Country singer Doug Supernav was born in Brian and was born in Houston’s Inwood Forest. The breadth of his recording career came between 1993 and 1999, a short spell that would speak to the great promise of country music traditional unrealism.
The supernova arrived in the early 90’s with a rich and boring tanner that was completely broken into conflict-filled songs. He sold more than two and a half million copies of the No. 1 single in “I Don’t Him Daddy” and his debut album “Red and Rio Grande”. But mental illness, addiction and a struggle with the law consumed his career, leaving him down but also equipped for a possible comeback.
That return never came. Nine months after being diagnosed with lung and bladder cancer, Supernav died on Friday. He was 60 years old.
Richard Landis, who made Supernav’s debut album, calls him a “really colorful free spirit.”
The songs of the supernova on streaming services such as Spotify provide limited evidence that it was the bright light of the neo-traditional country music movement of the 1990s. “Red and Rio Grande” can be shared, and the record still feels as comfortable today as well-worn boots: its sound is concise but expressive, with fiddle and pedal steel while mainstream country music remains the same throughout the era. Telling stories of their best-looking characters. Connected to the genre or historical past. His third album, “You Still Got Me,” can be streamed. But “cold thoughts from Shanda mind” is not available. Those three albums represent a promising start to Supernav’s career.
He released “Fedin ‘Renegade” in 1999, with an album title, which seems predictable and tragic two decades later.
The supernova arrived in the 1970s, where it clearly adopted the voices of country heatmakers like Jean Watson. At Eisenhower High School, her interests ranged from golf to music, and she previously rode for a Scholars Lodge Scholarship, although the school was not suitable and she dropped out of St. Thomas University.
He used to write songs in his spare time and work in the oil field to earn money while playing shows on weekends. Superno made a bet on himself in 1987 and left for Houston Nashville to take a job as a staff writer. Music City didn’t give much traction, so he returned to Texas and started a honky tonk band, which attracted him enough to sign an RCA subsidiary called “Red and Rio Grande”.
The album was an earthy, original set of songs that blended the rough-and-tumble Texas sensation with top-notch Nashville instruments. Wrote or co-wrote four of Supernova 10’s songs. Aaron Barker’s “Honky Tonkin” on “Flower” slipped to the bottom of the country’s singles charts in 1993. That year, one of its co-authors, “Renault” reached No. 4 and secured stardom.
Kenny Rogers sang “I Call It Daddy” in the late ’80s, but the superhero found the song in a song talking to her son about a divorced father who doesn’t care for his mother’s new boyfriend. And that song topped the country’s singles charts.
Landis oversaw the initial success of the supernova. He met the singer at a country music radio seminar in the early 90’s and was shocked by the musician’s confidence.
“Nowhere did this big, tall, cowboy hat man come up to me and say, ‘Are you Richard Landis?’ He said, ‘I have come. . ‘- He said a little below that it was -‘ Just to meet you. ‘ And I thought, ‘Something more bull is coming from here.’ But I asked what I could do for her. “
Supernava gave him a demo cassette. “I was impressed,” Landis says. “Not just from his voice, but from his writing.”
Landis didn’t associate Rogers with “I Don’t Hum Daddy” and thought the song would fit into a supernova. They tried to make the song sound right but failed, but with one hour of recording left, they tried the song again. “I knew Doug was really good with a good song and some Crown Royal.”
At a label party celebrating the song’s success, Landis says, “Doug put his hand around me and said, ‘Good morning.’
The next two albums of the supernova will have many more hits, although in 1995 it only reached the top of the “Not enough hours in the night” chart, reaching No. 3. His 1995 album, “You’ve Still Got Me,” includes “Nashville-based legend Jim Lerderdale with Friend Dykes, never to return.
“There was a strong presence on and off the dugout stage,” Luddardell said Friday. “I like his voice. (We) got thrilled when he didn’t say ‘She never looks back’ and he really nailed her. “
By 1999, the supernova was recording “Fedin ‘Renegade” for the auto label. It was at this point that the personal life of the supernova began to emerge, a long and well-documented rest process, documented in detail by author John Nova Lomax, who sought out a singer for a story running in the Houston Press.
The supernatural’s erratic behavior landed him more often in prison and in court than in recording studios. Some of the charges against him were public intoxication, possession of marijuana, non-payment of child support and assault on a police officer.
But some in the industry remembered the supernatural more gently.
“He discovered us and sent us both gifts, which is very rare for an artist to do,” Ludderdale said after the supernova recorded Ludderdale’s song. “I was impressed by his kindness and thoughtfulness. She had warmth and openness that was real. “
In the 13 years since the Houston Press story unfolded, Supernova has played several shows, indicating that it is bringing its career back into order. Introducing the hope of new music, his anthology of music was published in 2017. But then earlier this year he announced he had cancer. A month ago his wife shared on Facebook that he would enter hospice care.
The passing of the supernova a day after the country’s music awards, often referred to as “the biggest night of the country’s music.” But the traditionalism that preceded his music would make the supernatural an outsider of modern country music, finding itself at a crossroads like every few years. The allegations that country music has grown pop are as old as country music. But the supernatural’s short, illustrious career is reminiscent of the value found in embracing aspects of a decades-old tradition.
“There are a lot of twists and turns in the country singer’s path,” said Luddardel, “but Doug makes it home with inner strength and the good love of his family, friends and fans. He shared a big heart at the end of it.”
