Eddy Raven
Edward Garvin Futch, known professionally as Eddy Raven, is an American country music singer and songwriter. Active from 1962 to 2018, Raven has recorded for several record labels, including ABC, Dimension, Elektra, RCA, Universal, and Capitol Records. After multiple albums which yielded few hit songs, his greatest commercial success came between 1984 and 1990, during which time Raven achieved six number-one singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. These were "I Got Mexico", "Shine, Shine, Shine", "I'm Gonna Get You", "Joe Knows How to Live", "In a Letter to You", and "Bayou Boys". Raven has a total of eighteen top-ten hits on that chart. Although his chart success diminished in the 1990s, Raven continued to record throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century. In addition to his own work, he has written singles for Don Gibson, Randy Cornor, Jeannie C. Riley, Connie Smith, and The Oak Ridge Boys among others. Raven's music is defined by mainstream country, country pop, Cajun music, and reggae, and he wrote a large number of his singles by himself or with Frank J. Myers.
Early years
Edward Garvin Futch was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, on August 19, 1944. He is the oldest of ten children, and his father worked as a truck driver. Futch had originally considered a professional career in baseball, but chose not to after breaking his ankle. Growing up, he cited Cajun music as a musical influence, along with the country music sounds from popular radio broadcasts such as the Louisiana Hayride, New Orleans blues, and the new sounds of rock and roll. Futch first played in a band at age thirteen. He later went to work for a radio station in Georgia when his family moved there, and in 1962 he self-released the single "Once a Fool". The single was credited to "Eddy Raven" due to a printing error, but he chose to keep that as his stage name. When his family moved back to Louisiana, Raven worked at a recording studio called La Louisianne Records and its outlet The Music Mart, where he recorded and released his first album, ''That Cajun Country Sound.''Musical career
Beginnings
Raven's first record was heard by fellow Cajun country musician Jimmy C. Newman, who helped him sign a publishing contract with Acuff-Rose Music. Both Newman and Raven's father then encouraged him to move to Nashville, Tennessee. There, he wrote singles for various country music artists including Don Gibson, Connie Smith, Jeannie C. Riley, and Randy Cornor. Raven began recording for ABC Records in 1974 after Acuff-Rose songwriter and producer Don Gant became head of artists and repertoire for that label. His first charted single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, his own composition "The Last of the Sunshine Cowboys", came in 1974 on ABC. Raven charted seven more singles for the label between then and 1975, the most successful being "Good News, Bad News", which achieved a peak of number 27 there. ABC also issued one album, This Is Eddy Raven, in early 1976. The album, also produced by Gant, was reviewed favorably by Cash Box magazine. This review stated that his "natural musical ability, coupled with the emotional levels of his voice, captures the full flavor of each selection on this appealing album."Raven left ABC in 1976 when Gant also departed the label. He signed with Monument Records in 1978 and two singles for them: "You're a Dancer" was a minor entry on Hot Country Songs, but "Colinda" did not chart and Monument closed its country division soon afterward. After leaving Monument, Raven was encouraged by singer Bob Luman to travel to Texas and draw inspiration from that state's music scene. This resulted in his 1980 album Eyes on Dimension Records, an independent label founded by his then-manager. Ray Pennington produced the album, with assistance from Don Gant's brother Ronnie Gant on three tracks, and Raven wrote or co-wrote every song on it. The album charted five singles on Hot Country Songs: "Sweet Mother Texas", "Dealin' with the Devil", "You've Got Those Eyes", "Another Texas Song", and "Peace of Mind". The last of these was the most successful of the five, reaching number 23 in 1981. "Dealin' with the Devil" was also one of the first country music songs to be promoted via music video; specifically, Dimension Records shipped videocassettes of Raven performing the song to 54 stations that were surveyed by Billboard at the time. Record World published positive reviews of the singles "Another Texas Song" and "Peace of Mind", calling the former a "plucky, self-penned tune that displays more of his writer-artist talents", while calling him "one of the smoothest country singers around" in a review of the latter.
