Texas Hot Country — June 2012
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David Allan Coe
‘country music’s mysterious rhinestone cowboy’
LIVE AT THE MOSQUITO FEST JULY 27
Country music legend David Allan Coe, best known for his rendition of the “perfect country and western song,” “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” (1975), as well as the Top 5 hit “The Ride” (1983) and his No. 1 hit “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile” (1984), Will be the headline entertainer July 27 at the Great Texas Mosquito Festival in Clute. Coe is also famous for writing “Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone),” a hit for Tanya Tucker, and “Take This Job and Shove It,” a hit for Johnny Paycheck, which was even made into a movie.
Coe is on the road this summer promoting his latest albums. His newest project, Feelings, is a duet album that he recorded with his wife Kimberly to celebrate their recent marriage. According to Coe’s son (and his guitarist) Tyler, “I really think he just wanted to do something together with his wife, and just have a good time in the studio making new music with her. He wrote all the songs in less than a week. He played guitar on it. He played harmonica on it, too. The first single was called ‘Leave Ole Willie Alone.’ Everyone seems to like that one a lot!” DAC’s Back (2010) features 20 new original songs from Coe, including the hit “Single Father,” which was previously recorded by Kid Rock. In fact, both Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker each cowrote a song with Coe for this project.
Collaborating with rockers is nothing new to Coe. Between 1999 and 2003, he teamed up with the members of the heavy metal group Pantera (“Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, Vinnie Paul and Rex Brown) to record Rebel Meets Rebel, a “groundbreaking” country/metal album that was released in 2006.
David Allan Coe was born in Akron, Ohio, on September 6, 1939. Abandoned by his parents at age 9, Coe spent the next two decades in a series of juvenile and penal institutions, where he began to write songs. Upon his release from prison in 1968, Coe moved to Nashville to make his fortune in the music industry. Styling himself “The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy,” Coe gained attention by donning a rhinestone suit and a mask, and by driving around in a custom-painted hearse. It worked! His debut album, Penitentiary Blues, was released independently in 1969, and by 1973, Tanya Tucker had made Coe’s “Would You Lay With Me (In A Field of Stone)” a smash hit, and paved the way for Coe’s own recording contract with Columbia Records in 1974.
In 1975, Coe was featured in a documentary film, Heartworn Highways, and in 1977, Johnny Paycheck turned “Take This Job And Shove It” into a number one hit (as well as another movie in which Coe was featured). The hits continued into the ‘80s, culminating with “She Used To Love Me A Lot” in 1985.
For the past three decades, however, Coe has continued to be a consistent concert draw due to the quality of his live shows. As Tyler relates, “We don’t have a set list, he just comes out on stage…and he just goes, and we just play whatever he wants to play. Sometimes he plays his older songs. Sometimes he plays songs that he hasn’t even recorded yet. He has reams of notebooks just full of stuff that he’s written that no one’s heard. Sometimes he plays songs of friends of his that are no longer with us. People can’t go see those people, so we do those songs. Every show is different. We like to keep it that way so that everyone has fun with it and stays interested.”
As guitarist for his father for the past 12 years, Tyler has some keen insights into the “Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy.” “His favorite singer was Johnny Ace. He actually Recorded one of Johnny’s songs to pay tribute to him. And all those guys who were on the old Grand Ole Opry -- Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell, he definitely had a lot of respect for those guys and for what they did. I personally don’t feel like he’s been given the respect or consideration or even the recognition that he deserves. I think that he did more to honor traditional country music while expanding the sound of it without betraying the roots of it. I can’t think of one person who did that better.”
At 72 years old, has David Allan Coe accomplished all that he intended? Tyler relates, “I think that he feels like he has accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish, but I don’t think that means he wouldn’t like to repeat the same successes that he’s had. I’m sure he’d like to come out with a great album and bring country music back to where it ought to be. I know that he really enjoys it when people take the time to read the liner notes to his albums and to figure out which songs were the ones that he wrote himself and which ones that he didn’t write. I think he’s prouder of the ones he wrote than the ones that were written for him. I think it just means a lot to him that anyone cares enough to listen, to take the time to listen to someone who they could’ve just written off as an ex-convict and sent him off to work in a gas station the rest of his life. I think he just feels grateful.”
