Kaye Adams
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- For other people with the same name, see Kaye Adams (disambiguation)
Often referred to as Kaye Adams, Kay Adams (born April 9, 1941) is an American country singer.
She was born Princetta Kay Adams in Knox City, Texas, the fourth of five children born to Charley Alva Adams (1908-1969) and Ola May Henson (1914-1993). When Kay was age 10, her family moved to Vernon, Texas, the seat of Wilbarger County.
In the 1960s, she came on the country scene with the songs "Six Days A Waiting," "Old Heart Get Ready," "Anymore," "Don't Talk Trouble To Me," "Trapped," "Roll Out The Red Carpet," "I Cried At Your Wedding," "Honky Tonk Heartache" and "She Didn't Color Daddy."
At the 1st Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in 1965 she was named Top New Female Vocalist. Merle Haggard was named Top New Male Vocalist, while Top Male Vocalist and Top Female Vocalist went to Buck Owens and Bonnie Owens. The following year, Adams was nominated for Top Female Vocalist.
Before 1966, women never recorded songs about truck driving. But Adams had a hit that year with "Little Pink Mack," a song giving the point of view of a woman driver, which is the only song on the album by a woman. In the song her truck has chrome and it "has polka-dot curtains hangin' in the sleeper," but is the fastest big-wheeler on the road. In her "truck drivin' boots" she stands about five-foot three, but she can take care of herself.
With a full-force Bakersfield twangy Telecaster and some nasty, fuzz-tone steel guitar backing, she delivers the story of a truck driving woman who makes it clear she "cut my baby teeth on a set of Spicer gears. I’m a gear-swappin’ mama, and I don’t know the meaning of fear." All the truckers are asked, "Who's the gal in the little pink Mack?"
It was just a couple years before Tammy Wynette sang the praises of standing by one’s man, and a decade before Loretta Lynn celebrated reproductive freedom in her controversial hit, "The Pill," but country singer Kay Adams demolished at least one gender stereotype in 1966 with her hit single "Little Pink Mack."
Her vocal style carried a hint of Wynette’s lovelorn sob, a good helping of Wanda Jackson’s sassy, husky-throated rockabilly abandon, and a sense of emotional openness the equal of Connie Smith’s. More than just a novelty tune, "Little Pink Mack" was a friendly-but-firm challenge to the testosterone and diesel-fueled world of the "knights of the highway," long distance truckers.
Adams appeared as a regular on such Bakersfield based country music TV programs as Buck Owens’ Ranch and the Dave Stogner Show.
Her 1966 album "A Devil Like Me Needs An Angel Like You" was a duo with singer Dick Curless. She also sang on the soundtrack-album of the Western movie Killers Three (1968), which also featured Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens.
Kay Adams was first married to George Willard. They had two sons before divorcing. She and her second husband were also divorced. She married for a third time to a man named Buck.
Her albums include "A Devil Like Me Needs An Angel Like You," "Wheels And Tears," "Make Mine Country," and "Alcohol And Tears."
