Samuel Paul "Sammy" Kershaw
(born February 24, 1958, in Kaplan, Louisiana) is an American country music artist. A third cousin of Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw and ex-husband of Lorrie Morgan, he has been active in country music since 1991. He has released ten studio albums, with three RIAA platinum certifications and two gold certifications among them. More than twenty-five singles have entered Top 40 on the Billboard
Hot Country Songs charts, including the Number One hit "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" and ten more Top Ten hits: "Cadillac Style", "Anywhere but Here", "Haunted Heart", "Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer", "I Can't Reach Her Anymore", "National Working Woman's Holiday", "Third Rate Romance", "Meant to Be", "Vidalia", and "Love of My Life".
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SAMMY KERSHAW TICKETS
| EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
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| Roots and Boots: Sammy Kershaw, Collin Raye & Aaron Tippin Tickets 1/18 | Jan 18, 2025
Sat, 7:00 PM |  | | Florida Strawberry Festival: Roots and Boots - Sammy Kershaw, Collin Raye & Aaron Tippin Tickets 2/28 | Feb 28, 2025
Fri, 3:30 PM | | | Sammy Kershaw Tickets 3/1 | Mar 01, 2025
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Fri, 7:00 PM | | | Sammy Kershaw Tickets 3/22 | Mar 22, 2025
Sat, 7:00 PM | |
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Early life and career
Sammy Kershaw was born in Kaplan in,
Acadiana, south Louisiana.
At the age of eleven, Sammy got his first
guitar, a gift from his grandfather. However, his father died that same year. Thereafter young Kershaw worked a variety of jobs by day while playing
roadhouses at night to support his family.
He began performing in
Acadiana with Louisiana legend
J.B. Pere. Subsequently, he opened shows for
Ray Price,
Merle Haggard and
George Jones while barely into his teens. When the pressures of growing up fast took their toll in the form of a serious
drug and
alcohol problem, he quit his bad habits in 1988 and took a break from music to work as a remodeling supervisor at
Wal-Mart.
Musical career
One of Kershaw's demonstration tapes made its way to
Mercury Records, which released his debut album
Don't Go Near the Water
in 1991. This album was certified
platinum by the
RIAA, and it produced four hit singles. The lead-off, "Cadillac Style", went to #3 in late 1991-early 1992, followed by the #12 title track, "Yard Sale" at #17, and finally "Anywhere but Here" at #10. Kershaw was initially reluctant to release "Cadillac Style" because he felt that it was not suitable for his style; however, his co-producer,
Buddy Cannon, convinced him to give the song a chance.
[1] Kershaw's often
honky-tonk material and singing voice led to critical comparisons to
George Jones,
and one of Jones's early singles, "What Am I Worth", was covered on his debut as well.
[2]
Kershaw's second album,
Haunted Heart
, followed in 1993. Its lead-off single, "
She Don't Know She's Beautiful", became his only Number One hit in April of that year. Following it were the title track, the
Dennis Linde-penned "Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer", and "I Can't Reach Her Anymore", all of which hit the Top Ten as well. Although Kershaw had been told by others that radio audiences might not identify with the subject matter on "Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer", Kershaw had wanted to release the song because he had an experience similar to its story line.
Like his debut,
Haunted Heart
was also a platinum album.
In mid-1994, Kershaw also covered the
Lynyrd Skynyrd song "I Know a Little" on the tribute album
Skynyrd Frynds
, which included country music covers of Lynyrd Skynyrd songs.
Feelin' Good Train
was the title of Kershaw's third album, released later in 1994. This album also produced four more hits, including two consecutive #2's in "National Working Woman's Holiday" and "Third Rate Romance" (the latter a cover of the
Amazing Rhythm Aces hit from 1975),
with the #27 "Southbound" and #18 "If You're Gonna Walk, I'm Gonna Crawl" following in 1995. The album also included a duet with George Jones on "Never Bit a Bullet Like This", which had previously been released from Jones's 1993 album
High-Tech Redneck
.
Feelin' Good Train
, which was certified gold, was followed by a Christmas album and his first greatest-hits package,
Greatest Hits, Volume 1
, both in 1995. The latter produced a #47-peaking single in "Your Tattoo" (written by
Kostas and
Jack Tempchin), the first single of his career not to reach Top 40.
