The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 15

aitfanitria Ma Zwn Sal CALL ON US Editor Jim Dagar 487-6474 ClipboardWeddings: Mary Jane Andrews 48T6344 Fax: 487-6488 or 487-2961 E-mail: FEATUR MONDAY AUGUST 24, 1998 FS Li 1 i Cynthia Jardon The Town Talk AlmfSjfs in Style King of 'Swamp Pop' keeps on moving down that musical road 1 ZV i'x- 1 (A Tommy McLain of Pineville sings a couple of new tunes he is recording at Mighty Music Mix Studios in Oakdale. McLain has been performing since the late 1 950s and has had two gold records -his version of Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams" and "If You Don't Love Me," that he wrote and Freddy Fender recorded. His 1965 recording of "Sweet Dreams" sold more than 3 million copies and is still used today as Capital Gold Radio's sign-off song in London, England. I knew Freddy. We had met back in 1959.

"Enough said. We all know what happened. That song hit the top of the country charts and made Freddy a country star." McLain shook his head and smiled. "Well, I sure wish I hadn't turned that down," he said. "But that's the breaks.

Dot was all set to bring me along right behind Freddy. I mean, they were going to launch me just like they did him. But six months later they were bankrupt." Second gold record In the meantime, Fender did record one of McLain's songs, "If You Don't Love Me." That turned out to give McLain another gold record on his wall. McLain turned back to the nightclub scene and became a big draw. "I was real big on the nightclub scene," he said.

"I'll bet I played every honky-tonk there It's a shame he is such a stupid man Weasel. That's the word that comes to mind when I think of Bill Clinton. His little speech last week actually made me mad. Upon examination I realize I resented his doublespeak. At a time when this nation needed the individual to step up and be a man, he stepped up and gave us the same kind of political rhetoric, waffling and weaseling as any other politician.

(Now why do you suppose I even thought for a second he would be any different? Maybe it's a Pollyanna complex. I'll have to work on that.) Morally bankrupt. That's what Bill Clinton is whether I like it or not. But even that is beside the point. Lots of our presidents have been morally deficient.

(Sad, but true. They are, after all, only human.) My real problem isn't with Clinton's lying. It's not with asking someone else to lie. It's not even the idea that he might have obstructed justice. What, you say? I should care about those things.

I care. I guess I'd care more if the whole thing hadn't stemmed from a consensual affair that was long since over. Anyway, those things are water under the proverbial bridge. Whatever else I thought Clinton was or was not, I never thought he was stupid. Until now.

Stupid is as stupid does Whatever happens to him now he deserves because he's a stupid, stupid man. Look, once is a mis-. take, twice is a transgression but three times is STUPID. This is a man who had to go on ever was Since 1965 his oJtA unique style into a sound dubbed "Swamp Pop." He is known interna tionally and has garnered a lifetime of achievements including induction into The Louisiana Hall of Fame, Texas Hall of Fame and most recently the Rock and Roll Museum in Stockholm, If fvt I OAKDALE The 5-year-old looked up at a guitar displayed in the window of a pawn shop on Second Street. "I threw a fit," he said.

"I had to have it. I made Mama and Daddy buy me that guitar." Thus the first brick was laid in Tommy McLain's musical road. The 8-year-old Tommy listened while a cowboy group called Jelly Elliott played country tunes across from Pineville School. "I couldn't take my eyes off them," he said. "I was mesmerized." When he did finally look away he found the buses had left.

Tommy stood alone in the school yard. "It didn't take my parents long to come get me," he said. "But that was the day I knew I wanted to be a singer. I mean I was hyp-no-tized." And so the second brick was laid in the Pineville native's musical road. Since then he hasn't strayed from the path despite all the twists and turns that life as a singer and musician would throw him.

"I wouldn't change my life for anything," McLain said. Over the next years he taught himself to play that guitar as well as piano, bass and drums. Like any other self-respecting teen-ager in the 1950s, McLain had a band that played rockabilly and rhythm and blues. "We were The Crystals," he said. "We opened and closed the Anna Richard Search for Talent Show on Channel 5 in Alexandria." In 1958, McLain graduated from Pineville High School and by 1959 he was on the road with Jack Arnold and The Flames.

"Man, I mean we must have performed in every military base in the United States," he said. "We went everywhere." The nightclub scene By 1965 he was back home and playing the Louisiana nightclub scene. "I was playing Leroy's Lounge in Alexandria when I decided to record a song to sell when I was performing," he said. "I recorded my own version of 'Sweet Dreams' and got 500 copies made." The record got a little air play on the radio and that's all it took to set the bricks that would turn his musical road toward success. The Modern Record Shop in Alexandria carried the records and they quickly sold out.

"The record store owner called Lloyd Swallow, a record producer, and told him he'd better come check this out. She told him I had a record that was selling like hotcakes," McLain said. Next thing he knew he was recording a 45. "Lloyd told me I needed an original for the side of the record," McLain said. "I didn't even know what an original meant back then.

He had to tell me to write a song." So another brick, this one marked "songwriter," was put into his ever-growing musical road. McLain wrote "I Need You So," and that proved to be fortuitous. "Sweet Dreams" went gold and sold more than 3 million copies. "Every time I sell a copy of 'Sweet I get a little more money for recording and writing 'I Need You he said. Things really took off after that.

