Unexpected chord progressions on the bridge, a sweet little spoken bit towards the end, and lyrics that reflect a new cosmopolitan reality for most listeners to country music at the time — this is Mel Tillis and Danny Dill’s song “Detroit City,” here performed by Bobby Bare live in a theatre in Oslo, Norway, in 1964.
Bare’s 1963 studio version has a touch more electric twang, but a strange if sleight string arrangement. Tom Jones, Billy Grammer and others cut the record and had some success with it, but Bare’s take is subtle and cool. He barely leans into it, but it still packs a whallop.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2015.
