Vernon Oxford Tradition Continues (CD)

Vernon Oxford

We have just received the sad news that Vernon Oxford passed away on August 18th at the age of 82 in a Nashville hospice. Vernon Oxford suffered from dementia and Parkinson's disease and has now passed on to the other side of the rainbow!

Vernon Oxford was born in Rogers, Arkansas on June 08, 1941, but grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Musically, he spent most of the early 1960s touring the Kansas countryside before moving to Nashville in 1964, where he met the successful songwriter and country musician Harlan Howard, who got him a recording contract with RCA. 

Vernon Oxford recorded seven singles and one LP for RCA, but none of them were commercially successful. His career saw a resurgence in Britain, where he was first rediscovered in the middle of the 1970s. A best-of was issued there in 1974, and RCA signed him again to tour there. His hit singles "Shadows of My Mind," "Redneck (The Redneck National Anthem)," and "A Good Old Fashioned Saturday Night Honky Tonk Barroom Brawl" (U. S. Country No. 55, 1977) reinvigorated his career in America; in Britain, he was well known for "I've Got to Get Peter Off Your Mind" and "Field of Flowers." He also recorded a comedy duet with Jim Ed Brown, "Mowing The Lawn."[ After a break of several years, he began a career as a gospel singer in 1981.

In addition to his musical career, Vernon Oxford was also active in acting and had supporting roles in the films The Thing Called Love starring River Phoenix and Coal Miner's Daughter, a 1980 film about American singer Loretta Lynn, who was portrayed by actress Sissy Spacek.

May his soul rest in peace!