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Collected fieldstones: A clearance cairn near Potsdam in Germany

Fieldstone wall in Wriezen-Haselberg, Germany

Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally. Collections of fieldstones which have been removed from arable land or pasture to allow for more effective agriculture are called clearance cairns.

In practice, fieldstone is any architectural stone used in its natural shape and can be applied to stones recovered from the topsoil or subsoil. Although fieldstone is generally used to describe such material when used for exterior walls, it has come to include its use in other ways including garden features and interiors. It is sometimes cut or split for use in architecture.

Fieldstone on the High Plains[link]

Fieldstone occurs extensively on the High Plains deposited during last glaciation. On or near the surface, they come in many colors, and are limited in size to about 4 feet in diameter, although larger rocks are sometimes recovered. Pretty and colorful, fieldstones are used occasionally as building materials; some of the more stately homes on the Prairies are constructed of fieldstone and are over a century old. However, fieldstone as a building material is very much underused.^[1][2]

Fieldstone in New England[link]

Fieldstone has been abundant throughout New England and Eastern Canada since European settlers cleared the forests for timber. These logs were sent by sailing ships to England and Europe. When the virgin land was tilled the fields were littered with rocks that were moved to the edge of the fields and stacked in what has become a New England landmark called "Stone Walls". The stone walls were added to each spring when the fields were plowed as more stones were brought to the surface following the winter freeze and the spring thaw.

Fieldstone and farming[link]

Widely disseminated on the prairie farms, fieldstone is an old nemesis of the farmer. Removing fieldstone is a considerable effort. Early pioneers made land suitable for farming by tediously removing it, stone by stone, since land with many rocks posed a serious risk of damage to machinery. Larger rocks hindered cultivation, and even a small rock picked up by a baler or a combine can wreck intake parts, causing hundreds of dollars in repairs and costly delays at harvest time. Land with many such fieldstones was and is considered marginal and is assessed for tax purposes well below land that is considered stone-free. Washed and split, field rock is considered an attractive landscape and building material, and can be expensive at building supply stores. However, many a farmer would be glad to rid his fields of it, and it is often free for the asking.

Fieldstone removal[link]

During early decades of Prairie settlement, fieldstone was removed by hand, often with whole families participating in this physically demanding task. Today fieldstone is usually removed by a tractor attachment called a rock picker, which is fairly efficient at rock removal. A chain-driven wheel rotates a graded scoop picking surface rocks from the soil, with excess soil being shaken away and the rock remaining. A hydraulic lift then tilts and empties the rock bucket, usually along the perimeter of the farm.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Chad House, Pennsylvania, United States

• 

  Fieldstone house in Germany

• 

  Fieldstone building in Michigan, United States

• 

  Canal pumphouse in Maryland, United States

• Fieldstone Wall Pennsylvania.jpg

  A fieldstone wall enclosing a Pennsylvania barnyard

• 

  Dry-stone walls built of fieldstones on Inisheer, Ireland

• 

  Pavilion constructed of fieldstone in Pennsylvania, United States

• 

  Fieldstone house in Spain

See also[link]

• Dry-stone wall
• Earl Young (architect)
• Stone wall
• Stonemasonry
• Architecture

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fieldstones

‎

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (February 2011)

Tanya Tucker
Tanya Tucker (right) with niece Donelle at the 2005 CMA Music Festival.
Background information
Birth name	Tanya Denise Tucker
Born	(1958-10-10) October 10, 1958 (age 53) Seminole, Texas, US
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Years active	1972–present
Labels	Tuckertime, Liberty, Capitol Nashville, Arista. MCA, Columbia, Saguaro Road
Associated acts	LaCosta Tucker
Website	Tanya Tucker Official Site

Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958, in Seminole, Texas) is a female American country music artist who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. Over the succeeding decades, Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature into adulthood without losing her audience, and during the course of her career, she notched a streak of Top 10 and Top 40 hits.^[1] She has had several successful albums, several Country Music Association award nominations, and hit songs such as 1973's "What's Your Mama's Name?" and "Blood Red and Goin' Down," 1975's "Lizzie and the Rainman," and 1988's "Strong Enough to Bend".^[2]

Childhood before fame[link]

