He’s a Big Hit--for Other Singers

The old gag in country music circles is that there are two kinds of music: country and western.

Nowadays there are two kinds of country: the kind you hear on the radio, and everything else.

Rarely does the (Shania) Twain meet the likes of Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell or Joe Ely, critically acclaimed country-rooted artists who are all but ignored by country radio.

Jim Lauderdale has been one of those rare exceptions--in a way.

For the last decade, his songs have been all over country radio, recorded regularly by such radio-friendly acts as George Strait, the Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill and Patty Loveless.

Meanwhile, the eight albums he’s made have made him a favorite in alternative country circles for his off-center viewpoint and wide-ranging musical styles. He honed that perspective while living and working in the Los Angeles roots-country scene of the mid-to late 1980s with Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Rosie Flores, Katy Moffatt and others.

“Matraca Berg, Gretchen Peters--lots of great country songwriters through the years have had record deals and, for whatever reason, [success as recording artists] didn’t happen,” says Lon Helton, country music editor for the trade publication Radio & Records.

“Who knows why? It truly is a mystery--he’s a great talent ... and if you take it to the video level, which plays a bigger role today than ever, he’s a good-looking guy too,” says Helton. “Whatever reasons there are in the cosmos, there’s a timing thing that happens or doesn’t for these people.”

Star or not, Lauderdale continues his maverick path with his latest album, “The Other Sessions,” a critically praised exercise in vintage honky-tonk music, and on his current tour opening for Williams. They play Monday at the House of Blues in West Hollywood and Tuesday at the Sun Theatre in Anaheim.

For the North Carolina native, the toughest thing about life as a writer of country hits and cult-favorite recording artist is frequently being forced to choose whether to give away or keep the new songs he turns out prolifically.

“I was going to put ‘You Don’t Seem to Miss Me’ on my ‘Whisper’ album [in 1997],” Lauderdale says. “Then Patty [Loveless] heard it and wanted to record it as a duet with George Jones. They certainly did a great treatment on that, better than I could have done.”

It was, however, a hard song to let go because he felt it had strong hit potential. He’ll never know whether that might have been his breakthrough hit as a recording artist, but says the results of hearing it done by Loveless and Jones made it worth giving up.

Their version reached No. 14 on the country chart. That it didn’t go higher points up one of Lauderdale’s gripes about country radio, which promotes younger artists virtually to the exclusion of those who had careers before 1990.

“A lot of radio stations asked for a copy of the record without George Jones on it,” Lauderdale says. “The record label refused, and consequently it didn’t go to No. 1 because of those stations that wouldn’t play it. That was pathetic. How can a country station not play the greatest country voice alive?” Lauderdale’s lifelong love of Jones’ voice takes a new turn in September, when he’ll portray Jones in “Stand By Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story” to be staged at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. It won’t be his first stab at acting--in the ‘80s he was in touring companies of “Pump Boys and Dinettes” and some other country-flavored musicals, tours that first brought him to Los Angeles.

Touring with Williams takes Lauderdale back to his days in Southern California playing the now-defunct Palomino, Club Lingerie and the Anticlub, not just because he would frequently work with like-minded singer-songwriters, but because they’d often find themselves sharing the stage with rock, alternative and punk bands.

“It was a really great time to be out there,” he says. “I like it when music gets mixed up like that.” Much like when he was growing up in North Carolina surrounded by bluegrass, country and folk music regionally, but also was being exposed to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding and other pop acts on TV and radio.

On top of that, his Presbyterian-minister father and choir-director mother enjoyed listening to a wide range of music, from Frank Sinatra to Broadway show tunes.

While Lauderdale has yet to log any time on the pop or country charts, what he’s missed there he feels he’s made up in artistic freedom.

“I’ve never been pressured to record any certain songs, or to go any certain directions artistically,” he says. “I’ve pretty much been left alone to kind of find out what I was doing, and that’s been a nice luxury.”

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Lucinda Williams and Jim Lauderdale play Monday at House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 9 p.m. $30. (323) 848-5100. Also Tuesday at the Sun Theatre, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8 p.m. $32.50-47.50. (714) 712-2700.