Moe Bandy's new album A Love Like That builds on three longtime friendships with fellow country music legends, including the late Jimmy Capps.
Capps, a beloved member of the Grand Ole Opry house band since 1967, passed away on June 2. He produced A Love Like That, which ended up being the final recording project of a career that included session work on Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler," George Strait's "Amarillo By Morning" and other seminal sides.
"I knew Jimmy for probably 30 years," Bandy says. "He's played on my records for years, and in the last six or eight years, we got to be very close friends. He produced two other albums with me. We got to be good buddies."
Bill Anderson wrote or co-wrote three of the album's 11 songs (the title track, "What If" and career launching classic "City Lights").
Anderson rarely meets strangers, and Bandy wastes no time on bad songs. So it should come as no surprise that they've bonded over the years while sharing the classic sounds their overlapping audiences still crave.
"I've done a lot of the Country Family Reunions with him, and we've done a lot of cruises together," Bandy says. "We actually did a special on one of the shows where we just featured Bill's songs. I've recorded several before, and we've just been good friends forever."
A third famous friend, Jeannie Seely, wrote "Life of a Rodeo Cowboy." Like 1975 hit "Bandy the Rodeo Clown," Seely's song thematically fits the bull riding pasts of Moe and his brother Mike Bandy, a six-time NFR (National Finals Rodeo) qualifier and a member of the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame.
"She kept after me about doing a song," Bandy says. "She said it fits you because it's a rodeo song. I heard the song, and I said, 'You know what? It does fit me.'"
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Beyond highlighting great friends of Bandy's other than former duet partner Joe Stampley, A Love Like That reminds us that without the pressure to chase hits, older artists create albums for their fans, not Nashville tastemakers or anyone else. Once Bandy can safely hit the road to perform "I Just Started Hatin' Cheatin' Songs Today," "Till I'm Too Old to Die Young," "Barstool Mountain," "Americana," "Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life" and other classics, his new material will suit a time-tested playlist that caters to multiple generations of country music fans.
A Love Like That Track Listing
1. "Tonight Was Made For the Two of Us" (Tom Botkin, Tony Stampley)
2. "A Love Like That" (Bobby Tomberlin, Mo Pitney, Bill Anderson)
3. "The Last of the Sunshine Cowboys" (Eddy Raven)
4. "Heartache Doesn't Have a Closin Time" (Bobby Tomberlin, Shayne Fair, Candi Carpenter)
5. "City Lights" (Bill Anderson)
6. "You Can't Go Home" (Bobby Tomberlin, Steven Dale Jones, Jim B. Martin)
7. "It's All Over Town" (Leona Williams, Eric Blankenship)
8. "Life of a Rodeo Cowboy" (Jeannie Seely)
9. "You Can't Stop a Heart From Breaking" (Tony Stampley, Kim Williams, Lisa Schafor)
10. "Shoulda Been Singin Rock of Ages" (Leona Williams, Lance Miller, Austin Cunningham)
11. "What If" (Bobby Tomberlin, Bill Anderson)
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