David Houston - Where Love Used To Live/My Woman's Good To Me
In this week's episode we're featuring a typical David Houston album from his Epic heyday: "Where Love Used To Live/My Woman's Good To Me" (1969). Aside from his monster million-selling, Grammy-winning 1966 hit "Almost Persuaded", Houston hardly rates a mention in most conversations about 60s and 70s country music. A man gifted with an extraordinary vocal range, David Houston could effortlessly glide from warm baritone to lofty tenor and is a prime example of just how good the Nashville Sound could be. After Billy Sherrill signed Houston to Epic in the early 60s, Houston delivered the label it's first real hit with "Mountain Of Love" in 1963 and remained with the outfit for the next thirteen years or so. Sherrill's genius production touches are all over "Where Love Used To Live" - very similar touches on some tracks to Tammy Wynette hits of the same era - and with tasteful use of a chorus, sparing strings and the steel guitar of Pete Drake never far away, Houston's Epic output remains unmined gold. Highlights include a plodding lament to jealousy in "Where Love Used To Live" (catch those "I Don't Wanna To Play House" licks!); a tearjerker in "Lullaby To A Little Girl" and a reminder of how many hits David Houston had while at Epic on "David's Song".