Barbara Mandrell › Similar Artists

Janie Fricke - 100% match to Barbara Mandrell

Jane Frickie, 19 December 1947, on the family farm near South Whitney, Indiana, USA. Fricke, who adopted the spelling in 1986 to avoid mispronunciation, has sung in public since the age of 10. Her father was a guitarist and her mother a piano teacher and organist. Fricke sang jingles to pay her university fees and then moved to Los Angeles to find work as a session singer. A Read more

Earl Thomas Conley - 89% match to Barbara Mandrell

17 October 1941, Portsmouth, Ohio, USA. The son of a railway worker, Conley left home at 14 when his father lost his job. His influences were the Grand Ole Opry, followed by Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, and then the Beatles. He originally planned to be a painter, but developed his love for country music while in the US Army. After his military service, Conley had a suc Read more

Charly McClain - 87% match to Barbara Mandrell

Charlotte Denise McClain, 26 March 1956, Jackson, Tennessee, USA. McClain began her musical career when only nine years old with her brother in a band called Charlotte And The Volunteers. For six years they worked locally and also had television appearances. She then started modelling swimsuits, changed her name to Charly and was signed to Epic in 1976. She had US country hi Read more

Johnny Lee - 86% match to Barbara Mandrell

T.G. Sheppard - 83% match to Barbara Mandrell

William Neal Browder, 20 July 1944, Humboldt, Tennessee, USA. Sheppard is a nephew of old-time country performer Rod Brasfield, and his mother was a piano teacher who gave him lessons. Sheppard began his professional musical career in Memphis in the early 60s, working as a backing vocalist for Travis Wammack and then performing as Brian Stacey, having a regional hit with
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Donna Fargo - 81% match to Barbara Mandrell

Yvonne Vaughn, 10 November 1949, Mount Airy, North Carolina, USA. Fargo is the daughter of a tobacco farmer, and she sang in church as a child. She became a schoolteacher and was discovered by her future husband, record producer Stan Silver, singing in a club in Los Angeles. She first recorded in 1969, but her success started once she had signed with Dot Records in 1971. She Read more

Ricky Van Shelton - 75% match to Barbara Mandrell

12 January 1952, Danville, near Lynchburg, Virginia, USA. Shelton was raised in a church-going family and he learned to love gospel music. His brother worked as a musician and through travelling with him, he also acquired a taste for country music. He worked as a pipe fitter but his fiancée Bettye realized his singing potential, and in 1984, suggested that they went t Read more

Mickey Gilley - 74% match to Barbara Mandrell

9 March 1936, Natchez, Louisiana, USA, but raised in Ferriday, Louisiana. Gilley is a cousin to Jerry Lee Lewis and the evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. He grew up with his cousins and his mother, a waitress, who saved her money to buy him a piano when he was 12 years old. Gilley left Louisiana when he was 17 and started working in bars in Houston. His first record was ‘Tell Read more

John Conlee - 70% match to Barbara Mandrell

11 August 1946, Versailles, Kentucky, USA. Conlee’s early years were filled with farm chores, but he was playing the guitar on local radio before he was 10. He describes Versailles as ‘a very small town with a very large barbershop chorus’ in which he sang high tenor. Like soul singer Solomon Burke, he became a licensed embalmer. In the mid-70s he set about es Read more

Eddy Raven - 69% match to Barbara Mandrell

Edward Garvin Futch, 19 August 1944, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA. Futch, one of 11 children, was raised in bayou country. His father, a truck driver and blues guitarist, used to take him to honky tonks. He was given a guitar, and by the time he was 13 years old, he was playing in a rock ‘n’ roll band. When the family moved to Georgia in 1960, he worked for a radio st Read more

Ronnie Milsap - 67% match to Barbara Mandrell

Ronnie Lee Millsaps, 16 January 1943, Robbinsville, North Carolina, USA. Milsap’s mother had already experienced a stillbirth and the prospect of raising a blind child made her mentally unstable. Milsap’s father took him to live with his grandparents and divorced his mother. What little vision young Ronnie had was lost after receiving a vicious punch from a schoolm Read more

Holly Dunn - 64% match to Barbara Mandrell

Holly Suzette Dunn, 22 August 1957, San Antonio, Texas, USA. Dunn’s father was a preacher and her mother a professional artist, but they encouraged their children to sing and entertain. Dunn learned guitar and became a lead vocalist with the Freedom Folk Singers, representing Texas in the White House bicentennial celebrations. After university, she joined her brother, C Read more

Tanya Tucker - 64% match to Barbara Mandrell

Tanya Denise Tucker, 10 October 1958, Seminole, Texas, USA. Tucker’s father, Beau, a construction worker, and her mother, Juanita, encouraged her fledgling musical talents. Her early years were spent in Wilcox, Arizona, before moving to Phoenix in 1967. Her father booked her to perform with visiting country stars on stage at local fairs. Never one to consider that some Read more

Gene Watson - 61% match to Barbara Mandrell

Gary Gene Watson, 11 October 1943, Palestine, Texas, USA. Raised in Paris, Texas, in a musical family, he first worked as a professional at the age of 13. In 1963, he moved to Houston, where he found daytime employment in car engine and bodywork repairs. During the evenings, his vocal style, with its slight nasal sound in the best country tradition, made him a very popular h Read more

The Kendalls - 61% match to Barbara Mandrell

Royce Kendall (Royce Kykendall, 25 September 1934, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, d. 22 May 1998, LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA) and Jeannie Kendall (b. 30 November 1954, St. Louis, Missouri, USA). Royce learned guitar from the age of five and formed a duo, the Austin Brothers, with his brother Floyce. After serving in the US Army, Royce and his wife Melba started a hairdressing busin Read more