Rhinestoned says it all. No other word, real or invented for the occasion, sums up as well where Pam Tillis stands now.
She is, after all, a superstar as well as a survivor. A child of Music City royalty and a former rebel, she was determined to find her own way as a singer and songwriter — and she succeeded. A CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, she has written songs for some of the top singers in and beyond Nashville, including more than a few of her own hits.
She knows what it's like to break the platinum barrier, to top the singles charts time and again, to bask in an ovation at her induction as a member of the Opry or play in the intimate hush of the Bluebird Café. She has bathed in the lights of Broadway, posed for glamour magazine spreads, sung ballads in Bay Area bistros, batted wicked one-liners back to Tom Bergeron on Hollywood Squares, even made cameos in movies.
But no matter where she wandered, Pam Tillis never lost her connection to country music — even when country began to lose touch with itself. Trends came and went, and though she rolled easily with the tides and drew something from every new twist, she was aware that changes come with a cost, even as the business side of country flourished.
Her response was to insist on writing and cutting songs that spoke from the soul, rather than the boardrooms and focus groups of the country music industry. The results have been records that emanate an almost painful beauty, as did her 2002 release, the critically acclaimed It's All Relative (a tribute to her father, the great Mel Tillis).
"What I'm doing is country — but not necessarily the kind that you hear on the airwaves these days," Tillis explains, one drizzly afternoon over coffee, not far from Music Row. "Now, I admire a lot of this music; after all, I've sung rock, pop, R&B, and jazz, so I'm hardly a purist. But what I'm hearing now sounds often more like pop than country to me. And I just seriously felt called by that old different drummer to something a little bit more like the country I remember from my formative years, the country music of my youth." It's also something Tillis' fans and friends clamor for as she encounters them out on the road.
With It's All Relative, which she affectionately calls "the Dad album," Tillis produced one of the most memorable discs to have come out of Nashville in years, largely because of her refusal to conform to expectations. Combing through her father's catalog, she chose songs that had an especially timeless quality, with built-in resistance to the whims of the market. It was a bold statement; more than that, it set the stage for the even more assertive statement that Rhinestoned would make.
"Pam had reached a point where doing a record every year or two wasn't as important as taking the time to make something that had more meaning," says Matt Spicher, who co-produced Rhinestoned with Tillis and Gary Nicholson. "So she decided to embrace the momentum she had established with the Dad record."
"That was the first record I ever made where I wasn't concerned about having to come up with three singles," Pam points out.
"The labels understood that from the beginning," Matt says.
"They said they did," she clarifies.
And that's one reason why Rhinestoned marks the first album to be released on Stellar Cat, Pam's own imprint. With total creative control, she let her heart lead the way toward material that she could perform honestly and emotionally. "This is an A&R-free zone," she says, smiling. "But it is, first of all, real country. It's a bookend to the Dad album, except it has all new songs. It's like a bridge between the present and the past."
How past is this particular past? "If you look at my record collection circa 1974," Pam answers, "you'd see Emmylou, Gram Parsons, Waylon Jennings, Don Williams, Linda Ronstadt, and Neil Young. Flying Burrito Brothers — hippie country I call it — that was some of the best music that ever came out of this town. Maybe it wasn't happening on country radio at the time but it sold record and built careers. It was the vibrant scene on the fringes of country, which was very cool — just as it is today."
The Rhinestoned sessions started in 2004. Pam and Matt whittled 20 songs down to ten, which they cut and set aside, like bottles of wine allowed to mature. A few months later they repeated the process. And then, after reflecting for a while on what she had accomplished, Pam decided something wasn't right. She talked about it with her trusted friend and writing partner Gary Nicholson and reached a critical decision.
"It needed to be more country " she sums up. "I played what we had for Gary, brought him into the picture, and suddenly it felt like we weren't wandering in the woods anymore. Then when I found the song "Band in the Window," suddenly I could see and hear the whole project in my mind right down to the t-shirts, Tillis laughs.
With that, the final round of recording began. All of it, aside from backing vocals, was cut the old-fashioned way: live, just the way those bands still play in the windows along Lower Broadway. Many of Pam's performances were actually guide vocals, laid down in real time with the instrumental tracks but too strong in the end to throw away. Overdubs and fixes were kept to a bare minimum.
The rollicking reverence she brings to "Band in the Window," the affection that radiates between her and John Anderson on "Life Sure Has Changed Us Around," the goofball humor of "Crazy By Myself," the insight of her recitation on "Bettin' Money on Love": All of the up-tempo moments on Rhinestoned emit a sense of freedom that's impossible for Pam to suppress or for any listener to miss.
