In 1967 recordings, no catch is noticeable in Tammy Wynette's voice. But by 1968, that catch is hard to miss. It doesn't sound like someone making the most of a voice problem, because she seems to place that catch only where doing so adds to the artistic value.
I checked online for some sort of explanation, but found nothing of value to me.
In the video below, you'll notice (start at .20) that she splits the word "walk" into two notes, climbing from lower to upper, a practice routine in pop music though frowned upon by "experts."
This, I believe, is the origin of her catch. You will notice that the two notes are very distinct, as in WAW-AWK, rather than merging, as in WAWAWK. The highly distinctive shift sounds to my ear like an elongated catch.
I suggest that as she gained increasing artistic sensitivity, Tammy noticed that she could shorten the shift interval to the point that it left an attractive "catch." Though she still used the double-note shift, she kept the catch so as to add artistic interest to her singing, which she increasingly fiddled with, making her voice a subtle instrument.
Well, anyway, that is my little theory.
It's possible Wynette picked up the idea from Brenda Lee, who was in the 1960s a top money-earner in country. In Lee's 1957 rockabilly hit, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," I notice a similar vocal catch, which seems to have evolved by the same pattern. That is, she has compressed the two-note shift that occurs in one word into a voice catch. You won't hear that catch in most of Lee's recordings, leading me to believe it was an artifice she liked to use from time to time. (I say that based on a sampling of her work; by no means have I listened to all of it.)
At 0.59, you'll hear what is a quick two-note shift on "fashioned," sung FA-UHSHUNNED. There is no smooth arc from FA to UHSHUNNED. So it sounds like a catch in her voice. But it isn't.
I checked online for some sort of explanation, but found nothing of value to me.
In the video below, you'll notice (start at .20) that she splits the word "walk" into two notes, climbing from lower to upper, a practice routine in pop music though frowned upon by "experts."
This, I believe, is the origin of her catch. You will notice that the two notes are very distinct, as in WAW-AWK, rather than merging, as in WAWAWK. The highly distinctive shift sounds to my ear like an elongated catch.
I suggest that as she gained increasing artistic sensitivity, Tammy noticed that she could shorten the shift interval to the point that it left an attractive "catch." Though she still used the double-note shift, she kept the catch so as to add artistic interest to her singing, which she increasingly fiddled with, making her voice a subtle instrument.
Well, anyway, that is my little theory.
It's possible Wynette picked up the idea from Brenda Lee, who was in the 1960s a top money-earner in country. In Lee's 1957 rockabilly hit, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," I notice a similar vocal catch, which seems to have evolved by the same pattern. That is, she has compressed the two-note shift that occurs in one word into a voice catch. You won't hear that catch in most of Lee's recordings, leading me to believe it was an artifice she liked to use from time to time. (I say that based on a sampling of her work; by no means have I listened to all of it.)
At 0.59, you'll hear what is a quick two-note shift on "fashioned," sung FA-UHSHUNNED. There is no smooth arc from FA to UHSHUNNED. So it sounds like a catch in her voice. But it isn't.
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