Jan Howard

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Evil On Your Mind

Album: Country Legend

Released: Jan 1, 0001

Label: Goldenlane Records

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Evil On Your Mind
2:24
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Total Plays: 20,525 / Plays Today: 1See All Featured ►

General Info

Genre: Country
Location NASHVILLE, Tennessee, US
Profile Views: 44743
Last Login: 3/16/2012
Member Since 8/4/2008
Website www.janhoward.com
Type of Label Major
Bio
Jan Howard has traveled a long way from her humble Missouri roots to a prominent place in the history of country music. In a business where overnight sensations come and go rapidly, Jan has maintained a career encompassing longevity, respect, and admiration. She has certainly earned the title of ‘country music legend’. As a demo singer, it was Jan Howard who first sang and recorded country standards like “Heartaches By The Number” and “I Fall To Pieces”. Her very first demo, “Mommy For A Day”, became a Top 5 hit for Kitty Wells. Because the echo was better there, Jan’s first demo recording was made in the bathroom of the Howard’s tiny apartment. As Jan stood in the shower, her husband Harlan propped his foot on the commode and played his three chords on the guitar. As a backup singer, Jan sang on dozens of Johnny Cash records including “Ring Of Fire”. Jan contributed the “Mama sang tenor” part on Johnny’s No. 1 hit “Daddy Sang Bass”, and provided background vocals on recordings by many other artists like Porter Wagoner, Connie Smith, and Skeeter Davis. As a songwriter, Jan has received several BMI Awards including the Top 5 hits “I Never Once Stopped Loving You” (co-written with Bill Anderson) recorded by Connie Smith, “ Love Is A Sometimes Thing” recorded by Bill Anderson, and “ Dis-Satisfied” recorded by Bill and Jan. But, Jan’s proudest composition is the Grammy-nominated “My Son”, a moving recitation that began as a letter to her son Jimmy in Vietnam. Carter, Jan’s middle son who was home on leave before he too was to go to Vietnam, heard the song and said “that needs to be put to music”. Two weeks after the record’s release, Jimmy’s tank struck a land mine on the battlefields and he lost his life. It wasn’t until many years later that Jan learned through a letter from a fellow soldier that Jimmy had received a tape of his mother’s song, and had proudly played it for his unit on the very day he died. As a recording artist, Jan earned awards from Billboard and Cashbox and placed over twenty solo hits on the Billboard country singles chart. Her recording of “Evil On Your Mind” is ranked among “Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles”, a 2003 book published by the Country Music Foundation Press and Vanderbilt University Press. Jan is one of only a handful of female country artists who continued charting Billboard singles beyond the age of 45. She has released a collectors’ edition boxed set containing eighty-one of her recordings along with a twenty-page photo album. As a duet partner with Bill Anderson, Jan scored several additional hits including “For Loving You” which remained at No. 1 on the Billboard country singles chart for four consecutive weeks. Jan was a regular performer on Bill Anderson’s popular syndicated TV show for eight years. For eleven years Jan was married to Country Music Hall of Fame member Harlan Howard, with whom she wrote many songs. Jan was the inspiration for the classic “I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail” which Harlan Howard wrote with Buck Owens as she drove the trio home from a Texas show. Classy and sophisticated, yet strong-willed and determined, Jan is a lady of rare talent who challenges life on a daily basis. When her producer nixed her desire to record the classic “Gentle On My Mind” because it was written from a male perspective, she went home and told her neighbor John Hartford, who just happened to be the song’s writer. He immediately rewrote the lyrics for Jan, and she recorded the tune. At one point in her life Jan decided to obtain her real estate license. She was so determined to pass that she took a real estate course for three months, then studied intensely the week before the difficult exam. Although the test was only supposed to last two hours, Jan ended up spending four. Later she found out they had given her both the Broker’s and Affiliate Broker’s tests – and she was called before an inquisitive Grand Jury because she’d received the fourth highest score ever. Jan has toured every state in the USA, along with twenty-one foreign countries. She’s made appearances on dozens of television shows, and along with friends Jeannie Seely and Rita Coolidge appeared and sang in the 2003 motion picture Changing Hearts. In 2002 Jan was inducted to the North American Country Music Association International (NACMAI) Hall of Fame. The following year she received the Golden Voice Award for Female Vocalist of the Year, and in 2005 Jan was inducted to the Missouri Country Music Hall of Fame. Jan’s most memorable moment in country music was her induction as a member of the Grand Ole Opry on March 27, 1971. Since then she has been a regular performer and a fan favorite on the Opry, the longest running radio show in the world. Jan has also