May 31, 2024      —–     Chart #248

Hello Music Friends,

Friends, I usually give you a familiar tune in this blog, something that you remember and makes you reflect back on your youth. Occasionally I give you a genuine “B-side” deep cut, a song that is from my past but not necessarily one that received much air time. Today is a deep cut day from my high school years. And BTW, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week.

It’ll Shine When It Shines is the second album by the American country rock band The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, released in 1974. Their debut album had been successful enough to give the band the clout to record their follow-up effort on the musicians’ home turf. For the session, they cut their tracks in the pre-Civil War farmhouse that served as their rehearsal space, with producers Glyn Johns and David Anderle working from a mobile recording truck parked outside. The homey makeshift setup yielded a loose, organic vibe that invigorated material like Steve Cash’s tongue-in-cheek swamp-rocker “E.E. Lawson”.

Today’s selection is the title track of the album, It’ll Shine When It Shines.

Today’s selection is the title track of the album, It’ll Shine When It Shines.

This album contains the band’s biggest single, “Jackie Blue”, which reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975. The song was brought in by Larry Lee late in the session and recorded at the insistence of Johns, who cajoled Lee into altering his original lyrics about a drug-dealing friend into a fond ode to a free-spirited female loner.

Friends, this is a simple song that is easy to play and sing. Give it a try. Kick off your shoes, drink something out of a mason jar, and toss your worries aside for a few minutes.

Keep Rockin’,

Stan Bradshaw