Here are my articles this week from WQMX.com in case you missed any of them. Thanks for reading and thanks for listening every morning!

Grab a coffee and earbuds and enjoy!

My Sunday Morning Song

BROWNS - Playing In The Neighbors Yard

50 Favorites From 40+ Years #14

Forgotten Jukebox GS-82

Country Music Memory Lane - Trisha Yearwood (Birthday Revisited)

Wynn At The Movies

Box Office Results -   The Nun 2  -  (15 Million)

#2 A Haunting In Venice  -  (14 Million)        #3 Equalizer   -  (8 million)

New This Week - Expendables 4 / Dumb Money (Trailer Inappropriate For Here) 

Deal? - Actor-turned-mogul Byron Allen has offered $10 billion for ABC, which Disney is intent on selling by the end of the year 

Word Is  - Good progress is being made in the writers strike and a resolution is possibly near 

Drew Barrymore - Has shut down her talk show after blowback of starting it up during the writers strike

After September 29^th - Netflix will no longer rent DVDs by mail -- and will be winding down that part of its business altogether 

This Weekend – Check out my Country Music Memory Lane -  (link)

Also - My 50 Favorites Over 40+ Years This Week #14  - (Link)

Plus - My Sunday Morning Song -  (Link)

This week Trisha Yearwood has a birthday.  She is one of the best vocalists in any format over the past 30 years. So let's look at her career and revisit the article I wrote on her a year or two ago.

Thanks for listening and reading everyday!

Trisha Yearwood Birthday - (Revisited)

If You're Thinkin' You Want A Stranger  - George Strait - 1982  (Album -Strait Country)

This was the first song I ever heard from George Strait when I got into Country Radio at WOBL in Oberlin, Ohio.  It has remained a special song for me as I was learning country at the time. Strait was new in country as was I, and believe it or not he hadn't had a number one yet. That would be his next song, Fool Hearted Memory a few months later.  This was pure country in the Urban Cowboy era, and this sound was very different than many of the songs on the charts then.  It was at the genesis of the movement that started steering country away from the format-less Urban Cowboy stuff.  It would take a while, but of course George Strait went on to have 60 plus number one songs and get the moniker "King Of Country".  I remember getting a lot of calls for his music early on and fans liking his far more traditional sound.  He with John Anderson, Ricky Skaggs, Hank Jr, Reba, Earl Thomas Conley, Alabama and others were going a very different way and fans liked it.  This is an underrated George Strait song, and if you've never heard it, take a listen.  #3 in 1982.

Dwight Yoakam - Ain't That Lonely Yet  - 1993

Writing this I understand for many Dwight Yoakam is an acquired taste.  With that being said, Yoakam was still very instrumental in helping country turn a big corner that needed to be negotiated in the mid 1980's.  As popular as he was, his polarization started from the beginning.  For some, he was just too much, but for others he was the most welcome avant garde savior.  He's a true original, as there is no one else like him -  that is definite and damn rare.  As time went on he branched out to record many different styles of country.  But to me as solid as the early Yoakam was, this was his crown jewel, grabbing a Grammy, a CMA, and a number two hit.  From the album, This Time  which was a gigantic hit and a stellar seller,  I felt this song and album was Yoakam in microcosm.  His performance is perfect as you feel his sorrow and resolve all at the same time. This album sold millions and this song is the main reason why, even though there were other strong hits off of it.  If it's been a while, take a listen and see if Yoakam hits you the same, or differently than maybe years ago.  This to me, this is simply classic.

Last Week #15

The Browns had a nice win last week and now it's on to Pittsburgh with the Steelers in another big divisional game.  I have stated in the years I have been writing about the Browns, success in the long run in any season comes down to their play against the Steelers.  If you want to win this division, the Browns must beat the Steelers twice in a year.  We don't do it, almost without fail.  Last year was the year to do it, and we didn't.  But that's behind us and so are all the other years.

The Browns have typically played the Ravens and the Bengals well, splitting many years and getting the occasional sweep against one of them. But Pittsburgh is a very different story.  We just don't win in the neighbors yard and this is the year that needs to change.  Again, like last week there are no more excuses.  This Browns team is better than them overall.  But where the Steelers are better is crucial.  They're a better organization by far, better coached, with better tradition over the last 50 years.  Plus they need a win badly after being humiliated last week at home.  They'll be in a mood.

The Browns have a good opportunity here to really kick em where it hurts.  If you can win there you'll be 2-0 and the same in the division with the Steeler road game fading in the rear view mirror as the weeks go forward.  If you stumble, you've brought yourself back to the pack  - and it's on.  But right now the Browns are riding the wave of last week and the tide is going out on the Steelers, this is the chance to get it done. 

But make no mistake the Steelers will be ready to defend their back yard especially after last weeks darn rare debacle.  This game could set the tone for the rest of the Browns season even more than the Bengal game did. This is a game many have us losing even though the odds makers have us as a slight favorite.  I don't care what team is favored, or on the way up or down, this will be a challenge for either team to win.  I would have preferred the Steelers to win last week.  They will never admit it, but they are desperate. And if they win, things go back to normal for them, and sadly us.