Tucker was the youngest of four children born to Jesse "Beau" and Juanita Tucker. Her father was a heavy equipment operator, and the family moved often as he sought better work. Tanya's early childhood was spent primarily in Willcox, Arizona, where the only radio station in town played country music. The Tuckers attended concerts of country stars such as Ernest Tubb and Mel Tillis, and Tanya's sister LaCosta was praised in the family for her vocal abilities. At the age of eight, Tanya told her father that she also wanted to be a country singer when she grew up.^[3]

When the Tuckers moved to St. George, Utah, Juanita took Tanya to audition for the film Jeremiah Johnson. Tanya did not win the bigger role she tried out for, but she was hired as a bit player. At about this time she also got one of her first musical breaks, when her father drove the family to Phoenix for the Arizona State Fair, on the chance that the featured performer, country singer Judy Lynn, could use Tanya in her show. Tanya sang for the fair's entertainment managers, and she was engaged to sing at the fair itself.^[4]

Career discovery[link]

Tucker made her debut with Mel Tillis, who was so impressed by her talent that he invited her onstage to perform. In 1969 the family moved to Las Vegas, where she regularly performed. Eventually, she recorded a demo tape that gained the attention of songwriter Dolores Fuller, who sent it to producer Billy Sherrill,^[1] the head of A&R at CBS Records. Sherrill was impressed with the demo tape and signed the teenaged vocalist to Columbia Records.^[1]

Country music career[link]

1972 – 1979: Teen country star[link]

Sherrill initially planned to have Tucker record "The Happiest Girl In the Whole USA," but she passed on the tune to Donna Fargo, choosing "Delta Dawn" — a song she heard Bette Midler sing on The Tonight Show — instead. Released in the spring of 1972, the song became a hit, peaking at number six on the country charts and scraping the bottom of the pop charts. At first, Columbia Records tried to downplay Tucker's age, but soon word leaked out and she became a sensation.^[1] A year later, Australian singer Helen Reddy would score a #1 U.S. pop hit with her version of "Delta Dawn."

"I thank the lucky stars and the Good Lord for that song," Tucker told Nine-O-One Network Magazine in 1988. "If I cut it now for the first time I think it would be a hit. I was fortunate to have latched onto that one, and that was all Sherrill's doing. If it hadn't been for Sherrill, I probably would have been a rodeo queen or something."^[5]

Her second single, "Love's the Answer," also became a Top Ten hit later in 1972. Tucker's third single, "What's Your Mama's Name," became her first number one hit in the spring of 1973. Two other number ones — "Blood Red and Goin' Down" and "Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)" followed, establishing Tucker as a major star.^[1]

At the time, Tucker was one of the youngest stars ever to enter Country music. However, there had been other previous teen Country stars before her, including Brenda Lee and her contemporary, Marie Osmond. LeAnn Rimes, Lila McCann, Jessica Andrews, and Taylor Swift would later have country music success at an early age as well.

In 1975, she signed with MCA Records, where she had a string of hit singles that ran into the late '70s.^[1]

Among these hits was "Lizzie and the Rainman", which became a #1 Country hit and also became Tucker's only Top 40 Pop music hit, peaking at #37. It also peaked among the Top 10 on the Adult Contemporary charts at the time. Tucker has a string of Top 10 Country hits under MCA between 1975 and 1978, including "San Antonio Stroll", "Here's Some Love", and "It's a Cowboy-Lovin Night".

In 1978, she decided to radically change her image and cross over to rock with her TNT album. Despite the controversy over the record and its sexy cover, it went gold the following year.^[1]

Two songs from the album became hits, "Texas (When I Die)" and "I'm a Singer, You're the Song." The biggest hit from the album was "Texas (When I Die)" which reached #5 on the Country charts, and also peaking in the bottom of the Pop charts at #70.

1979 – 1984: Sales decline and personal battles[link]

By the end of the '70s, her sales were declining — in 1980 she only had two hits. Also in 1980, she recorded a few singles with Glen Campbell, with whom she was romantically linked. In addition to recording, she also made her feature film debut in Hard Country.^[1]

Despite having a Top 10 hit in late 1982 from her first and only Arista album Changes, she struggled to have her music played on the radio. By mid-1983, her singles were no longer making the Top 40.

