05/13/07-Happy Mother’s Day
AMERICAN BEAT
CARLENE CARTER/I Fell in Love: Carter’s 1990 comeback album found her making the transition from Rockpile babe to Heartbreakers babe with some cats like Dave Edmunds and Albert Lee along to blur the lines. Since Americana, 3A and roots were just marketing concepts on the horizon, this rocking, often rockabilly set got lumped under country where it fueled Carter’s most impressive commercial showing of her career (hopefully, this reissue will fuel the reissue of her follow up album which was her most satisfying album). This kick off to a great second act of her career is simply a fun, spirited set that holds a lot of charm and appeal and is ripe for rediscovery.
24222
JOHN ANDERSON: A sterling set from the early days of the New Traditionalist movement when Anderson still had a baby face and hadn’t yet discovered “Swingin’”. A career establishing set that was clearly a hit powered affair, Anderson marked his territory and showed it was no fluke as he went on to become one of the best selling country boys of the 80’s and into the hat era. Nice, solid commercial country that sounds even sweeter in retrospect.
24212
WILLIE NELSON/Texas in My Soul: Still under the thumb of the man during his RCA stay in the 60’s, Nelson was already fermenting revolution with this Texas dance hall set that pre-saged the 70s music that was bubbling up inside him, yet to come. For a set of all covers, it’s infused with enough Nelson personality that you know this was music he lived as he began the long claw of his way to the top. A spirited set that can be enjoyed outside of it’s time, 40 years later, this is a great soundtrack for those times when you want to stay all night and stay a little longer. Kick up your heels and have a good time.
24122
GEORGE JONES & TAMMY WYNETTE/Golden Ring (24092)
GEORGE JONES/Grand Tour (24042): These two Jones sets winding up on an outsourced reissue label make it seem like nobody cares about the past at Sony Nashville anymore. Jones has made a lot of records. He’s made a lot of good records, a lot of product and a lot of stuff better left in the vaults. He’s also one of the great voices of country music and with a catalog his size, it can be intimidating to know where to dig in. Quite frankly, these two sets should have been kept in house and made part of the label’s American Originals series, which apparently doesn’t exist anymore. If you had to pick out the best Jones duet and the best Jones solo, arguably, these two sets fill the bill. Recorded as his life was sailing to a low point, he turns in gut wrenching, heart rending performances even going so far as to sing songs written by the next husband of his then wife who must have put the writing on the wall. Hey, the soap opera reality shows on MTV have nothing on this bunch, but goddamn, it created great music. Some of the finest modern era commercial country you can find is right here on these two sets. Hot, hot, hot classics.
Volume 30/Number 194
May 13, 2007
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
(c)2007 Midwest Record