Sometimes a quartet, sometimes an octet, the former Anita Jean Grilli's groups had possibly even more to do with reshaping country music from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s than Elvis and the Jordanaires. The direction in which she took country music is very clear on "From Nashville:" pop and light classics, not country. Still, these 12 bright, smooth, upbeat hits, accompanied by saxophones and massed violins are powerful and fine. Songs like "Hey, Joe," "My Last Date (With You)," "Singing the Blues," "You Don't Know Me," "The Old Master Painter," "Night Train to Memphis," "Bye, Bye Love" "Four Walls" and "Oh Lonesome Me" opened up the possibility of scoring major pop hits for country singers, and Anita was in on the ground floor of a fast-growing recording industry in Nashville. More than a period piece, "From Nashville" is country and pop music history in the making. |