She had begun drinking in her late teens, and she explained how it started: "You send your ass out on the road doing two gigs a night and after all that adoration go back to empty hotel rooms. Loneliness got me into it." In 1978 Tucker moved to Los Angeles, California, to try, unsuccessfully, to broaden her appeal to pop audiences, and was quickly captivated by the city's nightlife. She also said that she "was the wildest thing out there. I could stay up longer, drink more and kick the biggest ass in town. I was on the ragged edge." The young woman also made gossip columns buzz with a series of romantic involvements. Her famous amours included country singer Merle Haggard (who was 21 years her senior), actor Don Johnson, the late pop singer Andy Gibb, and, most notably, country/pop star Glen Campbell, with whom she had a very stormy relationship and a minor hit duet, "Dream Lover." ^[6]

Though she moved to Nashville after her breakup with Campbell in 1982 and began to lead a more secluded life, Tucker continued to drink and use cocaine. Finally, in 1988, her family confronted her and persuaded her to enter the Betty Ford Center. At first, Tucker rebelled against her treatments, but after private counseling sessions she began to improve.^[4]

As Tucker was battling drugs and alcohol in the early 80s, her career suffered. In 1984 and 1985, she had no singles on the country charts.

1986 - 1997: Comeback[link]

In 1986 Tucker signed with Capitol Records. In 1986 she returned to the charts with "One Love at a Time," which climbed to number three.^[7] Her career was revitalized with 1986's Girls Like Me, an album that spawned four Top 10 country singles. In 1988 she had three No. 1 country singles: "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" (with Paul Davis and Paul Overstreet), "If It Don't Come Easy" and "Strong Enough to Bend." ^[8]

Her music was now more country pop-styled and up-tempo, but this material was what made Tucker popular again. Between 1988 and 1989, Tucker enjoyed one of her most popular years on the charts, racking up eight Country Top 10 hits in a row. Her albums around this time were also achieving "Gold" certifications by the RIAA, after selling 500,000 copies. A Greatest Hits album followed in 1989, releasing a Top 5 hit to the country charts that year from the album called "My Arms Stay Open All Night," which peaked at #2.

In 1988 Tucker was nominated by the Country Music Association for "Female Vocalist of the Year", and was nominated for other major awards during this time.

Her contribution to the country music genre was rewarded when the Country Music Association voted her the "Female vocalist of the Year" in 1991, though she missed the event, having just given birth to her second child. Eight consecutive singles reached the Top 10 in the early 1990s, including "Down to My Last Teardrop," "(Without You) What Do I Do With Me" and "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane." ^[9] In 1990 Tucker was named "Female Video Artist of the Year" by CMT. Although by the 1990s she no longer had #1 hits, there were many singles that came close peaking in the Country Top 5 as well as the Top 10. Tucker was one of the most successful female Country artists at the time. She became one of the few teen stars to find success in her adult years.

Her 1993 album Greatest Hits rose to number 15, and also went to number 18 on the Top Country Albums chart. Liberty Records was changed to Capitol Nashville in 1994.^[4]

By the 1990s Tucker was a 20-year veteran in country music, even though she was only in her mid-30s. In 1994, "Hangin' On" was her last Top 5 hit, as well as her last Top 10 hit for a while. That year she performed at the half-time show at Super Bowl XXVIII. In 1996 she was one of the Top 10 most-played artists of the year, and that time Capitol Records' biggest signed female artist. In 1997 she returned to the Top 10 on the Country charts for the last time with the hit, "Little Things", which peaked at #9. That year she was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.

2000 – present: Music career today[link]

In 2002 Tucker founded Tuckertime Records, allowing her to retain control of the recording process and release the singles she wished to release. The same year she issued Tanya, her first album in five years, which was distributed through Capitol Records. The album was produced by her fiancé, Jerry Laseter, and included a guest vocal by Vince Gill.^[4]

In 2002 Tucker was ranked #20 on CMT's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music. In 2005 she released an album, Live at Billy Bob's Texas. In 2005 she also contributed two songs to a tribute album to Bob Wills, called A Tribute to Bob Wills 100th Anniversary. In 2005 she released a book, 100 Ways to Beat the Blues on Fireside, which included tips on shaking the blues, from some of Tucker's friends such as Willie Nelson, Brenda Lee, Little Richard, and Burt Reynolds.

