Connie Smith — Tell Another Lie

from Connie Smith (1965)

This Country Sunday, a track from a singer many consider the heiress to the throne of Patsy Cline: Connie Smith. She knows how to belt it out, and this album is one bruising punch after another, with tracks like ‘I’m Ashamed of You,’ ‘The Other Side of You,’ and this one, ‘Tell Another Lie.’ The LP went straight to the top of the Billboard country charts in 1965.

Dolly Parton apparently once said: “You know, there’s really only three female singers in the world: Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, and Connie Smith. The rest of us are only pretending.”

Aurty Inman — Ballad of Two Brothers (1968)

from Troubled Troubadours (Omni, 2010)

This week I picked up something special for Country Sunday — the terrific Omni compilation Troubled Troubadours — “27 tales from the dark and/or strange side of the tracks (1965-1973).”

There’s a convict’s play-by-play from the electric chair, Dolly Parton plunges off a bridge with her unborn child, a post-apocalyptic kid asks “Daddy, What’s A Tree?” and Lester Flatt can’t tell the boys from the girls (they all wear long hair and bouncy curls).

This number here is Autry Inman’s biggest hit, an apologist ballad for the Vietnam War that reached #14 on the country charts. It’s a twisted tale of two brothers, and musically, a bizarre mix of military drums and rock’n’roll.

Brother soldier writes a letter from Vietnam, where he’s just marched 20 miles through the muddy jungle. Brother peacenik writes a letter from state college, where he’s just marched 20 blocks in a protest march. He tells Dad to look for him on the front page of the paper — “course you may have a little trouble recognizing me with my groovy beard.”

Here’s a few of my other favorites:

Homer & Jethro — I Crept Into the Crypt and Cried [listen]

Trooper Jim Foster — Four Chrome Wheels [listen]