Vern Gosdin

The Voice

Vernon Gosdin was born on August 5, 1934 in Woodland, Alabama, the sixth of nine children, and sang gospel on Birmingham radio station WVOK. He moved to California in 1961, sang in the Golden State Boys and the Hillmen, and in the late 1960s recorded as the Gosdin Brothers with his brother Rex, singing backing vocals on Gene Clark's 1967 album. He was briefly invited to join the Byrds and declined. In the 1970s he retired and ran a glass company in Cartersville, Georgia, before returning to country with Elektra in 1976, when a remake of "Hangin' On" reached 16. Tammy Wynette called him the only other singer who can hold a candle to George Jones.

"Yesterday's Gone" (1977) was his first top ten, followed by "Dream of Me" (1981), "Today My World Slipped Away" (1982) and "If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)" (1983). "I Can Tell by the Way You Dance" (1984) reached number one, and There Is a Season (1984) was named best country album by the Los Angeles Times. He played the original Farm Aid in 1985, signed with Columbia in 1987 after Compleat went bankrupt, and had number ones with "Set 'Em Up Joe" and "I'm Still Crazy" (1989), nineteen top-ten solo hits between 1977 and 1990. He opened the Country Music Amphitheatre in Ardmore, Alabama in 1992. The Voice (1998) and 40 Years of the Voice (2008, four CDs) came late. He wrote Keith Whitley's 1987 hit "Would These Arms Be in Your Way". Vern Gosdin died on April 28, 2009, aged 74, and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.