The Kentucky Headhunters
is a Grammy Award-winning American country rock band. It was founded in 1968 as Itchy Brother, which comprised brothers Richard Young (rhythm guitar, vocals) and Fred Young (drums) along with Greg Martin (lead guitar, vocals) and Anthony Kenney (bass guitar, vocals). The Young brothers and Martin began performing as The Kentucky Headhunters in 1986, adding brothers Ricky Lee Phelps (lead vocals) and Doug Phelps (bass guitar) to the membership.
With the release of its 1989 debut album Pickin' on Nashville
via Mercury Records, the band charted four straight Top 40 country hits. A second album for Mercury, Electric Barnyard
, did not do as well commercially, and the Phelps brothers left after its release to form Brother Phelps. Kenney re-joined and Mark S. Orr took over on lead vocals for 1993's ''Rave On
| and a compilation album entitled
The Best of The Kentucky Headhunters: Still Pickin' before the band exited Mercury. Orr left and Doug Phelps rejoined in 1996 for the album
Stompin' Grounds, also leading on the Audium Entertainment albums
Songs from the Grass String Ranch and
Soul, as well as
Big Boss Man and a second compilation,
Flying Under the Radar'', on CBuJ Entertainment. After Kenney's departure, Doug once again took over as bass guitarist. The Kentucky Headhunters has released seven studio albums, two compilations, and twenty singles, of which the highest-peaking is the #8 "Oh Lonesome Me" from early 1990. In addition, the band has won three Country Music Association awards and an Academy of Country Music award.
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History
Richard Young, his younger brother Fred, and their cousins Anthony Kenney and Greg Martin began performing music in the Youngs' and Kenney's hometown of
Glasgow, Kentucky, in the 1960s. They founded a band called Itchy Brother (sometimes referred to as The Itchy Brothers),
[1] named after Fred's favorite cartoon character
from
King Leonardo and His Short Subjects
.
The band achieved regional success in Kentucky in the 1970s, including at least one single, "Shotgun Effie", which they wrote about the Youngs' grandmother, Effie.
[2] It was released in 1973 on the King Fargo label. Itchy Brother was almost signed to
Swan Song Records, an independent label founded by the band
Led Zeppelin, in 1980. However, the label closed after Led Zeppelin drummer
John Bonham died, and the band never recorded a full album on Swan Song.
[3]
Itchy Brother broke up in 1982. After its disbanding, Richard started writing songs for
Acuff-Rose Music, and Fred became a backing musician for country singer
Sylvia, who at the time was recording on
RCA Records. Greg Martin played
bass guitar and sang backing vocals for
Ronnie McDowell, then a recording artist for
Curb Records, and Anthony Kenney stopped performing.
Musical career
When Martin attempted to reunite Itchy Brother in 1985, the Young brothers joined him, but Kenney declined. Martin invited
Arkansas native Doug Phelps, also a member of McDowell's band, to replace Kenney. Doug brought his older brother Ricky Lee to sing
lead vocals and play
harmonica.
The band decided to name itself The Headhunters, taking the name from the term "headchopper", which blues musician
Muddy Waters used to indicate that he had supplanted another band in a
gig. After discovering that other bands existed with that name, the band added "Kentucky" to its name and thus became The Kentucky Headhunters.
[4] The Kentucky Headhunters began performing together the following year, playing twice monthly on the 90-minute
Chitlin' Show
, a radio program on
WLOC in
Munfordville, Kentucky.
[5]
Pickin' on Nashville
The Kentucky Headhunters borrowed $4,500
[6] to record a
demo album, which included seven original songs, plus
covers of
Bill Monroe's "Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine",
Henson Cargill's "Skip a Rope" and
Don Gibson's "
Oh Lonesome Me".
Originally intended to be sold at the band's live shows, the demo tape came to the attention of the Nashville music community.
