Safford CFA: Welcome to our Theater...

In 1963, a group of kids calling themselves The Exiles climbed onto an outdoor stage in the small midstate town of Richmond, Kentucky and proceeded to make musical history – not just with their songs but their longevity as well. Forty-six years later, the same band Exile is still rockin" with a mix of original and seminal members. Following the band's debut in Richmond City Park, The Exiles steadily moved on to regional and then national fame. In 1966, pop music godfather Dick Clark tapped the band for his "Caravan of Stars". Over the next few years, the band chased and secured record deals in New York Chicago and Los Angeles. But it always fell short of achieving that one giant radio hit that would launch it to superstardom. Then, in 1978, it happened, thanks to a three-and-a-half-minute surge of heavy breathing called "Kiss You All Over." The song rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart and stayed there for four weeks.

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From then on, it was a blur. The band appeared on Midnight Special and toured with Fleetwood Mac, Boston, Heart, Aerosmith, Dave Mason, Seals & Croft and other rock luminaries. Now the guys from tiny Richmond, Kentucky, were pounding out music on giant stages throughout the U. S., Europe and South Africa. But one hit does not a career make. A series of albums and a few personnel switches failed to re-ignite Exile's pop fire. Fortunately, the band had been noticing the artistic changes taking place in country music, how it seemed to be opening itself to rock and pop influences following the Urban Cowboy craze. Through their manager, Jim Morey, Exile attracted the attention of Nashville superproducer Buddy Killen. A deal with Epic Records soon followed. Then the No. 1 hits began pouring out, every one of them written by Pennington and LeMaire. The first, "Woke Up In Love," topped the country charts in 1984. Over the next three years, Exile reigned with "I Don't Want To Be A Memory," "Give Me One More Chance," "Crazy For Your Love," "She's A Miracle," "Hang On To Your Heart," "I Could Get Used To You," "It'll Be Me," "She's Too Good To Be True" and "I Can't Get Close Enough." When it came to light-the-candles-and-warm-the-brandy love songs, Exile was country music's answer to Barry White. By the late 1980s, though, the band was suffering from road-weariness. So, one by one, the members peeled off in different musical directions. The original members of Exile's country incarnation reunited in 2007 for what they believed would be a one-time benefit show. But the audience response was so encouraging—and the music still sounded so damn good—that Pennington, Taylor, LeMaire, Hargis and Goetzman decided to regroup and do it all over again. After 46 years, they certainly know what they"re doing. And the new crowds they"ve attracted know it, too.

JUICE NEWTON

"I always see singing as a painting project," Juice Newton says. "It's very visual for me - the story of the song unfolds before my eyes while I sing." Born in New Jersey and raised in Virginia, Judith Kay Newton first picked up the guitar as an adolescent. By age 13 she was performing professionally. She, Otha Young and Tom Kealey formed the country-leaning group Silver Spur; they were signed and relocated to Los Angeles in short order, releasing their debut LP on RCA Records in 1975. But it was with 1981's Juice that the singer exploded into the mainstream. Juice went platinum and became an international monster, "The Sweetest Thing" spent 18 weeks in the Top 40, and she earned two Grammy nominations for Best Female Vocalist. Her 1982 album, Quiet Lies, was certified gold within months landed her a Grammy statuette for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. But the business was changing, and she spent much of the "90s on hiatus from music, raising her kids in San Diego, though she toured occasionally. The first years of the 21st Century saw the release of Every Road Leads Back to You and American Girl Vol. II. In 2007 she issued The Gift of Christmas, which she subsequently augmented with several new tracks. And as she prepared to hit the road in support of Duets and began writing a new batch of songs, her fans prepared for some thrilling new brushstrokes.