Tanya recorded an album, Lonesome Town, which has been put on hold, but a live concert recorded at the Renaissance Center in December will be released. Tanya sang a duet with country music icon Billy Joe Shaver, of Shaver's song, "Played the Game Too Long," on his latest album, Everybody's Brother, that was released in September 2007.

In 2009 Tanya signed a one-time deal with Saguaro Road Records^[10] from Time-Life. Tanya's "Lonesome Town" project was put on hold to do the first cover album of her career, My Turn, which was released 30 June 2009 and placed #27 on the billboard country charts. The first single "Love's Gonna Live Here" was released to radio and was also available as a digital single. It is a remake of the classic hit by Buck Owens. The album includes classic country hits such as "Wine Me Up", "Lovesick Blues", "You Don't Know Me", "Ramblin' Fever", "Walk Through This World With Me", "Big Big Love", "Crazy Arms", "After The Fire Is Gone" and "Oh Lonesome Me".

One of Tanya Tucker's latest debuts was in a music video by "Santana Maria" called "You Have Won My Heart," which can be found on YouTube.

Outlaw image[link]

Tucker is one of the few and best-known female Country singers to be classified as an "Outlaw" in the Outlaw country movement, which was most popular in the late 70s. As Tucker matured by the end of the 70s, Tucker's outlaw image grew. Like the other Outlaw artists in the business at the time (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Hank Williams Jr.), Tucker was able to combine qualities of Country and Rock music into her voice to make the Outlaw sound that was popular at the time. These qualities could be heard on some of her biggest hits at the time, including 1978's "Texas (When I Die)." Tucker also had a spirit of independence, which was another Outlaw quality. She ranked #9 on CMT's Dozen Greatest Outlaws, the only woman to appear on that list.

As the 80s progressed, Tucker continued to add the Outlaw qualities to her hits. At the beginning of the 90s, Tucker was still identified as an Outlaw. Today, Tucker continues to be recognized as one, regularly attending Outlaw events among regular shows. Gretchen Wilson made reference to Tucker in her 2004 hit song "Redneck Woman," and Tucker appears briefly in the video of the song, showing Tucker with other Outlaws.

Other works[link]

Tucker published a 1997 autobiography, Nickel Dreams: My Life.

Tucker starred in her own reality show, Tuckerville, on The Learning Channel in 2005. It ran for two seasons for a total of 18 episodes.^[11] The show covers an in-depth visit with Tucker in her home with her family.

Tucker continues to perform for the military doing benefits with newer country acts such as Eric Agnew and Cole Deggs & the Lonesome. She has stated in interviews that she is filming new episodes of her reality show "Tuckerville." Since Tucker has moved out of her Nashville home, the show will take place in Malibu, where she currently resides. It will be called "Tucker Time". She stated that another reason for the name change is because TLC wouldn't let them have the previous name.^[12]

Personal life[link]

Tucker has never been married. Since the late 1970s, she has had relationships with a string of fellow entertainers, including country singer Merle Haggard, actor Don Johnson and the late pop singer Andy Gibb. From 1980 to 1981 she had a relationship with country singer Glen Campbell.

Tucker later had a relationship with Ben Reed, a Hollywood actor, with whom she had daughter Presley Tanita (5 July 1989) and son Beau "Grayson" (2 October 1991).

Since the mid 1990s, Tucker has had an on-again off-again relationship with Jerry Laseter, a Nashville songwriter, performer and producer. They were engaged for the first time in 1997, and again in 1999. Just days before their 1999 wedding, Tucker cancelled the ceremony when she discovered she was pregnant with her third child, Laseter's daughter Layla LaCosta (25 June 1999), saying she did not want to walk down the aisle pregnant in her wedding dress. Laseter was co-producer of Tucker's albums in 2002 (Tanya), 2005 (Live at Billy Bob's Texas) and 2009 (My Turn).

Tucker also has three siblings: two brothers, Don and Robert (Robert died of pneumonia) and a sister, fellow country music artist LaCosta.

