Freddie Hart - Trip To Heaven

In this episode, we're featuring a top notch album from Freddie Hart: "Trip To Heaven" (1973). It spawned only one single - the title track - which turned out to be a number one hit. Alongside that chart topping performance, this release has nine other hard country tunes with a 70s twist, all with Freddie Hart's most distinctive of southern drawls. Hart's career started as a member of Lefty Frizzell's band, but after writing hits for Carl Smith, Buck Owens and Porter Wagoner - he ground his way to the top, a journey which lasted some eighteen years or more. His first number one came with "Easy Loving" in 1971, and by that time, Hart had already lived four lifetimes: earnt his black belt in karate and jiujitsu, owned a trucking business, operated a school for handicapped children, ran a songwriting company AND met Hank Williams in the late 1940s. Chances are that meeting taught him something about songwriting too - because every single song on "Trip To Heaven" was written by Freddie Hart himself - and with his band The Heartbeats, some of the quality picks on this release include "Living On Leftovers Of You", the novelty "Ugly Duckling" and "Skid Row Street".