DON GIBSON, "I AIN'T A-STUDYING YOU, BABY" C/W "IT HAPPENS EVERYTIME," M-G-M K12494 (REC. 1956; REL. 6/1957)

In 1956, Don Gibson was just another hard-working Nashville songwriter who had made several singles, starting in 1949, to little or no avail. He'd already written one of his signature songs, "Sweet Dreams," which would provide Patsy Cline with a timeless classic. Living in a trailer on the outskirts of Nashville, Gibson, who was represented by Acuff-Rose Publications, got his songs recorded by major country performers, but nothing seemed to go very far.

Being well-regarded by one's peers vs. eking out an existence: it's a common experience for creative people. Then, one afternoon, inspiration struck in his trailer home. He wrote "Oh Lonesome Me" and "I Can't Stop Loving You," two indelible country music standards that have since been recorded hundreds of times by a diverse array of artistes. He'd been signed by RCA-Victor, whose country division was the major influence in Nashville music. Three singles in, he'd made some fine music, including the cowpunk forefather "Sittin' Here Cryin'," and the elegant ballad "Too Soon to Know," but nothing became a hit. 

These two songs so impressed producer Chet Atkins that a new session was set up. As examples of The Nashville Sound, the two sides are near-perfect; the songs' familiarity undermine how influential they were, and how they came out of nowhere at the end of 1957. That hadn't happened yet for our hero when M-G-M dusted off a powerful piece of stark rockabilly Gibson cut for them in 1956. It was issued side-by-side with "Sittin' Here Cryin'," which diverges from the conventions of country music in a different but equally hard-hitting manner. These two fine records served to cancel each other out in June 1957; neither rated much mention in the music press. The M-G-M disc was ignored by Cash Box and Billboard and is one of Gibson's hardest to find records.

Who played on "I Ain't A-Studyin' You Baby" is lost to time. I believe the guitar picking (and strumming) is by Gibson. His voice is decorated with Memphis-style slapback reverb. Stand-up bass and light percussion accompany him with a gripping stop-start rhythm on a riveting bluesy song that uses the classic 12-bar formula, with the first line of each stanza repeated.

Gibson's vocal is commanding; he sings with a pent-up force that suggests how different his career might have gone, had he not become the master of The Nashville Sound. His soulful, thoughtful singing cut through the marzipan of The Anita Kerr Singers and sometimes-cutesy arrangements on song after song. A great admirer of French jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, Gibson patterned his own rhythm guitar style after his idol and encouraged other Nashville pickers to contribute acoustic guitar riffs and solos to his session. Fellow guitar guru Chet Atkins was in on this scheme, and one of Gibson's best LPs is 1961's Girls, Guitars and Gibson--a set of acoustic-driven jazzy items that stand out from anything else done in Nashville that year.

Gibson approached rock 'n' roll sounds again with two RCA sides, "If You Don't Know It" and "Tell It Like It Is"--the latter similar to this 1956 track. It seems like a comfortable direction for him, and I wish he'd pursued this style more. Fame meant he had to stick to what his fans wanted, and they wanted ballads delivered in the Nashville Sound's layers of audio embroidery.

Melvin Endsley, whom we heard here recently, wrote "It Happens Every Time," a more typical piece of pre-Nashville Sound honky-tonk country. It's stark-sounding, with pedal steel guitar to the fore, fiddle/guitar duets and the distinctive "sock" rhythm guitar sound that substituted for drums. Gibson is in fine form as a straight country singer; he tamped down this sensibility once he became successful--again, a pity, as his high-lonesome approach is excellent.

Don Gibson is the opposite of most performers profiled here: he has a large discography and had global success with his songs and recordings. Ray Charles' versions of his songs were major sources of income and helped his work resonate with Black audiences, who recognized the vulnerability, sadness and philosophy his lyrics express. Gibson is ignored in modern-day histories of country music; Ken Burns' PBS series dismissed him with a glib reference to the Ray Charles records and refused to state his importance in Nashville history. Such exclusions detract from its effectiveness.

Tomorrow: two fab rockin' sides by The Five Keys, including one mega-eccentric song penned by John Leslie McFarland, one of the music business' real eccentrics.