Although Martin said that the band had not seriously considered signing a record deal, the band pursued one through the suggestion of its manager, Mitchell Fox.
Harold Shedd, a
record producer who was then the head of
Mercury Records, helped sign The Kentucky Headhunters to the label in 1989. Shedd gave the band complete artistic license over its material, a move considered unusual at the time for a newly-signed act.
[7]
Mercury released the demo in 1989 as The Kentucky Headhunters' debut album,
Pickin' on Nashville
. It produced four singles, all of which reached top 40 on the
Billboard
Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now
Hot Country Songs) chart. The first of these, "Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine", peaked at number 25 in December 1989. After it came the "
Dumas Walker", about a then-74-year-old
marbles player who owned a
liquor store that the band frequented. According to Doug, Mercury was reluctant to release the song as a single: "[The label] thought it was too regional, and that no one outside the area would get it, but what they didn't see, was the reaction we got to it every night that we played it in front of a crowd, and it didn't matter where we were playing either."
[8] The single peaked at number 15 on the
Billboard
chart. Following "Dumas Walker" was the band's only top ten hit at number eight, "Oh Lonesome Me", and finishing off the single releases was "Rock 'n' Roll Angel" at number 23, which Richard Young wrote.
Pickin' on Nashville
also earned the band a
Grammy Award for
Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, Best New Vocal Group award from the
Academy of Country Music, and Album of the Year and Vocal Group of the Year awards from the
Country Music Association.
In addition, it earned a double-platinum certification from the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping two million copies in the United States.
[9] William Ruhlmann of
Allmusic gave the album a four-and-a-half star rating out of five, saying that the band was "all the better" for having a sound closer to rock than country.
After the success of its debut album, The Kentucky Headhunters began touring with
Hank Williams, Jr. and
Delbert McClinton.
[10]
Electric Barnyard
In 1991, the band released its second album,
Electric Barnyard
. Although the album earned a gold certification from the RIAA
and the band's second Country Music Association Vocal Group of the Year award, its singles received little airplay compared to the band's previous releases,
[11] with none of the four singles reaching the top 40 on the U.S. country charts. The album's first single was a cover of "
The Ballad of Davy Crockett", which was released on the 155th anniversary of
Davy Crockett's death.
[12] The label released the single along with promotional
coonskin caps.
[13]
"With Body and Soul" was the next single released; it peaked at number 30 on the Canadian
RPM
country charts. The third and fourth singles, respectively, were the original composition "It's Chitlin' Time" and a cover of
Waylon Jennings' "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line".
Norman Greenbaum's 1969 single "
Spirit in the Sky" was covered on this album as well.
This album was met with mixed reception from critics.
Alanna Nash of
Entertainment Weekly
gave it an A rating, saying that it "skillfully blends raw wit, the working-class energy of sweat-stained factory workers jamming between shifts, and musical styles as diverse as the corny
Tennessee Ernie Ford and the creamy
Eric Clapton".
Allmusic critic Brian Mansfield, who gave it three-and-a-half stars, called the band a "top-notch Southern rock band with a sense of humor", and said that the covers on
Electric Barnyard
were highlights, while the originals were "adequate, offbeat filler".
[14] Randy Lewis of the
Los Angeles Times
called the band "
ZZ Top lite" and said that most of the songs on the album had a "party-hearty sound".
[15]
Later in 1991, The Kentucky Headhunters performed with
Roy Rogers on the song "That's How the West Was Swung" from his
Roy Rogers Tribute
album,
[16] and recorded "Let's Work Together" for the
soundtrack to the film
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man
.
[17] In addition, Martin played lead guitar for Canadian
synthpop band
Men Without Hats on its 1991 album
Sideways
[18] and filled in for
Southern rock band
Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist
Ed King on that band's 1992 tour, as King was injured at the time.