Last week was a good win for the Browns.  Great defense, enough offense and the absence of ridiculous in game decisions that have plagued this team the last two years.  The dye has been cast, now execute the plan. 

Beat the Steelers this week and you do yourself a whole lot of good, for right now and for much later.

GO BROWNS!

Jordan Davis  - Tucson Too Late

Jordan Davis has come a long way in a short time.  When he first hit the charts, there was a mix of excitement and skepticism as there always is with new artists.   Newbies are tough to breakthrough for long term success, but he has done it successfully.  This new song is another hit.  I have liked his last couple of songs as they are adult, real, and just flat out good.  Next Thing You Know  is fantastic and so is What My World Spins Around.  I feel the best love songs are the ones that are believable, like his last two mentioned above.  They are written and performed from a real life perspective, not some point of worship or pedestal placing.  This one is too.  I know this is a "love too late"  song, but it's still a love song, and just as real as the others only with a different outcome.  There are very distant echoes of By The Time I Get To Phoenix  here, and that's fine too.  This song is real and just  - good.  Well done.

In case you missed some of my articles this week from WQMX.com  - Grab some coffee and your earbuds and get caught up. Thanks for reading and for listening!

Browns - There Is No Excuse

Eat Of The Week

50 Favorites From 40+ Years #15

Forgotten Jukebox A-50

Country Music Memory Lane - Montgomery Gentry

Wynn At The Movies And More

Box Office Results -  The Nun 2  -  (33 Million)

#2 Equalizer 3 -   13 Million

#3 Greek Wedding -  10 Million

New This Week - A Haunting In Venice / The Inventor

Taylor Swifts  - Era's Movie release date of October 13 has changed the release date of FIVE Hollywood actual movie releases including The Exorcist and Meg Ryan's new rom/com

T-Swifty - Cinemark will offer Swifties the chance to rent out an entire theater for a private show. 40 people guaranteed seats, cost $800 -- or just about the price of one ticket for the live show 

After September 29^th - Netflix will no longer rent DVDs by mail -- and will be winding down that part of its business altogether 

Marvel's - Visual effects workers have unanimously voted to unionize, giving the studio yet another potential strike to worry about 

George and Amal Clooney - Are selling their famed Lake Como villa in Northern Italy for a whopping $107 million.

Seems – The Tonight Show isn't a very good place to work.  Jimmy Fallon is rumored to be incredibly difficult – legal action is possible!

This Weekend – Check out my Country Music Memory Lane

Also - My 50 Favorites Over 40+ Years This Week #15 (Link)

  When Montgomery Gentry hit the charts, country was in the middle of unparalleled success and popularity. This duo had its work cut out for them as we had a bevy of big stars ruling the charts, plus Brooks And Dunn was by far the dominant duo in our format.  But what MG did very well was flashlight for that niche and capitalize on it while finding a different sound and image that would be a separator from the fierce competition. They did it, and had a great run on the charts for a number of years assembling a huge and and exceedingly loyal following along their trek.

First Hit Single  - Got Them Noticed

But success was not immediate.  The first number of songs did not get a lot of traction, including a single called Hillbilly Shoes, which I loved.  It was a bit different, BUT there were those that called it their favorite song at that moment.  But it only went to #13. Lonely and Gone was next and went top ten. Then there was a series of misfires and their future seemed partly cloudy.  But interestingly enough that debut album, Tattoos And Scars, sold a lot of copies even without a massive hit from it. Fans wanted to like them and did.

First Top Ten Song

Then as I saw it from my seat behind the mic, they found their footing thanks to a big hit song. The next album, Carrying On and the single, She Couldn't Change Me  which was a top five hit, but for them it was bigger than that.   As much as any act I can recall after all these years, that song instantly defined them from that moment on.  It gave them a real identity that had been missing.  A terrific story song with a thump and a happy ending.  I feel that highly relatable record completely connected with fans, and in the grand scheme of things, we now had lot better idea of who they were and we liked it.  They were not Brooks And Dunn, they were authentically their own act and it's thanks to that single.

This Song Changed Everything

That was 2001, and the gateway had been jimmied opened to far greater success. Over the next eight years MG ran off a long list of big songs that were real fan favorites.  There were a few missteps as far as singles were concerned here and there but they chalked up a bunch of number one songs and a lot of other top tens and were real fan favorites.  Even a few undeniable country "anthems"  like My Town, Hell Yeah, and Something To Be Proud Of were hugely popular.

Hell Yeah!

Of course you more than likely know that Eddie Montgomery is John Michael Montgomery's brother, who left his brothers band to form MG with Troy Gentry and go their own way.  You may also know that Gentry was suddenly killed in a helicopter crash in September 2018, just days before they were to perform at the Wayne Country Fair, a show that I was hosting, he was 50.

My Town (Huge Hit With Fans)

Over their run they won CMA's, ACM's, and People's Choice Awards.  They have several million selling albums, some 40 singles and 5 number one songs.  They were very successful and extremely popular with fans but sadly their big run ended far too early.  After about 2010, their charting success was far less.  But as I have stated before, no one is guaranteed a 20 year run. 

One Of My Favorites From Them

But for their time, they were a big deal. Montgomery Gentry  - well done guys - well done.

Stations May Play This Song Forever