b. Rebecca A. Hobbs, 24 January 1950, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA. Hobbs' father loved big band music and her mother country, two strong influences on her later work. She was given a piano when she was nine years old, and began playing the piano parts on rock 'n' roll records, notably those of Jerry Lee Lewis. At the age of 15, she formed an all-girl group, the Four Faces Of Eve, and from 1971, she worked with a bar band, Swamp Fox, in Baton Rouge. The band went to Los Angeles in 1973, but they soon broke up. Hobbs recorded what is now a highly obscure album for MCA Records (Helen Reddy recorded one of the songs, "I'll Be Your Audience"), and then recorded for Tattoo, finally achieving some entries on the US country charts with "Honky Tonk Saturday Night" and "I Can't Say Goodbye To You". Her duet with Moe Bandy, "Let's Get Over Them Together", was a US country hit and then came a top-selling single, "Hottest 'Ex' In Texas". Her compositions include "I Want To Know Who You Are Before We Make Love" (Alabama, Conway Twitty), "Still On A Roll" (Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley, Kelvin Henderson), "I'll Dance A Two Step" (Shelley West) and "Feedin' The Fire" (Zella Lehr). Her effervescent style was well to the fore on her honky tonk album All Keyed Up, which was co-produced by Richard Bennett, Steve Earle's guitarist. She also recorded what is probably the best tribute to George Jones, "Jones On The Jukebox". There was a six-year gap between All Keyed Up and The Boots I Came To Town With, during which the impetus had left her career. The latter album, still a good one, included her version of "Angels Among Us", an original song that Alabama had first recorded. During a hiatus between albums, she recorded briefly with Curb Records, including an interesting version of the 1963 Ernest Ashworth hit, "Talk Back Trembling Lips", which was also a hit for Johnny Tillotson later in the year.

Listen to Becky Hobbs at Finetune.

• (1998)  From Oklahoma With Love

• Honky Tonk Saturday Night
• Dance All Our Troubles Away
• Rockin' and Rollin' and Raisin' Hell
• Don't Cry for Me
• Don't Know When I'll Love Again Like This

• Moe Bandy
• Patty Loveless
• Johnny Cash
• Carlene Carter
• Wanda Jackson
• George Jones
• Gene Watson
• Chas & Dave
• Rosie Flores
• Loretta Lynn
• Willie Nelson
• Buck Owens
• Marty Stuart
• Trace Adkins
• Warren Smith
• Lefty Frizzell
• The Derailers
• Marty Robbins
• Pat Green
• Anita Cochran

• roki7777
• aa77
• nastasia36