Sunday Morning Country Classic Spotlight to Feature Barbara Mandrell

On Sunday February 28^th at 11 am, join me for the Sunday Morning Country Classic Spotlight featuring Barbara Mandrell.

We get started at 9 am with the 98 Country Classic Show. You can find us at 98.1 FM Minnesota’s New Country, online and on your mobile device.

Barbara Mandrell was a Christmas baby born December 25, 1948 in Houston, Texas.

At an early age Mandrell showed great promise as a country superstar, she toured with country great Patsy Cline when she was only 13-years-old. Mandrell became a skilled guitarist, she could play saxophone, bass, banjo and accordion and she could sing.

She ruled the country charts for two decades from 1970 through the 1980’s. “Midnight Oil,” “Married but not to Each Other,” “If Loving You is Wrong, Then I Don’t Want to be Right,” “Crackers,” “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” and her signature song, “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” with guest vocal from George Jones, a number one hit in May 1981.

I remember driving on I-94 heading to Minneapolis when a bulletin came over the radio stating Barbara Mandrell was involved in a crash on a freeway in mid-September 1984. Two of her children were in the back seat, all survived. Since that near-death experience, Mandrell has focused on family, her children and her husband, drummer Ken Dudney, who she married in May 1967.

It’s been over 17 years since she walked away from country music and entertaining and she says she doesn’t miss it.