Moe Bandy

During the height of outlaw country in the 1970s, Moe Bandy kept the fire of hardcore honky tonk alive. On one of his first big hits, he sang "Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life" and his series of hits between 1974 and 1984 proved that sentiment true. Specializing in traditional barroom fare, Bandy sang of drinking, jukeboxes, unhappy women, and, especially, cheating, in a string of singles that regularly climbed into Billboard's Country Top Ten. Bandy also teamed up with fellow hard country singer Joe Stampley for a series of duets that were decidedly sillier than their individual hits. The two sides combined illustrated Bandy's range and helped him sustain a career as a performing artist after his hits dried up in the late '80s, with the singer often appearing in the theater he opened in Branson, Missouri.