Country and western music hasn't always been a niche genre. "Gunfighter Ballads" peaked at No. 6 on the pop albums chart.Marty Robbins is interesting. He won two straight Grammys, one for "Gunfighter Ballads" and the second for the appropriately titled "More Gunfighter Ballads." The story told in "El Paso" has sequels -- "Faleena" and "El Paso City."
Most fascinating about the man is that he was an avid race car driver and actually drove in a number of actual NASCAR races (back when NASCAR was totally uncool) and finished in the top 10 six times, including one in the Daytona 500.
Compared to today, that's literally like Garth Brooks breaking Spring Training as the San Diego Padres' left fielder and hitting .280.
1 comment:
Thanks for remembering Marty Robbins! I've just finished writing the first draft of "Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins" and am shooting for 2012 publication of the biography. That will be the thirtieth anniversary of his death.
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