Pinkard and Bowden

Biography

James "Sandy" Pinkard was born January 16, 1947 in Abbeville, Louisiana. He got his start in Nashville, Tennessee in the mid-1970s. Initially, he planned to become a singer, but after his singing career proved unsuccessful, he turned to songwriting. Among his hits as a writer were "You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma" (a duet by Shelly West and David Frizzell), "Coca Cola Cowboy" by Mel Tillis, and "Blessed Are the Believers" by Anne Murray.

Richard Bowden was born on September 30, 1945 in Linden, Texas, He played in a Dixieland band while in high school formed by his father Elmer, which also included his childhood friend Don Henley. Bowden and Henley then formed a band called the Four Speeds, which changed its name to Felicity, then Shiloh. Shiloh disbanded in 1971 over the band's leadership and creative differences between Henley and Bowden, as Bowden wanted the band to be more country while Henley did not. After Henley left to form Eagles, Bowden briefly toured as a member of Roger McGuinn's band, which opened for Eagles. Bowden came out with his own album in 2003 called "Big Bad Johnson".

Jim Ed Norman, who was also in Shiloh, introduced Pinkard and Bowden to each other, and the two began writing songs together. After discovering that they were both writing songs that were humorous in nature, the two decided to form a comedy duo, and released their debut album Writers in Disguise in 1984. It was led off by a parody montage entitled "Adventures in Parodies," which included parodies of Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through the Night (Help Me Make Through The Yard)," Johnny Cash's "Daddy Sang Bass," Tanya Tucker's "Delta Dawn," B.J. Thomas' "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," Eddie Rabbitt's "Drivin' My Life Away," Claude King's "Wolverton Mountain," Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" and Michael Martin Murphey's "What's Forever For." This album also included their only Top 40 hit on the country charts, "Mama She's Lazy" (a parody of The Judds' "Mama He's Crazy"), as well as the parodies "Libyan on a Jet Plane" (Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane"), "She Thinks I Steal Cars" (George Jones' "She Thinks I Still Care") and "Arab, Alabama," a partial parody of Waylon Jennings' "Good Hearted Woman."

In 1985 the pair performed a concert with Ray Stevens at the Lanierland Music Park in Georgia. That year they released the album PG-13. A live album called Live! was released in 1990, with Cousins, Cattle, and Other Love Stories coming in 1992. This album was a split compilation, mixing live and studio tracks. All four albums featured songs that were co-written by Tim Wilson, who would become a comedian and singer himself in the early 1990s.

Style

Pinkard & Bowden have been compared to Homer & Jethro, a country duo popular from the 1940s through the 1960s, whose act also comprised a mix of parody and original songs. Unlike Homer & Jethro, Pinkard & Bowden's material is often profane in nature; Pinkard & Bowden was the first country comedy act to have explicit content warnings on its albums, and the duo was banned from appearing on The Nashville Network (now Spike TV). Pinkard & Bowden's parodies are sometimes topical in nature, such as "Friends in Crawl Spaces", a parody of Garth Brooks's "Friends in Low Places" which referenced serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.