Country Singer K.T. Oslin Takes a Direct Approach

The graffiti was printed neatly in black ink on a bathroom stall in a cafe in Due West, S.C.

“I ain’t never gonna love nobody but Cornell Crawford,” it declared.

When K. T. Oslin read it, she chuckled. Then, pondering its directness and determination, she knew she had a song. The result is “Cornell Crawford,” one of Oslin’s songs in her third country music album, “Love in a Small Town.”

Cut after cut, the themes and emotions are from everyday, ordinary life and hit special chords within the listener.

It is her first LP in two years, a rather long hiatus for country music. So this normally gutsy singer-songwriter confesses to a touch of trepidation.

“If you don’t put out an album every year, you can be dead meat,” the 48-year-old performer said.

“We’ll see. But I don’t think you become dead meat until you are doing inferior work. Or mediocre work.”

Based on her previous records, Oslin has little reason to worry. Her albums, “80s Ladies” and “This Woman,” both sold more than 1 million copies.

She won three Grammy awards during a meteoric rise in country music. In 1988, she unseated Reba McEntire as the Country Music Assn.’s female vocalist of the year. McEntire had won the honor four straight years.

Kay Toinette Oslin was born in Crossitt, Ark., but spent most of her early years in Mobile, Ala. As a teen-ager, she settled in Houston. Ending up in New York, she was a chorus girl in theatrical productions and then turned to work as a studio backup vocalist and ad jingle singer.

She also showed a flair for songwriting. An aunt lent her $7,000 to finance a Nashville showcase performance, which caught the attention of RCA Records. She signed an RCA recording contract in 1986 at a time when most record companies were looking for singers almost half her age.

Oslin became one of Nashville’s most intriguing personalities, launching a new career in her mid-40s and writing songs from the perspective of a strong woman.

“I was different,” she said.

She was also outspoken. She has said candidly that she hated country music when she grew up.

“When I listened to country music in the ‘50s, it was almost all males who seemed very old and sang about drinking and cheating on their wives or girlfriends,” she said. “A 15-year-old does not relate to that.

“Fortunately, it has changed, and people who say today that they don’t like country music probably haven’t listened to it.

“Some of it I like today, some of it I don’t. I don’t like the real twangy, hard core, straight ahead, old-style country music. I like some of it, but on a steady diet, no.”