Sammy Kershaw

One Liner: "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" plus some other classics from the 90's

Wikipedia Genre: Country
Home: Kaplan, Louisiana

Saturday

Thoughts:  Words that just came out of my mouth - "oh hell yeah, that's a BANGER."  Had no recollection of what this cat sang, but "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" is a legit classic.  Those pesky One Direction kids tried to copy the message of it and became insanely popular, but this classic still abides.  This was the kind of song you use to carefully choose the girl you are going to dance with, so that as you sing the lyrics gently near her ear she can feel in your passion that you are talking about her.  RIP 13 year old Jack at a summer camp Rodeo dance.  RIP 19 year old Jack at Calhoun's in Sherman, Texas.

Samuel Paul Kershaw was born in south Louisiana, and is a third cousin to Doug Kershaw.  His father died when Sammy was 11, and so he started playing local roadhouses to try to support his family.  That sentence is hard AF.  When he was 12, he met his idol, Beaumont's-own, George Jones.  After that, he got the opportunity to open for Jones, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price, while still a teenager.  Unfortunately, this time also saw him grab on to a drug addiction.  But, he got clean in 1988 and started releasing albums in 1991.

Sixteen studio albums.  Three platinum and two gold.  More than 25 singles in the top 40, with ten of those into the top ten, but strangely only one #1.  The first album, Don't Go Near the Water, was released in 1991 and boasted his second-best charting song, with "Cadillac Style."  8.4 million streams now.

Amazingly awful video right there.  Love it.  He actually sounds like George Jones there.  Awesome that the trolleys in N.O. still look exactly the same, 30 years later.  But still, good song.  Classic move of combining something like car details with loving details.  I seriously love that video.  So bad and so good.

HIs second album had the banger - Haunted Heart was released in 1993.  "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" is the jam.  106 million streams.

Bummer, I was wanting an official video.  How do these artists not just go get the original master from CMT and get those suckers uploaded.  Obviously still a market for them.  His voice is great, the lyrics rule, just an all-timer right there.  Also on that album, "Neon Leon" has the tune (or piano line) of "Elvira," and makes me think he is talking about Deion Sanders the whole time.  "coolest man in the world for a town this size" is a great line.  And his other major hit is also on that album, "Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer."  42.6 million streams.

Oh come on, the start of that video looks like it is going to be the best there has ever been, and then he goes all moody like he's too good for the tried-and-true.  I do like that the guy in his story is named Earl, I wonder if that is where The Chicks got that name for their song.  "The king of the torque wrench."  I also very much like the descriptives with the "polyester curtains and the redwood deck."  "Love of My Life" is some smooth, easy-listening action.  Kenny Rogers has entered the chat.

My guy made a boss move as well, with his third album being a Christmas album.  Just flips a bird at fame and throws out an album of classic Christmas action.  But in 1994 he got back to business and releasing the normal country gold.  1994's Feelin' Good Train (which sounds like something that happens at a swingers party) included the hit "Third Rate Romance."  13.4 million streams.

Comes out of the gate like that "Baby's got her blue jeans on" song.  Wait, is that this guy too? (he actually covered it - I wonder if his is the version I know or if it was the original?)  Apparently, this was a cover, which I did not know.  The next album has an awful title - Politics, Religion and Her.  Ugh.  I'm not going to go through all of these albums now, because their popularity is steadily decreasing over time.  But in here somewhere he married singer Lorrie Morgan, who is sadly not on this lineup because that would have been fun (oh, nevermind, they are now divorced).  He's still throwing some music out in to the ether, but not much in the way of stream counts now for his last few albums.  He cracked a million with a cover of "Won't Back Down" in 2015, but it is pretty bad so I'm not bringing that to you.  I guarantee he created it so that he could use it on stage for political rallies without getting a C&D from Petty's estate.

Because, in a strange, and more recent development, he ran as a Republican for Governor of Louisiana twice - 2007 and 2010.  Both times, he finished third.

Just for "She Don't Know She's Beautiful," this guy is a real one.  Not sure if I care enough to go see the show, but it would likely be fun.