Cracker Barrel -the restaurant chain who specializes in releasing country music, have chosen to shed their lily white image and have signed Smokey Robinson -the legendary Motown genius.
They could have chosen Darius of course, or re-released modern sounds in country music, but they went with Robinson, and I can’t kick.
Robinson said: “”I’m the first black artist they’ve ever done. It’s like a milestone for me and for them. They’re trying to dispel their image of being bigots and all that stuff. They’ve had that image and they’re not really like that. I went to Nashville, which is their headquarters, and their employees and hiring practices are very diverse. But they started out being just a white thing.”
The album is nothing much, half of the not all that Time Flies American standards, half live versions off the same album. While what they shoulda done is have Smokey record (or even write!) a clutch of country standards. We have no Cracker Barrels round our way but I woulda made a field trip to buy that.