frequently hosted the world’s second longest running radio show, the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree. As an author, Jan has released a candid, compelling, and best-selling autobiography titled “Sunshine and Shadow”. She dedicated the book to her son Corky who operates his own business in the Nashville area. Jan is a survivor of a life filled with everything they write Soap Operas about, but she has made it clear that she never wants pity. When someone asked why she wasn’t bitter, Jan’s answer was “I’m too busy being thankful”. She has turned down three offers for a movie to be made based on the book. “Never”, Jan said, “that was then, this is now”. Born in West Plains, Missouri, Jan was the eighth of eleven children. Her humble roots include attending a one-room schoolhouse wearing the homemade, feed sack clothes of a rural Depression-era child. Married at age fifteen, Jan had three sons before she turned twenty one. After two divorces, she headed to Los Angeles and took on jobs as a waitress and as a secretary for a sewing machine showroom. A chance meeting with aspiring songwriter Harlan Howard resulted in a Las Vegas wedding just one month later. Jan had no aspirations of becoming a country singer, but one evening while she was washing dishes Harlan came in the room unexpectedly and heard her singing for the very first time. He coaxed her to make a demo, and later backed by Wynn Stewart’s band she released Harlan’s “Pick Me Up On Your Way Down” which received regional airplay. She subsequently recorded several duets with Wynn including the hit “Wrong Company”. Although she’d never sung in front of a live audience before recording with Wynn, Jan received her own recording contract the first time a producer heard her sing. Jan’s first real audience was in 1959 in Lubbock, Texas, where Johnny Horton had to literally push the painfully shy singer onto the stage. In 1960 Jan scored her first major hit with “The One You Slip Around With”, and that same year the Howards moved to Nashville where Jan made her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Jan’s fans found her stylish, no frills look appealing. Jan’s independence and blunt, no-nonsense manner won Patsy Cline’s admiration and made them close friends until Patsy’s untimely death. Jan’s troubled marriage with Harlan eventually ended in a 1968 divorce. For the first time in her life, Jan’s singing became an economic necessity. She developed an inner strength that only someone who has struggled and suffered through adversity can produce. Four years after her son Jimmy’s death in Vietnam, Jan’s youngest son David committed suicide and was buried in Nashville’s Spring Hill Cemetery, directly across the street from where Jimmy is buried in the National Cemetery. Jan softened the edges of tragedy with her strong faith in God and the belief that He has a reason for everything and will provide her strength to cope. “Never let yesterday use up today,” Jan reminds us. “You can’t change the past, so learn from it. Cherish the good, and go on from there. Life is not a rehearsal – this is the show and there are no retakes.” Rising above her obstacles, Jan has become a stronger and more compassionate human being. In 2005, she was honored with the Ernest Tubb Humanitarian of the Year Award from the R.O.P.E. organization. The esteem in which Jan is held in her hometown of West Plains is witnessed by the dedication of the “Jan Howard Expressway” in 1971. Jan has been a frequent participant in charity golf tournaments for many years. Those tournaments have benefited such groups as the Special Olympics, Children’s Diabetes, Children’s Transplant Program, BlueBonnett Youth Ranch, Shriners, tornado victims, law enforcement officers, soldiers, and veterans. Jan’s continuing efforts on behalf of the Armed Forces, Veterans Administration, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans, and Vietnam Veterans Memorial have resulted in dozens of accolades. In 1992 she received the Tennessee Adjutant General’s “Distinguished Patriot Medal” which is the highest honor a civilian can receive. In 2005 she traveled to Washington, D.C. to receive the Veterans of Foreign Wars Gold Medal of Merit Award for “exceptional service rendered to country, community, and mankind”. “When I was a little girl it was not in my wildest dreams where my life would lead,” states Jan. “Somehow, even now some things are still like dreams. I remember one time standing, looking out over a beautiful seaport in Hobart, Tasmania, and thinking ‘how did Lula Grace Johnson from West Plains, Missouri, ever get to Tasmania?’.” “To say it was a rocky, crooked road,” notes Jan, “is putting it mildly”. Jan Howard appreciates and receives all of your comments and messages, and she will make every attempt to update you on all of her latest happenings. Because of her busy schedule, she is maintaining her Official Myspace page along with her friends Ryan Joseph and L & L Management's LeeAnn Lallone. .. .. .. .. ...... Layout by ..CoolChaser.. .. .. ...... .. .. .. .. .. .... .... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .......... ...... .......... ..Header Banner Made with MyBannerMaker.com! Click here to make your own!..............
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