Awards & honors[link]

Grammy Nominations[link]

Note: In 1981 Tucker was one of the various artists featured on the album "Sesame Country" which won the Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children. However this Grammy was awarded to the producers Dennis Scott and Jim Henson and not to the artists.

• Nomination for Tell Me About It shared with Delbert McClinton.
• Nomination for "Romeo" shared with Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Billy Ray Cyrus, Kathy Mattea, Dolly Parton, and Pam Tillis.

Discography[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Cooper, Daniel (1998). "Tanya Tucker". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 549–50.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tanya Tucker

• Official Tanya Tucker website
• Tanya Tucker at the Internet Movie Database
• The Totally Unofficial Tanya Tucker Fan Site

David Allan Coe
Coe performing in March, 2009
Background information
Birth name	David Alan Coe
Born	(1939-09-06) September 6, 1939 (age 72)
Origin	Akron, Ohio
Genres	Country
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter, Actor
Instruments	Vocals Guitar
Years active	1956–present
Labels	Columbia, D.A.C., Plantation
Associated acts	Confederate Railroad, Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies, Rebel Meets Rebel, Pantera

David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is an American outlaw country music singer who achieved popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. As a singer, his biggest hits were "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile," "The Ride," "You Never Even Called Me by My Name," "She Used to Love Me a Lot," and "Longhaired Redneck." His best-known compositions are the #1 successes "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)," which was covered by Tanya Tucker; and "Take This Job and Shove It," which was later covered by Johnny Paycheck that was later a hit movie (both Coe and Paycheck had minor parts in the film).

Biography[link]

Coe was born in Akron, Ohio on September 6, 1939.^[1] His favorite singer as a child was Johnny Ace.^[2] After being sent to a reform school at the age of 9, he spent much of the next 20 years in correctional facilities. Coe received encouragement to begin writing songs from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, with whom he had spent time in prison.^[3] Coe was treated poorly by racist inmates because he was friends with African American prisoners.^[3] After concluding another prison term in 1967, Coe embarked on a music career in Nashville, living in a hearse which he parked in front of the Ryman Auditorium, where the Grand Ole Opry was located, and caught the attention of the independent record label Plantation Records, and signed a contract with the label.^[1]

After the Internal Revenue Service seized his home in Key West, Florida, Coe lived in a cave in Tennessee, and later remarried and got back on his feet.^[1]

Music career[link]

Early career[link]

In 1968, Coe released his debut album, Penitentiary Blues, followed by a tour with Grand Funk Railroad.^[1] Although he developed a cult following with his performances, he was not able to develop any mainstream success, but other performers achieved charting success by recording songs Coe had written, including Billie Jo Spears' 1972 recording "Souvenirs & California Mem'rys" and Tanya Tucker's 1973 single "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)," which was a number one hit, and responsible for Coe becoming one of Nashville's hottest songwriters and Coe himself being signed by Columbia Records.^[1] Coe recorded his own version of the song for his second Columbia album, Once Upon a Rhyme, released in 1975.^[4] Allmusic writer Thom Jurek said of the song, "The amazing thing is that both versions are definitive."^[4] The album also contained a cover of Steve Goodman's and John Prine's "You Never Even Called Me by My Name," which was a Top Ten Billboard hit, and was followed by a string of moderately successful hits.^[1]

Coe was a featured performer in Heartworn Highways, a 1975 documentary film by James Szalapski. Other performers featured in this film included Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Steve Young, Steve Earle, and The Charlie Daniels Band. In 1977 Johnny Paycheck released a cover of Coe's "Take This Job And Shove It," which was a number one hit and Coe's most successful song.^[1]

Underground albums[link]

While Coe lived in Key West, Shel Silverstein played his comedy album Freakin' at the Freakers Ball for Coe, spurring him to perform his own comedic songs for Silverstein, who encouraged Coe to record them, leading to the production of the independently released Nothing Sacred.^[5] Jimmy Buffett accused Coe of plagiarizing the melody of "Divers Do It Deeper" from Buffett's "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes," stating "I would have sued him, but I didn't want to give Coe the pleasure of having his name in the paper."^[6] In response to the success of Buffett's song, Coe wrote a song insulting Buffett, and it appeared on Nothing Sacred.^[6] The album was released by mail order in 1978, through the back pages of the biker magazine Easyriders.^[5] Coe's 1979 Columbia album Spectrum VII contained a note stating "Jimmy Buffett doesn't live in Key West anymore," a lyric from a song from Nothing Sacred.^[6]

