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.
The River And The Highway
Pam Tillis Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
She doesn't care to see the mountain top
She twists and turns with no regard to distance
She never comes to a stop
And she rolls, she's a river
Where she goes, time will tell
Heaven knows, he can't go with her
All by herself
He's headed for a single destination
He doesn't care what's standing in his path
He's a line between two points of separation
He ends just where it says to on the map
And he rolls, he's a highway
Where he goes, time will tell
Heaven knows, she can't go with him
And he rolls, all by himself
All by himself
And every now and then, he offers her a shoulder
And every now and then, she overflows
And every now and then, a bridge crosses over
It's a moment that every lover knows
And she rolls (and he rolls), she's a river (he's a highway)
Where she goes (where he goes), time will tell (time will tell)
Heaven knows, she can't go with him (he can't go with her
And she rolls, all by herself
And he rolls, all by himself
Fare thee well
The River and the Highway by Pam Tillis is a song about two people who are going in opposite directions in their lives. The female protagonist is compared to a river, always flowing and constantly on the move while the male protagonist is compared to a highway, a direct path with a distinct destination. The singer describes how the river follows the path of least resistance, twisting and turning without regard for distance, never stopping. Meanwhile, the highway is committed to a single destination, not bothered by anything standing in its way, and always ending where it says on the map.
Throughout the song, there are occasional moments when the river overflows and meets the highway, but those moments are fleeting. The two characters cannot stay together as they have different directions and goals in their lives. The lyrics suggest that relationships in life are like the river and the highway; sometimes they intersect but ultimately, they continue on their own separate paths.
The song is a wonderful metaphor that compares the characteristics of the two protagonists to the features of the river and the highway. The lyrics are poignant and timeless, and they remind us that sometimes two people are on their individual journeys in life, even if their love temporarily intersects.
Line by Line Meaning
She follows the path of least resistance
She chooses the easiest way to go without any struggle
She doesn't care to see the mountain top
She's not interested in going on an adventure or exploring new things
She twists and turns with no regard to distance
She goes wherever she wants, regardless of how far it is or how much effort it takes
She never comes to a stop
She keeps moving forward and doesn't stop or slow down
And she rolls, she's a river
She's like a river - fluid, moving and constantly changing direction
Where she goes, time will tell
Her destination and ultimate path is unknown and only time will reveal it.
Heaven knows, he can't go with her
He's unable to accompany her on her journey
And she rolls, all by herself
She's alone on her journey and moving at her own pace
He's headed for a single destination
He has a specific goal in mind and is focused on it
He doesn't care what's standing in his path
He's not deterred by any obstacles or challenges
He's a line between two points of separation
He's like a highway, a straight path connecting two points
He ends just where it says to on the map
He sticks to the designated path and ends where he's supposed to according to the map
And he rolls, he's a highway
He's like a highway - always moving forward, never stopping
Heaven knows, she can't go with him
She's unable to travel with him on his designated path
And he rolls, all by himself
He's travelling alone and moving at his own pace
And every now and then, he offers her a shoulder
Occasionally, he provides support to her when she needs it
And every now and then, she overflows
At times, she has more than she can handle and spills over her designated path
And every now and then, a bridge crosses over
Sometimes, they have a moment of connection where they cross paths
It's a moment that every lover knows
This moment of connection is relatable to anyone who's experienced love
Fare thee well
Goodbye (traditional way of saying
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: GERRY HOUSE, DON SCHLITZ
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@kohsty
this song is extremely difficult to listen to... timeless love, but life is what happens when we're busy making other plans. too often we make decisions we think we're supposed to make. it's only in hindsight we realize we our decisions were right on paper, but wrong in reality. and the love was right in reality, and only wrong on paper.
again, it's a hard song to hear, but.. every now and then, a bridge crosses over.
heaven knows, she can't go with him.
he can't go with her.
and she rolls all by herself.
and he rolls all by himself.
it is, unfortunately, a moment every lover knows.
I digress. there's a reason it's one of pam tillis' biggest hits... it's one of the best executed pieces of musical art in not just the country world, but in music overall.
@PabloMontoya2004
There is a battle of two wolves inside us. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, lies, inferiority and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope humility, kindness, empathy and truth. The wolf that wins is the one you feed. — Native American Proverb, Cherokee
@jessee7334
So profound (if you're a simpleton)
@PabloMontoya2004
@Pam Tillis🎶 Thank you, that's fine with me.
@jenniferbayes3312
@Jesse E I'm Cherokee. I know that proverb and I love it. This is one of the BEST country songs. I can't listen without crying. Thank you Pam. Beautiful. ❤
@kingfisher8789
My husband was Cherokee. I love this song so much, yet its beauty makes me cry. It is a story of our life, yet we could not stay together (the wolves proverb above). He has made his journey to the other side, and I am happy because his life was filled with pain. But I am sad because I miss him so very much, and we will have to wait until another lifetime to be together.
@PabloMontoya2004
@learning programs what ??
@jameslovitt994
I absolutely cannot wrap my head around the fact this song is damn near 30 years old.
@stephenkarla7113
I know right, I don't know about you but I'm going to say this as country as I am. I done got old hoss. Where did the time go?
@arealpiapotboy
Me niether.
@rickpetroske891
The golden age of CMT & TNN Networks . This song along with the video almost take my breath away . What an amazing era for country music .