[19]
Departure of Ricky Lee and Doug Phelps
Ricky Lee and Doug departed in June 1992 due to creative differences. According to Richard Young, Ricky Lee's tenure as lead vocalist was "a bad time" for the band given his opposition to Richard's opinions, although Richard was still surprised to hear of the brothers' departure,
and said, "I tried everything I could to get them to stay."
[20] Ricky Lee, meanwhile, said that he "was a country singer more than anything" and wanted to eliminate most of the band's hard rock sounds.
[21] He and Doug then founded
Brother Phelps, which had a more mainstream country sound than The Kentucky Headhunters did.
[22] Brother Phelps released two albums for
Asylum Records and charted in the country top 40 with "Let Go" and "Were You Really Livin' ", which peaked at number 6 and 28 respectively.
''Rave On
|''===
Kenney rejoined in 1992 as bass guitarist, and
Charlotte, Michigan native Mark S. Orr took over on lead vocals.
The first album to feature Orr and Kenney, the more
blues rock-oriented ''Rave On
|
, was released in 1993. Although the band drew attention by touring with then-labelmate Billy Ray Cyrus,
Rave On
|
sold poorly and failed to produce a successful single among its three releases: "Honky Tonk Walkin' ", "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (another Bill Monroe cover), and "Dixie Fried", which was written and originally recorded by Carl Perkins. The album also included a cover of The Lovin' Spoonful's "My Gal". Mansfield gave a two-star rating for Allmusic, where he wrote that the band had "devolved into a redneck boogie group". [23] Nash's review for
Entertainment Weekly
gave it a C- grade, and called it "warmed-over blues" that lacked the "outrageousness, wit, and brilliance that distinguished their earlier albums". [24] Steve Morse of
The Boston Globe called it an "irresistible car-stereo album", [25] and
Rolling Stone'' critic John Swenson said that the album was more rock-oriented than its predecessors, and that it "sounds like a hell of a blueprint for a summer concert tour".
[26]
The Orr-led lineup also recorded
That'll Work
, a collaborative album with
Chuck Berry's pianist,
Johnnie Johnson.
It was released later in 1993 via
Nonesuch Records, and it comprised twelve songs which Johnson and the band wrote over the course of four days.
[27] One year later, Mercury released a
greatest hits package,
The Best of The Kentucky Headhunters: Still Pickin'
. It reprised singles from the band's first three albums, as well as "Let's Work Together" and a cover of
The Beatles' "
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", which the band had previously recorded on the 1994 tribute album
Shared Vision: The Songs of the Beatles
.
[28] After
Still Pickin
, The Kentucky Headhunters left Mercury.
Stompin' Grounds
Orr left The Kentucky Headhunters in August 1995 because he "was wantin' to do somethin' else," according to Richard.
[29] Richard then called Doug and invited him to rejoin the band. As a result, Brother Phelps disbanded and Ricky Lee pursued a solo career.
In 1997, The Kentucky Headhunters signed to
BNA Records to release its fourth non-collaborative studio album,
Stompin' Grounds
, with Doug on lead vocals. This album was also an unsuccessful venture, failing to enter the country albums charts and producing only a number 70-peaking cover of "
Singing the Blues", a song which was originally a pop hit for
Guy Mitchell in 1956 and was later covered by
Marty Robbins.
[30] In order to promote the album, Richard suggested that the label send free copies to smaller-market radio stations, where the band's fanbase was still strong.
He also considered the album's original songs as the strongest that the band had ever written.
[31] While Brian Wahlert of
Country Standard Time
magazine wrote that it "may be the band's best album ever",
[32] Thom Owens gave the album two-and-a-half stars in his Allmusic review, where he wrote that the band "show[ed] a lack of imagination" and "sound[ed] considerably less energetic and exciting" than on the first two albums.
[33]
Richard, along with Stan Webb and former
MCA Nashville Records artist
Marty Brown, wrote
Tracy Byrd's 1998 single "
I'm from the Country". Brown and the band also recorded the song's demo version.
