In the first two parts of this series, I covered Yankee Grey, Big House, Jamie O'Neal, Pinmonkey, Mark McGuinn and Kevin Sharp, all very talented folks. Here are three more country singers I thought would be big stars:
When I first heard Oklahoma born Kellie Coffey, I thought wow we have another Trisha Yearwood caliber singer in country music. She had a very good debut cd with "When You Lie Next to Me", which led to her winning a Top New Female Vocalist Award at the 2003 ACM's. Her uptempo single, "Texas Plates", reached # 24 in '03 - loved the video too - and she followed it up with a great cover of the Luther Vandross song, "Dance With My Father", which Vandross co-wrote with Richard Marx.
Kellie's second album, "Walk On", was self-released in 2007 and failed to chart. The album's only single, "I Would Die for That", met the same fate chartwise. The song, written by Trina Harmon, James Slater and Kellie, dealt with the issue of infertility. She would die to have a baby. "With every test and checkup, we're told not to give up, he wonders if it's him, I wonder if it's me". The album also included great uptempo songs "Bandwagon" and, my favorite, "It". Give "It" a listen to see what it is.
Kellie didn't just show up and sing on her albums. She co-wrote 7 of the 11 tracks on her debut cd and 11 of the 12 tracks on "Walk On". Perhaps the lack of success for the second cd can be partially attributed to the fact that she never toured in support of it. With two young children she may have decided to pack it in, at least temporarily. The news section of her website hasn't been updated since July of '08.
My Sappy Songs post of 9/29/08, included two hits from Tammy Cochran. She had a #9 hit in 2001 with "Angels in Waiting", written by Jim McBride, Stewart Harris and Tammy. In '02, "Life Happened", written by Kerry Kurt Phillips and Patrick Matthews, made it to #20. Two other songs made the top 40 but she's had nothing significant in the way of chart success since. The line in "Angels" that always gets to me is "They always knew they wouldn't grow old, sometimes the body is weaker than the soul". Her two older brothers, Shawn and Alan, died of cystic fibrosis.
Her last two albums were on independent labels. "Where I Am" in '07 and "30 Something and Single" in '09, failed to produce any hit singles. On the last album, she co-wrote all but one song (a cover of "Stand By Your Man"). Three songs were written with Gary Harrison, the title track, "It's All Over But the Leaving" and "He Really Thinks He's Got It". Love the line from the last about unwanted attentions from "Mr. 1979", "I'll bet you've tasted pepper spray a time or two". There was also a song called "Half the World Away (Shawn's Song)" about her adoption of a boy from Guatemala whom she named Shawn Alan.
Although Tammy's still without a major record label deal and her website hasn't been updated in almost two years, she does still perform occasionally. I saw her at the Bluebird Cafe four months ago and she sounded great.
Michael Peterson's country music career got off to a great start when his first 3 singles cracked the top 10. In 1997, "Drink, Swear, Steal and Lie" made it to #3 and "From Here to Eternity" hit the top spot. In 1998, "Too Good to Be True" reached #8 but "When the Bartender Cries" peaked at #37. He had a few minor hits in 1999 to close out the century, but nothing in the top 40 since then. If you're new to his music, a good start would be to buy the Warner Brothers Nashville Super Hits Volume 5 album, Michael Peterson. (It's available on i-Tunes.) Besides the hits, there are two excellent duets, "I Finally Passed the Bar" with Travis Tritt and "Two of the Lucky Ones" with Bekka Bramlett.
I saw Michael at the Bluebird Cafe here in Nashville twice. He's a great singer and songwriter and has a good sense of humor. You can see him perform his funny song about living life in reverse, "From The Grave to the Cradle", on You-Tube. As a songwriter, in addition to co-writing most of his own hits and album tracks, he's penned such great songs as "My Heart Is Bethlehem" for John Berry and "Right About Now" for Ty Herndon, the first a solo writing effort, the last with Darrell Brown.
Peterson has traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan nine times to perform for the troops. In addition, he's been involved with the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival and is creating a music project for the Military Child Education Coalition.
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