Search - Moe Bandy :: Once More

Moe Bandy: Cheating, Hard Drinking and Smoke-Filled Bars

Gerald Lyda | San Antonio, TX USA | 05/31/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Being from San Antonio, I have followed the career of Moe Bandy beginning in the late Sixties. In 1968, he was living with his family in a modest little house outside San Antonio and doing his own booking. The act was known as Moe Bandy & the Mavericks in those days. In 1973, my brother and I produced a youth rodeo at his father's rodeo arena in nearby Adkins, TX. Moe and his entire band performed for 45 minutes under a large oak tree during half-time. He had just signed with GRC Records which later recorded two of the songs on this album: "It Was Always So Easy (To Find an Unhappy Woman) and "Bandy the Rodeo Clown." Both 1974 releases reached #7 on Billboard's country chart. Shortly afterward, the band's name was changed to The Rodeo Clowns and Moe signed with Columbia Records.Along with the previously-mentioned GRC songs, this album features Columbia recordings made by Bandy between 1976 and 1982. Featured on these selections are top-flight Nashville artists such as The Jordanaires, Janie Fricke, Johnny Gimble on fiddle and mandolin and Charlie McCoy on harmonica. Highlights include: "Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life" (#2); "Two Lonely People" (#7); "I'm Sorry For You, My Friend" (#9); "I Cheated Me Right Out of You" (#1 Billboard hit); "It's a Cheating Situation" (#2 with Janie Fricke) and the nostalgic "Yesterday Once More (#10), Bandy's tribute to the music of Tex Ritter, Johnny Horton, Hank Williams, Left Frizzell, Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves. It's important to remember that Moe Bandy was one of a few country singers who embraced hard country music in the Seventies and kept the country fires burning. From 1976 to 1984, Bandy had a total of 34 Columbia singles that made the Billboard charts. Listen to this album and return to a long-gone era--where cheating, hard drinking and smoke-filled bars were synonymous with country music. They're just not recording this kind of music anymore!"