A fine collection of later 70s George Jones by way of Billy Sherill - but none of his earlier rockabilly/honky tonk tracks.

Good bunch of early George

This one is purt near perfect, David.

Msbelle, yeah, that Elvis collection gets badmouthed a lot, but it ain't so bad.

Want. That. Now.

The Spirit of Country is even better if you supplement it with this.

Thanks, Hayden, that's better one-stop shopping.

It's like shuffling diamonds trying to figure out which hurts the most:

"The Grand Tour"
"She Thinks I Still Care"
"The Window Up Above"
"These Days I Barely Get By"
"He Stopped Loving Her Today"

This is what Xander should've been playing when he wanted "country music - the music of pain." (Though I think he was listening to Hank Williams when they finally cut to him, so he did alright.)

AIEEEEE!

I like the first one better (I mean regardless of what David Alan Coe says, He Stopped Loving Her Today is the C&W song), but I want that one too. Alas, I am not allowed to spend money for a while since I spent quite a bit in NO.

There's a nice Charlie Rich collection that pulls his best work together from many labels.

Not all of his best work. The Smash sessions from 1965 & 1966 with Jerry Kennedy producing were his favorite recordings. They were reissued on LP as Fully Realized, and made it to CD as The Complete Smash Sessionsbut unfortunately it doesn't seem to in print. Some of them are on the multi-label retrospective, but the single best track, "I Can't Go On", isn't. WTF? "I Can't Even Drink It Away" and "Memphis and Arkansas Bridge" from Boss Man are sorely missed, too.

Stupidest comment from the CounterPunch article (which I enjoyed; thanks for the link, hayden), courtesy of Susan Davis, re: Muddy Waters' Fathers and Sons "On a relisten, it's just awful. But even Duck Dunn's right-on-the-beat drumming can't ruin the joy of hearing Muddy Waters in fabulous voice, singing some of his biggest hits." Okay, I don't have the album so I'll have to trust AMG that Sam Lay was the dummer. Yep, I'll trust AMG and the fact that Duck Dunn was a bassist. Ay yi yi. It's not bad enough that she goes out of her way to make a snide comment and gets the wrong guy, but the implication is that it's the "sons" who are the problem. And while you can certainly argue that, the drummer, Sam Lay, was one of the "fathers": he was one of the main session players at Chess, the drummer for Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter. Why do I let things like this bother me? And more important why do I burden you nice people with my whining? Sorry.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll have more to say about the CounterPunch lists, including: 1) my top 25 culled from their top 25s (too hard to narrow it down otherwise) 2) albums I was surprised but delighted to see on the lists 3) more comments I either loved or hated and 4) how Dave Marsh picked my least favorite albums of four of my favorite artists for his list. Night, all.

They were reissued on LP as Fully Realized,

I've got Fully Realized on LP and that's how I know Charlie's work. Didn't notice the comp was missing "I Can't Go On" which is indeed epic.

Good God!

Hit Me!

James Brown can certainly still do his funky thing. I may not be Living In America, but I was dancing like a Sex Machine tonight.!

The Chili Peppers were okay too.

*feet tired*

Good God!

Hit Me!

Jump back, p-man, kiss yo'self!