Turntable Talk #49 – “It’s No Act”

Once again, Dave from A Sound Day has offered up a great topic for his monthly Turntable Talk feature. His instructions to us were as follows: “Sting, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Madonna, they all felt drawn to acting after becoming music stars…with varying results. But for this round, I want to go the opposite route- pick an actor/actress or other famous celebrity, who decided to become a musician or singer after becoming famous, and tell us if they were legit or not in your books.“

As I started to think on the topic, one actor popped in my mind instantly. I wasn’t sure I wanted to write on him, so I went digging to see who else might be of interest. What I found was like Dave said, there were more singers turned actor than the other way around. That being said, I considered William Shatner (but is THAT really singing?), Leonard Nimoy, Telly Savalas, Regis Philbin, Robert Mitchum, and a few others. I kept coming back to that first actor.

I think that this actor popped into my head because I recall where I was when I first heard him singing. In 1991, I was working at a small country station on the west side of Michigan. At night we ran a satellite music service. One of the DJ’s used to do a “New Music” competition. Two new songs would go against each other on Monday and the winner went up against another new song on Tuesday, and so on and so forth. The winner would be whoever got the most votes on Friday.

I cannot remember the first song of the competition that Monday, but I was in the production room when I thought I heard the DJ say “Tom Wopat.” My first thought was, “Luke Duke?” I had to wait for the song to end to be sure I heard right. The song was called “Too Many Honky Tonks (On My Way Home).” Honestly, I didn’t think that it sounded anything like Tom Wopat, but I was informed after the song that it was indeed Luke Duke who sang the song!

The song appeared on his 1991 album, Learning to Love. Apparently, we was singing earlier than that. In 1983, he released a self titled album Tom Wopat on Columbia Records. In total, he released 13 singles from 1982-1991, and Learning to Love was his fourth album.

He never really had any big chart success. His biggest “hit” was 1986’s “The Rock and Roll of Love” which hit #16 on the US Country charts and #14 on the Canadian Country charts. It was on Tom’s second album (A Little Bit Closer) on EMI Records.

Lack of success hasn’t really stopped him from recording. He has recorded 7 albums since 1991. Some of them were self-released, while others were on smaller labels. One of those albums, Consider It Swung, was released in 2009 and contained jazz standards and pop rock covers. Every now and then his version of That’s Life will pop up on the Sinatra channel on Sirius XM radio.

Tom, and his Dukes castmates, often makes appearances at Cooter’s Place. Cooter’s was opened by Dukes star Ben Jones and has three locations (Pigeon Forge and Nashville, Tennessee and Luray, VA). Each one serves as a sort of museum that has Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia and is a tribute to the show itself. The stars of the show will show up for autograph sessions and such. Rest assured, Tom always brings along his guitar, as he will usually do a musical performance as part of his visits.

Now as for Dave’s question, is he “legit or not” in my book? For whatever it is worth, I would consider him legit. In preparation for this piece, I listened to a few of his songs and found them to be good. He’s no Sinatra, but what I heard is better than some of the garbage that is on the radio today.

When I relistened to “Too Many Honky Tonks,” I was surprised at how 90’s it sounded. There were so many up and coming country stars in 1991 – Brooks and Dunn, Trisha Yearwood, Collin Raye, Pam Tillis and others. I can see how Wopat’s stuff might have gotten pushed aside because of those artists getting air play. Would he have made it if those singers hadn’t monopolized the country airwaves? Your guess is a good as mine.

Thanks again to Dave for the invitation to participate in Turntable Talk. I am looking forward to reading the submissions from the other contributors. There should be some really interesting picks this month!

Thanks for reading.