Happy Birthday, Crystal Gayle!

About a month ago I finally fulfilled a longtime wish - I got to meet one of my favourite female vocalists, Crystal Gayle! It came about quite quickly and unexpectedly, beginning with my scrolling through Facebook and seeing an advertisement for a concert Crystal was scheduled to perform the following week in St. Catherines, Ontario, which is just a 45 minute drive south from my place. I immediately checked the ticket site and found there were still some good seats available, so I made the purchase.

Four years ago I'd drawn a caricature of Crystal Gayle and posted it on her Facebook page, which I wrote about here. In response, I'd heard from a rep named Darrell in her management office telling me how much Crystal liked my picture. I was flattered and offered to send her a bunch of prints of it as a gift. So in planning my trip to see her in concert last month, I used that caricature as a way of hoping to get to see her after the show. Thanks to the same rep I'd dealt with four years ago, I was able to get permission to meet her as I'd hoped!

Crystal Gayle is such a lovely and gracious woman, and she was kind enough to pose for this photo with me and sign my caricature as well. As thanks, I'd brought her another dozen prints that she could give out to family and friends for Christmas. It's always a treat to meet celebrities whose work I've enjoyed all my life, and I'm very grateful to Crystal for her legacy of wonderful music!

Here is my caricature of Crystal Gayle once again:

Happy Birthday, Crystal Gayle!

Yes, today is the birthday of that sweet-faced little country girl with the never-ending mane of hair, beautiful Crystal Gayle. Back in the late 70's and into the 80's, Crystal was my favourite female country vocalist. The kid sister of the legendary Loretta Lynn, Crystal was born Brenda Gail Webb, but received her stage name courtesy of Loretta, who got the inspiration for that moniker from the Krystal hamburger restaurant chain!

Loretta actually wrote many of Crystal's first songs, but they didn't really go anywhere, although I must admit I quite love her first single, I've Cried the Blues Right Out of My Eyes. That title may have been prophetic though, in that Crystal had her biggest success just a few years later with the similarly titled, Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, a massive crossover hit that did big business on both the country and pop charts.

Crystal has a great range of music styles, not just country. She loves jazz standards and broadway showtunes from the "Tin Pan Alley" era, and late in her career she recorded a beautiful album of the songs of Hoagy Carmichael, a composer she admired very much. She'd first sung a medley with ol' Hoagy on a country TV special, seen here. Looks like Hoagy adored Crystal right back!

But Crystal is always going to be remembered best for the aforementioned Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, so here is a prime rendition from a concert that first aired on HBO in 1982:



Incidentally, January 9th is not only Crystal Gayle's birthday, but also is the birthday of my dear Dad, John Emslie, who passed away in 2001. Both Dad and I were huge country music fans back in the 70's/80's, and I have many fond memories of seeing a great many of our favourite performers in concert halls and big outdoor summer jubilees together. He was a wonderful father who did so much for me and my sister, and we will always miss him like crazy. So here's a Happy Birthday to you too, Dad! :)