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As country music swung back toward traditional styles in the 1980s, an inheritor of the soulful honky tonk style
of Lefty Frizell and Merle Haggard , Vern rose to the top of the business and notched hit after hit. Sometimes
he was known simply as "THE VOICE" . Just like many country stars of days past Gosdin got his starts by playing run down bars
and honkey tonks for a few beers and a pack of smokes. Gosdin got his break in 1976 when he performed "Yesterdays Gone" and
"Hangin" with Emmy Lou Harris with Elektra Records. In the late '70s he notched several major hits, including "Till the End"
(with Janie Frikie ), "Mother Country Music," and a remake of the Association's "Never My Love." In 1980, after the demise
of Elektra's country division, Gosdin quickly moved through several contracts and landed with the independent Nashville label
Compleat. He made the Top Ten consistently in the early '80s.often delivering an over-the-top emotionalism that got Gosdin
compared to the ultimate legend of honky tonk vocals, George Jones. . In 1983, Gosdin had two Top Five hits -- "If You're
Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)" and "Way Down Deep." The following year he had his first number-one single with "I Can Tell
by the Way You Dance (You're Gonna Love Me Tonight)" and had two additional Top Ten hits. His career hit a lull in the mid-'80s,
but in 1987, with the traditionalist movement in full swing and Warner Bros. artist Randy Travis roosting at the top of the
charts, he was tapped by the Columbia label. He bounced back into the Top Ten that year with the tortured "Do You Believe
Me Now," and in 1988 he hit number one once again with the perennially popular Ernest Tubb tribute "Set 'Em Up Joe."
Gosdin's "Chiseled in Stone," won the Country Music Association's Song of the Year award in 1989. Gosdin's popularity declined
as rock-influenced country styles surged forward in the 1990s. There is not doubting that Gosdin was , is and always will
be "THE VOICE" in country music. Gosdins' signature song is "Set em up Joe". My favorite Gosdin song is definatley "Do You
Believe me Now", if you have not heard this song....... listen to it and see if your not totally blown away by the vocals.
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