LIVE AT THE MOSQUITO FEST JULY 27
Country music legend David Allan Coe, best known for his rendition of the “perfect country and western song,” “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” (1975), as well as the Top 5 hit “The Ride” (1983) and his No. 1 hit “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile” (1984), Will be the headline entertainer July 27 at the Great Texas Mosquito Festival in Clute. Coe is also famous for writing “Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone),” a hit for Tanya Tucker, and “Take This Job and Shove It,” a hit for Johnny Paycheck, which was even made into a movie.
Coe is on the road this summer promoting his latest albums. His newest project, Feelings, is a duet album that he recorded with his wife Kimberly to celebrate their recent marriage. According to Coe’s son (and his guitarist) Tyler, “I really think he just wanted to do something together with his wife, and just have a good time in the studio making new music with her. He wrote all the songs in less than a week. He played guitar on it. He played harmonica on it, too. The first single was called ‘Leave Ole Willie Alone.’ Everyone seems to like that one a lot!” DAC’s Back (2010) features 20 new original songs from Coe, including the hit “Single Father,” which was previously recorded by Kid Rock. In fact, both Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker each cowrote a song with Coe for this project.
Collaborating with rockers is nothing new to Coe. Between 1999 and 2003, he teamed up with the members of the heavy metal group Pantera (“Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, Vinnie Paul and Rex Brown) to record Rebel Meets Rebel, a “groundbreaking” country/metal album that was released in 2006.
David Allan Coe was born in Akron, Ohio, on September 6, 1939. Abandoned by his parents at age 9, Coe spent the next two decades in a series of juvenile and penal institutions, where he began to write songs. Upon his release from prison in 1968, Coe moved to Nashville to make his fortune in the music industry. Styling himself “The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy,” Coe gained attention by donning a rhinestone suit and a mask, and by driving around in a custom-painted hearse. It worked! His debut album, Penitentiary Blues, was released independently in 1969, and by 1973, Tanya Tucker had made Coe’s “Would You Lay With Me (In A Field of Stone)” a smash hit, and paved the way for Coe’s own recording contract with Columbia Records in 1974.
In 1975, Coe was featured in a documentary film, Heartworn Highways, and in 1977, Johnny Paycheck turned “Take This Job And Shove It” into a number one hit (as well as another movie in which Coe was featured). The hits continued into the ‘80s, culminating with “She Used To Love Me A Lot” in 1985.
For the past three decades, however, Coe has continued to be a consistent concert draw due to the quality of his live shows. As Tyler relates, “We don’t have a set list, he just comes out on stage…and he just goes, and we just play whatever he wants to play. Sometimes he plays his older songs. Sometimes he plays songs that he hasn’t even recorded yet. He has reams of notebooks just full of stuff that he’s written that no one’s heard. Sometimes he plays songs of friends of his that are no longer with us. People can’t go see those people, so we do those songs. Every show is different. We like to keep it that way so that everyone has fun with it and stays interested.”
As guitarist for his father for the past 12 years, Tyler has some keen insights into the “Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy.” “His favorite singer was Johnny Ace. He actually Recorded one of Johnny’s songs to pay tribute to him. And all those guys who were on the old Grand Ole Opry -- Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell, he definitely had a lot of respect for those guys and for what they did. I personally don’t feel like he’s been given the respect or consideration or even the recognition that he deserves. I think that he did more to honor traditional country music while expanding the sound of it without betraying the roots of it. I can’t think of one person who did that better.”
At 72 years old, has David Allan Coe accomplished all that he intended? Tyler relates, “I think that he feels like he has accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish, but I don’t think that means he wouldn’t like to repeat the same successes that he’s had. I’m sure he’d like to come out with a great album and bring country music back to where it ought to be. I know that he really enjoys it when people take the time to read the liner notes to his albums and to figure out which songs were the ones that he wrote himself and which ones that he didn’t write. I think he’s prouder of the ones he wrote than the ones that were written for him. I think it just means a lot to him that anyone cares enough to listen, to take the time to listen to someone who they could’ve just written off as an ex-convict and sent him off to work in a gas station the rest of his life. I think he just feels grateful.”
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