Cherry Red's Morello imprint continues to re-present the best of American country music, and now the label has recently looked back to the 1980s and 1990s for a pair of releases.

Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter Gail Davies was born into a musical family.  Her father, Tex Dickerson, was a country singer.  Her brother, Ron Davies, penned songs recorded by artists including Three Dog Night, David Bowie, Dave Edmunds, The Association, and Jerry Jeff Walker.  Having grown up in Washington state, Gail relocated south to Los Angeles where she began her career as a session singer and worked with the varied likes of Neil Young and Glen Campbell.  Mentored by Joni Mitchell's engineer and collaborator Henry Lewy, Gail became interested in production as well as songwriting.  Her powerful vocals caught the attention of Frank Zappa who invited her on tour, but Gail decided to stay true to her country roots and went out with Roger Miller instead.  She headed for Nashville and signed with EMI Publishing as a staff songwriter in 1976, and two years later made her debut on Lifesong Records with a self-titled album produced by Tommy West.  She moved to Warner Bros. in 1980 where her first album, The Game, bore the credit "Produced and arranged by Gail Davies" - a first for a female country artist of that era.

Morello has brought together Davies' first four Warner Bros. long-players on 2 CDs: The Game (1980), I'll Be There (1980), Givin' Herself Away (1982), and What Can I Say (1983).  Her cover of Paul Craft's "Blue Heartache" (a moderate hit for bluegrass group The Osborne Brothers in 1973) on The Game became her first top ten Country hit.  She followed the album up with I'll Be There, her most commercially successful album.  It yielded three top ten hits including a cover of Ray Price's "I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me)," Boudleaux Bryant's "It's a Lovely, Lovely World" (featuring Emmylou Harris on harmonies), and Gail's own "Grandma's Song."  She continued to balance new interpretations of outside compositions (Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby," Joni Mitchell's "You Turn Me On I'm a Radio") with her own strong songs on Givin' Herself Away and was rewarded with another top ten success, K.T. Oslin and Rory Bourke's "Round the Clock Lovin'."  She also breathed new life into Marty Robbins' country chestnut "Singin' the Blues" and reached the top 20 with it.  What Can I Say proved to be her final Warner effort.  Though it didn't spin off any top ten hits, three singles did chart including "It's You Alone," written by her brother Ron and featuring Ricky Skaggs.  The LP also featured songs by Ray Charles ("Hallelujah, I Love Her So"), Rodney Crowell ("On a Real Good Night"), and Mark Knopfler ("Setting Me Up").  Gail moved to RCA for her next album; following records on MCA and Capitol, she launched her own Little Chickadee Records.  Her most recent record was 2014's Since I Don't Have You.  Though she never crossed over to the Pop charts, Gail Davies' Warner Bros. discography was influential to artists including The Judds, Pam Tillis, and Mandy Barnett.

Morello then jumps ahead to the 1990s for a four-on-one release from Neal McCoy.  Born in Texas to a Filipino-American mother and Irish-American father, McCoy immersed himself in all genres of music as a young man, and in 1981 won a talent contest hosted by country star Janie Fricke.  He won, and got the opportunity to open for another bona fide legend, Charley Pride.  His association with Pride continued, and he signed to the independent 16th Avenue Records label as "Neal McGoy," a phonetic spelling of his birth surname McGaughey.  After a couple of singles, the label folded, but Atlantic Records' Nashville office had taken notice.  He signed in 1990 and rechristened himself "Neal McCoy" at the label's urging.

