Lifestyles Of The Not Show Rich And Famous

Buck Norris sings "Lifestyles Of The Not Show Rich And Famous" by Tracy Byrd.
Tracy Byrd Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQNkbfJPKeM

Born on December 18, 1966, in Vidor, TX; son of Jerry and Brenda Byrd. Although never a top-tier superstar like fellow hat-wearing country singers Garth Brooks or Alan Jackson, Texan Tracy Byrd built a following big enough for eight top-ten singles on Billboard's country charts in the 1990s. He recorded the novelty song "Watermelon Crawl," complete with instructional line-dancing lyrics, around the same time Billy Ray Cyrus's "Achy Breaky Heart" made line-dancing novelty songs extremely profitable. Byrd is savvy enough to use bubblegum appeal to sneak into fans' record collections. Sniping at his own bubblegum appeal, Byrd said in Texas Monthly: "I really mark that as an all-time low in country music, when they come out with a Teen Beat country music magazine. And I'm in it." But he uses that appeal to draw attention to his heroes--notably western-swing legends Bob Wills and Merle Haggard--by covering old country hits like Johnny Paycheck's "Someone to Give My Love To." Paycheck returned the compliment in 1997, a half-decade after Byrd sang his song. "He has a real good country heart in him," the singer of "Take This Job and Shove It" and many other hits told Texas Monthly. "There's so many of these people who don't know what they're singing nowadays."

Byrd was born in Vidor, Texas, a small town 15 miles from Beaumont. His father, Jerry, worked at a chemical plant, and his mother, Brenda, was an elementary school teacher's aide. They were record collectors, putting Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and Ray Price 78s in regular rotation as Byrd grew up. When Tracy was six months old, they brought him to the Grand Ole Opry, the hallowed country-music showcase at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. "It started pouring down rain and there was a long line waiting to get into the Opry," Byrd recalled in liner notes to his 1999 greatest hits album Keepers. "They were way back in the line and Mama was having to cover me up with a sweater. One of the security guards saw them and escorted them to the front of the line. And that's how they got into the Opry, because of having me in their arms."

Like future 1990s country superstars Garth Brooks and Clint Black, the young-adult Byrd expanded his range to the Eagles, the pioneering 1970s band that linked the twangy harmonies of country music with the upbeat spirit of rock 'n' roll. He also became enamored of fellow Texan George Strait, attending many of the hitmaking singer's concerts. Accounts vary as to when Byrd sang in public for the first time. In a St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview, he said a friend coaxed him into a mall recording studio while he was a 21-year-old student at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. According to this legend, Byrd cut Hank Williams, Sr.'s "Your Cheatin' Heart"; a saleswoman overheard and helped land him a slot on an amateur talent show. However, Robert Oermann's notes in the Keepers CD collection refer to Byrd's 19-year-old singing debut at the Charlie Pruitt Country Music Show in Beaumont.

Either way, after befriending established singer Mark Chesnutt, also a Beaumont native, Byrd wound up singing at honky-tonks throughout East Texas. When Chesnutt began a national tour in 1990, Byrd inherited his friend's regular gig at Cutter's Nightclub, a prominent Beaumont dancehall. The young singer leaned heavily on Strait's material, supplementing it with that of western-swing and traditional-country icons such as Wills and Marty Robbins. "There's a line connecting Wills and Haggard and Strait," he told the Houston Chronicle. "That's the line I'd like to be in." Byrd packed Cutter's for two years.

Before long, music-industry types such as Vidor concert promoter Joe Carter and Ken Ritter, bluesman Johnny Winter's former manager, began showing up at Byrd's shows. With aggressive management, Byrd landed a 1991 showcase before prominent Nashville record label executives. MCA, where Strait and Chesnutt had already signed record deals, became Byrd's home for the next eight years. He laid down his debut album quickly, but label president Tony Brown opted to hold it a year, adding three new singles--including Paycheck's old hit "Someone to Give My Love To." The song hit the top 30 in early 1993; "Holdin' Heaven" followed, moving all the way up the charts to number one, and Byrd's self-titled debut went gold. No Ordinary Man, which went on to sell more than two million copies, followed a year later.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Buck
• Norris
• Country
• Music
• Tracy
• Byrd

[CountryWesternGal]

Good Morning Buck!!

Great Job My Friend Loved It Very Much

Happy Thanksgiving :) Love Always Patti~

[bucknorrismusic]

@CountryWesternGal Hi Patti, same to you, you don't desperate Thanksgiving Down Under do you.

[hopplaschorsch]

Good Morning America, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thumbs up, nice song, great job ...

[bucknorrismusic]

@hopplaschorsch :) Thanks so much Marta. You have a Happy one too.

[EmCSpiteri1]

Jolly nice ☺

[bucknorrismusic]

@EmCSpiteri1 :) Thanks much Em.

[sewerking]

Hey Buck great job ( do you do requests )

[cadjunk]

Hi Buck: This is cute - behind you - Is this the "trailer condos" behind you? Love the song, and your version - great it is! I hope your Thanksgiving was good. Have a wonderful weekend, my friend. Take care. Gwen

[SteveMB1959]

Nice work!

[TheBeestoncowboy]

Hiya Buck great stuff as always....hope you had a good thanksgiving

regards Les

[OldTimeVoice]

Hiya Buck.....Great performance and song my friend*****..Colin

[jtls8]

Good one Buck*****

[1958wvpicker]

Mornin' Buck

Happy Thanksgiving

sounds great my friend

don't eat to much turkey

stay cool

Rich

[weeyin1155]

I love the song Buck and your performance is spot on as always. Thanks and hugs my friend.  ☺♥

[CountryWesternGal]

@bucknorrismusic No Buck We Don't Have It Here My Friend Love Patti~