By 1969, Jack Greene was one of the hottest acts in country music, trailing only the likes of Buck Owens and Johnny Cash. His style was a bit of a mixture; a bit of that Eddy Arnold/Ray Price smoothness, but with more of the traditional stylings. In my opinion, when given the right materials, he was one of the best handlers of a country ballad, that has ever appeared in the top ten. His album, “Statue Of A Fool” was released in the summer of ‘69 and would be his last top ten album, while the title song would ultimately be Jack’s last number one hit.
I actually like Jack’s version of “Ribbon of Darkness”. I think it’s comparable to the hit Marty Robbins version.
“You Gave Me A Mountain” is a country classic, though admittedly, not one of my favorites. That said, I think Jack’s version is the best I’ve heard, even better than the top ten version by Johnny Bush or that which is generally considered the definitive version, Marty Robbins, who also wrote the song. Jack makes this song his.
I also like the next cut, “Just Enough To Start Me Dreamin’”. It’s too bad that back in the day, there would only be 1 or 2 singles from an album (in this case, 1), as this recording could have easily been a hit, in my opinion.
Jack tackles the Merle Haggard hit, “Hungry Eyes”, next, giving a more than acceptable performance that is very similar to that of the Hag’s.
“Yesterday’s Letters” and “There’s More To Love” are both perfect vehicles for Jack’s style. “Yesterday’s Letter” being the better of the two, could have been a single. As a song, “There’s More To Love” isn’t bad, but nothing special.
If there’s any songs that miss on this album, it would be his version of Willie Nelson’s “Bring Me Sunshine”. Good singer, good song, they just don’t work well together.
Fortunately, things get back on track with the next cut, the Dallas Frazier-penned “Watching My World Walk Away”. When Jack sings about watching his world walk away, he makes you feel what he is feeling, he’s that good with ballads.
“Montego Bay” is another of those songs that are okay, but nothing special or memorable. By the way, no, it is not the same “Montego Bay” that was a pop hit a year later for Bobby Bloom. Not even close.
“I Don’t Need Tomorrow”; pure country, right here. Another outstanding cut. How can you not like a song that says “I don’t need tomorrow, I had yesterday”?
On this album, they saved the best for last, the title cut, “Statue Of A Fool”. What can I say about this cut? It’s easily my favorite Jack Greene song, plus, if I were to make a list of my all-time faves, this recording would definitely be in the top five. It’s simply one of the best country records, ever.
The thing about Jack, is that he has a voice that is just perfect for songs that call for emotion, such as the title hit, or “You Gave Me A Mountain”. My only criticism that sometimes the arrangements seem to be lacking a little, or missing something, but Jack’s vocal abilities are usually able to compensate for any instrumental shortcomings.
The album, itself, has been out of print for several years, and to my knowledge has never been issued on CD. There are some used copies, though, online that one should be able to find.
Overall, I’ll rate this one a 3 out of 5.
An amazing run will soon come to an end, as the now-legendary duo of Brooks & Dunn will soon be parting ways. It’s been an incredible run for a duo that was originally concocted by Arista Records, way back in 1990. For those not familiar with the story, Ronny Dunn and Kix Brooks had both been struggling solo acts during the 1980’s, and were put together by label execs, after signing to Arista. What makes their story even more spectacular is the high likelihood of disaster; voices and/or personalities not melding well; the possibilities of egos creating problems, the threat of appearing to be manufactured; however, none of these came to pass. In this case, it was a gamble that paid off huge dividends. They turned out to be one of the quintessential country acts of the past twenty years, country music’s most successful duo, and a lock for future Hall of Fame induction.
1991 was their debut, with the album and single “Brand New Man”. This is still one of the best albums of the decade. I recall playing the title track on the radio, thinking it was a great record, and nineteen years later, I listen again, it’s still a great record.
But there’s much more to the album than just the title track. “Cool Drink Of Water” is a cut that’s good enough to have been a single. The story of a rather wild girlfriend is an almost perfect up tempo, straight-ahead country song.
Kix sings lead on “Cool Drink Of Water”, as well as “Cheatin’ On The Blues”, a song that is great pure country. That can also be said of “Neon Moon”, another of the hit singles from the album, and one of my all time favorite Brooks & Dunn tracks.
“Lost And Found”, yet another hit, is a decent track, as well, but I think it may actually be one of the weaker cuts on the album. Not saying that it’s bad, just that the others are that much better.
The strong work continues with “I’ve Got A Lot To Learn”, which is followed by the line-dance classic, “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”. It’s country music’s ultimate dance song, having been danced to millions of times around the world.
If you like Hank Williams, you’ll like the Hank Williams-styled steel guitar on novelty-ish “I’m No Good”; the story of a man who knows he’ll get in trouble if his woman’s not around to keep a watch on him.