Living large "I was spending money out of every pocket," he said. "I was living high on the hog." By 1977 he was working with ABC Dot Records. "I was recording my songs for the most part," he said. "Then one day they came to me and asked me to record a song called 'Before the Next Tear Drop I listened to it and didn't really like it. A couple of months later my producer called and said 'Remember that song Dot wanted you to record? Well, you know Freddy Text and photos by Cynthia Jardon 0 1 mm 4 television and apologize for his affair with Gennifer Flowers.

Then he was sued for sexual harassment by Paula Jones. This is a man who should have understood his private life was under scrutiny and was an issue whether he liked it or not. Duh! This is not rocket science. But despite all of this, he still Wouldn't control himself. Stupid.

Clinton is stupid. He bet his already tattered reputation that Lewinsky would keep their affair a secret. Stupid. I've never known a 23-year-old woman who could keep her mouth shut about sex. Ask a woman, She'll tell you women talk.

sI think it was Benjamin Franklin that said "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead." il Even if they can't get him on perjury, asking someone else to commit perjury or obstruction of justice, they can still get him because being that stupid is surely a crime. More than anything else, this lack of control, this obvious belief that he can operate in some kind of insulated world and his complete and utter stupidity scares me. I'd like to say that it won't ever happen again. He's learned his lesson sure! Who really knows? I would have thought a reasonably intelligent man who has chosen to be the most public of public figures in the USA would have learned his lesson after Flowers and Jones. Stupid.

And I've got to say shifting the blame is something a teen-ager does, not a responsible adult. Nobody made Clinton commit adultery except Clinton. Nobody made him lie about it. I just might agree it should have remained private but once it wasn't he had two choices tell us the truth or lie. He took the coward's way out Clinton lied.

And what's worse is he would have continued the lie if he could have. Despite all of this, Clinton's going to sleep walk right through this crisis. Unless they can really pin him down on more than perjury he won't be impeached. The Republicans do not want to impeach a popular president, but more than that they don't want to give Al Gore two years to solidify his hold on the White House. Regardless of what happens, Isn't it a shame to find out that the leader of the free world is enslaved by his own sexual desires? And now can you say "Wag the Dog," baby.

Cynthia Jardon is a Town Talk features writer. She writes this column weekly, She can be reached at 487-6428. CD a good mix, easy on the ears BOO IS? On Tour Review Sweden. "I've been there and done that as they say. I even had a little part in a movie with Paul Newman called 'The Drowning he said.

"I toured with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars, did American Bandstand and had my own radio show on KREH in Oakdale for two years. "I met Carol Skaggs, KREH's station owner, about five years ago. I was ready to get off the road and she was doing interviews at the festival in Turkey Creek. I heard her say she was looking for a deejay and I told her I was her man. I hadn't ever even been a deejay, but then I did it for the next two years and the show 'Tommy Tuesday' got to be pretty popular." Now Skaggs and McLain focus on his recording.

Skaggs sold KREH's frequency and the radio station's building has been turned into Mighty Music Mix Studio and Kreh-ON Records, which they share. She is his producer and manager. McLain's latest musical offering is called "I've Changed My Style." "I've put a little bit of everything on this CD. And I've changed a little bit. I think this album will appeal to a wider range of folks," he explained.

While it has some new songs, McLain also serves up some of those songs that fans always ask for like "Sweet Dreams" and "Jukebox Songs." When he's not in the studio recording, McLain performs at fairs, festivals and other personal appearances. "One of the best things I got to do was go back to Pineville High School to perform last year," McLain said. "I really enjoyed that. I'll be performing in Pineville again this year at the Pineville Fall Frolic." Currently McLain is in the studio working on another album. "The song's are taking shape," he said.

"I've think I've got a couple of real killers in there." Yet another brick in the road. vt-iY lfi 2W Sometimes I get CDs in the mail and well, quite frankly, I've never heard of the person. Not that I expect to know every recording artist there is, but some are more obscure than others. Since I'm not from Louisiana, it's understandable that many of the local musicians are, as yet, unknown to my ear. When I opened the press package with Tommy McLain's latest CD in it, I said to myself "Who?" Then I read a little bit about McLain and was more and more interested in hearing his latest musical offering.

There's no denying the Pineville native has been around. Just making a living in the music business is an accomplishment, but he's had two gold records. Believe it or not the percentage of artists that actually achieve that landmark is a small one. So I plugged in the headphones and popped the CD into my portable player. I thought I would kill two birds with one stone write a story while I listen to a CD.

By the time I got to the fourth song, "Jukebox Songs," I had long since quit writing. I was listening in earnest pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure exactly how to describe McLain's musical style. He says he's changed it, but I admit I wasn't familiar with his old style. Nevertheless, whatever he's done is OK with me.

He's definitely got some Cajun flavor but even that doesn't really describe him well. And maybe that's exactly why the CD was a winner in my book. He has McLain's "I've Changed My Style" album on Kreh-ON RECORDS is available on CD or cassette. For information call Carol Skaggs at Mighty Music Mix Studios, 318-335-4363. a sound that is his own.

I won't lie, this CD isn't for everyone. If you don't just like to listen to some good music with solid lyrics, you won't like it. The CD offers up everything1 from "Sweet Dreams" to a Keb Mo song "Tell Everybody I Know." It even includes three of I McLain's original gospel tunes. What it doesn't have is loud, raucous music that grates on your nerves. This is definitely a CD meant to listen to when you need to get mellow.

It will make you feel good. The only drawback on the album is the sometimes computerized-sounding musical tracks. But it's only -a minor distraction..