Morello's package, consisting of Neal McCoy (1996), Be Good at It (1997), The Life of the Party (1999), and 24-7-365 (2000), picks up with McCoy's self-titled fifth album for Atlantic.  By this point, McCoy was already a bona fide country superstar; his 1994 LP No Doubt About It and follow-up You Gotta Love That both would be certified Platinum.  Neal McCoy would actually be his highest-charting album, though, when it reached No. 7 on the Country chart.  Produced by Barry Beckett of the Muscle Shoals Swampers, it featured an eclectic tunestack including a cover of John D. Loudermilk's oft-recorded "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye," the Steve Cropper co-write "Going, Going Gone" (introduced a couple of years earlier by Bryan White), pop veteran Steve Dorff's "It Should've Happened That Way" (penned with Michael Lunn and Jeff Pennig), and a "Hillbilly Rap" featuring "Rapper's Delight," "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," and "The Banana Boat Song" (!).  Be Good at It, McCoy's first collaboration with Kyle Lehning (Randy Travis, Anne Murray), arrived on the heels of his Greatest Hits collection and reprised the top ten entry "The Shake" from Greatest Hits.  Lehning returned for The Life of the Party.  Phil Vassar and Charlie Black's "I Was" cracked the Country top 40 even as the album showcased McCoy's versatility with a cover of the Nat "King" Cole standard "Straighten Up and Fly Right."  The fourth and final album in Morello's package, 24-7-365, was first issued on Atlantic sister imprint Giant Records.  Though three singles charted, it would take another five years before McCoy returned to the top ten.

Both Morello releases have eight-page booklets with brief liner notes by Tony Byworth and credits for each song and album.  These one-stop-shopping collections for two underrated contemporary country artists are available now at the links below.  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Gail Davies, The Game/I'll Be There/Givin' Herself Away/What Can I Say (Morello QMRLL109D, 2023) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

Gail Davies (Warner Bros. BSK 3395, 1980)

1. Blue Heartache
2. The Game
3. Good Lovin' Man
4. Careless Love
5. Love Is Living Around Us
6. Sorry That You're Leavin'
7. Never Seen a Man Like You
8. Drown in the Flood
9. Like Strangers
10. When I Had You in My Arms

I'll Be There (Warner Bros. BSK 3509, 1980)

11. I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me)
12. It's a Lovely, Lovely World
13. Mama's Gonna Give You Sweet Things
14. Kentucky
15. Honky Tonk Waltz
16. Farewell Song
17. Object of My Affection
18. Get That Feelin' Inside
19. I'm Hungry, I'm Tired
20. Grandma's Song
21. No One to Welcome Me Home

CD 2

Givin' Herself Away (Warner Bros. BSK 3636, 1982)

1. Round the Clock Lovin'
2. Movin' (I Might Decide to Stay)
3. Hold On
4. It's Amazing What a Little Love Can Do
5. Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)
6. Givin' Herself Away
7. All the Fire Is Gone
8. Singing the Blues
9. You Turn Me On I'm a Radio
10. Dawn

What Can I Say (Warner Bros. 9 23972-1, 1983)

11. Boys Like You
12. Following You Around
13. On a Real Good Night
14. Hallelujah I Love Him So
15. What Can I Say
16. You're a Hard Dog (To Keep Under the Porch)
17. It's You Alone
18. If You Can Lie a Little Bit
19. The Boy in You Is Showing
20. Setting Me Up

Neal McCoy, Neal McCoy/Be Good at It/The Life of the Party/24-7-365 (Morello QMRLL110DZ, 2023) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

Neal McCoy (Atlantic 82907-2, 1996)

1. That Woman of Mine
2. Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye
3. Me Too
4. It Should've Happened That Way
5. I Ain't Complainin'
6. Going, Going, Gone
7. Betcha Can't Do That Again
8. She Can
9. If It Hadn't Been So Good
10. Hillbilly Rap

Be Good at It (Atlantic 83057-2, 1997)

11. If You Can't Be Good, Be Good at It
12. I Know You
13. You'll Always Be in My Life
14. Same Boots
15. Back
16. Love Happens Like That
17. Party On
18. Broken Record
19. 21 to 17
20. Basic Goodbye
21. The Shake

CD 2

The Life of the Party (Atlantic 83170-2, 1999)

1. I Was
2. Lipstick on the Radio
3. Only You
4. The Girls of Summer
5. New Old Songs
6. The Life of the Party
7. Completely
8. That's Not Her
9. Ain't Nothin' Like It
10. The Strongest Man in the World
11. Straighten Up and Fly Right

24-7-365 (Giant 9 24748-2, 2000)

12. Count on Me
13. Forever Works for Me (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)
14. My Life Began with You
15. What Would Love Say
16. Beatin' It In
17. Every Man for Himself
18. Disconnected
19. A Love That Strong
20. 24-7-365
21. The Key to Your Heart