|
 During
the early '80s, Alabama's blend of country, Southern rock and
middle-of-the-road pop made them one of the most popular groups in the
country and redefined the concept of "country band" in the process.
Where most country groups of the time were either vocal groups modeled
after Southern gospel quartets or bluegrass-influenced bands, Alabama
reflected the notion of a rock band, where the members played their own
instruments and wrote their own songs.
The group never pretended to be much more than a glorified bar band,
which is exactly what they were when cousins Randy Owen, Jeff Cook and
Teddy Gentry formed in Fort Payne, Alabama as Wildcountry in 1969.
Eventually they worked their way to the bars of Myrtle Beach, South
Carolina, playing with a number of drummers until settling on Mark
Herndon in the late '70s. The group changed its name to Alabama in 1977
and recorded two top 40 hits for the independent MDJ label before
signing to RCA. Back in the days when a successful country album sold
100,000 units, Alabama cranked out six multi-platinum albums named after
some of their most popular hits--40 Hour Week, Feels So Right, My Home's
In Alabama, etc. Alabama won the Country Music Association's Entertainer
Of The Year award from 1982-1984, the only act to take the honor three
times. The group has sold more than 55 million albums and remains more
popular with fans than with critics or the industry: they've won only
two Grammys, but in 1989, the fan-voted TNN/Music City News Awards named
Alabama the top country act of the '80s, and the band has won the
American Music Awards for Favorite Group every year from 1983-1996.
By 1990, Alabama was relying on too much outside material and sounding
tired (and they sometimes say as much themselves). They revived somewhat
with Dancin' On The Boulevard, which featured more self-penned tunes
than they'd done in years and returned them to the beach-music sound of
their Myrtle Beach club-playing days.
|
HOME |
TICKETS |
SCHEDULE |
BIOGRAPHY 