Paulette Carlson Biography

Paulette Tenae Carlson (born October 11, 1952 in Hutchinson, Minnesota) is a country singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the 1980s as the founder and lead vocalist for the country band Highway 101. With Highway 101, she charted four No. 1 hit singles, seven Top 10 hits, a gold album and two back-to-back wins for Vocal Group of the Year from both the ACM and the CMA Awards in 1988 and 1989.

Beginnings

Paulette Carlson began professionally singing in the dance bars in Fargo, ND and in the Minneapolis, MN area and built a large local following before heading to Nashville in 1978. Soon after arriving in Nashville she was signed as a staff songwriter for the Oak Ridge Boys' Silverline/Goldline Publishing Company. She also signed a singles contract with RCA Records with Tony Brown producing.

Highway 101

See Highway 101 for more information Carlson founded Highway 101 in 1986, after auditioning for players in Denver, Colorado and in Nashville. session musicians Jack Daniels, "Cactus" Moser and Curtis Stone became fellow band members with Paulette and soon the band was signed to a singles deal with Warner Bros. Recordswith Paul Worley producing. After recording "The Bed You Made For Me" Warner Brothers gave Carlson the option of dropping the band and going forward with the first album as a solo artist. Carlson remained loyal to her band mates and decided to keep Highway 101 together. With their first hit released in December of 1986 and rapidly climbing the charts, she and her friends immedialtely went back into the studio and finished recording their first album, "Highway 101". The Highway 101 "sound" was credited to their first hit, penned by Carlson, called "The Bed You Made For Me". Three more hits came off that first album, "Whiskey If You Were A Woman", "Cry Cry Cry", and "Somewhere Tonight". Their second album featured another three top 10 singles and their third album, "Paint The Town" also boasted three more charted hits. They also released a [Greatest Hits album]. After years of extensive touring, Paulette gave the band a years notice that she would be leaving the band and at the end of 1990. The other members in Highway 101 auditioned for singers that last year Paulette and they toured together on the road and Nikki Nelson was hired to sing for them.

Solo

Carlson signed with Capitol Nashville in 1991 and released Love Goes On, which she co- produced with Jimmy Bowen. She also took on a more important role, co-writing seven of the album's ten tracks. Her single, "I'll Start With You" charted in the top 20 and a video was made for this great dance song. With her daughter, Cali, being born in July of this year, Paulette chose to tour only briefly for this album.

Christmas Is For You, a traditional Christmas album, was released in 1993 by Pandean Records. Carlson produced this very traditional Christmas album and wrote two songs for the project, "Christmas is for You" and "Mrs. Santa Claus." Both songs were made into music videos, one where her young daughter, Cali, appeared in the "Christmas Is For You" video.

Reunited with Highway 101

Marking Highway 101's Tenth Year Anniversary, Carlson reunited with original members, Curtis Stone and Jack Daniels. They released two albums, Reunited and Latest & Greatest. "Where'd You Get Your Cheatin' From" and "It Must be Love" were released as singles (1996 and 1997). The reunion project was put together for the fun of coming together again and to re-connect with their many fans. The band hit the road again for a scheduled year tour.

Present

In 2004, when her brother Gary, a Vietnam Vet, was in the hospital, Paulette was inspired to write a song called ("Thank You Vets"). Paulette returned to the studio in the spring of 2005 to produce another album and after two weeks of pre-production, a few more songs written, and 11 days in the studio, her "It's About Time" album was off to the pressing plant. Paulette penned 10 of the 12 songs. She toured after recording this album dedicated to our Vietnam Vets, doing mostly benefits for our Military Veterans. Paulette still continues to perform, write and produce music.

Discography

Albums

Title	Album details
Love Goes On	Release date: November 19, 1991 Label: Capitol Records
Christmas Is for You	Release date: September 13, 1994 Label: Majestic Records
It's About Time	Release date: June 13, 2006 Label: Pandean Records

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions		Album
		US Country	CAN Country
1983	"You Gotta Get to My Heart (Before You Lay a Hand on Me)"	65	"?	Paulette Carlson
1984	"I'd Say Yes"	67	"?
	"Can You Fool"	72	"?
1991	"I'll Start with You"	21	50	Love Goes On
1992	"Not With My Heart You Don't"	68	84
	"The Chain Just Broke"	"?	"?
2005	"Thank You Vets"	"?	"?	It's About Time
2006	"I Knew a Good Thing When I Had it"	"?	"?
	"That Old Glass Case"	"?	"?
""?" denotes releases that did not chart

Music videos

Year	Video	Director
1991	"I'll Start with You"	Steven Goldmann
1992	"The Chain Just Broke"
1993	"Christmas Is for You"
	"Mrs. Santa Claus"	Brent Carpenter
2006	"That Old Glass Case"