Mid-late 1990s
Kershaw's fourth studio album, the gold-certified
Politics, Religion and Her
, was issued in 1996. It produced Top Ten hits in "Meant to Be" and "Vidalia", the latter of which Kershaw also considered a risky song, saying "If radio will play this one more than twice—so people can get the story and learn what a
Vidalia onion is—it'll be a smash."
These songs were followed by "Fit to Be Tied Down" and the title track, both of which hit Top 30. Also included on
Politics, Religion and Her
were covers of
Chuck Berry's "
Memphis, Tennessee" and
Sammy Johns' "
Chevy Van". The same year, Kershaw briefly took ownership of a
NASCAR Busch series team (now Nationwide Series), with driver Randy Porter and UniFirst uniforms as the primary sponsor.
Labor of Love
was issued later in 1997 as his fifth album. Unlike his previous albums, this one was predominantly composed of
ballads.
It produced a #2 in "Love of My Life", and although none of the other three singles ("Matches", "Honky Tonk America" and "One Day Left to Live") reached higher than #22, the album was nonetheless certified platinum as well. His next album,
Maybe Not Tonight
, brought a Top 20 duet with
Lorrie Morgan.
Kershaw stated that he enjoyed working with Morgan on the song, telling
Country Weekly
magazine, "I knew our vocals would match up… Plus, we have fun together. We're friends and we have been friends for a long time."
was commercially less successful than its predecessors, however, and it became the first album of Kershaw's career not to achieve an RIAA certification. Following "Maybe Not Tonight" were the singles "When You Love Someone" and "Me and Maxine", both of which peaked in the thirties. "Louisiana Hot Sauce", the final release from
Maybe Not Tonight
, was also the first single of his career not to enter the charts.
In 2000, Kershaw released an album of
cover songs entitled
Covers the Hits
. This album comprised ten cover songs that Kershaw had recorded in his career. Some of the songs on it, such as the single "Third Rate Romance", were previously found on Kershaw's studio albums, while others came from various tribute albums (such as
Skynyrd Frynds
) to which he had contributed.
Covers the Hits
also included a rendition of
Dr. Hook's "Little Bit More", a previously unreleased cover which Kershaw had recorded during the sessions for
Labor of Love
.
2000s
By 2001, Kershaw and Morgan had married. The two recorded a vocal duet album in 2001 entitled
I Finally Found Someone
(the
title track being a cover of the
Bryan Adams/
Barbra Streisand duet). This album was even less successful commercially, with its only Top 40 hit being the #39 "He Drinks Tequila". Shortly afterward, a second Greatest Hits package was released, and Kershaw left Mercury's roster.
In 2003, Kershaw signed to
Audium Entertainment to release the album
I Want My Money Back
.
This album produced a #33-peaking in its title track, but the second single fell short of the Top 40. The third and final single, "Beer, Bait & Ammo" (which failed to chart), was previously recorded by
Kevin Fowler on his 2000 debut album of the same name, and would later be recorded by
Mark Chesnutt on his 2004 album
Savin' the Honky Tonk
.
250px promoting Sammy Kershaw campaign for
lieutenant governor of Louisiana
After Audium closed its Nashville division, Kershaw signed to
Category 5 Records, then a newly-established independent label, in 2006. His first release for the label and first chart single in three years, "Tennessee Girl", fell three spaces short of the Top 40 that year. It was the first release from his 2006 album
Honky Tonk Boots
. The album's only other single, a cover of
Mel McDaniel's Number One hit "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On", failed to chart, and financial difficulties caused the label to close in 2007. In October of the same year, he divorced Morgan, citing
irreconcilable differences.
On
June 13,
2007, Kershaw announced his candidacy for
lieutenant governor of Louisiana in the
October 20 jungle primary. The position was held by the incumbent
Democrat,
Mitch Landrieu. Kershaw also faced a second Republican candidate,
State Representative Gary Beard of
Baton Rouge, an
engineer first elected to the state House in a 2001
special election. Kershaw finished second with 30 percent of the vote, but Landrieu won re-election with a majority on the first ballot.
Kershaw's first single in two years, "Real People", was released in late 2008 in the Boomerville/Big Hit label. However, the single failed to chart. There is currently no release date for his tenth studio album,
Better Than I Was Before
.
Discography
References
- The Definitive Collection
- ''Don't Go Near the Water'' review