In 1982, Coe released another independent album, Underground Album, which contained his most controversial song, "Nigger Fucker," which resulted in Coe being accused of racism.^[7][8] Coe responded to the accusations by stating "Anyone that hears this album and says I'm a racist is full of shit."^[3] Coe's drummer at the time, Kerry Brown, is African American and married to a white woman, as was Brown's late father, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.^[5]

Later career[link]

During the 1980s, Coe enjoyed a resurgence in mainstream popularity, twice hitting the top 10 of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart with "The Ride" (1983) and "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile" (1984). "The Ride" recounts a drifter's encounter with the ghost of country music legend Hank Williams. "Mona Lisa" is a mid-tempo ballad about a broken love affair, featuring allusions to the iconic Da Vinci painting. He also just missed the top 10 in early 1985 with "She Used to Love Me a Lot."

In 1990, Coe reissued his independent albums Nothing Sacred and Underground Album on compact disc, as well as the compilation 18 X-Rated Hits.^[5] Throughout the 1990s, Coe had a successful career as a concert performer in the United States and Europe.^[1] In 1999, Coe met Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell in Fort Worth, Texas, and the two musicians, struck by the similarity of the approaches between country and heavy metal, agreed to work together, and began production on an album.^[3][9]

In 2000, Coe toured as the opening act for Kid Rock, and The New York Times published an article by journalist Neil Strauss, who described the material on Nothing Sacred and Underground Album as "among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter."^[10] During the writing of the article, Coe contacted Strauss, but Strauss did not acknowledge any interaction between the two in his article, which only stated that Coe's manager refused to speak on the record.^[5][10]

In 2003, Coe wrote a song for Kid Rock, "Single Father," which appeared on Kid Rock's self-titled album, and was released as a single, which peaked at #50 on the Billboard Country Singles chart.^[11][12] Rebel Meets Rebel, with Dimebag Darrell, Vinnie Paul and Rex Brown, recorded sporadically between 1999 and 2003, was released in 2006, two years after Dimebag Darrel's murder.^[3][9] Allmusic described it as a "groundbreaking" country metal album.^[13]

Style[link]

Coe's musical style derives from blues, rock and country music traditions.^[1][14] His vocal style is described as a "throaty baritone."^[14] His lyrical content is often humorous or comedic, with William Ruhlmann describing him as a "near-parody of a country singer."^[15] Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes Coe as "a great, unashamed country singer, singing the purest honky-tonk and hardest country of his era [...] He may not be the most original outlaw, but there's none more outlaw than him."^[16]

Coe's lyrics frequently include references to alcohol and drug use, and are often boisterous and cocky.^[13] Coe's debut album, Penitentiary Blues was described as "voodoo blues" and "redneck music" by Allmusic's Thom Jurek.^[17] It focused on themes such as working for the first time, blood tests from veins used to inject heroin, prison time, hoodoo imagery and death.^[17] The album's influences included Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Tony Joe White.^[17]

Coe's first country album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, has been described as alt-country, "pre-punk" and "a hillbilly version of Marc Bolan's glitz and glitter."^[18] Credited influences on the album include Merle Haggard.^[18]

Coe's albums Nothing Sacred and Underground Album contained profane, sexually explicit material, including songs making reference to an orgy in Nashville's Centennial Park, sex with pornographic film star Linda Lovelace and insults directed at Jimmy Buffett and Anita Bryant.^[6][7] The album Rebel Meets Rebel featured an anti-racist song, "Cherokee Cry," which criticizes the United States government's treatment of Native Americans.^[13]

In his early career, Coe was known for his unpredictable live performances, in which he would ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle onto the stage and curse at his audience.^[1] Coe has also performed in a rhinestone suit and a mask which resembled that of The Lone Ranger, calling himself the "Masked Rhinestone Cowboy."^[1]

Discography[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Just for the Record...the Autobiography
• The Book of David
• Ex-Convict
• Poems, Prose and Short Stories
• Psychopath
• Whoopsy Daisy (audio book)

References[link]

General

Specific