Gonna Be a Countdown: Gonna Take a Lot of River

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Our first cold snap of the season is over! I think I’ll go for a walk after lunch and celebrate that! But first I’m gonna give you a song with “gonna” in the title. Sorry, it’s country again (meaning “Linda? NO” ), but after today you get a week off before another country song. Here’s today’s song. Gonna Take a Lot of River - Oak Ridge Boys Earlier this year the Oak Ridge Boys announced that they’re hanging it up as a group. Talk about the end of an era!! Eighty years is a long time! Yes, the Oak Ridge Boys started in 1943 solely as a gospel quartet. Then, about 1975 or so, they started incorporating country music into the act. Next thing you know, everybody’s oom-boppa-oom-boppa-maw-maw’ing all over the place! I never considered myself a “die-hard” fan, but it turns out, due to their annual visit to the Kentucky State Fair, I’ve seen them live 15 times. Gee, I don’t know what the fair is going to do for entertainment on the first Sunday night of the fair when they do their final show. As for this song, it was at a period in the Oaks’ career when William Lee Golden was voted out of (read fired from) the Oak Ridge Boys. Now, understand, he was the longest-tenured member of the Oak Ridge Boys at the time (he joined in 1965). He was replaced with Steve Sanders, who sang lead on this song (this was the first album without Golden). Sanders lasted about eight years before quitting the group. Golden returned. Sadly, Steve Sanders committed suicide in 1998. He was just 45. The Oaks are happily going out on their terms. That’s the way a long career should end. Gonna Take a Lot of River Written by Mark Henley and John Kurhajetz Recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys From Monongahela, 1988 Is she in New Orleans?