This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Ronnie Milsap's "Smoky Mountain Rain"
There are a number of reasons for me to feel plenty nostalgic about '70s and '80s country-pop hitmaker Ronnie Milsap. For one, a concert of his in Asheville, North Carolina that I attended with my parents as a nine-year-old was one of my first real live music experiences. For another, it always feels good to spotlight a fellow North Carolinian.Still, it might seem strange to focus on an artist as hugely successful as Milsap for this feature, given the singer's massive crossover success, which was particularly strong when this song was big in 1980 and 1981. This mournful, typically tuneful track from Milsap reached No. 1 on both the country and adult contemporary charts but was, oddly, one of Milsap's lesser pop hits of the period, stalling at No. 24. For this reason I'm pretty sure that "Smoky Mountain Rain" (which is a superior example of the kind of commercial, melodically accessible music some country purists hated at the time) has receded into the shadows of most '80s fans' musical memory banks. So I think it's a perfect time to take a trip to the ATM of the mind and sample this one, replete with rainfall, pay phones, 18-wheelers and broken hearts.
Album Cover Image Courtesy of RLG/Legacy
Comments
I’m with you about Milsap and this song, and ironically, his being one of your first concert experiences. In ‘91 or ‘92 (in which I’d been 10-12 years old), my dad and I went to see him in concert at the State Fair. My dad was a huge country music fan at the time, but I wasn’t at all. I remember after his songs, I’d boooooo, cover my ears, and do other silly things to show my dismay for the genre.
Little did I know a few years later I’d also be a big country fan, and now he’s one of my favorite country artists. “Smoky Mountain Rain”, “Stranger In My House”, “There’s No Gettin’ Over Me”, this guy was one of the masters of making melodic country-pop crossovers. Great mention!