[34]
Songs from the Grass String Ranch
Songs from the Grass String Ranch
, the band's next album, was completed almost 18 months before its release. The band had consulted with thirty-eight different independent labels before signing to Audium Entertainment, a branch of Koch Records (now
E1 Music), which released the album in 2000.
Three months before its release, Richard suffered a
heart attack, from which he soon recovered.
Because the "Singing the Blues" cover had been unsuccessful, the group decided to record entirely original songs for
Songs from the Grass String Ranch
. All five members co-wrote all of the songs, with assistance from Verlon Dale Grissom on four of them.
[35] In addition, this album featured the Youngs on lead vocals for the first time: Fred on "Dry-Land Fish" and Richard on "Louisianna CoCo".
The title track was inspired by a nickname given to the Youngs' family farm.
"Too Much to Lose" was the album's first single, peaking at number 66 on
Billboard
country chart. Richard considered this song an unusual single release because it was the band's first
ballad.
Neither of the next two singles, "Louisianna CoCo" and "Love That Woman", appeared on the music charts. Giving it three stars out of five, Al Campbell of Allmusic said that it was "crowd-pleasing" but "nothing out of the ordinary".
[36] An uncredited review in
The Ledger
, which gave the album two-and-a-half stars out of four, said that the up-tempo songs were "nothing very original[…]but lots of fun" but added that its ballads were "mushy and earnest".
[37]
Soul
Soul
followed in 2003, also on Audium.
This album also featured Johnnie Johnson, as well as guest appearances by organist
Reese Wynans (of
Double Trouble),
saxophone player
Jim Horn, and a local musician named Robbie Bartlett,
who shared lead vocals on "Everyday People". It included the non-charting single "Lonely Nights" and a tribute song to Carl Perkins entitled "Last Night I Met Carl Perkins", as well as two covers: "I Still Wanna Be Your Man", originally recorded by
Eddie Hinton, and "
Have You Ever Loved a Woman?", a
blues standard made famous by
Eric Clapton.
[38] This album received generally favorable reviews. Mark Deming gave a three-star rating for Allmusic, saying that the album's more
rhythm and blues and
soul-influenced sound worked well due to the blues influences present in Southern rock, although he added that the album retained the "big guitar bombast" of the band's previous works.
[39] Matt Bjorke of
About.com considered its sound a departure from the earlier albums, but added "it's not hard to see that the band fully enjoys what they are doing" and highlighted the presence of a
horn section and
Hammond B-3 organ on some tracks.
Ray Waddell of
Billboard
magazine considered Wynans' and Johnson's contributions "perfect fits", and noted that the album was "laid back" until the second half. His review also mentions the extended drum solo and "stone blues coda" of the closing track "What You See Is What You Get".
[40]
Big Boss Man
and Flying Under the Radar
In 2005, the band signed to the CBuJ Entertainment label. Its first release for the label was
Big Boss Man
, an album composed entirely of cover songs.
This album was led off by its
title track, a cover of the
Jimmy Reed blues standard.
[41] Also released from it were renditions of
Roger Miller's "
Chug-a-Lug" and
Hank Williams' "Take These Chains from My Heart". The project was financed by
Sony/ATV Music Publishing as a means of making extra money from older songs in the publishing company's catalog.
[42] Richard helped select the songs for this album, which included three other Hank Williams covers,
as well as
Bob Dylan's "
Like a Rolling Stone", The Beatles' "
I'm Down", and
Patsy Cline's "
Walkin' After Midnight", among others.
[43] Despite saying that the album was "obviously aimed at longtime fans", Greg Prato of Allmusic gave it three-and-a-half stars, with his review making note of the "beefed-up" Patsy Cline and Hank Williams covers.
[44] Ray Waddell of
Billboard
called the album "loose and rowdy", saying that the band "injected soul" into the Dylan cover and recorded an "intoxicating" version of "Chug-a-Lug", although he said that the "
Hey Good Lookin'" cover was "heavy-handed".
