Kay Adams - Wheels & Tears (1966)

The trucking craze depicted a man's world in which women typically fell into supporting roles (Barbara Mandrell's "Tonight My Baby's Coming Home") or provided comic relief (the "Little Beaver" character in the film Smokey and the Bandit). With "Little Pink Mack" in 1966, Kay Adams became the first woman to take the wheel of a big rig and drive it into country music's Top 40. (Adams' hit wasn't the first truckin' hit by a female artist -- Minnie Pearl holds that distinction with her answer to Red Sovine's "Giddyup Go" earlier the same year.) Recorded with country music veteran Cliffie Stone, "Little Pink Mack" provided Adams with her only hit single and hit album. The long-player, Wheels & Tears, presents listeners with a selection of trucking songs and country favorites on which Adams' sassy singing resembles Loretta Lynn. "Six Days Awaiting" is an answer to Dave Dudley's classic "Six Days on the Road," and "Big Mack" is Adams' rewrite of the Red Simpson song of the same name, told from the perspective of the truck-stop waitress. Adams' Bakersfield orientation is highlighted on two covers of Buck Owens songs, "Walk the Floor" and "Second Fiddle." The bright electric guitars, crisp drumbeats, and Adams' country twang will charm fans of the Bakersfield style, and the trucking songs will please enthusiasts of that particular subgenre. Sundazed reissued Wheels & Tears on CD in 2004 with brief liner notes by Rich Kienzle.