In 1973, Columbia Records wisely turned the production of
Tanya Tucker's sophomore effort over to senior producer
Billy Sherrill. There was a lot at stake considering the kind of backlash country critics were infamous for.
Tucker and
Sherrill proved she was no fly-by-night child star with
What's Your Mama's Name. They put the songwriting team of Earl Montgomery and Dallas Frazier on the map with the title track, which was almost as catchy and certainly as lyrically deep as "Delta Dawn." When
Tucker sang "Horeshoe Bend," about a young woman losing her virginity to a rounder, people were captivated -- though not as much as they would be when she issued
David Allan Coe's "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)" a year later. In other words, the prurient interests of the country music public were piqued, but it didn't matter because
Tucker's voice kicked ass and the material was top-notch.
Sherrill's experimenting in the studio certainly paid off: even songs like "California Cotton Fields" and "Teddy Bear Song" balanced out the risqué tunes. It also didn't hurt that
Tucker is pictured on the back cover sitting on a porch swing in a coat holding a puppy. The mixture of a young woman's budding yet brazen sexuality and innocence combined with the voice of a fully developed artist were too much to resist, even for cynics. Her traditional chips were unquestionable given her
Hank Williams cover on her debut and "California Cotton Fields" (also by Montgomery and Frazier) here, which slotted her in the mainstream for good. While the second side is as strong as the first, it is marked by the genius read of Curly Putman's "Blood Red and Goin' Down," a tragic story of a father relating the story of his unfaithful wife to his daughter before taking homicidal action on the illicit lovers. Given that it was the second single, it proved that
Tucker's story songs were exactly what the public wanted from her. With
the Nashville Edition and
the Jordanaires behind her, the song is bigger than life. "Song Man" was a small taste of the kind of country-rock and pop that
Tucker would pioneer later in her career, making for an album every bit as -- and more -- satisfying than her debut. ~ Thom Jurek