Robert Woolridge gave a mostly-favorable review for
Country Standard Time
, citing "Chug-a-Lug" and "So Sad to See Good Love Go Bad" (originally by
The Everly Brothers) as the most country-sounding. He also described three of the Hank Williams covers positively, but said that Phelps did not have a suitable vocal range for "I'm Down" and that his voice was monotonous on "Walkin' After Midnight".
[45]
One year later, CBuJ Entertainment released the compilation
Flying Under the Radar
, which comprised selections from
Songs from the Grass String Ranch
,
Soul
and
Big Boss Man
, as well as two new songs and a
remix of "Chug-a-Lug".
Kenney left the band around 2008 and took a job as the technical director of a movie theater in Glasgow, Kentucky;
[46] Doug has since taken over on bass guitar.
Work with other artists
Richard co-produced some tracks on
Flynnville Train's self-titled
debut album, which was released on September 11, 2007 by
Show Dog Nashville, a label owned by
Toby Keith.
[47] This album includes the song "Truck Stop in the Sky", which Richard and Fred co-wrote with two of Flynnville Train's members, brothers Brent Flynn and David Flynn.
[48] Also in 2007, Greg Martin released a
gospel rock album called
The Mighty Jeremiahs
, as a side project. The album features
Jimmy Hall of
Wet Willie and
Jeff Beck, plus appearances by members of The Kentucky Headhunters,
Phil Keaggy,
Darrell Mansfield (for whom Martin has previously played) and others.
[49] [50] Martin also played for Hall on his 2007 album
Build Your Own Fire
, a tribute album to Eddie Hinton.
[51] In 2009, Martin also began a side project called Rufus Huff with Chris Hardesty, Dean Smith and Jarrod England. This side project released an album via Zoho Music in April 2009.
[52] [53]
Richard's son, John Fred Young, plays drums in the rock band
Black Stone Cherry. The band practices at the same farm house where The Kentucky Headhunters once rehearsed.
[54]
Musical styles
The band's sound is influenced by
country music,
blues,
Southern rock and
heavy metal,
[55] and has been described as "guitar-heavy, rambunctious music".
[56] Lead singer Doug Phelps' voice has been described as "alternately suggest[ing]
Count Basie's storied blues shouter
Jimmy Rushing and the laid-back cool of
Eagle Glenn Frey."
[57] The band's combination of styles is most notable in its cover song choices on early albums. All three Mercury albums contain a
Bill Monroe cover, and other covers on these albums include
Waylon Jennings,
Carl Perkins,
Norman Greenbaum and
The Lovin' Spoonful.
[58] Soul
showcased the band's blues and
R&B influences.
[59] [60] The band's original compositions, such as "Dumas Walker" and the title track to
Songs from the Grass String Ranch
, often develop a regional theme.
At its peak in the early 1990s, The Kentucky Headhunters was considered a
dark horse in country music, due to the significant mainstream attention that the band received despite its rougher sound and the members' rural Southern image.
[61] [62] In 1991,
Entertainment Weekly
critic Alanna Nash wrote that although the band did not sell as many albums as contemporaries
George Strait or
Garth Brooks, "they may just end up redefining country for the '90s" given the diverse range of influences and styles.
[63] Billboard
critic Ray Waddell called the band "arguably the most consistent and durable Southern rock outfit on the planet."
