Mr. Nashville Sound

CHM/CHS-1006 (1968)

 

Side 1:

Ride, Ride, Ride (Anderson)

There Goes My Everything (Frazier)

Turtle Neck (Green)

My Elusive Dreams (Putman - Sherrill)

No Another Time (Lane)

Swarmin' (Green)

 

Side 2: 

Promises, Promises (Hughey - Smith- Anderson)

Woman, Woman (Glaser- Payne)

Mr. Nashville Sound (Green)

Too Much of You (Hood)

In the Misty Moonlight (Walker)

Loose Ends (Green)

 

Produced by:

Slim Williamson & Joe Gibson

 

Arranged by:

Lloyd Green

 

    The “Nashville Sound” is known around the world. It’s those very popular commercial audio vibrations which have enhanced millions of music lovers into buying phonograph records. One of Nashville, Tennessee’s biggest industries, the “Nashville Sound” has been the subject of countless discussions and articles. Endless words of explanation and definition have been written about it. Interwoven in the makeup are many interesting stories.
    This album, MR. NASHVILLE SOUND, is by one of the many great musicians who help make up that fantastic sound—Lloyd Green, who was the recipient of Record World Magazine’s “Most Promising Instrumentalist Award” for 1967, and in that same year was voted “#1 Most-Promising Instrumentalist” in the Cash Box deejay poll.
    Now, I’d like to tell you his story.
    Lloyd Green started his musical career by playing for Faron Young on the road in 1958; however, in 1960 he quit the road. Looking for greener pastures, he became a shoe salesman. Although he stayed in Music City, U.S.A., Lloyd gave up playing steel guitar—in fact, he didn’t touch his guitar for almost two years. Roy Drusky was responsible for getting Green back into the music industry in 1964. Drusky, at that time administrator of the newly opened Nashville office of SESAC (one of the in­dustry’s three music licensing firms), hired Lloyd as his administrative assistant.
    When he started to work for SESAC, Lloyd, with a renewed interest in country music, began playing his steel again as a sideman on the Saturday night “Grand Ole Opry.” Then Slim Williamson used him on a few Chart sessions, and as time went by things started to click. Little did Lloyd know when he went to work for SESAC that three and half years later the demand for his talent on sessions would force him to resign his position.
    Any modern C&W fan can recognize the uninhibited creative style of Lloyd Green on his steel guitar, which has been featured on many of the “Nashville Sound” country smashes, such as Warner Mack’s The Bridge Washed Out, David Houston’s You Mean the World to Me, Lynn Anderson’s Ride, Ride, Ride and Promises, Promises, Charlie Pride’s / Know One, Faron Young’s Wonderful World of Women and others too numerous to men­tion. He does eight to ten sessions a week, and it’s needless to say that in almost five years of studio recording Lloyd has made records with practically every major recording artist. His self-penned Green Strings single gave Lloyd national recognition as an instrumentalist. As a writer, Lloyd has two Al Hirt recordings to his credit, one of which was a Top 5 finalist in the NARAS Awards competition—Trumpet Pickin’. He has also written four tunes in this album—Turtle Neck, Swarmin’, Loose Ends and Mr. Nashville Sound. He has been on television many times and his network appearances include “The Jimmy Dean Show” and “The Lawrence Welk Show.” It’s interesting to note that the first big hit Lloyd played on was Strangers by Roy Drusky, the guy who got Lloyd back into the business, and that the label he now records for, Chart, was the first to use him on sessions.
    Lloyd Green has played a big part in the successful Chart Records sound, so it’s justified that the Chart label should give to you a sound showcase for this once-upon-a-time shoe peddler, now a master of the peddle steel guitar.
    Now you know a little more about the Lloyd Green story and the confidence Chart Records has had in his talents. Let’s listen to this record for its sound value. MR. NASHVILLE SOUND contains the same Green sensationalism that’s put many a tune on the top of the national ratings. MR. NASHVILLE SOUND is hours of music entertainment, not because of the hours behind the creation of Green’s soulful sound but because of his own unique style, beautiful tone delivery and melody interpretation which will be a listening sound treat in anyone’s collection.

JOHN STURDIVANT
Record World


Liner Notes from the 1993 Double 10 Records 28C-9001 Re-Release:
 

Mr. Nashville Sound

    This album, the first of three I recorded for Chart Records, was recorded at R.C.A. Studio `B' in Nashville, Tennessee on two dates, Tuesday, August 13th and Tuesday, September 3rd, 1968.
    The recording engineer was Bill Vandevort. Among the musicians I selected for this instrumental album was: Piano - Hargus `Pig' Robbins, Bass - Jr. Huskey, Drums - Buddy Harman, Electric Guitar - Wayne Moss, Acoustic Guitar - Billy Sandord.
    On the first session I used the Anita Kerr singers for back­ground vocals, and on the second date I used Hurshel Wigenton and the Nashville Edition.
    As you listen, pay close attention to the tracks "No Another Time," "Promises, Promises," and "Too Much of You," you can hear my friend Lynn Anderson singing with the Nashville Edition. Lynn had already released hit vocal records of those three tunes and she asked me if she could sing on my instrumental versions since I had played on and produced hers. I accepted, of course, and you can hear her vocal influence on those cuts.
    By the time (1968) I recorded this album I was cutting between 500 and 600 records a year with other artists, consequently it was quite difficult to find the time in my schedule to do this project. This explains the time gap between the two sessions during which I recorded all twelve songs.
    With the exception of the four original songs I wrote for the occasions, "Turtle Neck," "Mr. Nashville Sound," and "Loose Ends," the songs were all hits of that late 1960s era.
     One other bit of minutiae concerns the appellation `Mr. Nashville Sound' by which I've been introduced countless times on shows, TX, etc. It had very little, if anything, to do with such a supercilious presumption, but instead was a direct derivative from this single album title. The introduction caught on but I always cringe when I hear it because the `Nashville Sound' is truly a composite of all the gifted musicians, singers, and recording engineers who work and record in Nashville, Tennessee, an industry that I was fortunate enough to have been a part of for twenty-five years.

Lloyd Green