It’s The Nineties – Episode 1 (Highway 101, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks and Terri Clark)
By Jonny Brick
Welcome to a new series exclusively for Nashville Worldwide, inspired by Michael Che’s insistence on Saturday Night Live that ‘It’s the nineties!’
It’s 2025, Michael, but country music from a generation ago is hot right now. To that end, I will be celebrating four songs that topped the charts in a particular week in the golden era between 1990 and 1999. There will be four per week for the next 50 weeks, so by the end of the year I will have mentioned 200 chart-toppers. So let’s get going!
1990 Highway 101 – Who’s Lonely Now
We begin with the song that was number one as the 1980s became the 1990s. What do you mean you’ve never heard of it?! It’s a kiss-off to an ex – ‘whose heart is hurtin’…whose head is reelin’, you’re finally feelin’ it too’ – that is sung punchily and with gusto over a midtempo rock groove which ought to be punchier and have even more gusto, especially given that Kix Brooks co-wrote it.
It was the last of Highway 101’s four chart-toppers, and singer Paulette Carlson would soon go solo.
1993 Vince Gill – Don’t Let Our Love Start Slippin’ Away
I love this song, which was number one as 1992 became 1993. Our poor narrator and his partner have been ‘up all night long trying to solve a problem…I ain’t givin’ up and you ain’t givin’ in’. Over a steady groove set to three chords in the key of E-flat, Gill sings of how ‘wounded love’ can be overcome by opening up your heart and communicating in a proper manner.
Check out the middle section, a four-bar passage where he hopes the pair can ‘find a way to just hold on’. The man is the master of melody and phrasing, and he’s a scratch golfer too: a quintuple threat, given that he sings, writes, plays and is a fine Nashville ambassador as the Mayor of Music City. Charlie Worsham will take on that mantle soon enough.
1998 Garth Brooks – Longneck Bottle
This was the swingin’ first single from Garth’s album Sevens. Co-writer Steve Wariner does some scatting in between Garth’s four complaints: the bottle won’t let go of his hand, the jukebox keeps playing that song, the mirror keeps staring at him and the dancefloor is underneath him wherever he goes. He knows he should get back home to his beloved, to ‘waltz right out of them swingin’ doors’, but with the G-Men providing a winning arrangement, resistance to the longneck bottle is futile.
1999 Terri Clark – You’re Easy on the Eyes
Number one as 1998 turned into 1999, Terri wrote her second chart-topper with Chris Waters and the great Tom Shapiro. The soft rock mood chimes with that of contemporary female stars from the era, not least Terri’s fellow Canuck Shania Twain. ‘Half past heartache’ could have been a good title in itself, as Terri begins her complaints about a pretty boy she used to see, who ‘reeled me in for a while’ but is ‘hard on the heart’. For good measure, she throws in an Eartha Kitt-style purr between the second and third choruses.
Follow Jonny through The Nineties episode by episode.
For more country music evangelism, go to countrywol.com where you can read Monday essays, Friday reviews and Sunday Hymn Sheets. Follow Jonny’s Country Music Calendar at the Country Way of Life Facebook page (facebook.com/acountrywayoflife).
Any Given Songday and Stuck at Two, the pair of series which celebrate the centenary of the Grand Ole Opry, can be found at CountryWOL.com