[64]
Band members
- Greg Martin – lead guitar, background vocals (1968–1982, 1986–present)
- Doug Phelps – bass guitar, background vocals (1968–1992); lead vocals (1995–ca. 2008); lead vocals, bass guitar (ca. 2008–present)
- Fred Young – drums, percussion, lead and background vocals (1968–1982, 1986–present)
- Richard Young – rhythm guitar, lead and background vocals (1968–1982, 1986–present)
Former members
- Anthony Kenney – bass guitar, harmonica, background vocals (1968–1982, 1992–ca. 2008)
- Mark S. Orr – lead vocals (1992–1995)
- Ricky Lee Phelps – lead vocals, harmonica (1986–1992)
Discography
Albums
- Pickin' on Nashville
(1989)
- Electric Barnyard
(1991)
- ''Rave On
|'' (1993)
- The Best of The Kentucky Headhunters: Still Pickin'
(1994)
- Stompin' Grounds
(1997)
- Songs from the Grass String Ranch
(2000)
- Soul
(2003)
- Big Boss Man
(2005)
- Flying Under the Radar
(2006)
Awards
Year
| Association
| Category
|
1989
| Academy of Country Music
|
- Top New Vocal Duo or Group
|
1990
| Country Music Association
|
- Album of the Year (Pickin' on Nashville
) [65]
- Vocal Group of the Year
|
Grammy Awards
|
- Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (Pickin' on Nashville
) [66]
|
1991
| Country Music Association
|
|
References
- Kentucky Headhunters no shrinking violets
- Dixie Lullaby
- The Kentucky Headhunters biography
- Finger lickin' good: The Kentucky HeadHunters' fear of flying prevents them making British fans. Jasper Rees thinks they could do better
- The Kentucky Headhunters biography
- Kentucky Country
- The Kentucky Headhunters biography
- Get to know Doug Phelps
- RIAA search results for The Kentucky Headhunters
- Kentucky Headhunters explode
- Kentucky HeadHunters arise out of the ashes
- King of the wild frontier honored by Kentucky Headhunters
- Battle ready: After "Crockett" misfire, HeadHunters reload
- ''Electric Barnyard'' review
- ''Electric Barnyard'' review
- Roy Rogers: A biography
- ''Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man''
- Welcome to the infocenter
- Greg Martin
- Phelps brothers kiss off their Kentucky Headhunters career
- Country Music:The Encyclopedia
- Brother Phelps biography
- ''Rave On!!'' review
- ''Rave On!'' review
- ''Rave On!!'' review
- Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Kentucky Headhunters, Warren Haynes reviews
- Keeping the faith: The Kentucky Headhunters remain true to their fans
- ''Shared Vision: The Songs of The Beatles''
- Kentucky HeadHunters arise out of the ashes (page 2)
- Clutch Chest, Mention Record: HeadHunter Mending as Album Debuts
- Headhunters Back on ''Stompin' Grounds''
- ''Stompin' Grounds'' review
- ''Stompin' Grounds'' review
- Byrd watching: Tracy Byrd continues his hit-making ways
- Songs from the Grass String Ranch
- ''Songs from the Grass String Ranch'' review
- Music reviews
- ''Soul'' review
- ''Soul'' review
- Album reviews
- Headhunters' hits worth repeating
- The Kentucky Headhunters Rock Music Row
- ''Big Boss Man'' review
- ''Big Boss Man'' review
- ''Big Boss Man'' review
- His efforts are a tribute to Elvis
- Flynnville Train's New CD Due Sept. 11
- Listing for "Truck Stop in the Sky"
- The Mighty Jeremiahs
- A storm in the soul: The Mighty Jeremiahs
- ''Build Your Own Fire'' review
- Rufus Huff band a nice break for Kentucky Headhunter
- Rufus Huff
- Black Stone Cherry
- Review/Rock; Hard Country by Kentucky Headhunters
- ''Pickin' on Nashville'' review
- Picks and Pans Main: Song: Four Cool New
- ''Rave On!!'' review
- ''Soul'' review
- The Headhunters play a juke or two: Group travels from ''Nashville'' to Memphis on blues-based ''Soul''
- The Kentucky Headhunters
- The Kentucky Headhunters return
- ''Electric Barnyard'' review
- Music reviews: ''Big Boss Man''
- Artist Detail for The Kentucky Headhunters
- The Kentucky Headhunters Grammy Awards