The best of Tammy Wynette
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from September 1989.
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Yes, the first lady of country herself, number one on the music charts 35 times, singer of the all-time best seller in country music history, Tammy Wynette with all her cast and crew performed for local fans at the Ramada Treasure Island Resort.
Insiders reveal that Tammy has been in Cayman before, but only to relax after a grueling tour. This time, she told an audience that hung on her every word, she was working on a tan before she goes off to Europe for another series of personal appearances.
A fact sheet provided to the press reveals that Tammy makes between 200 and 250 such appearances each year, in settings that range from state fairs to arenas to "intimate clubs".
Silver's, set up for and filled with 260 fans, may or may not have been intimate, but the atmosphere was friendly and ionised with anticipation. Opening the show were Cayman's own CMX5, Papie Connolly, Larry Cayasso, Stacey Tibbetts, Andy Martin, Cardinal DaCosta. Their performances are worthy of a review of their own and helped set the mood for the night's main attraction.
Tammy did not disappoint. Her medley of hit songs, her glamourous costumes, her easy rapport with the audience and apparent natural charm were all anyone could have wished.
At one point she introduced one of her own compositions, which had been made popular by her first husband, George Jones.
Someone in the audience called out, "Where is he?"
"I don't know where he is, HE doesn't know where he is," Tammy replied. Then she bowed her head in mock contrition. "No, that's tacky," she said.
She joked in rhyme about looking at herself in a full length mirror after age 39. In fact, her biographical notes candidly give her date of birth as 5 May 1942.
That kind of openness is a significant part of what makes her songs so believable.
Those songs included gold records, grammy award winners, her admitted personal favourite ("Till I Can Make It On My Own" -- written with her husband, George Richey, several years before their marriage in 1978), and of course, the anthem, "Stand By Your Man".
Tammy shared the spotlight with her backup singers, Sue Richards and Yvonne Jordan, and her multi-talented band: Rick Murrell, bass guitar; Charlie Carter, rhythm guitar; Charley Abdon, percussion; Rusty Pence, steel; David Sloas, banjo, lead guitar; Steve Samuels, keyboards; Tim Watson, fiddle
When the evening was over, around quarter past midnight, people left Silver's humming, smiling and satisfied, knowing they had enjoyed the best of Tammy Wynette. MORE PICTURES, PAGES 18 AND 19