One thing that, to me, has stood out about Brooks & Dunn, is the way they handle what we sometimes call “power ballads”, regardless of whether it’s Kix or Ronny singing lead. They are arguably country music’s best at this type of song, and our first glimpse of that, came on the last song of the album, “Still In Love With You”.
Overall, this album contained five singles, along with about four more that easily could have been.
The album is still readily available, both on CD, as well as MP3 download, plus one can easily find used copies, as well.
Overall, an easy 5 out of 5, for this country classic.
This is not a traditional country album, not by today’s standards, and especially not by 1957 standards, the year of it’s release. In fact, based on the albums being promoted on the back cover; a Mario Lanza release, “Madame Butterfly”, and The Chicago Symphony; RCA didn’t even have country listeners in mind on this release.
And yet, while the album is a collection of pop and classical selections of the time, there’s still somewhat of a country feel to the overall presentation by Mr. Atkins.
This is a good album, though. I think this is Chet Atkins at his best; playing a varied selection of songs, all with minimal backing, which gives the listener an almost unimpeded access the Chet’s virtuoso playing.
The disc begins with the bouncy “Swedish Rhapsody”, a cut which certainly has to be considered one of the album’s many highlights. “Liza” is another; a close listen really shows off Chet’s incredible talent. I won’t even try to describe how this song is; words are useless. One has to hear to understand.
Chet takes Glenn Miller’s classic “In The Mood”, strips it down, slows it’s tempo just a bit, and the result is another of the album’s highlights.
Those who are old enough to remember the 1940’s, or else are well-versed in 1940’s pop music, will be familiar with the Ted Weems hit, “Heartaches”. Chet glides through this one seemingly so effortlessly, as he does with most songs.
“Dance Of The Goldenrod” and “Petite Waltz” may not be standout tracks, but Chet’s handling of these two selections, makes them more than merely listenable.
Much like “Heartaches”, “Adelita” is another track where the word effortless comes to mind when I hear it. This is a song that just sounds like it would be difficult to play for most people. But Chet just effortlessly glides through the continual switches between major and minor chords, like it’s no big deal.
Chet tackles classical music with “Gavotte in D” and Brahm’s “Waltz In A Flat”. Both are excellent cuts, but “Waltz In A Flat” is especially worthy of praise. Intimate, tender, beautiful.
“Unchained Melody” is the first of at least two versions Chet recorded in his career (the other, on a later album with Hank Snow). Again, the words intimate and beautiful are the only ones worthy of description for this cut. When hearing this version, one feels like this is what the song’s writer surely had in mind, when he first set the melody to paper.
Chet wraps up the album with the Spanish-flavored “Malaguena”, a song that I’ve heard guitar players say is very tough to play. As expected, though, Chet breezes through it, and the result is yet another outstanding cut from the master.
This album is actually available on CD (an import) and MP3 download. And although now discontinued, you may still find some CD copies of a package in which this was released with another of his albums, “Stringin’ Along”, though it looks to be somewhat pricey. I was also a bit surprised to see so many vinyl copies on the market, most in the $5-$15 range. There were even a few copies for sale of the album on extended play 45’s. Remember those?
This is the best Chet Atkins album in my collection, and in the opinion of many of his fans, one of his best, ever. This one easily rates a 5 out of 5.
I once read a quote from Eddy Arnold about Chet. While I don’t recall it, word-for-word, basically he said that when they debate the world’s greatest guitar players, the argument starts with who’s number two, because everyone agrees who’s number one, Chet Atkins.
Though it may be hard to believe, if you judged from her work of the past twenty years, but there was a time when Reba McEntire was considered one of the cornerstones of traditional country music.
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I remember the label, the album photo with a white border that's not on the actual vinyl version. The label was attached to a black shell. It was one of, if not the first 8 track tape I ever listened to.
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Last week, the Country Music Hall Of Fame announced it's four newest inductees. Three mild surprises, and one that should have already been in. The three that were a bit of a surprise were Jimmy Dean, Ferlin Husky, and Don Williams, while the the one who should have already been in, was producer Billy Sherrill.
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It's now been fifteen years, since Kenny Chesney's first hit album (second overall), “All I Need To Know”, appeared on the market. In the fifteen years since, Chesney has skyrocketed to the top of his field, becoming one of, if not the top concert draw in country music, winning awards, selling millions of albums.
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The story of Waylon Jennings' rise in country music is well known. Early on, he was taking traditional country, western swing, folk, and rock, trying to find a perfect mixture, while also battling the constraints of the Nashville establishment. He would eventually find that perfect blend, once he left Nashville for Texas, and was one of the first to show us what an awesome result could come from mixing the Allman Brothers and Hank Williams, while throwing in a little Bob Wills on the side. Waylon was a true original.
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A look back at the first week in March, 1981.
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February, 15th
It was Sunday, and on this day was the 17th running of the Daytona 500. The disqualification of the top 3 cars in qualifying brought Ramo Stott to the pole position, but by race's end, it was down to Richard Petty and David Pearson.
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