The Musical Box

A few years ago, I was invited by the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame to sit in on a committee that reviewed potential inductees for its 2006 ceremony.

As everyone in the room represented varying degrees of musical interest and intent, our choices purposely ran all over the stylistic map, from obvious country and bluegrass celebrities to less heralded names from the worlds of jazz and theatre.

Curiously, one name popped up on everyone’s list: Dottie Rambo. The Madisonville native was a multi-generational voice of Southern gospel that also possessed an expansive and often fearless view of country music

How fearless? Well, these ears were largely unfamiliar with the literally thousands of songs she wrote that were subsequently covered by such varied artists as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Porter Wagoner, Charlie Louvin, Bill Monroe, Andrae Couch and dozens of others. It took newer covers of her music by Alison Krauss with the Cox Family and Rhonda Vincent to make her lasting influence more personally visible.

My introduction to Rambo came by way of an extraordinary 1974 country-roots solo album by Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts (who went by Richard Betts at the time). Titled Highway Call, the recording favored not Rambo’s songwriting, but her sterling singing alongside then-husband Buck and daughter Reba.

Hearing the Rambos harmonize with unspoiled country gospel cheer alongside Betts on guitar and dobro and the equally joyous piano playing of Chuck Leavell (now a co-hort of the Rolling Stones) was a wake-up call to then-teenaged ears that thought a Betts solo session would offer little more than a mild variation on the Allmans’ signature Southern rock recipe.

A Grammy winning artist, Rambo survived health difficulties and severe, almost soap opera-ish upheavels in her personal and business life. Last weekend, as we all know now, Rambo died in a bus accident at the age of 74 while enroute to a Mother’s Day concert in Texas.

Rambo’s veteran fans can likely reel off scores of appropriate song titles that would do a remembrance of her career proud. I can’t help but recommend Highway Call, which was reissued on CD in 2001.

Betts obviously dominates the album. But within its grooves, you hear a Kentucky voice full of country faith that never falters.