In 1981, record producer Jimmy Bowen heard "Dealin' with the Devil" and helped Raven sign to Elektra Records. According to Raven, Bowen was the first record producer he encountered who was willing to let him record "my music, not what the record company wanted me to cut." His only Elektra album, Desperate Dreams, came out late that year. The album accounted for four chart singles on Hot Country Songs between 1981 and 1982: "I Should've Called", "Who Do You Know in California", "A Little Bit Crazy", and "She's Playing Hard to Forget", the last of which became his first top ten hit there. Raven wrote the first three by himself. At the time of the album's release, Raven said that many of his songs were inspired by situations that he had encountered while touring. Specifically, he stated that "Who Do You Know in California" was inspired by an extramarital affair he had heard of in Dallas, Texas, but changed to being set in California because the latter fit the song's meter better. A concert review in The Arizona Republic noted of Raven's style at the time that his style had potential for pop crossovers, while also stating that the song showed his lyrical skill by not resolving its central theme. Record World wrote of the album that Raven's "commercial potential has not yet been reached", while praising the vocal delivery on the singles. Tom Roland of Allmusic thought that the album had more creative control from Raven than its predecessors did. At the end of his contract with Elektra, Raven had a second album recorded but never released, although it did have one charted single in "San Antonio Nights". Once his contract ended, Raven chose to undergo a brief recording hiatus in order to determine the viability of his career. During this hiatus, he disassociated himself from his existing producers and managers and began writing songs with Frank J. Myers, a songwriter who was also the guitarist and bandleader of his road band. After having success on the songwriting front, which included the title track of Tanya Tucker's late-1982 album Changes, Raven was inspired to resume recording in 1984.
1984-88: RCA Records
Raven moved to RCA Records Nashville in 1984 at the end of his self-imposed hiatus. His first single for the label was "I Got Mexico", and that year it became his first number-one single on Hot Country Songs. Also co-written by Myers, it was the first single from his RCA debut I Could Use Another You. Raven produced the album with Paul Worley, who was then known mainly as a session guitarist but would become increasingly known as a producer throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Also released as singles from the album were the title track and "She's Gonna Win Your Heart", which both placed within the top ten of Hot Country Songs. Cash Box described the title track as "an upbeat tune stressing Raven’s clear, distinct vocals." Writing for Stereo Review magazine, Alanna Nash noted that while it had fewer songs written by Raven and a "slightly more mainstream" sound than its predecessors, the album was "well up to his own high standards"; she also considered Raven's singing more upbeat and confident than on previous efforts.His next RCA album was 1985's Love and Other Hard Times, which he co-produced with Worley. It accounted for three top-ten singles on the country music charts: "Operator, Operator", followed by "I Wanna Hear It from You" and "You Should Have Been Gone by Now". Raven co-wrote six of the songs on the album. In the process of recording, he and Worley chose to incorporate a more acoustic influence on some tracks, and thus chose Mark O'Connor to play fiddle and mandolin. Cash Box reviewed the album positively, stating that it was "another exhibition of his fine vocal range and his valuable songwriting ability." Billboard also published a positive review of the album, which said that his "haunting and sincere voice is matched here by some of the best material he's recorded in recent years." In 1985, Raven was nominated for the Horizon Award from the Country Music Association.
Right Hand Man, released in late 1986 on RCA, accounted for four more singles: "Sometimes a Lady", "Right Hand Man", and "You're Never Too Old for Young Love" all achieved peaks of number three on the country music charts, while the final single "Shine, Shine, Shine" became his second number-one single. Don Gant returned to production duties except for "Sometimes a Lady", which Raven and Worley produced; the album would also be Gant's last production credit, as he died in March 1987. In addition to Raven and Myers, other writers on the album included Gary Burr and Gary Scruggs, brother of bluegrass singer Randy Scruggs. Nash wrote in Stereo Review that the album seemed to focus more on Raven's singing over his songwriting, noting that the album had more of a country pop sound than its predecessors.
Raven's tenure with RCA ended with a compilation album titled The Best of Eddy Raven in 1988. In addition to most of his RCA singles, it included three new songs that were all sent out as singles. The first two were "I'm Gonna Get You" and "Joe Knows How to Live", which both ascended to the top of the Hot Country Songs charts that year. Both had originally been cut by other artists in 1987: "I'm Gonna Get You" by Billy Swan, and "Joe Knows How to Live" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Hold On. The final single from The Best of Eddy Raven was "'Til You Cry", which peaked at number four. All of these were produced by session keyboardist and record producer Barry Beckett, who had contacted Raven and expressed interest in producing for him. While Beckett had played on some of Raven's previous albums, Raven said that he was unaware of Beckett's roles as a producer at the time, and agreed to the offer after discovering that Beckett had been a producer on several recordings of which he was a fan. In advance of the album's release, Raven toured the southern United States with then-labelmates Alabama.