Charlie Louvin: Still Running Wild
by Rick Kelly
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=34929
August 13, 2007
On a recent Saturday afternoon in Nashville, a diverse throng packed the narrow aisles and spilled outside through the open doors of Grimey’s record store. Twenty-something hipsters pressed against bespectacled grandmothers; veterans from Music City’s Country establishment stood alongside Nashville resident newcomers including Jack Lawrence, bassist with alt-rock supergroup The Raconteurs. All were held rapt by a legendary 79-year-old from Henagar, Ala.
As Charlie Louvin and his band played hits from a catalog that spans more than half a century, this crowd testified to the impact of the long musical partnership he sustained with his late brother Ira as The Louvin Brothers - and to its endurance on Charlie Louvin, the latest album from the Country Music Hall of Fame member.
He was born Charles Elzer Loudermilk in 1927. Along with Ira, three years his senior, Charlie sang gospel music in churches around Henagar. Influenced by the tradition of shape-note singing, and by family gospel groups including the Blue Sky Boys and the Delmore Brothers, they developed their unique close-harmony style and accompanied themselves on guitar and mandolin.
As teenagers, the brothers started playing on a small radio station in Chattanooga, Tenn., until Charlie’s service in World War II interrupted their career in the early 1940s. Upon his return from the Army, they moved to Knoxville, where they sang on the WROL and WNOX radio stations. From there, the brothers moved to Memphis, where they were featured regularly on WMPS.
The Louvin Brothers’ recording career began in the late 1940s, with a series of sides for Decca Records and later for MGM. When these failed to make significant commercial impact, Charlie and Ira returned to Memphis and took day jobs while continuing to perform in concerts and on the radio. After changing their surnames from Loudermilk to Louvin to avoid confusion with their cousin John D. Loudermilk, who wrote and performed classics “Tobacco Road” and “Abilene,” the duo signed with the Acuff-Rose publishing company, which led to a new recording contract with Capitol Records.
Their first Capitol single, “The Family Who Prays,” was released shortly before Charlie was recalled to active military duty in the Korean War. Upon his discharge, The Louvin Brothers resumed their recording and performing career, and in 1955 became members of the Grand Ole Opry.
Then, as they began to intersperse their gospel music with secular songs, the hits started to come. In 1955, they had their first Top 10 single “When I Stop Dreaming,” and the following year scored four more with “Cash on the Barrelhead,” “Hoping That You’re Hoping,” “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby” and “You’re Running Wild.”
Through the 1950s, as rock ‘n’ roll grew into a cultural phenomenon, The Louvin Brothers continued to record, though they hit the jackpot less frequently than in their boom years. The Everly Brothers, who were influenced by the Louvins, emerged during this period, and their singles began to eclipse those of Charlie and Ira on the airwaves.
Still, The Louvin Brothers enjoyed success with “I Love You Best of All” and “How’s the World Treating You” during this period, while releasing the classic albums A Tribute to the Delmore Brothers and Satan Is Real. After their single “Must You Throw Dirt in My Face” peaked in 1962, the brothers decided to pursue solo careers. Ira, who had struggled with alcohol for many years, released several singles and one album before dying in an automobile accident in 1965.
Charlie, however, flourished as a solo artist, scoring Top 20 hits with “Will You Visit Me on Sundays” and “Something to Brag About.” e also broke into the Top 10 with his first solo effort “I Don’t Love You Anymore” and the classic heartbreaker “See the Big Man Cry.”
In the late ’60s, though Charlie continued to record and perform traditional Country Music, the entertainment world focused more n the psychedelia of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. But in Los Angeles, Gram Parsons, later hailed as the seminal figure of the ountry-rock movement that spawned the Eagles, was becoming enamored by the music of The Louvin Brothers. As a member of The yrds, he included the Louvins’ “The Christian Life” on the group’s 1968 Sweetheart of the Rodeo. As a solo artist, he covered “Cash on he Barrelhead” on his Grievous Angel album (1973), and his protégé and duet partner Emmylou Harris scored her first Country hit with the Louvins’ “If I Could Only Win Your Love,” which reached the Top 5 on the Country charts during 1975.
The influence of Charlie and Ira continues to be felt in a new generation of artists who were inspired in part by Parsons and Harris. A wide audience waited, then, as Charlie released his first major studio album in more a decade this year. Some of the greatest names in Country Music, including Bobby Bare Sr., Tom T. Hall, George Jones and Marty Stuart and appear on it as guests, along with alternative Country artists Tift Merritt, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and Joy Lynn White, members of the bands Bright Eyes, Superchunk and Lambchop, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Elvis Costello.
Louvin is especially honored to have inspired so many young talents. “They had a lot of reverence for The Louvin Brothers,” he said. “They know what I’m doing, and that makes me feel good.”
While many of these guest vocals were added after Louvin and the band had wrapped up their tracks, Costello made a special trip to record “When I Stop Dreaming,” with Louvin in Nashville. “Costello came down early when he was playing Bonnaroo,” Louvin said, referencing the annual rock festival in Louvin’s current hometown, Manchester, Tenn., which draws up to 90,000 spectators. “He’s a really good guy and a big Louvin Brothers fan.”
“The younger guys did it out of a huge respect for the Louvins,” said Mark Nevers, who produced the CD, featuring Must You Throw Dirt in My Face” and “Knoxville Girl.” “They’re more popular now than ever and have been a hidden gem for years. And I’ve been a huge fan of the Louvins for several years.”
The label that would release Charlie Louvin, Tompkins Square, tapped Nevers to helm the sessions after hearing his handiwork on Bare’s The Moon Was Blue, released in 2005. “Charlie was very well prepared,” Nevers continued, “and we were able to get the tracks down in just two days, with Charlie doing live vocals. We were going for a very ’70s sound, but without steel guitar. I’d like to do a gospel album with him next, with some more unfamiliar songs.”
After more than 60 years as a performing artist, Louvin has learned that the most important thing is to appreciate the fans that support him. “My advice to any young artist is to be good to the fans,” he said. “I spend more time signing autographs than I do performing, which is fine by me. It’s best to go home with the one that brought you to the dance. I don’t worry about signing autographs for fans nearly as much as I would if nobody wanted an autograph.”
That, of course, is one thing that need never concern Louvin.
On the Web: http://www.charlielouvinbros.com
© 2007 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.
Posted in 
