From the Old Country
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By then Thompson was recording for Capitol Records, but unlike many of the musicians on the label’s young country roster he didn’t move to the west coast. He stayed in Texas–and went on to forge one of the most successful careers any country singer has ever had, racking up nearly 80 hits between the late 40s and the early 80s. His band, the Brazos Valley Boys, played a driving take on western swing fueled by a twin-fiddle front line, but Thompson’s cleanly articulated vocals were straight out of honky-tonk. (George Strait would later put this blend to good use.) Thompson is still best known for the 1952 smash hit “The Wild Side of Life,” which not only topped the country charts for 15 weeks but launched the career of Kitty Wells, inspiring her answer song “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
Thompson’s stardom waned in the 1970s with the advent of country pop, and he’s no longer an active recording artist. He still plays about 100 dates a year, between county fairs, TV appearances, and the occasional nightclub gig, but he reckons his gig at Schubas on Saturday night is his first in Chicago since the 70s. In an interview from his home in Keller, Texas, Thompson compared the industry today to the one he remembers from his prime. “Back then country record labels weren’t interested in the short haul,” he says. “If they took you they had the idea that you were good enough and different enough that you would be a seller for years to come, not for just one or two hit records like they do today, where they cookie-cut you.”
The cure for Buena Vista Social Club fever is coming this fall, with concerts by Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, and Barbarito Torres. But if you can’t wait, consider a dose of Familia Valera Miranda in the meantime. The group, which plays a pristine, old-fashioned style of son on bass, acoustic guitar, tres, and percussion, actually has nothing to do with Ry Cooder’s phenomenally successful project. But in 1995, about six months before the Club convened, it did cut a great version of Compay Segundo’s “Chan Chan”–which has become the Buena Vista Social Club signature tune–for its album Caña Quema (Nimbus). Familia Valera Miranda performs this Saturday at 7:30 PM as part of the city’s free Summerdance series, in Grant Park’s Spirit of Music Garden (on Michigan between Balbo and Harrison), and later that night at HotHouse on a bill with Mambo Express.
