Country Mike Blog

Unknown artists

Mike Sudhalter  |  March 26, 2009

Sometimes, it's best not to know about one-hitter wonders. I have this tendency to discover more about a one-hit wonder. 'Maybe they had some other good songs, but radio or the establishment just didn't give them a chance'.

In many cases, that could be true. But not with J. Michael Harter, a Phoenix native who hit the radio airwaves a few years ago with "Hard Call To Make", a poignant, but sappy song about the relationship between a child and his father.

I never heard anything else from Harter, who was signed to Broken Bow Records. So I checked itunes to no avail, then Amazon - where I realized that I could have his one and only album within days for just $4.

I received it in the mail yesterday and was unimpressed with the nine other songs I heard. "Hard Call To Make" was good enough to get on radio, but nothing else here stood out about Harter.

I guess for all of the criticism I levy at country radio, they know what they're doing sometimes when not playing certain artists.