in the wake of her great but somewhat pop-ish song “Something in Red,” she felt a need in her latest album, “Watch Me,” to be “more country.”
“It used to be, people would say, `Oh, she’s too country,’ ” she says. “Now it’s, `She ain’t country enough.’ You don’t know how it’s going to be from one week to the next, so you have to make something that’s got a little bit of everything on it. That way, if they say, `We need something that is or ain’t as country,’ you have it on the album.
“You cut your album so far in advance that you don’t know what’s going to be the hip thing by the time it comes out. So you’re just kind of winging it, hoping something on the album is going to fly.”
On the road: Speaking of Morgan, in ’93 she probably again will be playing a sizable number of dates with Ricky Van Shelton, with whom she recently sold out the Hilton in Las Vegas. Shelton says they worked “probably 50” shows together last year, that the combination “works” and that they may record another duet together. . . . Marty Stuart’s 1993 tour, which he says is to begin in Canada in March, will be called The Marty Party. He says it will be modeled somewhat after the old Roy Acuff tent shows of the 1940s and offer a wide range of entertainment-not just music.
Larry Gatlin makes his dramatic stage debut on Feb. 16, when he takes over for Mac Davis in the lead role of the award-winning Broadway musical “The Will Rogers Follies.”
“I’m humbled by the prospect of portraying such a wonderful human being as Will Rogers,” Gatlin says. “This opportunity is one of the greatest blessings of my life, and I’m grateful to God.”
Other cast members include Nancy Ringham, Robert Fitch and Marla Maples.
Et cetera: “Buy Me, Bring Me, Take Me, Don’t Mess My Hair,” Volume 2 of “The Four Bitchin’ Babes”-the folk quartet of Christine Lavin, Julie Gold, Sally Fingerett and Megon McDonough-was released by Rounder Records Jan. 1. The musical fare includes Lavin’s “Bald Headed Men” and Fingerett’s “Take Me Out To Eat”. . . . “50 Years of Bluegrass Hits,” a four-package boxed collection of 25 selections each (which sells for $55.98 for the CDs and $44.98 for the cassettes), has recently been released by CMH Records. Some of the hits are done by their most famous exponents, such as Merle Travis performing “Dark as a Dungeon” and Lester Flatt doing “Father’s Table Grace.” Others feature such well-known bluegrass-oriented performers as The Stoneman Family doing “Muleskinner Blues” and Rose Lee Maphis doing Bill Monroe’s “Uncle Pen.”
As a result of an agreement between Cumberland Registry and the Country Music Association, you can have dinner with George Jones-if you really want to.
History’s first CMA-authorized limited edition series of collectible plates to feature country music stars will begin with a plate featuring Jones, the newest member of the CMA Hall of Fame.
The back of each plate displays a registry number, the CMA logo and a brief biography of Jones. It is priced at $29.95. Additional plates in this series, dubbed “Legend,” are to be offered four times a year.