Even the ballads and deeper performances — the languorous sway of "Something Burning Out," the wounded wisdom of "Train Without a Whistle," the almost whispered yearning of "Someone Somewhere Tonight," and the recklessness of "Down by the Water" — carry a quality that's become sadly unfamiliar in much of today's music.
It's that feeling of delight that comes from singing exactly what you were meant to sing at that moment. It's almost like a kind of ecstasy, which goes a long way when delivered by the incomparable Pam Tillis, without compromise or apology.
You might call it joy, but there's a better word than that for this state of creative exhilaration.
We'd call it Rhinestoned.
Maybe It Was Memphis
Pam Tillis Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Katydid sing like a symphony
Porch swing swayin' like a Tennessee lullaby
Melody blowing through the willow tree
What was I supposed to do
Standing there lookin' at you
A lonely boy far from home
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Southern summer nights
Maybe it was you, maybe it was me
But it sure felt right
Read about you in a Faulkner novel
Met you once in a Williams play
Heard about you in a country love song
Summer night beauty took my breath away
What was I supposed to do
Standing there lookin' at you
A lonely boy far from home
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Southern summer nights
Maybe it was you, maybe it was me
But it sure felt right
Maybe it was Memphis (Memphis)
Maybe it was Southern summer nights (Southern summer nights)
Maybe it was you, maybe it was me
But it sure felt right
Every night now since I've been back home
Lie awake drifting in my memory
Think about you on your mama's front porch swing
Talking that way so soft to me
What was I supposed to do
Standing there lookin' at you
A lonely boy far from home
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Southern summer nights
Maybe it was you, maybe it was me
But it sure felt right
Maybe it was Memphis (Memphis)
Maybe it was Southern summer nights (Southern summer nights)
Maybe it was you, maybe it was me
But it sure felt right
Maybe it was you, maybe it was me
But it sure felt right
Oh, you know it sure felt right
Oh, maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Memphis
But it sure felt right
The song "Maybe It Was Memphis" by Pam Tillis is a beautiful love song that reflects on a moment of tenderness shared between two people in a Southern summer night. The melody and lyrics transport the listener to a misty moonlit setting, where the chirping of katydids and the swaying of a porch swing together create sweet music. Tillis reflects on meeting someone far from home and feeling lost - questioning what she was supposed to do in that moment. However, in the midst of the confusion, something felt right. The song goes on to suggest that maybe it was Memphis, Southern summer nights, or perhaps simply the person she was with that made her feel so at peace.
The lyrics also reference notable figures of Southern literature and theater, including William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams. This reinforces the idea that the setting of the encounter that Tillis sings about is a quintessentially "Southern" one - characterized by an abundance of literature, music, and the allure of fleeting moments between people who know they may never meet again.
Line by Line Meaning
Lookin' at you through a misty moonlight
Observing you through a hazy moonlight
Katydid sing like a symphony
The sound of the katydid resembled that of a symphony
Porch swing swayin' like a Tennessee lullaby
A reference to the gentle and calming sound of the porch swing moving back and forth
Melody blowing through the willow tree
The wind carried a soothing melody through the willow tree
What was I supposed to do
Standing there lookin' at you
A lonely boy far from home
He was unsure of what to do when he first saw her, feeling lonely and far from home
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Southern summer nights
Maybe it was you, maybe it was me
But it sure felt right
He's unsure of what exactly it was that made him feel so right, but it could have been the city of Memphis, the warm Southern summer nights, or their connection together
Read about you in a Faulkner novel
Met you once in a Williams play
Heard about you in a country love song
Summer night beauty took my breath away
He's saying that he's encountered her in many different forms of art and media, but seeing her in person on a beautiful summer night left him breathless
Every night now since I've been back home
Lie awake drifting in my memory
Think about you on your mama's front porch swing
Talking that way so soft to me
Now that he's back home, he can't stop thinking about her and their conversation on the porch swing
Oh, you know it sure felt right
Oh, maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Memphis
Maybe it was Memphis
But it sure felt right
Repeating the chorus again as a final sentiment, still uncertain of exactly what made him feel so right, but confident that it was a combination of the setting and their connection together
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Michael Anderson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@ximresal
Hello, operator? Where can I get a ticket back to the 90s?
@bradshore4893
Jusus. I wish I could go back
@mikeb.2925
Do they even have operators anymore? We're too old!
@notgonnatellyou8559
Grab one for me while you're at it, would you?
@brianjoseph3708
grim reaper " booth three good luck"
@jhofer1013
90s country music rocks
@MissBoagJunior89
One of the most underrated ladies on the planet.
@arapahosundancer
Got that right jack
@lindamorris1070
I totally agree
@JDoomhauer87
I rate her 10 for 10